The fact that the African National Congress missed the deadline for submitting several candidate lists for the upcoming local governmental elections, though disappointing, was not a surprise. Was it a genuine mistake or just sabotage? In reality, South Africans are witnessing another factional battle inside the ANC, one that is metamorphosising into suicide.

The Thuma Mina and Radical Economic Transformation (RET) factions are still fighting it out inside the ANC. The Zuma RET faction inside the ANC and the outsider uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP) are attacking the ANC inside and outside to weaken and if possible kill it.

The candidate lists were supposed to be neutral to the factions in order to protect the integrity of the ANC, but alas, that is not the case. The Thuma Mina faction appears to have been interested in excluding RET faction affiliates to a level where it forgot to press the submission button at the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC), sacrificing the ANC candidates because the RET faction members were supposed to be excluded in the Eastern Cape.

In Gauteng, these factional battles dragged in Reverend Frank Chikane, the chairperson of the Integrity Commission of the ANC, who was touted to be the party’s mayoral candidate for Johannesburg, the largest metro in South Africa. Chikane appears to have been the only viable ANC candidate for the city under present conditions. But it now appears a foregone conclusion that the ANC is likely to lose Johannesburg completely.

Those in the ANC’s National Executive Committee (NEC) who did not like Chikane made sure his name was excluded as a candidate; they even spread malicious rumours that he was taking the ANC to court for excluding him in the lists – an unacceptable malicious slur for a man of integrity.

Those who failed to press the button for registering ANC candidates with the IEC are killing the ANC. Whether it is according to their plan or whether it is by default, at the end, they achieve the same result: ANC losing the municipal and local elections, and gradually dying.

The incumbents at Luthuli House were there in September 2023 when MKP was formed. The ANC waited three more months until December 2023 to challenge the use of our Umkhonto weSizwe logo by former President Zuma. We lost our brand value to the MKP, and the masses now vote for our logo under a different umbrella thanks to Luthuli House incumbents. This was not a mistake but gross negligence, if not outright sabotage. These are the steps that are killing the ANC. The current Luthuli House incumbents can only take the ANC from bad to worse.

The only solution for ANC candidate elections lies in changing the national electoral system to a one member, one vote (OMOV) system.

All ANC members must then be verified and membership lists updated.

Before any election, all members must be allowed to nominate their candidates: the regional chairperson, the regional deputy chairperson, the regional secretary, the regional deputy secretary, and the regional treasurer. Each zone needs to nominate two candidates for each portfolio; the two candidates would be one female and one male from each zone.

All zones in the region are allowed to nominate their candidates. On a chosen day, there will be regional general elections when all members in the respective zones will elect their leaders: that is, the regional chair, the deputy regional chair, the regional secretary, and the regional treasurer. Those elected on the regional election day will be candidates for the general elections.

The regional elections should be held at least three months before the candidate lists submission date. The lists will be compiled from those elected during the regional general elections. This could be done three months before the required submission dates.

The chosen candidates’ lists could then be vetted to check their criminal records to clear and confirm them.

If this is done, it will mark recovery and renewal of the ANC.

So far, those who denied Chikane and Lungisa the right to be candidates have achieved their wishes and their goals – in the process, contributing to the further decline of the ANC.

It is the incumbents at Luthuli House who are killing the ANC instead of protecting and securing it.

The ANC will ultimately be saved by its members when they implement the one member, one vote system for electing president, deputy president, national chairperson, secretary general, deputy secretary general, second deputy secretary general, and treasurer general.

Omry Makgoale is a prominent ANC veteran, former uMkhonto we Sizwe senior commander, and a survivor and student leader of the 1976 Soweto uprising.