SIBONGAKONKE SHOBA | Why is the ANC afraid to name mayoral candidates?

There is a beer hall conspiracy, largely peddled by former members of the so-called radical economic transformation faction of the ANC , that suggests President Cyril Ramaphosa was planted in the party with the sole mandate of reducing its electoral majority.

This claim is usually followed by equally hilarious allegations that Ramaphosa is a CIA spy who snitched on his comrades during the Struggle years. These theories are often fed to, and accepted as gospel truth by, the same crowd that told us 5G technology was responsible for spreading Covid-19.

Logic follows that the people who believe all of the above could also be found following Phakel’umthakathi as he hunts down “illegal” foreigners.

But given last weekend’s developments, it will be a bit more difficult to provide a counterargument when the first conspiracy theory is raised. Here is why.

The ANC created considerable hype around the event in which the party was expected to finally catch up with its rivals by unveiling its mayoral candidates for the country’s metros.

It was a highly anticipated moment, particularly because other parties’ election campaigns already appear to be miles ahead of the ANC’s. Take the DA, for example. Helen Zille has effectively been on the campaign trail for the Johannesburg mayoral chair for almost a year.

Herman Mashaba selected himself as ActionSA’s mayoral candidate for Johannesburg a while ago. The EFF has fielded academic Tlaleng Mofokeng, while Rise Mzansi wants Johannesburg residents to choose Lukhona Mnguni as mayor.

The media advisory sent ahead of the event indicated that the ANC would finally reveal who was likely to become mayor should the party garner enough votes on November 4.

On the day of the event, however, a grumpy Gwede Mantashe, the party’s national chairperson, told the media that the ANC had decided not to announce its candidates after all. Instead, the party would parade all its shortlisted candidates, leaving voters none the wiser.

Mantashe said that the logic behind the U-turn was to prevent those who were not chosen from defecting to another party.

“People must see that these are the people who were nominated by the ANC,” he said. “Here they are. And then, when they defect, people will know that this one was at an ANC event and now he or she is here. I’m making the names of all candidates available now. It’s because if we select the candidates now, you will focus on the candidates and ignore the manifesto.”

Mantashe’s comments expose two problematic elements that informed the ANC’s decision.

The first is that ANC leaders, led by Ramaphosa, seem to be suffering from extreme paranoia. They have so much distrust of their own comrades that they decided against making an important decision that voters were expecting them to make.

Rather than demonstrating confidence and clarity, the party projected uncertainty and fear. It was as if the leadership believed that the mere act of choosing a candidate would trigger a mass exodus of disgruntled members.