The Patriot newspaper had a fascinating story on its front page this week.
According to The Patriot, Secretary General of the African National Congress who was in Gaborone for most of this week was here to warn the Botswana Democratic Party of the existence of a third force that is causing political disharmony in both South Africa and Botswana.
The intention, we learn is to take the ANC and the BDP out of power.
Apparently the war room is housed somewhere in Gaborone and is financed and controlled by the United States.
The BDP, so The Patriot says, was told to watch out. It’s the ANC today, the BDP will be next, Mantashe is supposed to have said to his gleeful hosts.
Through its saber-rattling Secretary General, the ANC, it would look like, is now taking its disinformation agenda regional. They want other countries, especially Botswana to help fight its own battles.
The party is clutching at the straws ÔÇô literally.
They are at wits end.
They are peddling a line that they are the custodian of regional resistance against perceived western imperialism.
And they want their response and that of the BDP coordinated.
It’s all rubbish.
It will be interesting to see if the ANC storyline will get any buyers at the BDP ÔÇô a party that has been at pains to not only overplay its newfound friendship with the ANC, but also too happy and willing to submit itself as a junior partner.
Whatever the case, Mantashe’s message to the BDP marks a major strategic shift in the existence of these two governing parties.
The two political juggernauts are at crossroads.
For a long time, each of them believed they would be in power for good ÔÇô until Jesus came back, to use the words of Jacob Zuma.
That is clearly no longer the case. For good or for bad, both of them, not only has grip on power loosened, it is fast sliding away.
In a similar way both of them are now fighting two pronged battles ÔÇô to stay in power, but also for survival.
Last week the ANC president sacked an estimable finance minister on the basis of yet another bogus intelligence report ÔÇô exactly similar to the report we learn Mantashe delivered to his friends in Gaborone.
The charge; minister Pravin Gordhan was working with international organizations to undermine and defeat the South African economy. Another load of horse manure!
The result of his sacking was a collapse of the Rand followed by downgrading of the country’s credit rating to a junk status. The rating agency cited political uncertainty in that country.
As we speak the country is in turmoil, with thousands in the streets all calling for Zuma to step down.
Not by any measure are the people in the streets mainly white.
They are mainly black people.
To try to reduce the revolt to racism is to be dishonest at the very least.
Some of the people leading the street marches are of the highest integrity you can find anywhere in the world. They have through their lives and with their lives fought all kinds of imperialism.
Under the circumstances, if anybody has to be accused for working with outside forces to undermine the interests of South Africa, it has to be the president of that country.
The ANC leadership is a discredited lot.
They have lost all moral credibility.
As personified by Jacob Zuma, the ANC leadership no longer represents what values that party stands for.
There is a clear dislocation between the ANC leader and his followers.
In other words, the followers have lost faith on their leader.
That started to show in last year’s local government election where the ANC for the first time lost key areas that are also synonymous with the party’s history.
And up to now the party has been at a loss to account for such a humiliating loss of public support at those polls.
This is notwithstanding the fact that the answer is right there under their nose ÔÇô Jacob Zuma.
The attitude of ANC and its decision to embroil other countries in its troubles spell terrible consequences.
There is a lot of scope for cooperation between the ANC and the BDP that could happen without clutching at the straws.
That cooperation does not include diverting attention and seeking scapegoats for their inherent faults.
Rather it includes creating jobs, strengthening public institutions, fighting corruption and observing the rule of law.
There is an uncanny resemblance between the BDP and ANC weaknesses and vulnerabilities.
The ANC popularity has been on a precipitous decline because of corruption, unemployment and general moral decadence among the leadership.
The BDP has been going through exactly same headwinds.
The United States would be silly to help dislodge governing parties that are already doing so good to get themselves out of power.
