The Possible Charging of Vavi Exposes the Fragile State of Nominal Unity in the ANC/SACP and COSATU Alliance
The ANC NWC's possible disciplinary hearing against COSATU Secretary General, Zwelinzima Vavi, on the basis that he criticized President Zuma and his cabinet (seemingly a cardinal sin), is absurd and a rude awakening for the Left to the state of unity in the ANC/SACP and COSATU Alliance. Contrary to its claims of unity in the post Polokwane Alliance, the Left should really start to be alert to the fact that actual unity in the Alliance can never be achieved only on the basis of concessions to filling certain cabinet and other positions with Left leaning individuals.
Alliance Summits and other bilaterals, important as these may be, are never enough in dealing with deep seated ideological and class differences in the Alliance. A long and difficult process to foster actual unity in the Alliance must go beyond Alliance Summits and bilaterals into achieving tangible results on vexing political and policy questions.
This imminent disciplinary hearing also sends a strong message that unity in the Alliance is not an automatic consequence following the victory of one group over the other in the leadership contest within the ANC. In fact the opposite is more likely given the political and ideological fluidity immediately following such a strong leadership contest.
Further, the response to these reports by both COSATU and the SACP saying these are non ideological actions of a small group that seeks to undermine the ‘unity' of the Alliance achieved post Polokwane, ostensibly serves to mislead on the deep seated ideological challenges that are at the centre of divisions within the Alliance.
It is common knowledge that the Alliance is a higher plane for ideological contestation on various matters. For instance, at the core of the question on the political centre lay an ideological contestation about the direction the country needs to take. This in itself makes the Alliance a centre for occasional group divisions along basic ideological questions facing our movement. The claim by the Left that the forces that are hell bent on undermining the current nominal unity and proper functioning of the Alliance have no ideological character would therefore seem a false assumption. This assumption presupposes that Polokwane defeated completely the ideological current that sought to transform the ANC into a modern social democratic party which emphasises a significant role of the market forces in the South African economic policy trajectory and national development.
For me the distinguishing element between the pre-Polokwane ideological tendency from the current post-Polokwane ideological tendency in the ANC led Alliance is that, the former sought to achieve their ideological objectives by advocating modernity and over-estimation of the changed balance of forces in the post cold war 21st Century; whilst the current proponents of the same ideological tendency are invoking out-dated and conservative traditions, slogans and songs, with a strong variant of Left adventurism and narrow nationalism. The populist calls for nationalization of mines, claims of communist take-over of the ANC, and dubul' ibhulu song being but few examples.
Admittedly, it was an objective and necessary consequence that post Polokwane, the Alliance would for a while project nominal unity and cohesion as an intended departure from a fractured Alliance leading up to 2007 Polokwane Conference and the consequent breakaway from the ANC of certain members of the defeated group.
However, this projection of nominal unity should never be assumed to be actual unity of the Alliance, as it is not practically possible to have immediate unity in such a polarized political environment and after years of strong divisions in the Alliance. Any projections of actual unity when only nominal unity is possible can only paralyse the Alliance in its efforts to build lasting unity.
Furthermore, our political reality immediately after Polokwane had consistently warned that such a projected nominal unity was threatened and that if drastic measures were not put in place to build actual unity, even such nominal unity would be short lived. There are a number of incidents that pointed to this assertion post Polokwane. For example, the alleged Motlanthe-Nzimande debacle during the Mothlanthe presidency; the alleged SACP/COSATU takeover of the ANC; the Malema campaign to oust Mantashe as SG of the ANC; the NUMSA Secretary General's (Irvin Jim) outburst on the Left's miscalculation to support a particular individual over policy direction in the ANC Polokwane Conference, etc.
Now there is the ANC NWC's possible charging of Vavi! That can never augur well for the preservation of this nominal unity in the Alliance, not to mention actual unity, and surely threatens the very survival of the Alliance.
It is of urgent necessity therefore that all and sundry within the Alliance must work tirelessly to preserve the nominal unity whilst building actual unity in the Alliance. There is a need objectively to interrogate those niggling political questions that make all sides in the political spectrum uncomfortable. In that endeavour, the Left will need to appreciate and objectively communicate the actual state of unity in the Alliance whilst being vigilant to those advocating disunity under the guise of calls for unity.
Mzukisi Makatse is an ANC & Youth League Member in Centurion Central Branch
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