The ANC in Nelson Mandela Bay is imploding and has no-one to blame for its electoral misfortunes but itself.
This week, The Herald wrote two articles about a fractured ANC regional executive committee and how it unilaterally stripped its regional secretary, Siphiwo Tshaka, of his powers.
Tshaka dismissed these allegations, saying he was the legitimate secretary.
“I can tell you that there is no-one who has stripped my powers.
"Even if the 24 REC members are against me, they don’t have those powers because of how the ANC deals with matters.
"I don’t even entertain it. It does not exist. It’s just an element of frustration for comrades,” he said.
A day after he spoke to the newspaper, regional chair Babalwa Lobishe wrote to the provincial executive committee informing it of the decision.
Perhaps nothing illustrates the extent of the ANC's internal disintegration more starkly than a leaked recording of Tuesday's REC meeting, during which tempers flared, insults were exchanged and tensions reportedly threatened to turn physical.
In the recording, one member can be heard accusing Lobishe of misleading the PEC, insisting that no such decision had been taken by the REC.
The ANC in the region is understandably in survival mode.
But instead of closing ranks, taking stock and confronting the reasons behind its electoral disaster, its leaders appear more interested in settling scores and shifting blame.
They are accusing each other of the historic loss at the polls that left them with zero proportional representation seats in council after having secured only 25.48% of the votes.
They are accusing each other of having run election campaigns around personalities, instead of the organisation.
But where is the national office in all of this?
The ANC broadly failed to announce mayoral candidates and this resulted in a fractured and divided campaign with each man out for himself.
This electoral collapse did not happen overnight.
The ANC has been steadily losing ground in Nelson Mandela Bay since 2016, yet the party has repeatedly failed to undertake the honest introspection necessary to understand its decline and chart a credible path to recovery.
Instead, factional battles, leadership squabbles and political maneuvering have continued to consume the organisation.
There is little appetite among those who have benefited from being in power to contemplate life outside it.
And perhaps that is what lies at the heart of the behind-the-scenes manoeuvring now unfolding: not how to rebuild the ANC but how to retain a foothold in the political establishment.
The uncomfortable question is whether the ANC is genuinely interested in rebuilding itself or merely fighting over the remnants of its former power.
The ANC has been in decline in the metro since 2016 and has never taken the time to deal with it and see how to recover.
No-one wants to be out of power. This seems to be what is leading the behind-the-scenes discussions now.
By the next election, will it have confronted the rot that brought it here or will Nelson Mandela Bay be witnessing yet another chapter in the party's steady political decline?
