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Mondli Makhanya: Blame Qedani and the branches, not just the ANC leadership

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Former Gauteng MEC of health Qedani Mahlangu. Picture: Collen Mashaba
Former Gauteng MEC of health Qedani Mahlangu. Picture: Collen Mashaba

A quote that this lowly newspaperman has overused over the years is one from the time when Kgalema Motlanthe was the secretary-general of the ANC and was confronted with a public clamour for the head of Tony Yengeni.

At the time the ANC was under pressure to do something about Yengeni, who was still serving in ANC structures despite having been convicted of fraud. Although other ANC leaders were arguing that Yengeni be allowed space to exhaust the appeal process, Motlanthe took another tack.

He placed the onus on Yengeni to act correctly: 

The ANC only intervenes when your own conscience fails to guide you
former ANC secretary-general Kgalema Motlanthe

This may have seemed a cop-out from the second most powerful leader in the party, which in a way it was because the ANC was avoiding taking decisive action against one of its most popular leaders. But there was a lot of wisdom in the statement, especially for a party that claimed to practice “revolutionary morality”.

Motlanthe was saying that as much as the party can take action against an errant member, there was also a responsibility on the individual to introspect and act accordingly.

Last weekend’s re-election of the scandalised Qedani Mahlangu to Gauteng’s ANC provincial executive committee aptly illustrated a case of someone being failed by their conscience. Much of the criticism of the former health MEC’s election has rounded on the ANC for allowing it to happen in the first place.

The ANC’s leaders and spokespersons have battled to answer to the fierce criticism because, to be frank, Mahlangu’s election was the result of a fair and open democratic process. She, like all others who made it on to the provincial leadership structure, was chosen by the branch delegates who clearly have lots of confidence in her.

So spare a thought for Mahlangu’s comrades: How do they explain why a person who oversaw a process that led to the cruel deaths of 140 mentally ill patients could be given a thumbs-up by a party that purports to be a people-centred organisation?

How do they explain their party’s apparent middle-finger to the families and loved ones of those who died? How do they explain the endorsement of someone so callous about the lives of the poor by the supposed champion of the poor?

Mahlangu’s cold-hearted role in the deaths of the victims of the Life Esidimeni catastrophe should disqualify her from holding any position of respect and influence anywhere in society.

Her subsequent behaviour – lofty arrogance followed by a forced, feigned apology – spoke volumes about the character of this public representative and veteran activist. And Mahlangu allowing her name to be put forward for the provincial executive committee tells us she does not fully understand the ramifications of her actions.

Mahlangu’s acceptance of the nomination and her election to high political office ripped open the wounds of the Esidimeni families who issued a joint statement asking this pertinent question:

If [the]ANC represents the people and is for the people‚ then how are these elections reflective of the will of the people?
Esidimeni families

Spokesperson for the families, Christine Nxumalo, said it was “unacceptable that, in light of the overwhelming evidence concerning Mahlangu’s integrity and fitness to hold office, she has been re-elected”.

But solely blaming the ANC leadership for the re-election of Mahlangu and other compromised leaders is misfiring a bit.

There is very little that the national or provincial chiefs could have done to prevent Mahlangu from standing. Apart from suggesting to her that standing for office was a terrible idea, they could not have blocked her. She is a member in good standing with full rights in terms of the ANC constitution. Blocking her would have amounted to manipulation of the internal electoral process and the undermining of democracy. It would have also set a bad precedent which would have been for the wrong reasons in the future.

The onus to prevent this fiasco, which has shown the ANC to be totally uncaring, was on Mahlangu. It is she who should have been guided by her own conscience. Mahlangu’s conscience should have reminded her that her decisions were responsible for the 140 Life Esidimeni victims who lie in cemeteries and for the pain of those they left behind.

Christine Nxumalo listens to the health ombud, Malegapuru Makgoba, tabling his report on the Life Esidimeni deaths. Picture: Felix Dlangamandla/Netwerk24

Her conscience should have alerted her to how South Africans and the world would view her acceptance of a position in which she is supposed to “serve the people”.

But it seems she has little in the way of a conscience and could not be guided by it.

Which brings us to the ANC, which is meant to intervene when your conscience fails to guide you. One assumes that those in the ANC branches that nominated Mahlangu and the delegates who voted for her at the provincial conference were familiar with the Life Esidimeni tragedy. Nobody with access to radio, television and newspapers – as most of the delegates presumably had – would have missed the searing testimony of the victims’ families and infuriating defences of Mahlangu and her officials at the hearings that were chaired by retired Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke. They would know of the report by Health Ombud Malegapuru Makgoba in which he was scathing of the conduct of Mahlangu and her subordinates.

If the branch members and the delegates themselves were not outraged they would have felt the outrage in their communities, families and social circles. Yet these same cadres deemed a person of Mahlangu’s flawed character fit to sit in their leadership structure and give moral direction to them and, more broadly, the people of Gauteng.

The ANC’s own Eye of the Needle document on leadership says “a leader should lead by example”.

He should be above reproach in his political and social conduct – as defined by our revolutionary morality. Through force of example, he should act as a role model to ANC members and non-members alike
ANC’s Eye of the Needle document on leadership

So, presumably the cadres who chose Mahlangu believed that she was indeed “above reproach” and “a role model” and a “force of example”.

If there is anything that should worry the ANC it is not just the corrupt and unscrupulous in the leadership structures and organs of state. It is also about those who put them there.

The nod given to Mahlangu and others tells about the “revolutionary character” of those who are in the lower structures and those in the membership ranks. If the ordinary members of the ANC want to be led by someone like Mahlangu, one wonders what exactly “revolutionary morality” the party talks about. These are the leaders who will rise in the ranks of the party and the state, who will tell us they want to lead South Africa into the future.

What kind of future, we ask.


Mondli Makhanya
Editor in Chief
City Press
p:+27 11 713 9001
w:www.citypress.co.za  e: Mondli.Makhanya@citypress.co.za
      
 
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