RAY HARTLEY: The real reason why the ANC is unable to hold Zuma to account
It was there in the language of Gwede Mantashe. Rising for the umpteenth time to announce that the ANC stood behind President Jacob Zuma, he said: "We are a movement. We are not a contentious organisation of people who are pulled together by their conscience, no. We are an ideological organisation; that’s why when we report on work we’re doing, it is to improve ideological clarity of members of the ANC." This vision of the ANC as a "movement" which must "improve ideological clarity" of members is exactly what's wrong with the ANC. There was a time, when the party was in exile with a military wing operating underground and through the mass democratic movement inside the country, when such a vision might have applied. Such a situation demanded command and control, a heirarchy with military characteristics. It called for secrecy and the ability to operate through stealth. The consequences of doing otherwise would be severe - jail or even death at the hands of the apartheid government's...
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