"It took over a 100 years to build a powerful organisation that vanquished apartheid."
This is the very same reasoning that got us to this point. The credulity, faith, belief that turns mere humans or their organisations into god-like infallible icons keeps us from holding them to account at every point. The ANC was never the sole agent that "vanquished apartheid". Apartheid met its inevitable end due to a confluence of global and local events and conditions, including the end of the Cold War.
Once we attribute exaggerated agency such as this to an organisation or person we elevate them to impossible, super-human levels and we refuse to believe that they are able to falter. The ANC is flawed and fallible. It always was. And so is any other party or leader that will emerge as the new favourite. The truth is that there are no saviours that we should follow without question. For the democratic project to succeed we will all need to adopt a more sceptical & pragmatic approach to politics.