It's very tempting to say "there's something wrong with the ANC". And incorrect. It would though be fair to say "there's something wrong with a considerable number of ANC leaders, starting at the very top and running like a virus down through the organisation".
Cast your mind back to Polokwane, December 2007. The party was presented with a leadership choice which could only split the party. In the blue corner, incumbent President Thabo Mbeki. In the red corner his sacked ex-deputy Jacob Zuma.
Thabo Mbeki hadn't exactly endeared himself to the party. Perceived as cold, intellectual and blinkered on such issues as HIV/Aids and Zimbabwe, he was always going to be vulnerable to a populist like Jacob Zuma. In the absence of a compromise candidate, it was a straight fight between Mbeki and Zuma - and Zuma won.
I met Zuma once, nice man. Warm, friendly, but not the sharpest tool in the box. That lack of intellect and education alone should have disqualified him from becoming ANC leader and the country's president.
And if that didn't, then the still unanswered corruption allegations hanging over his head in the wake of the Schabir Shaik trial should have, as should his questionable sexual ethics in the wake of his highly-publicised rape trial.
Certainly Zuma was found not guilty of rape. But what exactly was this multi-married man, who hoped to the leader of his country, doing in bed with a much younger woman in the first place?
And now he's done it again. Just weeks after his fifth marriage, it's been revealed that Zuma had another lover with whom he has a four-month old child.
The message is clear. Do what you like - and to hell with the message you're sending to the country about your morals, or lack of them. And that message seems to have permeated every level of the ANC!
Back in 1990, I was privileged to spend a weekend with a group of "movers and shakers". One of them was a youngish man in dark-green fatigues who'd recently got off Robben Island. He had a resonant voice, great energy and kept the group enthralled with his visions of a new South Africa. His name was Tokyo Sexwale.
What a pity Tokyo wasn't that desperately-needed compromise candidate at Polokwane. He's a man of unquestionable integrity, undoubted intellect - and a man of the people to boot. There are no doubt others of his ability within the ANC but, to my mind, Tokyo's the man the ANC urgently needs right now at the very top.
Mr Zuma, for your country's sake, you need to go. We need someone to look up to - and you are very definitely not that man!
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Disclaimer: All articles and letters published on MyNews24 have been independently written by members of News24's community. The views of users published on News24 are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent the views of News24. News24 editors also reserve the right to edit or delete any and all comments received.