God help those who fall out of favour with the ANC's new commanding faction, because their former comrades won't.

God help those who fall out of favour with the ANC's new commanding faction, because their former comrades won't.

This week we have already heard of the youth league's bid to rename the MW Makhubela police station in Giyani because the cop after whom it is named joined Cope. And the young communists are hell-bent on ousting Unisa's vice-chancellor, the Reverend Barney Pityana, for the same perceived offence.

Today we report that the South African Democratic Teachers Union is also purging members who leave the ANC. Cosatu, a federation of trade unions, expects all its members to campaign for the ANC. Those who cross the political line face the same fate as Sadtu's teachers.

We wonder if the ruling faction expects all citizens of this country to stand idly by as it tries to remake society in its own image and rewards its loyalists at public expense.

They are so determined to edge rivals out the public trough and to lavish state-funded largesse on their allies that they forget the basic tenets of democracy.

State resources are supposed to benefit all South Africa's citizens. Our taxes are not the private preserve of a privileged few to be plundered at will.

Politicians who forget this notion will soon join Thabo Mbeki and his cronies in the political wilderness.