The ANC is being forced to address growing divisions between coloureds and Africans, reports Gaye Davis.
Tensions between coloureds and Africans within the ANC in the Western Cape are paralysing the movement and jeopardising its chances of regaining political ground in the local government elections.
Western Cape ANC leader Reverend Chris Nissen was to meet President Mandela on Tuesday, but this was postponed. The Western Cape ANC’s provincial executive committee (PEC) was to debate the issue on Thursday.
In the Western Cape — like Natal, a “Cinderella region” where the ANC is not in power — the ANC faces specific challenges if it is to make any gains in the local government elections. While racism is a nationwide phenomenon, it’s thrown into sharp relief in a region where coloured people are in the majority.
Analysts believe success at the polls will depend on the ANC’s ability to win votes from working and middle-class coloured people. This would mean redeveloping its activist base in coloured areas. But coloured activists say they find themselves up against a body of African opinion which thinks differently.
“There is an attitude that under apartheid, coloured people were treated better by the National Party government in terms of the provision of housing, schools and other services,” said a senior ANC member. “Africans have very high expectations now that the ANC is in government and want the focus of RDP delivery to be in African areas.
“There is also confusion over affirmative action. The line pushed is that people must accept that coloured people were privileged under the old regime and that jobs must go to Africans.”
“We are dealing with an assumption that coloured people sold out to the NP — even coloured people are blaming coloured people for losing the Western Cape for the ANC.
“Nobody wants to polarise things further. But people feel there is total amnesia of the role played by coloured people during the struggle, when they led the campaigns in the Western Cape, and who are now feeling marginalised.”
Another source said seasoned coloured activists were leaving ANC structures. “It’s an indication of the problem,” the source said. “People can’t get anything done. There are groups of people in the organisation who won’t talk to each other. No headway can be made in terms of organising in coloured areas. The organisation is paralysed and what lies at the heart of it is this ongoing feud.”
These tensions are compounding organisational weaknesses — caused largely by the haemorrhage of veteran activists to government posts. “There is a leadership gap. People on the PEC do not have the depth of experience the structure once had. In the branches, the executives also lack experience. There is a great need for political education,” a source said.
Another source said the ANC in the region split into two broad camps over where to put the emphasis in the national election campaign. A decision from headquarters that there be one broad message — a better life for all — did not wash well with coloured activists who felt it would not work, especially once the NP began to capitalise on coloured fears that an ANC vote would see their homes taken over. Efforts to counter this propaganda by deploying people in coloured communities raised tensions among African activists competing for cars and other resources during the campaign.
A source said there was a small cabal within the region pushing a brand of African populism, who were manipulating politics to the detriment of the organisation as a whole.
Another source said there was talk of establishing a coloured congress within the ANC. “There is an informal coloured caucus in the region. People are opposed to the idea of a congress — if we define the ANC as non- racial, how do we justify a movement within it defined racially?”
Last month, in a move which drew the attention of both President Mandela and Deputy President Thabo Mbeki, the ANC’s Youth League in the region split along racial lines. Ten of 18 interim branches walked out of the annual general meeting, saying they were being marginalised. They have launched a new body, the Community Youth Movement, which is not antagonistic to the ANC, but raises the same problem.
“If you launch yourself in opposition, how do you transmit the non-racial message to encourage people to vote ANC?” an ANC member asked.
A paper prepared at the request of the tripartite alliance and now circulating for discussion, suggests the ANC commission a poll to test where the organisation stands before launching its local government election campaign.
It notes that, while the ANC’s core support in the African community remains firm, “the hard reality is that we appear to have made no headway, and indeed may well have lost ground in the coloured community.
“There are no signs of coloured workers now coming on board and some middle class supporters may well be drifting away. The extreme fears and racism evident at the time of the election may be dissipating as people adjust … to majority rule, but there is little evidence that our non-racial message is gaining credibility”.
The document notes that the ANC, as it goes into local government elections, may confront a consolidation of “coloured ethnic nationalism”, with people organising on an ethnic basis to fight for their own interests.
A neo-Labour Party was launched in the region late last year; more recently, the Coloured Liberation Movement for the Advancement of Brown People was formed. The strength of these movements has yet to be proven, but backs the view of some analysts that coloured people voted for the NP because there was no other viable choice.
For the ANC, the document notes, the emergence of coloured ethnic nationalism could foster an African populism emerging in reaction.
This, says the document, would involve people who felt there was no point in trying to win support in the coloured community and that efforts should be concentrated instead on furthering the interests of African communities, likely to be sidelined by the NP- led provincial government.
“The emergence of such a tendency would, of course, reinforce the fears and perceptions underlying coloured ethnic nationalism, which would, in turn, fuel Africanist populism — thereby creating a vicious cycle, whose main victim would be non-racialism.”
The document warns that if the ANC found itself trapped in such a cycle, it would — given the demographic realities of the province — condemn the ANC to the position of permanent opposition.
Another challenge it identifies is that likely cuts to the Western Cape budget could be seized by opponents to attack the ANC-led national government for being “anti- Western Cape”.
“This will pose the challenge to us of finding ways to represent the interests of the province without becoming even greater provincial chauvinists than our opponents,” it says.
The document urges that key constituencies be identified in the coloured community. These would include trade union members, many thousands of whom voted NP even though they were members of Cosatu unions — and would require strengthening Cosatu in the region. The fact that the federation was “not in good shape” in the region “must surely be a matter of concern to the whole alliance”, the document says.
Another target group would be “middle-class professionals, teachers and religious personalities”, receptive to the ANC during the general election but “now probably drifting away”. The reasons for this had to be examined — teachers and health workers could be concerned that budget cuts would lead to redundancies.
“I don’t think there is an easy solution,” a senior ANC member said. “The ANC’s national conference could not resolve the national question, when it was resolved that the strategic focus would be on the emancipation of the black majority — but the African people in particular.”
A Western Cape delegate to the conference said: “We sat there and felt we were invisible. Coloured participants felt they’d be committing political suicide if they spoke out. If we’re to build non-racialism we need a clear programme. We can’t continue at a level of discourse where jealousy between the race groups is the issue. The need for a special task force on the Western Cape and Natal has been identified at national level — but nothing has materialised.”
Nissen said this week: “For the first time we are going to talk about this problem in an open way — the problems affecting the region and specifically the issue of perceived racism.”
The perception that coloured people had “sold out” had to be corrected, while coloured fears also had to be addressed — without alienating the African community.
“We have to deal with the issue of race and examine our own fears and prejudices. It’s the responsibility not only of the ANC but of the Government of National Unity and every citizen.
“Apartheid has left us all with racist baggage. There’s racism not only between Africans and coloured people but within the coloured community itself.
“It’s along the lines of, if you’ve got straight hair and a light skin you can marry my daughter. But if you’ve got peppercorn hair and a dark complexion you’re not welcome.
“The more we talk about it, the better chance we’ll have of dealing with it.”
ANC MP and Regional secretary of the SACP in the Western Cape, Phillip Dexter, said: “The ANC is the only viable political organisation to challenge the NP for power. None of the problems are insurmountable — we believe the ANC is the true political home of the coloured people.
“The issue is being discussed within ANC and Alliance structures. The SACP endorses the discussion taking place and wants to see it continue because it’s constructive.
“The question is are we organised, have we the people to do the work and do we have a coherent political strategy? The answer is yes.”