The ANC doesn’t need a microscope to see that the discontent between it and the public has grown since Jacob Zuma ascended to the presidency. The clean sweep by the Inkatha Freedom Party in the Nquthu by-elections and the DA’s victory in Beaufort West signal the trouble ahead of the 2019 general elections. Voting patterns in the 2016 local government elections revealed that the ruling party’s power was in the rural areas. The voters in rural Nquthu received food parcels from the ANC but deserted it in the polling stations. The message was clear: their souls were not for sale. Such a message must be appalling for Zuma, Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa and other ANC heavyweights who campaigned big time. Their efforts were not warmly received because the party has lost legitimacy to lead. The ANC lost the Nkandla ward that the president calls his home, but the denialists in the party pretended there was nothing wrong with such a humiliation. Zuma, as always, will call the collapse of t...
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