“Something is fundamentally wrong in South Africa today, and specifically in our public spaces " said author Mzukisi Qobo, at Rhodes University on Wednesday 19 February.
“Something is fundamentally wrong in South Africa today, and specifically in our public spaces " said author Mzukisi Qobo, at Rhodes University on Wednesday 19 February.
He is the co-author, with Prince Mashele, of the recently published book The Fall of the ANC – What Next?
The authors were at the university to discuss the ideas they express in the book and to take questions.
Qobo said: “We want to make a contribution to our public discourse and deal with the myth that the ANC is untouchable,”he said.
Mashele was born in Mpumalanga and studied his Masters in politics at Rhodes. Qobo is from the Western Cape and has a Ph.D from the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom.
The event was hosted by the Unit for the Humanities at Rhodes University (UHURU), a recently established centre for research in the Faculty of Humanities. Professor Michael Neocosmos, Director of UHURU, introduced the speakers and chaired the event. “The whole point of UHURU is to rethink emancipation in South Africa, Africa and globally,” he said.
The book contains extensive research on the history of the ANC and investigates its reason for existence.“Before practical life, the ANC existed as an ideal. This ideal centred on the lives of others,” said Qobo. He argued that the ANC had been a selfless organisation for many years.
At this point, Mashele and Qobo identified what they called “the two ANCs”. They argued that it is clear that the ANC, now, is different to what it was many years ago, which was “an organisation with the highest values”. They said that, if there has been a change from these lofty heights, it can only have been a change for the worse.
“Zuma represents the worst of the ANC,” said Qobo. “The leaders are in it for themselves and their stomachs. You only have to look at Nkandla.”
They suggested two things that led to this collapse: factionalism and corruption, which was branded as the “new DNA of the ANC”.
In answer to a question from an audience member, Qobo looked back to the birth of democracy in ancient Greece: “There were two things that disbanded tribalism and helped the move to democracy,” he said.
“These were population growth and education. In 20 years time, there will be no one to claim credibility for the Struggle. We don’t know what our politics will look like then.”
When asked what political body they thought should replace the ANC, Mashele and Qobo were quick to say that this was not the purpose of their book.
They touched on other political parties and what they stood for, but they did not want to suggest who people should vote for in the May election. “This is about the current state of the ANC. We wanted to open up this topic for discussion,” said Qobo.
