I had a good chuckle when someone I met recently suggested that the ANC was behind the stance that SA’s media has taken on Israel’s genocidal attacks in Gaza.

The person was frustrated that the Israeli side of the story does not find expression in SA’s mainstream media and concluded that the ANC and its government may have lobbied newsrooms to side with Palestine in the one-sided war.

There is enough evidence for anyone to conclude that what is happening in Gaza deserves the strongest condemnation. The ANC government may have taken Israel to the International Court of Justice, but I’m not aware of any effort from Luthuli House to actively influence reporting on the matter in local newsrooms.

The pro-Israeli movement gives way too much credit to the ANC. The stance taken by large sections of the media is based on principle and respect for the protection of human rights.

The suits running Luthuli House wouldn’t know where to start if they had to lobby that extensively. The ANC’s department of information and publicity has been reduced to a factory that produces messages of condolence and congratulation. The party has given up on fighting for space in what it used to call the battle of ideas – even when its policies are under attack from right-wingers.

The vacuum created by the lack of a credible voice that speaks on behalf of the transformation agenda has created space for right-wing movements to dominate the public discourse on false claims of white genocide, land grabs and “142 race laws”. As the debate rages on different platforms, the ANC’s voice is missing in action, leaving ordinary South Africans to defend this country’s transformation policies.

The past three months have been tough for black South Africans in the mainstream media space and on social media as the anti-transformation groupings and individuals have been having a field day, emboldened by the rise of right-wing formations globally and the election of Donald Trump.

Daily, the pro-transformation agenda is under attack, under the guise of protecting our economy and investments. This is an insult to capable black professionals who are working hard to make the economy function.

But the ANC has not responded with a communications strategy to counter these narratives and showcase how progressive policies such as BEE and affirmative action have changed the face of the middle-class in this country and why more needs to be done to ensure that more black people are lifted out of poverty and absorbed into the mainstream economy.

Party leaders are more occupied with internal leadership squabbles. Some use the powerful tool of social media not to engage in debates about the direction this country should take, but to show off their luxury lifestyles.

We can’t even look at the official opposition — the Jacob Zuma family enterprise, trading as the MK Party, is also failing to put up a fight. The MK Party serves as Zuma’s defence force and a source of patronage. Its participation in public discourse and parliament has been underwhelming as it has failed to champion any progressive proposals.

Its role has so far been limited to giving Zuma a tap on the back for ruining our country and fighting for people with questionable ethics, including its deputy president, the former Western Cape judge president, John Hlophe. With the recent removal of Floyd Shivambu from the secretary-general position, the intellectual bankruptcy can only take a further nose dive.

Then there is the EFF. Julius Malema’s party refuses to mature from its Congress of South African Students approach to politics and become a modern party that offers a credible alternative to the ANC. Its rowdy and disruptive approach to highlight issues in parliament is so 2014.

If Malema is serious about being a government-in-waiting, he should start taking his constituency seriously. The decision to take the National Treasury to court over the VAT and later fuel levy increase is a good start. But the EFF has a long way to go before it can claim the status of being a credible voice of the oppressed.

Which leaves black people with a dilemma: who will speak for us? Where are the beneficiaries of BEE? Where is the civil society movement that kept the torch of the Struggle burning when liberation movements were banned and leaders jailed and exiled?

If the anti-transformation agenda wins the battle to reverse black economic transformation and related policies, it would set this country back 30 years.

We may require the same energy that toppled the apartheid government to be reignited, where organised labour, student movements, civil society, churches, artists and activists spoke with one voice.