The ANC plans to take over the Western Cape Province are almost laughable. The party, especially in this province is operating from the edge of chaos. It has been destroyed by greed, power mongering, factionalism, patronage, fraudulent political campaigning where individuals with money buy and establish fly-by-night branches before conferences, without following proper protocol.
The current ANC leadership is outdated, and out of sync with the social spirit of the people of the province. Real innovation and creativity is not encouraged within the Liberation Movement (LM), and replaced by plotting and conniving. When they go to elective conferences positions of power are caucused. As the result you rarely find any real contestations, something that works to the advantage of power mongers and velvet kings of the new order.
The union federations have, in effect permanent secretaries, and other parties, like the SACP, have, in effect, permanent chairmen, who can only be removed by their own volition, when they wish ‘to move on'. It has been clear for sometime that the federated unions and the communist party have been losing membership support. But the machinery of its leadership elections is crafted in such a manner that only those of their affiliation climb the greasy pole to become a voting delegation.
The kings and their men manufacture successors of their own choosing for almost every position. Hence you find only pusillanimous characters close to the kings, sucking up to get into their good books. What matters is being on the side of the right faction. It is what qualifies you for political nomination. There's no contestation of ideas, or real democracy. That is the soviet style of doing things.
For a long time the ANC has relied on ‘Good Sales' talk, speaking the language of the listener, and ideological ambiguity. This strategy has never really paid serious dividends in the Western Cape where people have never been readily gullible. The Western Cape is the first province in our country to call up the bluff of the ANC, to expose the party's politics of double and empty sales talk. The LM, whatever its past merits, has now become little more than a careerist ladder and a vehicle to fleece government resources.
Take for instance how the public sector is looted, where failure and mediocrity seem to be rewarded by a huge pay out (see here). The CEO of Eskom, Jacob Maroga, was awarded a R5m salary increment despite Eskom posting a R9bn loss. The Armscor 2008/2009 annual report reveals that CEO Sipho Thomo received a total increase in remuneration from R1,7m to R3,27m (89%); this despite a long list of black marks against his name from formal grievances to decreasing surpluses. The former SABC CEO Dali Mpofu was given a R12 million handout on his exit from the organisation, despite leaving the broadcaster with a R800 million loss. The former CEO of SAA Khaya Ngqula has recently been paid over R13-million on settlement even though under his management the airline made a R72 million loss, and despite the fact that he's under investigation for ‘mismanagement, conflict of interest and procurement irregularities'.
One wonders where this intolerance for inefficiency and corruption the Jacob Zuma administration keeps talking about. What is still clear is that if in the LM you are under the auspices of a governing faction you are immune from any kind of prosecution. The good sales talk continues on this, as well as in the strategy of taking back the Western Cape Province. Their strategy betrays something of an obsessive concern with power mongering than addressing issues of the people on the ground.
They say next to nothing about efficient service delivery, fighting corruption, nepotism, incompetence. And, nothing about desisting from the practice of political deployment to positions of civil service, which is the root of poor service delivery. Instead the talk is about vague terms like political education and mobilization, or advancing the so called National Democratic Revolution-whatever that means.
The real political attitude of the ANC can be ascertained in Membhathisi Mdladlana's comment that "We cannot meekly accept being governed by today's democrats who are yesterday's oppressors." This from a party who's in cahoots with the New National Party and think the Freedom Front Plus, as the ANCYL president will try to convince you, are the only real white Africans. In case it is not clear by now; what's clearly happening here is that the nationalists have recognized themselves as the birds of the same feather (sublime or radical racism) and are now flocking together. The LM's lack of real commitment to values of non-racialism, accountability and democracy, have become apparent, which is what the Western Cape people have caught on to.
What has also become apparent is that the LM can no longer be regarded as a solid and rational force to manage the change needed to take us forward towards modern politics that are in line with our social spirit. LM is in a state of general moral decay and riddled with factionalist politics. It is up to the rest of true democrats to defend and advance the progressive spirit of this country by standing together against the fading dream and failing spirit of freedom. True democrats cannot be blackmailed by scars of the past and symbolic gestures of gone by day. As part of maturing freedom they are starting to break off even from the grip of nostalgia and receding liberation politics. This is what is happening in the Western Cape and none are as blind as those who won't see it.
The people of the Western Cape are moving on, and the tide will not turn, instead more and more people from other provinces will join in this liberation of their psyche when the ambiguities and internal problems of the LM become too conspicuous to everyone. It is already translating into a crisis of confidence and credibility. The whole country will soon wake up to the double and good sales talk that hides the regressive incapacity, corruption, nepotism, careerism, and lack of integrity in the LM. Perhaps then our politics will learn to operate from a better moral and intellectual stand.
Mphuthumi Ntabeni is editor of http://copetown.org/ and COPE's head of research in the Western Cape legislature
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