There was a time when the ANC embodied hope. Today, it embodies contradiction.
A liberation movement that once united a nation is now a governing party that appears increasingly at war with itself, with its allies, and, most tragically, with the very people it claims to serve.
Let’s stop pretending this is a “difficult phase”. What we are witnessing is decay.
Factionalism is not politics; it is cannibalism.
The ANC is no longer divided by ideas; it is divided by appetite.
Power blocs masquerade as ideological camps, yet their true currency is access to positions, to tenders, to influence. Conferences have become feeding grounds. Leadership contests resemble hostile takeovers.
This is not a democracy. It is cannibalism.
And while factions sharpen knives behind closed doors, the country bleeds in plain sight.
The voters have moved on — the ANC hasn’t noticed.
South Africans are no longer voting out of loyalty; they are voting out of frustration. The steady erosion of support for the ANC is not a glitch; it is a message.
The rise of the DA and the EFF is not just about opposition growth. It is about a vacuum the ANC created. Where leadership falters, alternatives, however imperfect, will emerge.
Yet the ANC behaves like a party entitled to govern, not one required to earn it.
That arrogance may prove fatal.
There is no polite way to say this — the state is failing.
Eskom once turned darkness into policy. Municipalities have become theatres of dysfunction. Water doesn’t run. Roads collapse. Waste piles up. And in the background, unemployment quietly destroys futures.
This is not simply underperformance — it is abandonment.
A government that cannot provide basic services forfeits its moral right to demand patience.
Corruption has not become an episode; it is a culture.
Blaming everything on Jacob Zuma is convenient and incomplete. The Zondo and Madlanga commissions did not uncover a few bad actors. They exposed a system.
And systems do not collapse because of one individual. They collapse because too many people benefit from their existence.
The real scandal is not that corruption happened. It is that accountability still feels optional years later.
Until consequence becomes unavoidable, corruption will remain inevitable.
The alliance is fractured and possibly finished.
Cosatu and the SA Communist Party are no longer partners in a shared vision. They are uneasy companions in a strained marriage.
They publicly criticise the ANC while defending it politically. They oppose policies they continue to enable.
This is not an alliance — it is paralysis dressed up as unity.
Inequality is deepening. Jobs are disappearing. Young people are locked out of opportunity with no clear path forward.
The ANC speaks the language of transformation but delivers the reality of stagnation.
Policy hesitancy, ideological confusion and administrative weakness have combined to produce a dangerous outcome — a country going nowhere, fast.
For millions, freedom has not translated into dignity. It has translated into survival.
Here is the uncomfortable truth — the struggle is no longer a political currency.
A new generation has emerged impatient, sceptical, and unburdened by history. They do not remember apartheid; they experience unemployment. They do not inherit gratitude; they inherit inequality.
The real danger is that it will continue to hold power without the capacity or the will to use it in the public interest
The ANC’s greatest achievement has become its weakest argument.
History cannot govern. Performance can.
The final question is can the ANC save itself from itself?
The ANC is not just under attack. It is collapsing inward.
Every unresolved contradiction, every unpunished scandal, every failed promise compounds the crisis.
This is what a multi-frontal war looks like when the fronts converge — internal decay meets public anger, and both accelerate decline.
The real danger is not that the ANC will lose power.
The real danger is that it will continue to hold power without the capacity or the will to use it in the public interest.
And that is how nations drift.
Not through dramatic issues, but through slow, grinding failure.
The ANC once led a revolution. Today, it faces one led not by opposition parties, but by reality itself.
The question is no longer whether the ANC can renew itself.
The question is whether South Africa can afford to wait and find out.
Dr Vuyani Goodman Langa, teaching development specialist, Walter Sisulu. He writes in his personal capacity as an independent political analyst, and the views expressed are those of the author, not those of the institution he represents
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