It is interesting to observe how those who are horrified at the prospect of a Jacob Zuma presidency now sound so exasperated, as if they are completely helpless to avert the perceived looming disaster.

Scapegoats are being identified for what amounts to a crisis of vast proportions: the National Prosecuting Authority has bungled; President Thabo Mbeki is to blame for appointing Zuma as his deputy in the first place; the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), which should be focusing on trade union activities, has been hijacked by leaders with a pro-Zuma political agenda. The list could go on.

Now we are told there are many capable people who should step forward and challenge Zuma, but for a range of reasons they do not have the guts to stand up and be counted when their country is in such desperate need of salvaging from the dirty claws of a corrupt, uneducated, unsophisticated boy from a rural area. Things are truly bad in SA and we should all fear for the future of our beloved land, it would seem, from the protestations of those who had proclaimed the political end of Zuma many months ago.

But there is no need for panic for those who do not want this man to be their president. It is simple really: they should get off their big, lazy bums and start to revive, organise and mobilise those branches ahead of the African National Congress (ANC) elective conference next year. The last national general council of the ANC demonstrated unequivocally that these important structures of the organisation are reasserting their power to determine the movement’s future.

While in the past everybody toed the line once Luthuli House had spoken, that is clearly no longer the case. The latest local government elections and the nomination process resulted in strained relationships between some communities and candidates endorsed by the top leadership. In Umlazi township in Durban, it resulted in a death by shooting. Matters were exacerbated by the directive that the structures of local government should accommodate more women.

One glaring lesson of the whole Zuma episode is that the masses out there — not the silent ones — are determined that in future their leaders will not be chosen by the media and political analysts. In fact, anybody being touted or endorsed by them will be viewed with grave suspicion.

Therefore, anybody who wants to influence the political direction of the country in the near future, and specifically the next election, should get out of their ivory towers of pontificating about these matters and get their ANC branch to nominate the right person, or the hordes will deliver the dreaded Zuma. Perhaps for too long many of those who will not dirty their hands for the ANC have been reaping the fruits of other people’s labour. They have moved from the townships to formerly white suburbs where they set up no vibrant branches.

They can hardly fit any organisational activity in their busy life of enjoying the fruits of liberty. Of course, they will not forget to make the cross at the right place in the next election, but that is about all the ANC can expect as their contribution.

But in the words of an old song of the movement, “the ANC is toiled for”. The workers in the factories and on the farms need organisers. The poorest of the poor in every corner of the country need a hero whose flesh they can touch, and who will not only be “among” them when he visits but who will also be “with” them.

When those who fought in the trenches in foreign lands under an ANC banner meet, they sing particular songs which in the 1980s were popularised in the South African townships as the country was being made ungovernable. Naturally, the former soldiers are inspired by songs rendered by those who shared canned food with them in the forests. The singing might be a source of great irritation for those who are not steeped in the great African traditions and practices in times of happiness, sorrow and struggle. Whatever the occasion, Africa sings.

Organising people to constitute ANC branches might not sound like an attractive proposition to many of those who do not want Zuma to be president. But I am afraid it is not going to help to moan at dinner parties, cigar lounges or golf courses.

Some thousands of people have over the past few months taken a conscious decision to abandon their beds and hold vigils outside courts in different parts of the country. They have identified their choice for future president and their ANC branches will know what to do when nomination time arrives.

It is time some among us got off our high horses and organised, or the despised one will lead us.

Madlala is editor and publisher of UmAfrika.

With acknowledgements to Cyril Madlala and Business Day.