Asmal's view was spot-on

In October 2009, former minister of education Kader Asmal, spoke out against plans to militarise the police. He said of the government headed by then president Jacob Zuma: "The new administration is referring to the militarisation of the police... I have this former head of the youth league who aspires to be secretary-general of the ANC. Ha, really, I hope I won't be alive."

- Sydney Majoko

The former head of the youth league that Asmal was referring to as having made decisions smacking of "low-level political decision-making" was current secretary-general of the ANC Fikile Mbalula.

Mbalula was then deputy minister of police with aspirations of being elected secretary-general of the ANC in Mangaung in 2012. It indeed came to pass that Mbalula became secretary-general over Asmal's dead body as the latter had wished, only in 2022.

The ANC held its 113th birthday celebrations in a nondescript venue in Cape Town, the 2000-seater Khayelitsha stadium after failing to book the Cape Town and Greenpoint stadiums due to "incompetence", according to the DA mayor of Cape Town Geordin Hill-Lewis.

The office that would be responsible for such bookings in the ANC is led by Mbalula.