Anyone who has read this blog or many of my other writings for any length of time knows that I do not buy into the Afro-pessimism narrative, particularly when it comes to the African National Congress. Unlike some of the most intemperate critics, I do not see the ANC as going down the path of Mugabe's ZANU-PF, an absurd and hyperventilating analogy if ever there was one. The ANC is not going to install a dictatorship, it is not going to “go the way of the rest of the continent,” as some of the more unreconstructed, verkrampte apologists for white rule try to aver. The ANC, as with any political party, does want to maximize its power and utilize the significant leverage that it has. And in so doing, it draws its share of criticism, both deserved and less so. Politics is about power, inter alia, and the ANC has had a remarkable run in power.
That said, I could not help but be a bit wary in reading the news that the ANC plans to revisit the National Prosecuting Authority Act, likely in hopes of watering down the law and diminishing the power of the eponymous body that law enabled. Already the ANC has eliminated the NPA-authorized Scorpions investigative unit. Doing the same to the National Prosecuting Authority treads dangerously close to trying to control not only the political aspects of law enforcement — which is, of course, a perquisite of power, but also to manipulate the rule of law itself, which is unacceptable, especially as the NPA has focused its attention on high-ranking members of the ANC and at times at the party itself.
Ideology aside, it is because of actions such as this that many of us welcome the emergence of the Congress of the People as a possible counterweight to the ANC. Does this mean that in the end we will want COPE to emerge victorious in the political battle to ensue? Not necessarily. On matters of politics and policy the ANC still has a great deal to offer and can present the country with a sound, though far from unassailable, resume of solid leadership. But unfettered power is rarely a good thing. Just ask the National Prosecuting Authority.