ANC chairman Gwede Mantashe saying "the new ANC will fix itself" must rate as the grand summation of the entire debacle and gutter in which the ANC finds itself.

That the ANC is dying a slow death in a quicksand of crime, corruption, incompetence, dishonesty, and rampant maladministration is beyond discussion. We are witnessing a more dramatic political death than even the fall of the old Nats or perhaps the Communist Party of the USSR.

Mantashe openly admits corruption is at the heart of the ANC, that no one trusts anyone in it and everyone is running for cover.

In typical Mantashesque, he wants "comrades to disabuse themselves of abusing Zuma", whatever that is supposed to mean. But I am sure the ANC understands this double-speak jargon which has absolutely no meaning outside the rotten ANC.

He then goes on in more ANC gobbledegook about where he reckons the ANC is headed. I suggest he reads the road signs which clearly indicate that they are going straight to hell.

To top off this sordid rational from the mind of Mantashe he goes on to say that with Cyril Ramaphosa now as president of the ANC and after he has engineered the expulsion/firing/ impeachment of Jacob Zuma, we are going to have a president who won't steal from us because he is rich already!

That statement encapsulated the mindset and soul of this ANC. Since when has wealth stopped someone stealing more? Do the Zumas or Guptas have their fill, after looting SA of billions. maybe hundreds of billions? Never. They still lust for more.

The point Mantashe has missed is that the president will not steal or in any other way act dishonestly. because it is wrong to do it. This word is not in the lexicon of the ANC sadly.

Dr Peter Baker

Parktown North