A special conference and recalling the President

Recently, I had a very interesting conversation with an ANC “Commissar” as I call him, a seasoned ANC activist and leader, at my local watering hole, an Irish Pub in the north of Johannesburg, which is a hive of intellectual and entrepreneurial energy and activity, with its plethora of well established and uber ambitious black middle-class professionals and businesspeople.

As we discussed the recent electoral outcomes and what it means for the ANC and the country going forward, whilst enjoying the establishment’s popular double Klippies and Coke special (for him) and something boringly non-alcoholic for me as a newly recruited and reformed teetotaller, he made some very startling, jarring, and alarming comments and suggestions, which left me with much food for thought and scope for interrogation.

Firstly, he made the point that ANC presidents in their second term have faced very serious internal organisational challenges within the post-94 dispensation, often becoming lame duck presidents for large swathes of their second term, as people realign and seek to position themselves for the period beyond the term of the incumbent president.

He alluded to the concept of diminishing marginal returns (marginal utility) and stated that within the context of the government of national unity, these diminishing returns for both the ANC and its current leader are more drastic in effect and impact and as such should necessitate that the organisation call a special national conference to reflect, analyse and potentially even act (more on that later).

In his view, given the prevailing conditions and political context, it would be a fatal flaw for the ANC to wait until 2027 before calling a national conference, especially with local government elections coming up in 2026, without having taken the time to collectively analyse where it finds itself as a revolutionary political formation, reflect on its current state, nature and characteristics and of course  project its future perspective for the country, as a strategic centre and leader of society.

So, from his perspective, it has become an “objective existential necessity for the ANC to call a special national conference with full powers”, to quote him verbatim, with the aim of addressing the following key points:

1) introspection, analysis, and diagnosis of where the ANC is at and why the party is at its current level of decline, electorally and otherwise.

2) A critical reflection and deliberation on prevailing conditions and the current state of the National Democratic Revolution within the context of the government of national unity.

3) The ANC projecting itself in terms of its future and that of the country.

He argued quite passionately that if the ANC waits until 2027 and does not call a special conference urgently, with diminishing marginal returns so obviously at play given recent electoral outcomes, the organisation may end up being nowhere by the time the 2027 national conference comes.

This special conference, he stated, must have full powers even to elect new leadership and recall the president if needs be, because in his eyes, the ANC has recalled presidents in the recent past, former Presidents Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma to be precise, when prevailing conditions where much more favourable if juxtaposed with the current dispensation of President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Very hard-hitting sentiments methinks, no equivocation whatsoever, but there is some merit when one looks at the history of the ANC, in the view that such a special conference can galvanise and rejuvenate the organisation as well as bring back the unity of purpose and revolutionary conviction that is so critical in successfully executing and advancing the National Democratic Revolution.

There can surely be no better way to solicit the collective wisdom of the ANC than by calling a special conference, with the party having clearly lost its long-standing electoral majority, hovering just above fourty percent and now in a government of national unity that many within the organisation see as nothing more than an unsophisticated attempt to camouflage détente and a coalition arrangement with the DA.

Looking at transitional leadership theory, perhaps it would not be a bad idea for the ANC to be under new leadership, to assist the organisation to better navigate through its contemporary challenges because one of the fundamental elements of revolution is that the question is not just about whether leaders or events matter most, but rather the conditions under which they matter.

After all, self-criticism was one of Lenin’s fundamental pillars for building and sustaining a revolutionary party, especially when confronted with the brutal reality that there are other hegemonic forces bent on not just capitalising, but also being the key drivers of this whole government of national unity process and epoch. A special conference would hopefully lead to a better understanding of the National Democratic Revolution’s underlying systems and structures, bases of popular loyalty and ethos of participation, towards more precise execution of the party’s revolutionary programme and objectives.

In reflecting on all this, I was reminded of Leon Trotsky’s essay, The Class, the Party and the Leadership—Why was the Spanish Proletariat Defeated? This typically brilliant essay from Trotsky delves into the core reasons for the failure and defeat of the Spanish Revolution of 1931-1939, which ended up being swallowed up and overwhelmed by the right wing dictatorship of General Francisco Franco, a dictatorship which was sponsored and supported by Spanish industrialists and landowners, whose primary objective was to bring down the government, destroy the unions and workers parties and build a government in their mould, to advance their own interests at the expense of the working class. (Hint, hint, wink, wink).   

These particular words from Trotsky’s essay referred to above, are profoundly germane within our current political context in contemporary SA:

“History is a process of the class struggle. But classes do not bring their full weight to bear automatically and simultaneously. In the process of struggle the classes create various organs which play an important and independent role and are subject to deformations…Political leadership in the crucial moments of historical turns can become just as decisive a factor as is the role of the chief command during the critical moments of war. History is not an automatic process. Otherwise, why leaders? Why parties? Why programs? Why theoretical struggles?

… One must understand exactly nothing in the sphere of the inter-relationships between the class and the party, between the masses and the leaders in order to repeat the hollow statement that the Spanish masses merely followed their leaders. The only thing that can be said is that the masses who sought at all times to blast their way to the correct road found it beyond their strength to produce in the very fire of battle a new leadership corresponding to the demands of the revolution. Before us is a profoundly dynamic process, with the various stages of the revolution shifting swiftly, with the leadership or various sections of the leadership quickly deserting to the side of the class enemy.”

Mugabe Ratshikuni is an ANC activist and part of the branch leadership of ANC Florence Mophosho branch, Ward 115, Greater Johannesburg Region. He writes here in his personal capacity.