The Party expects discipline!

Is it just me, or do statements like these from the ANC smack of a stifling and all too familiar authoritarianism?

The African National Congress regards as unfortunate reports that ‘Tokyo for President’ posters have been put up on street poles in some parts of the Eastern Cape.

The ANC distances itself from this practice.

It urges all its members to approach the process of selecting leadership according to the established principles and traditions of the movement.

We welcome statements by a spokesperson for Tokyo Sexwale that Sexwale knows nothing about these posters.

The ANC is concerned that some people - whether inside or outside the organisation - may use such tactics to influence internal constitutional processes or to cast aspersions on the integrity and discipline of individual ANC leaders.

Clearly, knowing the principles and traditions of The Party, Sexwale himself would have been daft to put them up. Therefore, one can only assume that supporters are exercising their freedom to express, in public, their political opinions. I’d hoped the Wagging Finger had died with PW Botha.