Is the Thabo Mbeki Foundation's document a turning point to true non-racialism in South Africa?
3 October 2018
The leaked 30-page document of the Thabo Mbeki Foundation (TMF) caused a storm on social media, within African National Congress (ANC) circles and other political and civic organisations. It is not difficult to understand why. In a time when President Cyril Ramaphosa supporters and the Zuma-ites are still at odds, the Foundation of a former ANC and country president takes a strong view against one of his party’s important recent decisions - expropriation without compensation (EWC).
The TMF believes that EWC is possible without an amendment of Section 25, but the emphasis of the document is on the fact that the process is race-based. The key issue is that of how this recent ANC decision impacts the national question and scuppers attempts at building a non-racial society. It touches a nerve by stating that the ANC had departed from non-racialism by taking the decision on EWC and criticises Zuma directly because he effectively turned the ANC into a “black party”. The view of the TMF is that as a result of this, the ANC can no longer be seen as representative of all South Africans. Harsh words from loyal ANC supporters, in a difficult time for the party…
Although the TMF’s point of departure in the document is EWC (and although this has already been examined in a previous article of the Foundation), this article focuses on another aspect. The TMF’s problem is not located primarily in expropriation or lack of compensation, but more fundamentally: the nature, essence and task of the ANC. The document states that the ANC, even prior to 1994, had been the “parliament of the people” and that it had made a specific choice to be non-racial, amongst others by opposing groups that sought to put race first (this led to the historic split and the formation of the PAC).
Non-racialism as a principle and ideal was, according to the TMF, always the ANC’s point of departure. This is borne out by the words of the Freedom Charter “South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white”. There were indeed over the years a number of prominent white, coloured and Indian leaders in the ANC, for example Bram Fischer, Joe Slovo, Beyers Naude, Jay Naidoo and Trevor Manuel. The Constitution of the country, of which the ANC had been co-creators, also emphasises non-racialism as a principle.