Scenarios playing themselves in the lead up to Mangaung

Introduction

The nomination process had been officially opened by the ANC. Interestingly one province made a comic of itself by pronouncing in advance their preferred candidates for top six positions only to retract the statement before the sun could set.

The issue of leadership is as linguists would say, rather a paradoxical one. Leadership contestation during elective conferences may turn out be very easy and too difficult to deal with, depending on how you approach it. The thin line is whether we put our personal or organisational interests first.

In an attempt to unpack the leadership puzzle going to Mangaung I would paint a medley of three scenarios and lessons that interplay themselves as follows:

The Marikana Sangoma:

We are all awaiting with enthusiasm the results of the Commission of Enquiry into what happened in the Marikana tragedy. But legend puts one sangoma in the mix. It is said that workers sought the services of a sangoma to strengthen them against management and any opposition to their wild cat strike, including confrontation with the police.

The sangoma applied a concoction of a lotion to their bodies and said "hey from now you guys are invincible, you will bite the bullet and any gun aimed at you will produce only water". The rest is history, and a sad one for that matter. This is exactly the triumphant belief that some in the Youth League have. Some sections of the Youth League believe that come Mangaung, they possess a herb or mixture that turns commoners into queens and kings.

They cite the historical role that the ANC youth league played in the past elective conferences including Polokwane where their preferred leadership emerged victorious. But the jury is out on whether it was the ANC Youth league or branches of the ANC represented by delegates that decided on the new leadership in all these past elective conferences?

As I recall it is deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe (whom the Youth League is touting as presidential candidate) who warned against this spirit of misguided youth triumphalism by saying "the youth must guard against intoxication by past victories". The primary motive forces of the National Democratic Revolution remains the working class, particularly organised workers.

The youth are a layer that permeates all the strata that could be regarded as motive forces in the NDR. In their own the youth cannot define themselves as a class or a stratum and as the sole propellers of the revolution. In the words of Lenin the main pre-occupation of the youth must be to ‘learn, learn and learn". 

Lesson One: Beware of the dangers of idealism. Idealists have a conviction that ideas reign supreme than reality and often overlook scientific evidence and context.

The Obama charm offensive

Obama campaigned on the ticket of change. Promising an American electorate that once elected he would apply a silver bullet to all of America's problems. People voted for him with high hopes that once he steps in at the White House his charm and charisma would bring an end to their woes. But as his term draws to an end, reality dawns to them that no single president can undo the economic mess that America is in.

The Obama charm is the same disease that has inflicted those who are pushing for leadership overhaul in the ANC. They believe that once a new ANC president is elected he would end all the problems that the ANC is facing such as factionalism and patronage. As such they tend to live from Conference to Conference. Immediately they elect a new leader they go back to the drawing boards and pronounce on the next leader, to take over in the next elective Conference.

Lesson two: The noble principle of collective leadership still stands, in any revolutionary organisation it is not about an individual but collective wisdom.

Jesus Christ's Donkey

We read in the bible that after not appearing for a while in public and people asking themselves about his whereabouts; Jesus Christ got at the back of the donkey and rode to Jerusalem. Now based on this trip a joke is told that when he arrived people cheered and ululated. The donkey then mistakened the cheering to be its own and began jumping around and galloping in celebration of its sudden fame.

It's only when Jesus Christ disembarked off the donkey and people rushed to mob him while others were looking for autographs that the donkey realised that the mistake it made; that it assumes it more was popular than Jesus Christ whereas it was just a means of transport. Now this is an error that a bunch of comrades commit. They tend to believe that they are more popular than the ANC. 

Lesson three: No one can define themselves out of the organisation and take the mighty ANC together with its Alliance structures head in a political boxing ring and win.

Conclusion

The SACP and Cosatu congresses that took place this year have demonstrated how the ANC can solve this "leadership conundrum". That is if we if we understand that unity is an ideological weapon that shields the organisation from forces of reaction. Unity is also a political tool that enables the organisation to fulfil its revolutionary mission with less internal huddles. The ANC as a leader of the Alliance cannot afford to wallow in leadership squabbles that will distract it from confronting the challenges of poverty, joblessness and inequality that still afflict the majority of the South African populace.

Walter Mothapo is a member of the PEC of the SACP in Limpopo. These are his personal views.

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