In a sobering and brutally honest assessment, ANC stalwart Mathews Phosa has declared that the only path to redeeming the beleaguered African National Congress lies in a complete and painful rebirth of its grassroots structures. The party, he argues, cannot be fixed with the tools that broke it.
The former Gauteng premier and longtime party insider delivered a stark diagnosis: the ANC is terminally ill, and the sickness originates in its branches, which are riddled with the “worms and rot” of factionalism and corruption.
A Leader Will Emerge, But Only After the Rebuild
While expressing confidence that a “great leader” will eventually emerge for the ANC, Phosa insisted that this is a secondary concern. The focus on individual saviors is premature when the very foundation of the party is crumbling.
“That leader may or may not be a member of the current NEC, but they will emerge at the right time,” Phosa stated, suggesting that the party’s next true leader is likely keeping their head down and focusing on service, not internal politicking.
The real crisis, he contends, is not at the top but at the bottom. “Factions originated at the top echelon of the party and spread down to the branch level, rendering the party dysfunctional,” he explained. This top-down decay has poisoned the well, making the existing branch structure incapable of self-correction.
The Sisulu Model: A Return to Ideals, Not Money
Phosa pointed to a historical precedent for the radical renewal he envisions. He recalled how in 1990, the late Walter Sisulu was tasked with building new ANC branches from scratch after the unbanning of the movement.
“He succeeded in establishing those ANC branches nationwide with no money, but with only an ideal,” Phosa said. That founding conference in 1991, driven by principle rather than patronage, was, in his view, “the most successful.”
This is the blueprint he believes the ANC must now follow. “To revive the ANC, you must go back to the basics and establish new branches,” he argued. This new foundation must be built with “new people who should not come with factions or the worms of infighting and factional influence from the top.”
In a metaphor that captures the depth of the challenge, Phosa concluded, “You cannot make an omelette with rotten eggs.” For the ANC, this means that any hope of a future requires the courage to acknowledge that its current parts are beyond repair. The path to redemption is not through a gentle reform of the existing structure, but through the “torturous route” of starting over.
{Source: Citizen}
