S'THEMBISO MSOMI: To Gwede Mantashe, the ANC is experiencing a 'crisis of success'
'We must not have attitude and anger over #FeesMustFall. We must accept it as a crisis of success and, actually, as a protest for us to succeed some more'
You cannot miss Gwede Mantashe coming down the hallway of the sixth floor at Luthuli House even when he is out of sight. The telltale sign that he is about to appear around the corner of the long passage is his unmistakeable voice humming a tune. It can be one of the international socialist movement's anthems, a mineworkers' struggle song, or one of those rhythmic traditional Xhosa songs he was raised on in the rural Eastern Cape.If he is not singing, it is only because he has stopped by one of a dozen or so offices along the hallway to chat with a member of his staff. The conversations are often loud and punctuated by much laughter. But today the ritual is interrupted by his deputy, Jessie Duarte, who storms out of her own office across the hallway from Mantashe's with a cellphone in hand shouting: "Comrade SG! Comrade SG! Where is the SG? Hold on, Comrade Ace. Where is the SG?" Duarte has ANC Free State chairman Ace Magashule on the line and he urgently needs advice from the ANC s...
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