Gangster State

dynamics, and has been remarkably quiet.
It is Magashule who, in my view, now most prominently embodies the
ruling party’s glaring departure from the vision for the ANC and South
Africa upheld by earlier leaders such as Albert Luthuli, Oliver Tambo
and Nelson Mandela.
There has been much talk in the past about ‘criminal elements’ within
the ANC. Ironically, Magashule made one such remark in 2012 when
service-delivery protests in a few Free State towns turned violent.^3 This
sentiment became particularly popular when the Guptas’ state-capture
project was exposed. The narrative was that a handful of alleged
criminals, Zuma being one of them, had infiltrated an organisation that
was otherwise still dominated by good, honest people. It was a hopeful
notion. Less sympathetic observers called it naive. Whatever the case,
it is now obvious that the ANC suffers from a chronic inability to
correct past mistakes by dealing with these alleged ‘criminal elements’.
Zuma’s dramatic recall as state president may well have been a result
of Ramaphosa’s ascent to power. But the latter was bound to encounter
resistance from shady characters around every corner if he attempted to
navigate the ANC and the country out of the maze of corruption. In a
cruel twist, the power of some of these questionable characters was
actually bolstered by the internal ANC voting machine that delivered
Ramaphosa and the ‘renewalists’ their marginal victory.
The elevation of Magashule to one of the party’s most powerful
positions reaffirms the organisation’s reckless nonchalance with
regards to its image and reputation. There are still questions around
whether he won the contest to become secretary-general in a fair
manner, but the ANC has effectively buried the matter for the sake of
‘unity’. It is, however, Magashule’s nine years as Free State premier