Time magazine’s cover posed the question: "Who is in charge?" Answering its own question, it noted solemnly: "The nation calls for leadership and there is no-one at home." It is a headline that pretty much sums up the state of SA today. The African National Congress (ANC) has abandoned any pretence of leading the country. Instead it has chosen to cast itself upon the streets in a wave of protests. It is an image that signals serious weaknesses in the ANC.

Fundamentally, the ANC is defective in its make-up and is quite clearly headed for the museum of history. It is failing to adapt to the realities of an open society in which its actions and policies come under intense scrutiny. The calibre of membership the ANC is attracting is also indicative of the quality of leadership it will produce in the future.

It is likely that the ANC’s growth is driven by populist support and constituencies that will in future push for more a radical orientation of the party as it struggles to meet their immediate socio economic demands. The ANC is also shifting away from the middle ground and losing the respect of the middle classes and those with credibility in society. Indeed, the declining quality of the ANC leadership and fuzziness of its policies will have implications for the character of the bureaucratic machinery it presides over.

The ANC’s capture by factions and sectoral interests limits any possibility of its renewal. It will continue to churn out leaders that cannot lead the party out of the morass. Further, the ANC’s insistence that it is still a liberation movement and its continued embrace of concepts such as the "national democratic revolution" show it up as a party that has chosen death.

There are many incidents in the recent past that point to a party whose moral leadership is in rapid decline. Consider, for example, the brazen attacks on the judiciary by leading members of the ANC. It was ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe who opened up this front of attack when he characterised judges as counter-revolutionary. President Jacob Zuma followed by questioning the judiciary’s authority.

Apart from the now familiar attacks on the judiciary, ANC leaders gratuitously demonise the media and critical voices in society as pursuing a "liberal agenda" that seeks to undermine change. Higher Education Minister, Blade Nzimande, a member of the ANC’s national executive committee, is fast emerging as the face of this new anti-"liberal" offensive that is gaining ground in the ANC. Increasingly, in his intolerance of criticism, Nzimande is beginning to sound more like Chenjerai Hunzvi, who galvanised Zimbabwe’s war veterans to intimidate citizens who were critical of Zanu (PF).

All these are clear signs of cracks in the ANC. The ruling party also seeks to unyoke itself from the constitutional order it helped create. In a policy discussion document that outlines what it calls the "second transition", the ruling party signals that it is ready to abandon the political consensus that ushered in 1994’s democratic change in SA. Hinting at possible radicalisation, the ANC views such consensus as no longer adequate for ensuring social and economic change.

What the ANC fails to do, however, is cast a spotlight on its performance in the government and ask hard questions about its leadership failings. It feels impotent, yet it has been in power for nearly two decades and has had ample opportunity to make far-reaching social and economic changes.

There is nothing that prevents the ANC as a governing party from developing policies that work, making the public service efficient, rooting out corruption, and delivering services to the poor.

The ANC’s leadership failings should jolt us to search for new paths towards enduring solutions to our challenges. This should nudge us in the direction of discovering more steady pillars of the kind of society we are aspiring to. It is necessary that the ANC suffers a huge electoral defeat and is confined permanently to the political margins for us to be freed from its self-serving narrative of struggle and its narrow interpretation of what transformation means and should entail.

Thinking of political leadership beyond the ANC does not mean issues such as race, inequality and poverty would lose weight. We may just have an opportunity to explore their meaning differently outside of the limiting ideological lenses of the ANC. No doubt, we would still grapple with these challenges, but we may perhaps ask more empowering questions and paint the answers in a vocabulary that offers us a better picture of the future.

The death of the ANC would free us to broaden our view of the kind of political leadership required to promote a shared understanding of our challenges and that could skilfully challenge us beyond our comfort zones to play a bigger role as citizens in making a better SA.

This article appeared in the Business Day of 1 June 2012.