Can the ANC survive its existential crisis?

AFRICA'S oldest liberation movement stands at the precipice of an unthinkable fate: financial liquidation. The African National Congress, which led South Africa from apartheid's darkness into democratic dawn, now faces creditors, internal fractures, and an electorate that has delivered its harshest verdict yet.

- ANDA MBIKWANA

The ANC's current predicament represents a stunning reversal of fortune. The party that once commanded overwhelming electoral majorities secured just 40.18% in the May 2024 national elections - its worst performance since democracy began in 1994. This political decline has been accompanied by severe financial distress, with reports emerging that the party owes millions to service providers and faces possible liquidation proceedings.

The roots of this crisis are manifold. Endemic corruption, most notably the “state capture” scandal under former President Jacob Zuma, haemorrhages billions from state coffers while enriching a connected elite. The party created a new class of “tenderpreneurs” - politically connected millionaires and billionaires who profited from government contracts, often through unethical or illegal means.

At the helm sits President Cyril Ramaphosa, himself a billionaire businessman who amassed wealth through investments in mining, telecommunications, and other sectors. His rise to ANC leadership was marked by controversy: his 2017 campaign for party presidency allegedly cost over R1 billion, raising questions about the sources and expectations attached to such funding.

The 2020 “Farmgate” scandal, in which millions of dollars were reportedly discovered hidden at his Phala Phala farm, further complicated his reformist image.

This presents a profound contradiction: a wealthy president leading an essentially bankrupt party, unable or unwilling to rescue it financially. Critics have seized on this, with some suggesting - though without definitive proof - that Ramaphosa's presidency represents not salvation but managed decline, perhaps even deliberate dismantling.

"How can a billionaire president watch the party of Mandela face liquidation?" asks political analyst Dr Lwazi Lushaba. "Either he lacks the will, or there are deeper forces at play preventing him from acting."