The ANC 53rd national conference to be held in Mangaung on 16-21 December 2012 is arguably a watershed one since it's unbanning in 1990. The Conference has two significances. First is marks the centennial existence of the ANC. Secondly, all positions in the top six will be contested.
The latter has sparked high levels of enthusiasm, thinking, energy, and speculation across the spectrum of the society including but not limited to the religious, business, labour and media sectors. All representatives of these sectors have dared to opine on issues of leadership, policy and morality. Indeed ANC conferences do not fail to excite on-lookers. Who can forget the hilarious act that ensued on a build up to Polokwane? And now Mangaung has upped the stakes in all avenues. The media could not have asked for more.
What the media often paint as internal divisions, violent nominations, camps is coined by the ANC as internal democracy at its best. The latter just adds up to the whole drama because ordinary people don't know what is real or fictional. Take for an example the issue of slates, are they real or imagined? Has anybody ever interrogated if slates exist in a situation whereby a nomination or vote is casted in a secret ballot? How can you force anyone to follow a slate in secrecy of casting a vote?
Often the intelligence of ANC members is undermined as if they are a river that flow on one direction. The tendency to undermine ANC membership often comes from the media, the opposition and the elite commentators. They always say ANC members and the electorate at large are loyal to the ANC because of ignorance about their rights in a democratic set-up. What hogwash!
Such characterisation is also a class issue because the elite believe the ANC is manipulating the so called "ignorance of the working class" for its purposes. The ANC strives for a society that is informed and knows its rights in a democracy. This is why it has urged government to embark on "Kha ri Kude" and similar literacy programmes.
If only the bourgeois media can play their part in delivering factual reporting and dedicating a portion of educating the South Africans about democracy and their history ; that will go a long in strengthening democracy. We often get concerned when we witness more struggle documentaries in "Mzansi" channel on DSTV than we do with SABC which is a public broadcaster.