Corruption and laziness shall render ANC weak

Corruption, either in the private or the public sector, has far reaching consequences for the African National Congress (ANC) as a political party with ambitions to increase its majority in all sites of governance. Before seeing itself as leader of government, the ANC sees itself as leader of society. This means that the ANC characterises itself as a leading socio-political agent aiming to use the power of influence to transform society.

In order for the ANC to be able to influence society in its favour, it must be able to successfully sell its ideas to the churches, youth formations, business, not-for-profit organisations, organised workers, leftist formations, traditional authorities and other structures of our broad society.

This ability to influence such a broad spectrum of society depends on two pivotal phenomena; trust and respect. A trusted and respected ANC can easily throw ideas and hegemonize society. A trusted and respected ANC leader, member or employee (including one employed by ANC government) is better positioned to inject the broad ideas of the ANC into broad spheres of society. This is not a very easy task, considering that humans are not homogenous in nature.

A public servant who solicits bribes from members of the public is doing that to the detriment not only of him/herself, but of the ANC itself. A lazy public servant is a thorn not only for the government that has employed him, but also for the long term ambitions of the ANC. A greedy private company that colludes with the other at the expense of society creates an impression that the ANC, as leader of society, is unable to defend the same people it claims to lead.

Empirical evidence has proven that corruption has become a culture among some political leaders, both within and outside of the ANC, business leaders and members of the country’s population. It is therefore not necessary to ask ourselves: “what corruption?” The important exercise that the ANC must embark upon is to develop a fair, fearless and implementable strategy to deal with this nation-wide anomaly.

This anti-corruption strategy must proactively, rather than reactively, deal with corruption before its rears its ugly head. All ANC structures, from branch level upwards, must develop mechanisms that would raise the alarm wherever corruption is about to take place. These structures must also ensure that laziness, particularly in the public sector, is flushed out of the state.

When thousands of qualifying beneficiaries of RDP houses must wait for a decade because they cannot afford to pay a bribe to a greedy government official, the ANC majority is in danger. As leader of society, the ANC, through its branch, must focus its energy in ensuring that this greedy official is expelled by government.This is also true for a greedy police officer who uses his office to let those who must be in prison to be free, at the expense of the safety of the society that the ANC must lead.

A lazy government official, whose tea, smoking and other breaks are more than the time he spends serving the clients (who are the members of society), threatens the integrity and, by implication, the power of the ANC as a leader of society. A lazy teacher whose absenteeism levels have reached dangerous proportions is a threat not only to the future of the child he must teach, but he is also a threat to the ANC itself. The ANC must act on these threats before it is too late.

By deferring its crucial responsibility of leading society to the government or other authorities, the ANC runs the risk of rendering itself weak, and allowing its history to be dangerously irrelevant. No public servant is employed permanently, but they are employed for as long as they are able to willingly execute the goals and tasks of government, which is led by the ANC.

For the ANC to continue to grow both in terms of membership and support base, it would require a collective effort by all to reject and denounce corruption, laziness and complacency. For it to have lived for more than a century, the ANC did not rely purely on chance. The ANC of today is a product of the resoluteness of its approach towards the ills of society.

Laziness, just like corruption, is the cancer that is not only eating away society, but that which is eating away the ANC as the leader of that society!