ANC’s candidate-list blunder exposes a party losing its way - IOL

ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula.

If there was ever proof that pride comes before the fall, the ANC’s failure to properly register some of its candidates for the local government elections provides it.

I doubt the ANC has ever had a secretary-general as bombastic as Fikile Mbalula, but the current candidate-list debacle has exposed more than an individual’s shortcomings. It has highlighted serious organisational and administrative weaknesses within a movement that once appeared almost incapable of making an electoral misstep.

The ANC once seemed to believe it would govern until kingdom come. That dominance was never guaranteed, but it could have been prolonged had the party remained focused on service delivery, dealt decisively with corruption and those responsible for it, and tackled inequality by breaking down the barriers that continue to keep people and businesses out of certain sectors.

The 2024 general elections should have been an unmistakable wake-up call, particularly in KwaZulu-Natal, where the ANC's provincial support fell to 16.99% in the provincial ballot, placing it behind the IFP and MK Party.

Instead of simply acknowledging its own organisational shortcomings, the ANC found itself in a dispute with the Electoral Commission of South Africa over the submission of candidate lists. The party maintains that technical problems prevented some nominations from being formally submitted, while the IEC has disputed that account and said its system remained operational until the deadline.

The ANC subsequently approached the Electoral Court. Its own internal report, however, acknowledged that some of the problems were caused by failures within the party, including late submissions and the failure to include some recommended mayoral candidates on final lists.

Perhaps it is time for the ANC to regroup, take an honest look at itself and listen more carefully to what voters have been telling it.

The Government of National Unity may have given other parties an opportunity to adapt to a new political reality. The question is whether the ANC has fully grasped that reality.

For a movement accustomed to political dominance, learning to listen may be its most important task yet. | KAMLIN NAIDOO Ballito