But the conservatives have perhaps most harmed themselves by putting on an extraordinary display of vicious infighting over who should be their presidential candidate next year.
It later became apparent that the Soong family suffered vicious infighting over the purloined funds.
Nowadays, when most South African universities are victim to student riots, staff strikes and vicious infighting over leadership, Cape Town has been an island of calm.
Tomorrow the house of Lords will become the next battleground in a long-drawn-out territorial war punctuated by vicious infighting.
The bargaining processes within the Defence commodity market are often described in the media and in Parliament as vicious inter-Service infighting.
But the country has seen vicious infighting between its current and previous Presidents, and it also borders on both Congo (the former Zaire) and Angola.
Though a brilliant analyst of international events, he never mastered the party's vicious factional infighting and never seemed at the center of the money politics that command influence.
But Mr. Abbas contends that only a Palestinian government of political consensus can provide internal security and end the sometimes vicious infighting.
Instead of another Democrat in the Senate, the party lost three of its best hopes to vicious infighting, residual bitterness and combat fatigue.
"The town level of government offers a slower pace and less vicious infighting," he said.