Episode 82 - CAN THE ANC BE SAVED FROM ITSELF?

There can be no doubt, after the local government election
results of last year, that the governing African National
Congress is in deep political trouble. Many analysts take for
granted that in 2024 there is a real possibility of the ANC
getting less than 50% of the national vote, ushering in an era of
coalition politics both nationally and provincially. This kind of
prediction is premised on the assumption that the ANC cannot be
saved from terminal electoral decline.

In this episode of In The Ring, which was first published on
Eusebius on TimesLIVE (as you will hear in the audio content),
well-known and experienced former journalists Thabo Shole-Mashao
and Lance Claasen joined me to examine the possibility of the ANC
yet recovering from its steady electoral decline of recent
times.

We explored whether the political brand of the ANC is
irredeemably and near fatally damaged by the effects of state
capture on the reputation of the governing party. We also debated
whether the leadership crisis of the ANC, both the ethical and
technocratic dimensions, can be fixed before 2024 or whether that
is now an impossible task.

Lastly, drawing on the public relations, communications and
reputation management expertise of both my guests (in their
post-journalism careers), this episode ended with a provocative
question, "Assuming the ANC cannot fix its problems before 2024,
what is the best strategy to convince voters to not abandon the
party?" 

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