From Mandela to Ramaphosa — a critical look at ANC's leadership failures and State Capture

25 Oct 2024

In The Super Cadres, bestselling author Pieter du Toit examines the ANC’s legacy, from the early halcyon days through to the disappointment of Cyril Ramaphosa’s presidency.

The ANC has ruled South Africa for three decades. During this time the country has gone from the promise of the Rainbow Nation to dysfunction and despair.

In his new book The Super Cadres, Du Toit asks some key questions before coming to a critical observation and a damning conclusion:

What was the state of the ANC when it took power?

Was ANC failure inevitable? Did it inherit a country so stricken by apartheid that success was impossible?

When did the first signs of misrule and corruption occur?

How did each of the presidencies perform, from Nelson Mandela to Cyril Ramaphosa? What role did each play in the road to failure?

What was President Ramaphosa doing to stop State Capture while he was deputy president?

Du Toit concludes that at the very centre of ANC — and thus state — failure is “cadre deployment”, which the ANC adopted as official party policy under President Thabo Mbeki. He shows how, over time, the appointment of cadres at every level of government inevitably led to the fusion and confusion of party and state, the spread of incompetence and the dire corruption that ate into every part of the country once Jacob Zuma took over. Read the excerpt below.

***

On the afternoon of Thursday, 30 May 2024, Gwede Mantashe stood alone in front of the giant electronic results board at the Independent Electoral Commission results centre at Gallagher Estate in Midrand.

It had been a catastrophic day for the African National Congress (ANC), with its support projected to implode. The advent of sophisticated polling ahead of the country’s seventh general election meant the public had access to real-time data on sentiment as voting day approached. And in the weeks and months leading up to election day on 29 May, it had become clear the ANC was on a precipice.

Mantashe, the ANC’s hidebound chairman, stood on the far right of the electronic board, staring at the Western Cape provincial numbers. The polls had been closed for 18 hours, results were trickling in and projections had already revealed the harsh truth: the ANC had been rejected by an electorate that had given the party successive overall majorities since the dismantling of apartheid. It was happening rapidly and it was happening across the country.

Over the previous months, the ANC had dismissed all questions about the possibility of losing its parliamentary majority. The party’s conceit was on full display and everyone – apart from the party itself – could see it. During the election campaign, when ANC leaders were dispatched to townships, suburbs and cities across the country, they were dismissive of the portents. In Cape Town, President Cyril Ramaphosa swatted away questions about his party’s performance: “We know what is going to happen, and the people of South Africa know in their own hearts of hearts what they are going to do in terms of giving the ANC an overwhelming majority.”

Fikile Mbalula, the secretary general, went to ask residents of a township north of Durban for their votes, arriving in a multimillion-rand Mercedes-AMG G63 owned by a fraud and corruption accused, Anwar “Dogg” Khan. Mbalula’s entourage flung ANC T-shirts from car windows as they cruised in and out of the township. On Gauteng’s East Rand, where an ANC-EFF government had been delivering misery and misrule, Mantashe berated a journalist and bluntly said, “There will be no coalition, okay? Why do you imagine a coalition? There will be no coalition. We are working for a majority.”

Two weeks before the election, polls showed that the ANC was headed for disaster. Its national support was tracking below 40 per cent and declining rapidly. The party had been buoyed by two months of stable Eskom electricity supply but it seemed the effect was tapering off. The ANC needed something else, and fast. On 13 May, Ramaphosa announced that he would sign the contentious National Health Insurance Bill into law. Enacted, it could destroy private health care and the economy but it was considered a handy bargaining tool to shore up electoral support.

Despite an initial uptick, ANC support continued to decline, and the following week Ramaphosa scrambled his second big and unimaginative announcement: a new ANC government would implement a basic income grant. And on Sunday 26 May, three days before the election, he decided to abuse his office and demand prime airtime from the public broadcaster, the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), and private news channels, to deliver an “address to the nation”.

Disguised as a statesmanlike address to commend the Independent Electoral Commission and encourage people to vote, it was nothing more than an ANC stump speech, urging the voting public to return the ANC to office. It was one of many low points during the Ramaphosa era. DM

The Super Cadres: ANC Misrule in the Age of Deployment by Pieter du Toit is published by Jonathan Ball Publishers (R330). Visit The Reading List for South African book news, daily – including excerpts!

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