Both Jacob Zuma and Julius Malema must face the music

PEOPLE who are concerned about the ill-health of the ruling party are asking themselves: can the ANC be rescued from itself?

Last week's so-called unity press conference, addressed by the party's top leadership, seemed like a step towards the rescue -but turned out to be a fat joke.

To answer the question we have to understand the origins of the malaise. The factors that propelled Jacob Zuma to claim the crown are largely responsible for the crisis.

First, we were made to believe that there was a conspiracy to block Zuma from ascending to the throne.

Proponents of this conspiracy put the blame squarely on Thabo Mbeki, the alleged chief conspirator.

And so it was that political sympathy became a weapon for the victim. The theory held that state institutions were deployed to persecute those people Mbeki didn't like: intelligence agencies, police, the National Prosecution Authority and the courts were implicated.

With the kinds of appointments Zuma has made in these portfolios he is clearly in fight-back mode long after he had became a victor. The results are there for all to see.

Second, there was an underlying tribal issue that was spoken about in hushed tones. Thanks to Zuma's supporters, the secret was out in the form of T-shirts lobbying for the "100% Zulu boy".

Third, there were the allies, Cosatu and the South African Communist Party, who wanted an uneducated "ruralitarian" - to borrow a term - a man who would understand the proletariat much better than an elitist Sussex-educated economist who read lots of books and often dabbled, in a disastrous way, in medical science.

Fourth, there was Julius Malema, a key figure before and after Polokwane. He was elected at a buttocks-baring conference that was legitimised by the present ANC leaders. Egged on by Zuma and Co, he went on to call Mbeki a dictator, threatening to kill (ANC members not exempted) those who stood in Zuma's way.

He wanted Zuma to go to the Union Building "with his corruption" (his words).

Fifth, the symbols of the party - songs and images - were desecrated wantonly. When Polokwane slates were compiled, there was a donga-like divide. Howling became the norm.

But there was a man who was not involved in the factional politics. Gwede Mantashe, now the secretary-general, had been roped in by the Zuma faction as someone most likely to command respect across the divide.

Mantashe hardly campaigned. Compared with his other colleagues in the top six he played a relatively minor role, but he sprang into real action after Polokwane, leading a campaign publicly announced by Malema, to oust Mbeki.

Now Mantashe is trying to rescue the ANC and Zuma from Malema and the other factional practices. He dragged other leaders from their busy factional schedules to attend the hilarious press conference.

Given all of this, can the ANC be rescued from itself? It would entail ridding itself of all that which underpinned Zuma's ascendance. This it could do without a spectre of Mbeki conspiracy lurking since he has transformed from a proverbial "dead snake" to a real one.

Mantashe seems to forget that Malema's anarchist politics and all the other factors had resulted in the election of a leadership that includes Mantashe himself. Erasing the bad practices - by among other things expelling Malema - while other leaders keep their jobs, is tantamount to rubbishing the chef and discrediting the recipe, and yet still insisting on being served the meal.

The ANC leadership will have to accept that the meal is as flawed as the recipe and the chef who put it together.

They will have to accept that the process that led to their election was not in accordance with the best practices they have now supposedly decided to uphold. But once they renounce these practices they will have to do so retrospectively and relinquish their posts for a new start.

As the main protagonists who originated some of these practices, Malema and Zuma should both face the music, for there is no point off-loading the benefactor while the beneficiary survives. He who remains behind, carries with him the DNA of chaos.

The biggest battle waged solely by Mantashe is to dismantle the Polokwane practices while keeping the benefits that came with it intact. He faces the risk of being labelled a hypocrite. And those who want to come in (remember Polokwane's popular song Dedel'abanye - make way for others) will use pre-Polokwane tactics for their own benefit. Who wouldn't? These practices are tried and tested.

Zuma suddenly finds it hard - but maybe not, given his endless giggles - to deal with this.

Assuming the role for which he once accused Mbeki, he is attempting to direct state institutions to serve his cause. His biggest hurdle is his inability to control judges.

Like the menacing shower stitched on his head by a cartoonist, the corruption allegations against him are stubbornly clinging to Zuma.

Other than trying to establish an evangelical judicial philosophy, his judicial poodle hardly wields power and can do little to help him

The ANC leadership must simultaneously undo itself and the practices that culminated their election - an improbable task for the Mangaung conference.