STATE CAPTURE
SIPHO PITYANA: SA is nearing a watershed — if the ANC conference happens
The party is in chaos, with contests over credentials the norm at every significant gathering
The ANC’s elective conference in December will be a watershed for SA — if it happens. That there is uncertainty whether the conference will even be held reveals the depth of the structural crisis the governing alliance finds itself in. And yet the country’s leadership keeps its head firmly buried in the sand regarding the scale of the problems the country and, indeed, the ANC are facing. Not even the office of the secretary-general, whose primary duty is to ensure the integrity of organisational administration, can irrefutably confirm the true state of ANC membership. Membership lists are in tatters. Contests over credentials have become the norm at every significant conference. Delegates are known to pay their way — or be paid — to attend decision-making events. And the fact that ghost members now run ghost branches is perhaps apposite for what increasingly looks like a zombie political party. The courts are increasingly dragged into the fracas to resolve internal party disputes — ...
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