A tale of two visions â delusion vs delivery

This story has significance for readers across Africa and beyond.

It is really a tale of two visions: One defined by basking in past glories and a promise of new starts and another defined by simplicity and practicality. That is the path that South Africaâs (SAâs) two main parties gave us in the past week as they sought to woo citizens over.

Over the weekend the DA launched its election manifesto at a spirited rally in Johannesburg while the ANC continued to plod along, rolling out its leaders to tell the public how it would fix what it has broken.

What a sad state of affairs when a party that has the means and mandate to better the lives of citizens just seems dazed by the scale of crises facing the nation, and is outflanked by a party that is battling to shed its racial cocoon.

When he spoke at the partyâs manifesto launch, DA leader Geordin Hill-Lewis told South Africans that âyour municipality should be the least dramatic part of your day. You should not have to plan your familyâs life around a water tanker. You should not have to check a neighbourhood WhatsApp group before switching on your stove. You should not have to dodge potholes, broken traffic lights and dangerous streetsâ.

He added that âwhen government stops working, it takes over your entire lifeâ because everything you do is premised on the prospect that something will not be functioning during the course of the day. This state of affairs, he said, has made South Africans âfeel like they should lower their expectations, adapt to dysfunction and learn to live with lessâ.

Now that is simple and straightforward messaging that most people can identify with.

One does not need to elaborate any more on the promises made in the manifesto, save to say that the above pretty much summed it up.

ANC fantasies

Now compare that to the fantasies spouted by the ANC, which believes that because it is the âincumbentâ, it has the God-given right to govern. That was the sentiment expressed by the partyâs secretary-general Fikile Mbalula in a statement ahead of the partyâs own manifesto launch later this month: âWe are the incumbents; the people are looking at us for leadership whilst we at the same time are asking them to renew our mandate as the African National Congress. We are not contesting anyone but asking South Africans to renew our mandate.â He was just one of the partyâs leaders who have been trying to rally the morale of party members who see the writing on the wall.

Renew which mandate exactly? Incumbents where? Not contesting anyone? Since the 2016 local government elections, the South African electorate has been telling the ANC that the game is up. From then on, the party that once imperiously ran SA has had to scramble for coalition partners in order to hold on to power or have a seat at the main table at municipal level.

Pre-election polls are showing the ANCâs rivals gaining ground at its expense, with the DA and MKP being the main beneficiaries. That in itself is remarkable. The DA leans right on economic matters and the MKP, while claiming to lean left, actually leans more into some dark wilderness.

At the national level, the pattern has been the same, resulting in a similar scramble after the 2024 general election. The story of the ANC has been one of decline and decline, a trend set to be solidified in the 4 November local government elections. It is a story of the party being punished for its failures and not one of the people looking for leadership from it.

More fantasia came in the form of Mbalula claiming that the manifesto, to be unveiled towards the end of this month, is not drafted abstractly but âinformed by the material conditions on the ground and it is a response to that, on what we are going to do to fix these issues for our peopleâ. He declared that âthe ANC has an obligation to account to society and also defend our positions. To account on what we have done and what we havenât done and how we will fix thatâ.

The promise of fixing what has been broken is one that the populace has heard over and over and now finds extremely boring. For what is the point of promising to fix if, after making it, you go on and break more stuff? When it launches its manifesto, the ANC will be hung up on apologia and promises to do better next time. It will tell us that it has heard the cries of the people about how it has messed up their living rooms and unwrap the cloths it will use to wipe the poo off the floor.

Past glories, more chances?

Give us just one more chance, party president Cyril Ramaphosa will tell South Africans when he speaks in Diepsloot, one of Johannesburgâs poorest neighbourhoods. He will also go into past glories: victory over the apartheid system, the legends of the liberation struggle, the mass rollout of basic services in the democratic era, the constitutionally enshrined rights enjoyed by South Africans and many other achievements that the ANC delivered and then squandered. Given that this will be a big issue for other parties, he will also give a nod to concerns about uncontrolled migration while outlining the governmentâs response to the crisis.

This lowly newspaperman is no sangoma or clairvoyant, but he can predict that the manifesto will be a boring menu of same-old, same-old. It will be an updated Windows programme, but without any exciting new innovations. That is why the DA and other parties will steal a march on the ANC in November. They are not offering anything revolutionary, but their credibility quotient is greater than the party that has run this country for the past 32 years and has spent 17 years ruining it.

Pre-election polls are showing the ANCâs rivals gaining ground at its expense, with the DA and MKP being the main beneficiaries. That in itself is remarkable. The DA leans right on economic matters and the MKP, while claiming to lean left, actually leans more into some dark wilderness. The fact that these two disparate organisations are drawing support from the self-proclaimed âincumbentâ shows that November will essentially be an ANC rejection election.

A so-called incumbent should have plenty of ammunition with which to fight an election and would come out guns blazing to defend its turf. The ammunition would consist of a recent track record of high achievement, new ideas of taking government forward and an exciting line-up of individuals who would fulfil this task.

The electorate would be eagerly and curiously anticipating such, wanting to know whether the mandate should be renewed. In this case, this party seems like a traveller waiting for transport out of town. We will watch out of habit⦠and desire for some amusement. DM

This story first appeared in our weekly DM168 newspaper, available countrywide for R35.

Reporting originally appeared via Daily Maverick. Read the full source for additional context.