Tension between the ANC-in-government and the ANC-outside- government must be resolved at next weekend’s national conference, reports Gaye Davis
REGIONAL congresses of the ANC have sent the movement’s leadership a strong signal in the run-up to its national conference this month: members elected to government should not be charged with running the organisation.
Few ANC MPs or members of provincial legislatures have found themselves re-elected to regional executives in the PWV, Eastern Cape, Natal and Free State. While media play has been made out of Free State premier Terror Lekota’s ousting as regional ANC chairman, for example, the trend has little to do with a lack of confidence in ANC members elected to government. Instead, it reflects a felt need by ANC members that a strong second-tier leadership should be developed, one able to devote itself full-time to rebuilding an organisation weakened by the exodus of key players to government.
“For government to be effective, we need strong ANC structures on the ground,” said a source. “While those elected must see that the government works, we need people on the ground keeping structures intact and co-ordinating between ANC members inside government and those outside.
“One of the problems is that there is this distinction growing between the ANC-in-government and the ANC-outside- government. It needs to be understood that these are two levels of the same organisation.”
Said another source: “The tension between those inside and outside government is not necessarily unhealthy, but we need to redefine what the ANC is going to be and how to proceed under governance rather than as struggling for the right to govern.
“Conference will see a battle for the heart and soul of the ANC. People feel it is losing its identity and character as a stubborn and consistent defender of the aspirations of the poor and disadvantaged.
“The ANC is committed to a fundamental democratic revolution. We have to ask if this is possible and how we achieve it. We have to look at the role of the ANC now it’s in power, as well as that of the alliance. What is the democratic movement, today? What’s the role and status of the trades-union movement? Workers feel their demands won’t be met whether the ANC or the National Party is in power.”
ANC members have been grappling with the complexities of reducing the ANC’s erstwhile 14 regions to reflect the country’s nine provinces; constitutional amendments to this effect will be ratified at the conference.
While there was clear restlessness and frustration among members who believe constituents’ bread-and-butter issues were neglected once the ANC came into power, there was also a tendency “for people to sit back and say, we’re in power now, let the government do the work”, a source said.
This feeds directly into the debate over mass action: whether it is still a weapon to be used to unblock logjams as it was during the negotiations and, if so, what form it should take.
“Mass action does not necessarily mean anti-government action — people can demonstrate in solidarity with the government,” said a source. “We used to say that as our leaders negotiated on our behalf, they should be informed by the sound of our footsteps on the ground. There’s no difference between negotiations and nation-building.
“It’s misguided to think the politics of struggle are over. The problems which led to it are still there — homelessness, unemployment, lack of facilities. Parliament is just a new terrain of struggle.”
An inherent danger, however, lies in mass action being hijacked by forces both opportunistic and inimical to the ANC — hence the need for tight, well-run structures on the ground and effective communication between the people running them and those in the government.
One option would be to decentralise the ANC’s leadership by locking MPs into constituency work at regional level, with this in turn feeding into more cohesion at local level. This could help improve the ANC’s relations with civic structures — presently tenuous at best.
Some ANC branches believe this could also be achieved by having the party’s national executive committee reflect provincial constituencies in a more even way, where members are directly elected. The national working committee, which acts as a shadow cabinet, will also change: its key members are also cabinet ministers — as such, they can no longer drive it.
Local structures will have to change to reflect boundaries redrawn in local government agreements. ANC members of transitional local councils represent “a whole new strata of people who must be integrated into the organisation”, said a source.
The main task of the conference starting next weekend in Bloemfontein will be to come up with policy on the strategies and tactics it should employ to face the challenges ahead: how to manage being in power, without diluting its political programme. Ways of managing reconstruction and development programme delivery and the inevitable tensions that will arise, as well as the need for deft positioning ahead of local government elections, will act as beacons in this regard.