If you have not seen a police van patrolling in your area in the past few days; it’s probably because they’re at the ANC national conference in Nasrec, Johannesburg.
Not only the bakkies but the police officers as well as there are so many “on duty” at the ruling party’s 55th conference, they are almost playing the role of ushers and marshalls.
Walking around the precinct, you come across cops sleeping, enjoying free coffee and Chelsea buns or just playing Angry Birds on their phones.
Police Minister Bheki Cele who is also a member of the ANC says there are 20 000 less cops today than there were in 2010.
And that’s just the beginning of the unprecedented abuse of state resources in this conference of 5 000 delegates and 1 500 visitors.
The party has spent two days trying to sort out registration for its 5 000 delegates who are checked through a system borrowed from the Home Affairs Department.
Yes, Home Affairs where all our private details are. And this is not a state conference but a conference of a political party?
So, who is operating the Home Affairs database system then: public servants or just comrades?
Then the registration system shifts to the vetting system which belongs to the State Security Agency.
Based on this, the ANC does not have its own independent system of managing its conferences or checking the legitimacy of branch members.
Don’t get me started on the number of black vehicles transporting mayors, councillors, members of provincial legislatures, premiers, deputy ministers, ministers, deputy president, the president and former presidents.
What is quite interesting though is that this is probably the last ANC conference where so much state resources are abused with impunity.
This is so because the ANC has been losing some municipalities, metros, and seemingly likely to lose or govern Gauteng through a coalition.
Depending on who is elected president of the ruling party in this conference, the ANC is also at real risk of losing the national general election in 2024.
Governing with coalition partners will hopefully enforce a closer scrutiny of how state resources are used to advance programmes of the ANC including contesting by-elections, elections and party conferences.
Pictured above: Police officers at ANC conference
Image source: Zukile Majova
