POLITICS
Empowerment of branches does not bode well for the future of democracy
Strategy makes secret their decision-making power and could help certain officials win ANC’s election unfairly
Am I being pessimistic, or do events surrounding the ANC’s December conference reveal some odd patterns? Consider the recent critique of presidential candidate Cyril Ramaphosa’s decision to reveal his slate. The argument, made by secretary-general Gwede Mantashe and picked up gleefully by Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma’s supporters, maintains that Ramaphosa engages in "slate politics" at the expense of ANC branches’ right to choose. But that doesn’t ring true. I suspect that "re-empowerment of the branches" is another way for Mantashe to beat his preferred drum that ANC communitarian decision-making trumps public consultation. Or, plainly put, that secrecy in policymaking is preferable to transparency. But secrecy hasn’t worked for the ANC government. In fact, it might be its undoing. After all, has anybody considered that the "re-empowerment of branches" is just spin?
If somebody did that math, then the serendipity of David Mabuza’s emergence from Mpumalanga’s branch general meetings...
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