No matter how angrily the ANC reacts, its candidate process is tainted

On Friday, Eskom announced that “with great regret” it was implementing Stage 6 load shedding for the entire weekend. Coinciding with an intense heatwave over the interior of the country (and particularly in Gauteng), this has increased the misery of millions of people, a feeling that has become all too familiar to the vast majority of South Africa.

Also, the fact it happened over a weekend is another indication of how weak and vulnerable our power generation system is to even the slightest problem.

The ANC is aware of how major a factor load shedding is in elections, and that every crisis delivers more voters into the hands of the opposition.

It is not difficult for people who are considering voting to be reminded that load shedding is entirely the fault of the ruling party. Others, who were not thinking of voting at all, may now turn out for an opposition party, solely motivated by the desire to punish the ANC.

This latest load shedding crisis additionally serves to confirm to voters that it is the ANC that is still unable to fix it and is likely to be making the situation worse.

It is now a full year since Andre de Ruyter resigned as Eskom CEO (he left office in February). Despite promises that a “better” replacement would be appointed quickly, no announcement has yet been made.

Instead, Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan received a name for a candidate from the Eskom board and did nothing for several months before eventually rejecting the candidate on the grounds that he should have received three names to choose from – the simplest of issues that he spent months mulling over.

When this reporter suggested on these pages that Gordhan had not acted properly here, it earned an admonishment from his spokesperson, who suggested, “The minister has explained exhaustively, had Grootes taken the opportunity to check, that demanding the Eskom board provide him with three names of appointable candidates for consideration as the GCEO did not amount to interference.”

This may be so, but, again, it still does not explain why the minister spent three months sitting on the recommendation without rejecting the process immediately. What was he doing for those three months?

The debacle also led to a suspicion that, as Carol Paton of News24 has reported, the three ministers who could be involved in this (the ministers of energy, electricity and public enterprises) each have their own preferred candidate.

In short, it gives the impression that the ANC’s leading lights are more interested in fighting their own turf battles than fighting for the country to keep the lights on.

Also, to rub salt in the wounds, it appears that most of the progress made in resolving the load shedding problems has come not from the government, or the ANC, but in fact the private sector.

As Professor Mark Swilling has explained, the private sector has spent so much money on solar power that this is now alleviating up to four stages of load shedding.

https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2023-08-22-massive-bottom-up-response-to-the-power-crisis-sees-spike-in-private-energy-generation/

The next big problem

In the meantime, while Stage 6 load shedding is felt by everyone in the country, there is mounting evidence that another failure of ANC governance could become the next big problem.

Transnet is now facing such a tough situation at its ports that its acting CEO Michelle Phillips characterised it as “Rome is burning”.

This is a problem of years of bad governance. Like Eskom, this is the result of the actions of the ANC.

While all this is likely to put pressure on the party externally, there is now mounting evidence of pressure internally, too.

Last week Queenin Masuabi reported in Daily Maverick on how ANC branches were battling to hold meetings to nominate candidates to represent the party in Parliament and provincial legislatures.

https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2023-11-23-pics-to-comeanc-struggles-to-rouse-troops-following-poor-branch-turnout-for-mp-and-mpl-nomination-process/

Considering how important these positions are, it is astonishing that there is so little interest.

But it may also be a result of problems with the internal democracy of the party, in that branches may feel their voice won’t be heard anyway – because of how elites in the party have been able to manipulate the process in previous cycles.

Over the weekend, the ANC issued a statement saying that the process was working properly and claiming it was “the only organisation that sets specific standards for the eligibility of candidates”. It also said the process’s “credibility has undergone multiple levels of scrutiny”.

While the party may wish to defend its process, it is up against the weight of a very difficult history, and a long-forgotten term, “truth”.

For many years, people facing serious and well-founded claims against them of criminality have been included in this list.

https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2014-03-12-the-anc-2014-edition-from-number-one-to-number-200/

Even after President Cyril Ramaphosa was elected ANC leader, people like the liar Malusi Gigaba, another liar Bathabile Dlamini, the “Gupta Minister” and liar Mosebenzi Zwane and so many others were included on the list.

However, there may be some hope for the ANC here.

This process is now under the control of an electoral committee, chaired by former President Kgalema Motlanthe, one of the last holdouts in the ANC’s sea of lost respectability. He has said he will ensure that only suitable candidates are selected.

But it appears that the ANC Veterans’ League is battling to convince other parts of the ANC to ensure that no one with findings against them from the Zondo Commission is allowed to represent the ANC in Parliament.

It is also known that a large number of people with findings against them, perhaps just under a hundred, have not presented themselves to the ANC’s integrity committee at all – despite being ordered to do this by the ANC national executive committee.

So far, there have been zero consequences. This includes people as senior as first deputy secretary-general and election heavyweight Nomvula Mokonyane and, again, too many others.

There is no reason to believe that this large group of people will suddenly report to this committee now. There is every chance they will still fight for positions in Parliament next year.

Despite what the ANC says, its process to ensure only suitable people can be candidates may well result in, once again, “the usual suspects”.

If this is the case, voters will surely see it. Many may reject the idea of voting for the same individuals who created Stage 6 load shedding in the first place. DM