The ANC must not be derailed from the programme of the organisation
Recent developments within the movement clearly show there are forces at play here that are trying to throw the ANC into disarray as a strategy to achieve despicable agendas.
The recent outbursts by Julius Malema at Wits calling President Zuma a dictator; Floyd Shivambu's angry and bigoted articles; and Sindiso Magaqa's childish antics are not isolated incidents but part of a deliberate and well-orchestrated strategy to destabilize the ANC for the whole year until Mangaung.
This strategy seems to have as its desired outcome an ANC that is in crisis management mode, thus forcing it into committing a series of public relations mistakes to ensure the success of this agenda of discrediting the capacity and bona fides of ANC leaders.
This strategy also seems to have behind it certain ANC leaders, current and former, advising the likes of Floyd by dishing them with certain unscrupulous information about other ANC leaders, thus abusing their close proximity to processes of the ANC. Using this unverified disinformation to attack leaders of the ANC is malicious and amounts to political slander that can only point to a dangerous slide to disorder.
These outbursts also smell of the reactionary influence by certain incorrigibles that have suddenly come from political wilderness back to the ranks of the ANC. They seem to be staging a state of paralysis within the ANC so that the current leadership is unable to lead the organization effectively. Who else to use to create chaos and a state of despair in any organization than those young, ill-disciplined members who are full of misguided passions?
In Julius and Floyd these reactionary elements have found a fertile ground because these two have made it their mission to introduce a self-serving, chaotic and apolitical radicalism into the ranks of the movement. These two have exposed the ANC to the worst reactionary elements that see in them useful anarchists for selfish material accumulation.
It is tragic that you have senior ANC leaders who seem to be accomplices to this nefarious agenda, whether through their open association with, or by their tacit encouragement of, this foreign tendency. As senior leaders in the ANC you would expect them to learn from history, especially from our recent history since Polokwane.
The fact is that post Polokwane unleashed some of the worst behavioral problems that are eating and destroying the very core values that have sustained the ANC for the past 100 years, thus sucking dry whatever is left of the political lifeblood of the movement. For these leaders to think that when they have ascended to positions of power in the ANC Mangaung Conference they will be able to put the gene back into the bottle is not only naïve, but a sure sign to run the ANC down to the ground.
What is equally disappointing is the serious dearth of politics among the rank and file of the ANCYL and the ANC alike. It is quite disappointing to have comrades who watch idle when certain ANCYL's leaders declare war against the ANC.
How can comrades feel so hopeless and helpless when the very movement to which we have all given our lot is being destroyed by those who have already decided their future outside of the ANC? Why are we keeping quiet when we are being led astray by those to whom we bestowed so much trust? Have we sacrificed all principles just to make sure that those we disagree with are insulted and have their dignity denigrated by the ill-disciplined juntas in our midst?
Our revolutionary morality demands that the ANC, as a revolutionary tool in the hands of our people for their liberation, is defended at all costs from reactionary elements hell-bent on capitulating it to the selfish interests of devious characters. This is a duty of all those who have the guts to call themselves ANC and/ or ANCYL members.
To want to justify our inaction by citing the many things that are currently going wrong in the movement is not only irresponsible but tantamount to selling the ANC out to criminals. It cannot be said that we think everything is going all well in the ANC. We are very much aware that a lot is not right within the movement. But we cannot allow reactionary elements to take advantage of this situation in order to transform the ANC into yet another African liberation movement destined to destroy itself in the fight for leadership spoils.
It is high time that ordinary members of the ANC reclaim the ANC and ANCYL from the clutches of those anarchists posing as our leaders. We need to start asking uncomfortable questions and demand answers from those elected to positions of responsibility.
How did we get to a situation where the ANC is fast degenerating into the status similar to that of the PAC? How did it get here that the ANC is fast losing its high moral ground in society? Is the ANCYL an independent youth body that can define itself outside the constitutional imperatives of the ANC? Is the ANCYL a youth jamboree where insults are manufactured and traded on the leaders of the ANC? What is the actual role of the ANCYL in particular and youth in general in the process of the National Democratic Revolution? Can the youth claim to be the bedrock of this revolution and thus entitled to lead it?
The best place to start this engagement is to seriously interrogate the discussion documents issued by the ANC, especially the organizational renewal discussion document. In so doing, we should tread carefully not to engage with these discussion documents as factions because they will lose their value without achieving the desired results of renewing the ANC.
It is high time we start taking ourselves seriously as members of the ANC and YL and rid ourselves of anarchists and reactionary elements in our midst so that we can reposition the ANC and ANCYL as organisations of the 21st Century.
Mzukisi Makatse is a member of the ANC and ANCYL. He writes in his personal capacity.
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