The ANC 53rd national conference to be held in Mangaung on 16-21 December 2012 is arguably a watershed one since it's unbanning in 1990. The Conference has two significances. First is marks the centennial existence of the ANC. Secondly, all positions in the top six will be contested.
The latter has sparked high levels of enthusiasm, thinking, energy, and speculation across the spectrum of the society including but not limited to the religious, business, labour and media sectors. All representatives of these sectors have dared to opine on issues of leadership, policy and morality. Indeed ANC conferences do not fail to excite on-lookers. Who can forget the hilarious act that ensued on a build up to Polokwane? And now Mangaung has upped the stakes in all avenues. The media could not have asked for more.
What the media often paint as internal divisions, violent nominations, camps is coined by the ANC as internal democracy at its best. The latter just adds up to the whole drama because ordinary people don't know what is real or fictional. Take for an example the issue of slates, are they real or imagined? Has anybody ever interrogated if slates exist in a situation whereby a nomination or vote is casted in a secret ballot? How can you force anyone to follow a slate in secrecy of casting a vote?
Often the intelligence of ANC members is undermined as if they are a river that flow on one direction. The tendency to undermine ANC membership often comes from the media, the opposition and the elite commentators. They always say ANC members and the electorate at large are loyal to the ANC because of ignorance about their rights in a democratic set-up. What hogwash!
Such characterisation is also a class issue because the elite believe the ANC is manipulating the so called "ignorance of the working class" for its purposes. The ANC strives for a society that is informed and knows its rights in a democracy. This is why it has urged government to embark on "Kha ri Kude" and similar literacy programmes.
If only the bourgeois media can play their part in delivering factual reporting and dedicating a portion of educating the South Africans about democracy and their history ; that will go a long in strengthening democracy. We often get concerned when we witness more struggle documentaries in "Mzansi" channel on DSTV than we do with SABC which is a public broadcaster.
Back to the subject of Mangaung. There is of some odd suggestions such as 10 year term for the top six, introduction of Prime Minister, lowering of the Youth league age, changing the nomination and electoral system etc. We believe that the ANC must differentiate between a disease and symptoms. Many wrong things happened because of the deliberate strive to erode organisational values which has been confronted and dealt with by suspension or expulsion of ill-disciplined members.
The ANC is on the right track it just has to be consistent on issues of organisation renewal and discipline. We do not necessarily need dramatic changes. The systems are there but people manipulate them for their own personal reasons. Worse of all its when the top six are divided on how to instil discipline in the movement.
Mangaung conference has to come up with a clear plan to rid ANC of scum. Those who say the ANC is like river Nile and will cleanse itself are idealistic. Action has to be taken when ill-discipline rears its ugly head in the organisation. The efficacy of the ANC post-Mangaung would be judged by the resoluteness of the elected leadership to deal with the following issues:
- Less hierarchical deployment strategy that will create balance between ordinary members and leadership. The manipulation of the nominations list of municipal councilors for the 2011 elections is a case in point.\Reengineering and depoliticisation of ANC administrative machinery such as the replacement of provincial secretaries with provincial managers with clear performance targets.
- Institutionalized and accredited political education that is meant to produce post 1994 cadres and political reorientation of old members on values and principles enshrined in the paper entitled ""Through the eye of the needle".
- Application of management information systems in membership management. The violent disruptions of the provincial nominations conferences have clearly exposed the dogmatic membership system of the ANC that is susceptible to manipulation.
- The branch nominations of the national and provincial leadership should be fulfilled through a secret ballot as opposed to the showing of hands and this shall help prevent intimidations prevalent during these events.
- Succession planning policy based on the "first among equals" principle.
Our assertion is that if the ANC can renew its operations, structure, organization, political form and content it could enhance its capacity to cope with the demands of organizing in the post 1994 political epoch and retain its standing as the ruling party in South Africa and remain Africa's hegemonic liberation movement.
The changing political landscape coupled with the dynamic nature of the South African population has triggered fundamental questions primarily on the capacity of the ANC as the ruling party to adapt, cope with these changes and alter its manner of addressing the needs, interests and expectations of its vast membership.
Walter Mothapo and Sam Koma are ANC members based in the Limpopo and Gauteng provinces respectively. They write in their personal capacities!
Click here to sign up to receive our free daily headline email newsletter
