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This post is written in my capacity as an ANC member.
“To become an ANC leader is not an entitlement. It should not be an easy process attached merely to status. It should be informed first and foremost by the desire and commitment to serve the people…” Through the eye of a needle? Choosing the best cadres to lead transformation (2001)
Like any ANC member I took an oath to: “abide by the aims and objectives of the African National Congress as set out in the Constitution, the Freedom Charter and other duly adopted policy positions, that I am joining the Organisation voluntarily and without motives of material advantage or personal gain,… (and), that I will work towards making the ANC an even more effective instrument of liberation in the hands of the people, and that I will defend the unity and integrity of the Organisation and its principles…”. Additionally, ANC members have the right (5.1.3) to “Offer constructive criticism of any member, official, policy programme or activity of the ANC within its structures;”
The last time I checked the NGC was one of these structures where ordinary members/branch delegates could constructively engage and discuss the leadership of our organisation! Therefore the hypocrisy of some provincial leaders, asking/instructing party members not to raise issues of leadership at this important assembly!
It is for this reason that I want us to heed the warning of fellow ANC member, Frank Chikane, that if we continue to allow our party to follow the route we are currently on that it will eventually lead to the demise of our powerful political home: the African National Congress!
I grew up in a political environment in which we were encouraged to always think critically, but constructively, in order to build and consolidate our movement against the forces of apartheid, perhaps, I, over last few months, in the words of Chikane, was “gripped by fear” to voice my concerns. However, the consequences of remaining silent are irrelevant compared to the future survival of this great movement of which I am a proud member!
We need to think strategically of comrade Chikane’s warning that “for the ANC to remain a winning ANC, it must keep the tradition of being self-critical. Failure to do so will result in its demise and it losing confidence and its position as leader of society.”
Chikane quoting a 1929 ANC document reminds us that “inner criticism is a weapon for strengthening the party organisation and increasing its fighting power” (as quoted in City Press Sunday 3 October 2015).
Despite this I have read numerous articles in several publications where branch delegates to various provincial general councils were asked not to raise the issue of leadership. In fact one quote directly states that: “We must ensure that we do not fall into the trap, set out by the enemies of transformation, of reducing the NGC to questions of leadership.”
Now, I am not an enemy of transformation! I am, however, an enemy of those who wish to abuse public office and or ANC leadership positions for private gain.
I am an adversary of any ANC leader or branch member who thinks that joining the party or leading the party (at any level) is a path to self-enrichment! I am an enemy of corruption and of corruptors! For they are the true enemies of our liberation; of our hard won revolution! They, who use party structures and state coffers, to make themselves instant millionaires! They who will not stop until our party is but a shadow of its former self! They who have placed their own interests above that of the party and the millions of people who still believe in us! To this end, winning by-elections is a clear indicator that our people still trust us to lead them!
However, the warning lights are flashing!
Ivor Chipkin warns us that growing corruption in SA is a serious problem, and that it is a reflection of a “weak state”: “For the ANC, like for the government, corruption weakens its claim to represent and act in the interest of the public good. Corruption, in other words, degrades the very stateness of the South African state.”
Although our party has introduced significant laws to combat corruption we need to ask ourselves if we are on the road towards total moral decay should we fail to eradicate this scourge.
The simple answer is: YES! However, we can only begin to deal with this if we begin to discuss the type of branch, regional, provincial and national leaders we place our trust in. The discussion around leadership or the type of leaders we need in the ANC must therefore be allowed, and encouraged, to flourish.
The very 2015 NGC discussion documents released for debate by branches encourages us “to pose and find answers to questions” about the ANC’s “long-term evolution as an organisation, its core vision and the capacity to pursue it.” However, we can't do this without posing serious questions about leadership?
Recognising that “the National Democratic Revolution is in grave danger” the ANC acknowledged the seriousness of a “turn-around” strategy.
“In brief, the ANC needs seriously and systematically to embark on organisational renewal in order to maintain, and indeed strengthen, its status and role as a vanguard in this second phase of transition to a national democratic society. This, the ANC needs to do from the point of view of its own self-interest as the leading ‘party’ in government. Further, because in this phase of building a democratic state and society, the ANC is the pre-eminent player, its failures become by design or by default, the failures of the state. Such is the current balance of forces that an ANC that flounders in fact subverts the very social transformation that South Africa needs, to become a National Democratic Society.”
The character of the ANC is such that the leadership of our party is ultimately “accountable to the membership in terms of the procedures laid down” in its Constitution.
The time to seriously discuss leadership and where we want to take the ANC and South Africa has arrived! Where better to start than at the national general council of 2015!
Long live the ANC!!
