Election season tends to create an artificial adhesive for political parties. The Congress of the People will very soon after the polls have to deal with the parachuting of Mvume Dandala to head the party. It is no help to pretend that this was met with glee by all concerned.

Election season tends to create an artificial adhesive for political parties. The Congress of the People will very soon after the polls have to deal with the parachuting of Mvume Dandala to head the party. It is no help to pretend that this was met with glee by all concerned.

The ANC and its alliance partners too might come out as a unified entity, but the paper on the wall might not last too long after the polls.

There are already comments attributed to Gwede Mantashe that suggest the next ANC government will pay scant regard to how loud one shouted but rather look at what they can do.

Cosatu's Sdumo Dlamini calls this a declaration of war and has accused the party of returning to the Thabo Mbekisque marginalisation of the Left.

The marriage is not yet consummated but already the honeymoon is starting to look sour. Since it will be a monumental shock if the ANC were not to be returned to power, we would urge those aligned to the ruling alliance to work hard at finding common ground soon. The work of the next government should not be held back by petty boardroom squabbles.

As with Cope as regards Dandala, we hope that the ANC leadership will not try to create a false impression created by an uninformed media.