Euphemism simply has no place in politics, because what you do with semantics gymnastics may come back to haunt you in the future.
This is the dangerous situation the ANC national executive committee (NEC), specifically its President Cyril Ramaphosa, has dabbled in, in their decision to “reconfigure” the Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) provincial executive committees (PECs).
Instead of being blunt and calling it what it is – disbandment/dissolution, Ramaphosa and his NEC elected to invent a new word – “reconfiguration”.
New precedent
This word is not found anywhere in the constitution of the ANC. And thus is a new precedent which will be applied by many going forward.
In all honesty, the wording was typical of Ramaphosa, who always wants to please everybody in his approach. And he did not want to find himself on the wrong side of the underperforming GP and KZN PECs.
There were overwhelming reasons for the dissolution of these two PECs. And hiding behind euphemism was completely unnecessary.
Among those reasons was the obvious inefficiencies and the fact that the party’s former KZN provincial chairperson Siboniso Duma and provincial secretary Bheki Mtolo were out of their depth and wet behind their ears to deal with the Zuma tsunami masked as MKP.
Untenable situation
In Gauteng, the weaknesses in ANC administration leadership that is detached from reality of the ordinary man on the streets and endless quarrels of regional structures and branches with provincial secretary TK Nciza was an untenable situation.
So why not just dissolve and call it what it is?
Apparently not in the wisdom of the ANC top brass of about 100 people who make up the party’s NEC. The ones who felt that “reconfiguration” would suit both sides that battled it out at the NEC meeting about what is to be done with KZN and Gauteng.
Going into that meeting were two main factions – one pushing for a dissolution and another lobbying for “reinforcement”. But both sides agreed that going on as if nothing happened was not an option.
Therefore, if everyone in the NEC agreed that the plummeting of ANC electoral support in May 2024 to 40% was largely because of weaknesses in KZN and Gauteng, what was the arguing for two days all about?
Reconfigure or disband?
That pointless two-day debate is the same one that gave Ramaphosa cold feet to issue a toned-down resolution to “reconfigure”, when what he meant was “disband”.
Consequently, the reality that the ANC must now contend with is that in the future, higher structures are likely to invent new political vocabulary to deal with those they do not like, just for the fun of it.
Afterall, if Ramaphosa could come up with “reconfiguration”, who is to say that in the future another ANC president may decide to “reshuffle” PECs or PECs decide to “disestablish” their regional structures?
Open to abuse for purely factional purposes
The unintended consequence of this new reality of being creative with words is that it becomes open to abuse for purely factional purposes by those in higher structures against their inferiors in lower structures.
And in any organisation where order and direct use of language is shied upon, degeneracy and rogue behaviour becomes the order of the day.
It would seem like the ANC, this time around, while trying to make corrective measures, might have opened the floodgates for future abuse of power by playing a dangerous game of semantics.
But maybe it is too early to tell, history will be the judge.
What makes matters worse is that this whole reconfiguration jamboree does not actually make sense.
Tired old geezers with nothing to offer
The same ANC has been preaching “renewal” since the 2017 national conference. But what is renewal with KZN provincial task team convenor Jeff Radebe and coordinator Mike Mabuyakhulu, who also happen to be loyalists of Mr Reconfiguration – Ramaphosa?
Radebe and Mabuyakhulu are tired old geezers who certainly have nothing to offer.
The less said about Amos Masondo the convenor of the Gauteng PTT, the better.
Some will argue that the PTTs have a mix brand of young and old. The counter is that the old who occupy the strategic positions will have the final say.
Nothing new about old, retired leaders
What is renewal about that? What is new because Radebe, Mabuyakhulu and Masondo have been there and seen it all.
The trio should have been left alone to continue playing with their grandkids, far away from active politics.
But well, this is Africa. Where a political career starts blossoming post the worldwide-accepted retirement age of 60.
This scribe does not see these madalas delivering the provincial conferences in the two provinces within the prescribed nine months (by November 2025) as per ANC constitution.
If anything, they are likely to give birth to a series of irregularities in the seemingly inevitable extensions of the PTTs stay in office that will likely go on until 2027, given the upcoming local government elections season that will grip Luthuli House from later this year.
