It will be interesting to see how the political games play themselves out at the December ANC conference. A simple scenario is a situation where a 28-year-old man who works for government, is a member of a union, the ANC and the youth league. Whose mandate will he be carrying?

It will be interesting to see how the political games play themselves out at the December ANC conference. A simple scenario is a situation where a 28-year-old man who works for government, is a member of a union, the ANC and the youth league. Whose mandate will he be carrying?

Will he honour or betray the mandate of his branch?

The conference is going to resemble floor crossing. Delegates with a particular mandate might very well betray their comrades.

The youth league has an opportunity to influence the process directly and make the necessary trading.

Cosatu will hope that the league will secure its interests. Union members who are also ANC members such as Zwelinzima Vavi will betray their mandate because they drive the train of Jacob Zuma. It will not matter to Vavi or Blade Nzimande what their branch, region or province had decided about Zuma.

I hope that these shenanigans end at the conference, that sanity prevails and democracy will deepen within the ANC. This is not the organisation that Hani, Tambo and Sisulu died for. I don't know how Madiba sleeps at night when he hears, sees and reads about the problems in the alliance.

Teboho Mphuthi,

Johannesburg