Like most liberation movements across the world, the African National Congress firstly has to understand that nothing lasts forever and that at some point, liberation movements do eventually become outdated, and irrelevant along the way.
It's truly heartbreaking to see the governing party, such a former glorious and well respected party like the ANC, celebrate the fact that Economic Freedom Fighters members were forcibly removed from parliament. It has also become heartbreaking to see the level of behaviour from the ANC MPs who shouted all sorts of demeaning and hurtful statements at DA MPs as they walked out of the state of the nation address.
All of this shows us that the priorities of the ruling party have changed and that the level of debate as well as consciousness within the party has dropped drastically.
The ANC has to understand, and very quickly, that unlike other political parties, they cannot continue to make promises and leave it just there.
It's ok for the Democratic Alliance in some instances or the EFF for example to make promises on land, transformation and nationalisation among other things because they are simply opposition parties, but the ANC cannot. The ANC has to learn to start implementing instead of promising, because they are the government of the day and that they are the ones that are responsible for implementing a change.
As of late the former liberation movement is preaching radical economic chances but at the very same time, they talk highly of the National Development Plan, which in turn leaves us confused, as there's nothing economically radical about the NDP.
The ANC also needs to realise that they cannot preach "unity in action", without firstly identifying the core reason which has divided them as a party and in the process, cost them three major metros.
The former liberation movement also needs to understand that the patience of South Africans towards them as well as the perception and attitude the masses have about them, is no longer like before and that they are now, in reality, politicking on thin ice.
The ANC also needs to realise that they cannot preach "unity in action", without identifying the core reason which has divided them as a party and in the process, cost them three major metros, because without that, they'll forever walk divided towards a mirage.
The biggest problem for the ANC is very simple, it's a problem of them trying to make sure that their rhetoric still resonates with the masses on the ground. Whereas what they need to understand is that South Africans no longer want a resonating rhetoric from the ANC, but actions. I mean 23 years later, the ANC are still telling us about their plans, which is scary.
South Africans are beginning to ask themselves, especially black South Africans, that how come 23 years into democracy, are we still asking the same questions, of which the answers all point back to one place, the ANC.
The ANC has to certainly go back to basics, start talking less and start showing true, clean governance as well as leadership. In the process they also need to revisit the wise words of Oliver Reginald Tambo, who as I quote, prophetically warned them and said; "Comrades, you might think it is very difficult to wage a liberation struggle. Wait until you are in power. I might be dead by then."
He continued to say; "At that stage you will realise that it is actually more difficult to keep the power than to wage a liberation war. People will be expecting a lot of services from you. You will have to satisfy the various demands of the masses of our people. In the process, be prepared to learn from other people's revolutions. Learn from the enemy also. The enemy is not necessarily doing everything wrongly. You may take his right tactics and use them to your advantage. At the same time, avoid repeating the enemy's mistakes."
If only the ANC could heed this warning.