The gains of the ANC cannot be dismissed; they delivered in their earlier years, but there's been an impasse. A deadlock. A generational gatekeeping. A fear of letting go. A fear of evolving, writes Zohra Teke.
Thirty odd years ago I was among the first cohort of black journalists to join the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC). Fresh from the fall of apartheid, we were excited, ready to transform media and buzzing with energy.
I was a young, radical journalist who followed my then editor and mentor, Zwelakhe Sisulu, who became the SABC's first black CEO. He was the son of the late ANC veteran, Walter Sisulu. As a young South African over the years, I've always credited the ANC for those opportunities which paved the way for transformation in not only media but every sector, thanks to Black Economic Empowerment (BEE).
But, the party once known as a liberation movement, led by young revolutionaries, is now an international pariah, an embarrassment led by an aging leadership refusing to pass the baton, holding on for dear life to a party as its life jacket aboard a sinking ship. And its not only a result of its reputation of a corrupt and morally bankrupt party. It's the party's refusal to reform.
