‘We Came, We Corrupted, We Looted’

President Ramaphosa’s assertion that the purpose of his national dialogue is to outline the role and responsibilities of the state shows just how rudderless the ANC has become, thereby rendering it ineligible to be anywhere near the levers of governance.

Governments are voted out when they fail in one or more of these obligations:

Providing safety and security; providing essential services such as healthcare and education; enabling an environment in which economic growth thrives; upholding law and order; maintaining and developing infrastructure; ensuring transparency and accountability in governance.

The ANC has failed in all of those obligations. The optics of its failure are apparent wherever one looks. If it had a conscience and a sense of shame, it would call a general election and retire in ignominy.

Instead, it pretends it wants to hear what the priorities are in order to remedy the state of ruin it has produced. Instead, it ignores the fact that reform is not possible through those whose failure necessitated it in the first place. Instead, it stumbles onwards blindly believing that the dividends of liberation will sustain it in power. But by failing hopelessly to deliver on its pledge of “a better life for all”, the ANC has long since squandered those dividends.

Thus, the ANC has earned the epitaph: ‘We came, we corrupted, we looted.’