Sadly, there's too much nostalgia and simplicity in how the ANC thinks and acts when it comes to communications, whether inside or outside government. It seems to have downgraded communications to a service function, like transport and procurement.

I travelled to Pretoria on Friday, 13 September 2024 to hear the latest from the GNU majority party on what it's doing about party and government communications.

The occasion was the inaugural annual Ronnie Mamoepa Memorial Lecture, organised by the late government communicator's family foundation under the theme: "30 Years of Democracy Reflection and Citizen-centred Government Communication".

Given all the recent noise from the ANC about how the former governing party had failed to communicate effectively in its 2024 election campaign, I figured the theme would ensure we'd get some topical introspection and guidance on how the problem would be addressed.

No such luck.

Deputy President Paul Mashatile dedicated a scant four paragraphs of his 30-minute memorial lecture to ANC/government communications. The rest was context on how and why the ANC lost the election, a smattering of anecdotes on life with Ronnie, and a theoretical explanation - grounded, the deputy president explained, in the theories of Marx, Lenin and Engels - for why the ANC took part in forming the Government of National Unity.

Superficial comments

The deputy president's comments on the state of ANC and government communications...