IT'S been 112 years since the African National Congress (ANC) was formed.
The party was created to fight for the marginalised and promote equality.
But 30 years later, since the ANC governed Mzansi, the party is now stained with corruption, infighting, and greed, which might lead to its demise in the 2024 general elections.
On Monday, 8 January, the ANC members celebrated their 112-year milestone.
The question of whether they should be celebrating is lingering, with all the trouble faced inside and outside the party.
The party continues to lose ground as more members leave to form their political parties.
Political Analyst Dr John Molepo told Daily Sun that the ANC leadership will need to work extra hard to convince its followers during their birthday celebration that they still have what it takes to lead the country.
He said, unlike previous years, where they celebrated the milestones of the party, this year, the focus needs to be on telling the people how they plan to fix issues affecting the country, such as unemployment, the economy and load shedding.
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“Their message should centre around the practicality of what they going to do. Because if we're going to look at their previous messages in their January celebrations statements, it has been a repetition and now people want to know how far they are with what they have promised to do and why they haven’t done some of the things they said they would do.
“People also need to know what the way is forward. The focus should also be on those who will be working on the ground that when they do the door to door, they know what the party stands for and what to tell the people,” he said.
Molepo said that the ANC will need to fight harder to win back provinces they stand a chance of losing in the elections.
He said from his predictions, the ANC will lose major seats in Parliament, with the mushrooming of new political parties.
“With Gauteng the ANC has themselves to blame with how things are transpiring, and other political parties are pushing them into a corner which is likely that they will need to get into a coalition in order to continue leading the province.”
“In KZN, the possibility of them getting into coalition is getting higher, with the formation of MK. The province is very versatile with the IFP having more followers, and the EFF has created a solid standing there,” he said.
“If the ANC works harder, which is something that will be difficult to do due to their infighting and the persistent load shedding, they might be able to get back some of the support that they are losing."
Another political analyst, Sysman Motloung, told the Daily Sun that people need to start being open-minded about voting for other parties instead of the ANC.
“We can’t keep on using the blanket statement that all parties are the same when we have not yet tested them. It's time people put their weight on other parties and see what they can do differently that the ruling party has failed to do."
