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The ongoing political storm, orchestrated by a faction of the ANC led by pseudo champions of radical economic transformation, ought to be dealt with effectively as it threatens our country’s recovery from the consequences of state capture.
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s victory at the ANC’s elective conference in December 2017 was a turning point and became a misfortune for those obsessed with remaining in power and continuing state capture with impunity.
One unique characteristic of comrades opposed to Ramaphosa is their mentality of eternal entitlement to ministerial and powerful positions.
This mentality had been espoused without shame in the notorious slogan “the ANC will rule until Jesus comes back” so regularly pronounced by former president Jacob Zuma with sheer arrogance characteristic of state capturers and looters of public funds.
It would have been naive to think that the beneficiaries and masterminds of state capture were going to embrace the new dawn without any resistance.
Predictably, we are now at the climax of an ill-conceived fightback campaign against Ramaphosa and his allies – such as Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan, the SA Communist Party (SACP) and other comrades being pursued and persecuted at all cost – those who believe in good corporate governance.
As South Africans, we are extremely fortunate to have a Constitution that safeguards us against the state capture and grand-scale corruption which occurred in the past decade.
Owing to laws giving effect to the Constitution, many of our government departments, institutions and state-owned enterprises are being rescued from rampant corruption stubbornly disguised as radical economic transformation.
Since their grip on power has waned and their campaign against Ramaphosa is losing momentum, the only place of sanctuary for his detractors seems to be the office of the Public Protector.
Since there are evidently no facts and legal basis to undermine Ramaphosa and the new dawn, lies and fiction are being dutifully processed through the Office of the Public Protector.
As the Office of the Public Protector is ostensibly abused by the Zuma faction of the ANC, opportunistic political parties such as the EFF and the DA have entered the fray with interesting ulterior motives.
While the DA is purely mischievous, the EFF appears to be pushed against the wall.
The common enemy between the Zuma faction and the EFF is Gordhan.
In defending the public purse and enforcing prudent austerity measures, Gordhan has angered both the Zuma faction and the EFF who believed they were above the law and therefore untouchable in their quest to bankrupt South Africa.
Gordhan has become the common denominator between arch-enemies – the Zuma faction and EFF – as they both fiercely fight for political and financial survival.
For the Zuma faction and the EFF, it is now a matter of “scratch my back and I will scratch yours” reinforced by a sell-out tendency by those with fragile political morality and a gangster temperament that “the enemy of your enemy is also my enemy”.
This type of association is ethically sickening and demonstrates political bankruptcy, cowardice and stupidity.
Now that a self-created constitutional crisis has been ushered in, the double-dealing schemers of the Public Protector are crying foul and blaming Ramaphosa for the loss of credibility in this esteemed office.
Yet the courts, especially the Constitutional Court, have found that Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane lied under oath and acted in bad faith in some of the prominent cases recently lodged against her.
Comrades in the ANC, the mass democratic movement and ordinary members of civil society, have to support the SACP and other progressive formations in defence of our democracy against fake proponents of radical economic transformation.
While the ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule calls for consistency on public pronouncements, we should be reminded that “foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds”.
Matsila is a member of the ANC in good standing
