The Time for Collective and Decisive ANC Leadership is Now!
The events of the past few weeks must awaken the entire leadership (not only the top six officials) of the ANC to the reality that we are now living in interestingly dangerous times. The latest incident in Marikana demands that the collective leadership of the ANC must ask itself difficult questions as to whether they have acted collectively and in unison to wade our country through this difficult period. Can our leadership assure us that the ANC and the country are safe in the face of a total onslaught from dangerous populists who can even turn a tragic mourning ceremony into an invective against the movement and government?
Can we be assured that our leadership in its entirety is doing enough to reconnect with our people to give collective leadership that is in dire straits on the ground? What transpired during the period up to the memorial service of the victims of police brutality in Marikana necessitates a pause and a moment for reflection especially by the ANC leadership.
The fact that our leadership in the ANC and government were denied an opportunity to give leadership by populists of the anarchist group during this crucial moment is no small matter and a sign for a potential coup. That there is a rowdy, well-funded opposition party called the Friends of the Youth League that mobilises people to be hostile against the ANC and government clearly demonstrates that there are those who want to take over by force the ANC and the country.
It would be a false posture for us to think that this was not long coming. A lot of alien and very dangerous tendencies have manifested themselves in the ANC under the watch and collective silence of the ANC leadership. It is our view as ordinary members of the ANC that very few leaders elected in our NEC have had the political integrity to stand up and speak genuinely and without factional interests against these new tendencies in the ANC. Most in the ANC leadership have decided to take a selfish wait and see approach as they are positioning themselves for leadership positions irrespective of the dangers engulfing our movement.
In fact the only time when certain leaders raise their voice is when they seek to position themselves squally within the different factions in the ANC. We have seen certain leaders betray their solemn oath by propagating for more divisions in order to appease one or another faction. This has been done for the sole reason of advancing their careers within the movement and the government. Many in the ANC leadership seem to have lost interest if not direction in terms of which way our political struggle need to proceed.
We also believe that the entire leadership of the movement must take full account for opening our organisation to the expelled loose cannons and political thugs who continue to turn our people against the movement whilst they hail insults to the ANC without any sense of respect for our Centenary old movement. These thugs insult the leadership of the ANC at will because our leadership itself has collectively failed to close ranks when this thuggish behaviour was starting to rare its ugly head.
When there is an all-out assault against the ANC, one would expect the entire leadership to exercise collective leadership in defence of our organisation. Their failure to collectively and decisively defend the ANC has left ordinary cadres of the ANC in limbo. In fact the leadership has put us in serious danger because those who are hell-bent on destroying the ANC through the plundering of state resources find it easy to intimidate or even kill true cadres of the ANC, just so they can defend their plundering and business interests.
Accordingly, we note that there seems to be a significant number of our leaders in the ANC NEC who have business interests. So when the nature of their business interests seem to trump their collective action, the true nature of our struggle as the ANC gets lost somewhere in between the business interests of our leaders and the killing of ANC cadres who are fighting corruption. Therefore the commitment of ANC leaders to advancing the struggle, regrettably, becomes under serious doubt.
We also wish to sound alarm that this dangerous phenomenon of killing comrades for access to state resources and other business opportunities is a serious recipe for civil war in this country. When there are underground criminal agents collaborating with those in positions of political power to kill our cadres in defence of their corrupt activities, we must have no doubt that mayhem and chaos is about to be loosened upon the whole country.
The ANC has over the difficult years of struggle taught us that leadership must provide direction even under the most brutal and difficult conditions. The leadership must be found in the fore front when tough choices and sacrifices are to be made. They must be fearless and inspire our people by being exemplary even when the supreme price to be paid is death. Not to be the kind of leaders that only volunteer as the first ones in the line of tenders and other corrupt business dealings that threaten to consume and capitulate the ANC to the highest bidder.
We need our leadership to start leading the ANC collectively and selflessly for the sake of the ANC and the South African society. We demand leadership that does not take the sacrifices of our people for granted. Our leadership must come down to our branches and communities in their collective and start leading by example in building the unity and cohesion of the ANC and the South African nation.
It is regrettable that our leadership has a strange political belief that it is only the responsibility of the rank and file cadres to practically build the ANC in the face of popular anger among many communities of our country. It would seem many in the ANC leadership think theirs is to occasionally dish out convoluted political analyses to the gullible ANC cadres, so that they can be guaranteed election into leadership positions come the next ANC conference. Our leadership seems to see their role as that of being in government whilst the rank and file must occupy its time with building the ANC at the coalface of community hardships.
That is a major mistake on the part of our leadership because these rank and file cadres will also seek to follow on the example of their leaders by - instead of building the ANC - building their own power basis within the ANC structures so that they can be guaranteed deployment into positions of power and therefore be close to resources. It is therefore the feeling of many ANC cadres that our leadership is not acting exemplary.
In fact our leadership is conspicuously absent from leading our people where it matters most, at the coalface of poverty, deprivation, under development and unemployment. They pontificate from on high calling for branches of the ANC to lead the people's struggles whilst they cosy it up in symbolic state functions eating cake and sipping Champaign. The ANC leadership forgets that it is their responsibility too to lead these community struggles. There is absolutely nothing that stops the ANC national or provincial leaders from descending on municipalities around the country to protest together with the people for better and quality service delivery. There is nothing contradictory about such an activist approach by our leaders.
It is deeply worrying and alarming that the leadership of the ANC seem to have been paralysed by their collective silence and inaction. The ANC leadership seem to behave as if they are still in exile leading the struggle from outside the country. Maybe it is true that the comfortable government offices can serve as exile from which the ANC leadership take refuge than busying themselves with building the ANC and leading grassroots struggles of our people.
ANC leaders must be with the people and must be of the people fighting side by side with them in the trenches. This absence of our national leadership in the trenches where our people are fighting for their survival has led to the ANC leadership losing credibility among our people. It has led to the people resenting our leadership. Nothing is so painful for us ANC cadres as defending the leadership of the ANC among the people who have lost all respect for our leaders.
Irrespective of the factional slates that our leaders are pursuing, they need to start showing that the ANC is more important than these slates. We demand that a collective leadership action must be taken firmly against those who are busy turning the ANC into a mafia organisation that must push unsavoury and dubious characters into state institutions for the benefit of these mafia bosses and their hangers on.
We are yearning for a united and collective ANC leadership whose conduct is only defined by their commitment to serve their people, the dignity of whom is undermined and savaged everyday by their condition of perpetual want, hunger, hopelessness, powerlessness, self-hate and a total absence of self-worth. These people of our land live in the most inhumane shacks, shapeless and falling mud houses and some even live in toilets. For them liberation is a simple act of restoring their dignity as their natural right.
Our leadership must realise that rhetoric is no longer appealing to many of us given their double speak. All we want to see is collective action on their part so as to save the ANC from the seemingly certain demise occasioned by their collective silence and inaction. The ANC leadership must start taking the ANC seriously and do the right thing before it is too late. We can only get encouraged when the leadership acts in exemplary ways in guiding the ANC towards the attainment of its goals.
Otherwise the current ANC leadership, in its entirety and without any exceptions, must face the fact that in their hands, the ANC will be transformed into a criminal organisation whose only modus operandi and modus vivendi is the plundering of state resources, elimination of those opposed to corruption and the impoverishment of the already poor millions of South Africans. This is exactly what will happen if the ANC leadership does not decisively act now and collectively to rid the movement of the strange virus that has come to define our movement.
Mzukisi Makatse is member of the ANC and ANCYL. He writes in his personal capacity
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