Public Lecture Entitled 'Reflections on the Centenary of the African National Congress (ANC)' Delivered by the Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, University of South Africa, Pretoria

27 Jan 2012

Programme Director;
Chancellor of UNISA, Justice Ngoepe;
Chairperson of the Council, Dr Mathews Phosa;
Vice-Chancellor and Principal, Professor Mandla Makhanya;
Members of the University Council and Senate;
Members of the Diplomatic Corps;
The Student Representative Council;

Ladies and Gentlemen:

Thank you for the invitation to present this Inaugural Lecture in the UNISA series on African Institutions, Intellectuals and Political Resiliency: Lessons, Prospects and Implications for Africa.

I wish to start off by congratulating UNISA on this initiative that opens up necessary dialogue among South Africans on key policy issues impacting on development, growth and the rejuvenation of society.

Within this thematic context, I have been requested to speak on the topic: Reflections on the Centenary of the ANC.

In reflecting on the 100 years of ANC history, I wish to do the following three things:

Firstly, look at the ANC's historical experiences. My central concern in this connection is the question: what enabled the ANC to survive so many decades of trials and tribulations during its first centenary?

Secondly: briefly examine the common intra-organisational challenges that stem from the present historical period and which affect the direction of the organisation.

In other words, would the ANC of today be able to respond to the challenges of our age, in the same way that its founders succeeded in their mission?

Thirdly: pose tentative questions pertaining to organisational renewal.

You will agree that the sheer weight of hundred years of history cannot be covered in one lecture. We therefore hope that subsequent lectures in these series will address themselves to many other important areas we could not cover in this lecture.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

As I am sure you would agree, history is only as good as it elevates us to an understanding of where we come from, where we are and what we can bequeath to posterity.

The Union Act (passed by the British House of Commons in 1909 and ratified by the SA parliament in 1910) was based on a colour-bar clause that excluded Africans from parliament. In practice this meant repression, no free movement, no rights to trade, limited education opportunities - in short denying Africans their basic human rights. An African was expected to carry as many as twelve documents to avoid being imprisoned. 

Arising out of these grievances the founders of the ANC were now concerned about one thing only, the unity of the African people. History records state that the South African Native Convection held in Bloemfontein on 24 to 26 March 1909 was 'the most representative gathering ever to have been convened by Africans'. It was here that the call to form a new organisation was made.

A second convention was again held in March 1910 in Bloemfontein. "It was from the experience of the South African Native Convention that Congress actually emerged" as the parliament of the people.

ANC intellectual Alan Madolwana, popularly known by his nom de guerre, Francis Meli, says there were many individuals that played a role, 'but to state the simple fact that the formation of the ANC was a result of the people's experience and the leaders were responding to the people's demands'. (MELI, F. 1988. A History of the ANC. Zimbabwe Publishing House: Harare)

It is therefore important that the ANC acknowledges at the onset that the attainment of freedom through the leadership of the ANC is not a victory for the ANC alone but collective triumph for all progressive forces, both nationally and internationally, who spared no effort in fighting and defeating the apartheid system.

Until now the ANC continues to owe its victory to the cross- pollination of ideas from the overlapping membership and the organisation of broad sectors of society that saw it through turbulent times.

Thus the raison d'état for the ANC is to work in concert with all social forces, all of whom stand to gain from the success of the cause of social change.

To be equal to the task it had to carry out, the ANC had to espouse particular principles, abide by a particular value system and clearly set out the political, social and moral line that guided behaviour.

As we look to the future we should bear in mind that it was this principle of accepting diversity that allowed the ANC to grow in stature.

In addition the struggle developed moral values of human compassion and solidarity whose humanist appeals were more than just opposition to the colonial and apartheid system.

The struggle thus developed a whole new philosophical system whose central tenets were about the human agenda. It will also be useful to bear this in mind when we assess the current state of the ANC and society in terms of these exalted principles.

Created by conditions that affected society as a whole and not just sectoral interests, the ANC has always been a vehicle for all and not just for its card-carrying members.

Today, as we speak freedom and democracy have indeed been achieved; but that is just half of the story.

The other half tells a story of accumulated historical disabilities ensuing from many decades of apartheid rule. Historical concerns regarding the socio-economic and political questions resulting from colonial and apartheid policies still abound.

In truth the 100 years of the ANC only symbolise a triumph over oppression and apartheid, which is effectively the first phase of the struggle. The road is still long in the struggle to achieve a fully prosperous and just society. Such a plight is told by the continuing racial and class divides, where a few have access to world-class infrastructure, education, healthcare and socio-economic opportunities to realise their true potential.

On the other end of the spectrum sits many communities who study in mud schools, who have no basic infrastructure,  who have poor healthcare and who are not sure where their next meal will come from. This ugly side of our nation is represented by a staggering unemployment rate, with close to 2.8 million young people between ages of 18 - 24 being unemployed and not being in any training or education institution.

Thus the success of the next 100 years of the ANC will be judged on our ability to raise a new generation of South Africans that have equal access to opportunities and development resources to build a prosperous nation. It requires that we establish a youth development regime that is focused on breaking the cycle of poverty through education and training opportunities to enable them to engage in meaningful economic activities.

It calls on us to accelerate our efforts to provide bulk economic and social infrastructure in the depressed parts of our country, including rural areas and the townships. All this goes to show that while the vision of a better life for all and the reconstruction and development of society are goals we cannot quantify, our duty to our people is not made any easier.

What it also implies is that the ANC needs to recognise that revelling in self-adulation due to a rich history does not mean much unless we can lift the necessary lessons to respond to the challenges of the moment. Such an ANC will not see itself as having the monopoly of wisdom in society, but will seek to continue engaging all social forces, from all walks of life, in pursuit of our strategic objectives.

It will bank on its ability to continue mobilising the widest cross-section of society such that it taps into the best talent that society has to offer in order to contribute to the betterment of all our people. Most importantly, the meaning of these 100 years of struggle must provide the ANC with the opportunity to stand back and look at itself from the vantage point of hindsight.

By opening up its mind and introspecting this way the ANC will also afford itself an opportunity to know how others in turn view its progress and prospects towards the future. As such, no organisation is guaranteed eternal life based only on its historic achievements alone or merely because it fashioned the course to freedom.

Organisations are sustained through long-term visions resulting from conscious actions taken today in the interest of present and future generations. The ANC is no different and must take care to remain true to its defining character as a movement committed to its role as a leader in society by continuing to inspire confidence.

 The reason for this is that the masses of our people still trust the ANC to carry out its historic mission in a manner that upholds its founding principles while at the same time keeping tabs on epochal imperatives that beset it.

Programme director,

The two key thematic areas we posited above are all crucial for the realisation of our strategic goal of creating a united, democratic, non-racial, non-sexist, just and prosperous society. Understanding its place as a leader in society, the ANC will be able to provide a clearer vision, manage social contradictions and unite the nation in common action.

The ANC therefore needs to continue acting in a manner that upholds its history and prestige while at the same time taking active steps to renew itself. In other words once the ANC itself begins to bemoan the challenges facing society, instead of tackling them, it can no longer be seen as a leading force and an agent for change.

Thus, the ANC will have to renew itself by re-emphasising the traditions and core values and by preventing its quintessence from being corroded by sins of incumbency that have plagued post-colonial liberation movements elsewhere before.

Consequently, the ANC needs to work to ensure that it emerges in this current period fully consistent in outlook and orientation with the character of a modern progressive party. We said at the beginning that in the past the ANC could rise to the challenges of the age because it was structured accordingly.

From its inception, throughout its many decades of existence, the ANC had the versatility to reorganise itself in the light of new experiences and to keep up with the historical process.

Its history has not been linear and smooth-sailing. At every turning point in its history it had to pause to find a way of accommodating the particular phase of the struggle. Losing sight of these twists and turns, as well as ebbs and flows of history would have drained the ANC of political currency, driving it to the wall.

Practical experience over the last few years requires that we re-look at the issues of organisational systems and processes with the object of strengthening existing internal democracy and leadership systems.

Such a move will require us to also re-look at conditions of transparency in our internal business, including governance, democratic rights of members, improving the quality and nature of our congresses and electoral systems as well as safeguarding the system of democratic decision making.

This renewal project requires the organisation to reassert itself by avoiding the twin dangers of both right and left deviation. As conceived by Ho Chi Min, progressive forces have a tendency to deviate from the mainstream.

By right deviation Ho Chi Min meant adapting to objective circumstances and losing the will to continue with the struggle to change such conditions for the better.

On the other hand, left deviation denotes being intoxicated by past victories with the result that people become reckless, lose patience and cannot wait for the right moment to act. 

In this regard, the ANC's renewal project must ensure that people remain in the state of high mobilisation in pursuing our strategic vision.

Programme director,

Experience teaches that each age has its own needs. We learn that concerns of a particular period usually give rise to political forces that seek to put paid to the old order and in its place create a new socio-economic system, often by rearranging social, political and economic processes.

Historically, such wholesale socio-economic changes tend to transform patterns of ownership, production, distribution and consumption of resources. It has often been argued that nationalist movements have a cosmetic political agenda in that they are only meant to defeat racial and political oppression.

Because they do not concern themselves with changing relations of production, upon assuming power, nationalist movements tend to continue with clientelist relations with the former colonial power, leaving intact the legacy of colonial conditions.

While the ANC is indeed a multi-class liberation movement that sought to defeat apartheid, it did not by any stretch of the imagination limit itself to anti-colonial and anti-apartheid struggles, characterised as they are by a change of national symbols such as the national flag, anthem and street names.

From earlier on the ANC developed a sophisticated analysis of the peculiar South African conditions, especially noting the class content as well as gender dimension of the liberation struggle. The key tasks that face the ANC going forward entail continuing to pursue policies that seek to transform apartheid relations of production, with emphasis on bettering the lives of the poor and the vulnerable.

The social content that lies at the core of our vision charges us with the duty to oppose unregulated markets and the circumscribed role of the state, fully aware that markets have no sense of historical experience and can therefore not address the injustices of the past if left to their own devices.

This perspective is one of the historical continuities epitomised by the ANC's revolutionary nationalism. For centuries, democracy has been serving as the best integument for the system of capitalism.

However, developments within the Euro Zone have now dispensed with some of the key elements of democracy by prompting change of governments without going through elections as has happened in Greece and Italy.

What these developments do is call into question concepts that have until now been universally accepted as axiomatic. These developments have global implications and do not only tax the mind of our intellectuals but certainly challenge our young democracy and our continent in profound ways.

Perhaps these developments present a challenge to the South African and indeed African intellectuals to figure out the practical implications for Africa in terms of democracy and economic development. On this account, the ANC is aware that as it continues to fight poverty, unemployment and social inequalities, it is doing so under historically given economic conditions over which it has little control.

The serious limitations of the socio-economic system on what can be achieved cannot be under-estimated. South Africa attained democracy 18 years ago and was welcomed into the world community of nations; a world whose global economic system was beginning to experience chronic and vicious cycle of crises.

We have to learn from history of progressive movements elsewhere in the world in terms of post-colonial experience and how they have tried to modernise themselves to deal with present day challenges.

In this regard, the progressive movement in post-colonial India seems to offer useful experience.

The Indian intellectual P C Joshi tells us that:

'Indian nationalism has a future only as a vehicle of the newly awakened urges and aspirations of the Indian masses for socio-economic emancipation which are now thwarted by growing structural dualism.' (JOSHI, P.C, 2002. Marxism and Social Revolution in India. New Deli: MANAK)

In parallel situation, the ANC in leading revolutionary nationalism faces similar historical conditions.

In the past people were their own liberators and still remain so today. Consequently, success in our duties is contingent upon transformation being people-centred and people-driven. Among others, the ANC must studiously avoid substituting itself and its leaders for the people; instead it must be a vehicle of the people's aspirations.

Despite these structural limitations we have to overcome the legacy of apartheid relations. Because without social justice freedom will remain hollow, the pastime of the well-heeled.

National oppression and its social consequences cannot be resolved by formal democracy underpinned by market forces. While formal democracy may present opportunities for some blacks and women to advance, without a systematic national effort, led by the democratic government, to unravel the skewed distribution of wealth and income, the social reality of apartheid will remain in place.

By the same token, the value system that inheres in and defines a socio-economic system that frames the democratic state presents a counterpoint to the historically noble heritage introduced by the ANC.

This is reflected in the material acquisitiveness that has enveloped the outlook of society, including some of us in the ANC today.

No less a figure than George Soros hit the nail on the head in this regard when he held that: (quote)

"Unsure of what they stand for, people increasingly rely on money as the criterion of value. What is more expensive is considered better. The value of a work of art can be judged by the price it fetches. People deserve respect and admiration because they are rich. What used to be a medium of exchange has usurped the place of fundamental values, reversing the relationship postulated by economic theory. What used to be professions have turned into businesses. The cult of success has replaced a belief in principles. Society has lost its anchor." - George Soros (1997)" (SOROS, G. 1997. The Capitalist Threat. Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 279, No.2, Feb 1997)

To paraphrase the core argument of Soros, money defines the value of everything; it prompts the relentless pursuit of material riches to assert human value.

As a leading social force aiming to exterminate social conditions that breed under-development, the ANC cadres must remain vigilant lest they be sucked into the vortex of the socio-economic system which defines our era.

It is a social system that puts individualism and greed above all else and goes against the grain of the ideals of a humane society.

This socio-economic system has foisted an antithetical cultural outlook that puts premium on the money agenda; an agenda that reflects material riches as the point of departure.

This is the story of our past. As they say the past we inherit the future we create!

I thank you!

Issued by  The Presidency, January 27 2012

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