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ANC must prioritise the country

The ANC's new top six leaders have been named at the party's elective conference in Nasrec, Johannesburg. Cyril Ramaphosa was named the new president of the party.
New ANC top six announced #ANC54 The ANC's new top six leaders have been named at the party's elective conference in Nasrec, Johannesburg. Cyril Ramaphosa was named the new president of the party.

There is time for everything. A time to play politics and a time to take a step back and look at the greater picture - which may require that decisions be taken for anything but selfish reasons.

This is the lesson we hope the ANC has learnt from the drawn-out and yet-to-be-concluded transfer of power from the president of the republic to the president of the party.

The past two weeks have been about the indecision of the party - or what comes across as such - in the absence of the ANC taking the nation into its confidence around shipping President Jacob Zuma out of the seat of government.

Some of the decisions made around the issue speaks volumes about a party that has inexplicably again failed to prioritise the needs of the nation ahead of party-political - yet narrow - interests.

As we speak, doubt hangs above two important events on the political and governance calendar: the State of the Nation Address (Sona) and the budget speech.

The Sona sets the tone for the government's programme of action the year ahead.

It is followed closely by the budget speech, which pads the skeleton with flesh in the form of how the government intends to fund the said programme. As we speak, the nation has not been told when the Sona will be held.

The ANC press briefing yesterday only confirmed that Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, the president of the ANC - not Zuma - will deliver the speech.

With that it is confirmed that Zuma has been recalled, albeit the nation has not been made any wiser concerning when he will actually quit, save for reading between the lines from the statement made by ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule that Zuma will address the nation today.

He said the president has not been set a deadline by which to vacate the Union Buildings, again leaving some questions unanswered, such as what if Zuma goes back on his word and doesn't quit? We have seen worse from him before.

South Africa cannot afford the kind of indecision shown by the leadership of a party on which the task of governance sits - seemingly so uncomfortably.

The burden would be lightened a bit if the ANC began to put the interests of the governed ahead of its own.

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