ANC weaknesses are also black frailties

I have been toying with this question for a long time now.

If the Census 2011 results indicate that black South Africans constitute more than 75% of the population, and the ANC gets more than 60% of the national election vote, then it follows logically to ask whether the weaknesses reflected in the ANC are indeed a reflection of the collective weaknesses of black people.

Maybe the point of departure is to ask what weaknesses are reflected in the ANC?

Surely there are many, but the ones I want to draw parallels with include ill-discipline, fighting for positions, bad punctuality, poor productivity accompanying the generally poor work ethic of deployed cadres, indecisiveness and bad public relations management.

To elaborate on these, the ANC faces numerous problems of ill-discipline, as demonstrated by the disruptive nature of provincial conferences prior to Mangaung.

The biggest motives for all these fights are positions and access to tenders.

ANC meetings are not known for starting on time, and this translates into not doing things in time.

The ANC caused a lot of panic in the business community with their indecisiveness in dealing with the issue of the nationalisation of mines.

Black people, in general, share most of these weaknesses.

Blacks often lack discipline, not just in the way they conduct their private lives, but also when it comes to getting things done in the workplace and elsewhere.

Blacks also have a tendency to fight for positions among themselves, and many of the traditional mainstream black churches have seen divisions and casualties in such position wars.

The notion of “African time” is synonymous with the bad habit of black people not being on time.

My experience with the productivity of many black people has not always been pleasant.

My other observation is that blacks take longer to reach decisions than white people do.

Whites tend to be more resolute and more decisive, even if they make poor decisions with grave consequences.

Additionally, we blacks are not very good at marketing and defending our African ways and customs.

We seem to adore the overmarketed Western culture, instead of being distinctly African and proud.

I think many black weaknesses have been brought into the ANC, and the ANC must look no further than black society at large to locate the origins of “some” of its problems.

– Luthando Lukhozi Centurion