A constitutionalist entity like the ANC can hardly get into bed with an entity like the MK party, which is a constitutional wrecking ball.

The ANC - which has long been a prisoner of internal competing ideologies - at last has a golden opportunity to reorganise itself and emerge as a coherent, social democratic party.

Ironically, this opportunity is presented by the party's humiliation in the recent national and provincial elections, where it emerged with 40,18% of the vote.

In 2019, the party secured 57.7% of the vote largely because of a tremendous amount of goodwill towards President Cyril Ramaphosa, who was by far its main asset at the time. Now, five years later, Ramaphosa has become a liability for the organisation, notwithstanding the fact that he remains more popular than his counterparts in other parties.

The loss will not have come as much of a surprise to the ANC leadership. Indeed, the writing was on the wall, as its own internal surveys would have told it. That is why, in an unprecedented move, the ANC called on all its former leaders to assist during the election campaign.

Notwithstanding their own past failures, like former president Thabo Mbeki's stance on HIV/Aids in South Africa and support for the undemocratic government in Zimbabwe, these past leaders were required to help mobilise the masses to vote...