There is something unsettling about political communication that sometimes sends my mind into a tailspin. I often wonder if the dubious messages from politicians are gaffes or simply the result of failure to understand the language.
Take President Cyril Ramaphosa’s address to the ANC lekgotla yesterday. “And if we really want to shore up the fortunes of the ANC in the local government elections, we must not cut corners and we must not take chances, and the usual tendencies that we’ve had of deploying people on a factional basis must be foregone,” he said. “This election is going to be important.”
Starting from the back, what does it mean that this election, the local government polls due later this year or early next year, is going to be important? Does that mean the previous election in 2024, in which the ANC’s support plummeted to just under 40%, was not important? Is that why the party was given a bloody nose — because it did not think it could lose as badly as it did?
