Done

I’m finished. Someone call a doctor. My sides have split.

This then, is the response of the official ANC twitter account to their defeat in Port Elizabeth and their utterly dismal showings in Johannesburg and Tshwane.

If you don’t laugh, you have to cry. It’s either hilarious or it’s tragic. It’s both.

For the other parties, this seeing the ruling party adopting this stance must be like manna from heaven. If this seemingly blind obliviousness continues towards and into the next (general) election in 2019, the ANC is not just going to be beaten, it’s going to be obliterated.

However, for the people, with another 3 years to go before the start of any possible change in government and/or attitude, it’s pretty galling. I don’t think (and the election results do kinda support my view) that things are going well here at the moment. There is a massive amount of dissatisfaction, irritation, anger. I’m not saying that the ANC is solely responsible for this, but nor do I see their current, rather apathetic approach doing enough (read “anything”) to combat it.

Incidentally, I’ve left JZ in the background there on the screenshot because his imperious, somewhat sour, face seems to me to be the perfect analogy (and possibly the biggest reason) for the ANC’s – and therefore South Africa’s – current woes.

UPDATE:

It’s stuff like this that makes me wonder if they’ve actually seen the results…