PENUEL MADUNA | People are rejecting elitist character of ANC leaders

The people of SA have rejected the ANC. We got 40% of the 58.6% of registered voters while 42.4% chose to stay at home and not participate in the 7th democratic national and provincial elections. This means the number of votes we got is not even a quarter of the total number of eligible voters. What ought to be done? 

Part of the reasons we have been continuously rejected by the people of SA is because of the elitist character that the leaders of the ANC have taken, even those at grassroots level.

The leadership is aloof of the living conditions of our people. This is seen by how we conduct ourselves at a critical time of campaigning, driving luxury cars, dressing in expensive Italian clothes, living in mansions, taking our children to the most affluent schools and getting the best medical care. All this while our people live in dire poverty not knowing where their next meal will come from. 

The conduct of frontline public servants also plays a major role in why the people of SA have lost trust in the government of the day. Every day our people are treated as substandard human beings in police stations, clinics, hospitals, home affairs and municipal offices and at every government institution.

For a government to be able to service its people it needs to be able to take decisive action against incompetent employees who get paid by the very same taxpayers it treats as subhuman. 

We have seen young people sleeping in toilets and libraries in institutions of higher learning, others having to study without textbooks. The few that thrive beyond these challenges find themselves not being able to graduate because of the failures of NSFAS and subsequently the failure of the department of higher education and training to hold its leadership accountable. Yet come elections we expect the same young people who are subjected to this to come out in their numbers and vote for the ANC. 

Going to conferences, outcomes are usually pre-determined in favour of patronage. Leaders are elected on the basis of who they align with and pledge their loyalty to rather than capability.

We have seen this in the ANC itself and even in its leagues.

Those imposed leaders do not appeal to society, hence we find ourselves with an ANC NEC that cannot unite and lead society, an ANC Youth League that cannot champion the interests of young people and an ANC Women's League that cannot galvanise women behind the banner of the ANC.

Our deployees in government do not effectively play a role in servicing our communities. Medical facilities are collapsing, schools are a safety hazard, our road infrastructure is collapsing, there is a high rate of unemployment, crime is at its highest level ever yet millions of rands are taken back to Treasury, if they have not been misused.

We have deployees who are concerned with blue lights and enriching themselves instead of servicing their communities. Yet the ANC does nothing to hold them accountable. For us to regain the trust of our people we need to be decisive against those who fail in the roles they are entrusted with.

Corruption plays a major role in how our people view us and the fact that we address this problem based on factional lines says a lot about how serious we are about doing away with corruption. Many of our leaders have been accused of corruption but only those who are seen as aligning in a particular way are taken to account while those who align with the dominant faction continue as if there’s nothing wrong.

Maduna is ANC Gilbert Msikinya branch deputy chairperson