extinction
William Makgoba Comment
Eighty-five years of struggle, pain and experience have weaved a solid movement whose traditions, values and culture are unparalleled and rooted within the grassroots.
The African National Congress as both a liberation movement and political party has refined its own complexity with African simplicity to produce a transformation machinery whose vision resonates with the hopeful, the ambitious, the aspirant, the downtrodden and those of its citizens who continue to search for solutions to the complex socio-political challenges of our nation.
Sitting in the audience at the ANC’s 50th national conference, one could not help but marvel at the discipline, internal stability and the frightening strength of this organisation.
Three features characterised the delegates of this conference: hard work, discipline and selfless dedication to the cause of the struggle for the liberation of every South African.
Like most people, one had been fed the usual prediction of the media; that is, that the organisation was facing internal strife with potential splits on the cards, and the leadership was out of touch with its constituency. At the end of the conference, one could conclude that only the media is out of sync with society.
One significant highlight of the conference was the election of a 60-member national executive committee (NEC). A total of 3 064 voting delegates participated in this election. If you saw a white person at the conference they were more often a member of the press than a voting delegate. If you saw an Indian or a coloured, they were more likely a member of the Cabinet or the outgoing NEC.
The point here is this: more than 99% of the voting delegates were Africans. There were hardly any coloureds, Indians or white voting delegates. The electoral process was conducted by an independent organisation, the Electoral Institute of South Africa.
The results were as follows: 72% of the NEC members are Africans and 28% are non-African. Within the first 10 of those that received the highest vote, 70% are non-Africans.
How does an electorate of exclusively African delegates produce an NEC which is so textbook representative of the nation’s demography in an environment that is still so racially charged and power relationships so unequal? How does Kader Asmal get to be elected the second most popular member after Cyril Ramaphosa by this law within the largely African delegate?
There are two complementary answers. Firstly, within the ANC non-racism is no longer a vote-catching slogan, but a reality. The ANC practices what it preaches. Secondly, the African majority is so confident of its power it can afford to be generous to the minorities in order to entrench diversity within its leadership and thus fulfil the criteria of multi-cultural and multi-perspective democracy.
If ever a concrete example of commitment to non-racism and diversity were needed, it is the election of the NEC. If the ruling party can continue to lead by such example, then there is hope for all of us.
If I were a member or a leader of the opposition in South Africa, I would be dead frightened by the strength and stability of the ANC. I would spend my time at the drawing board asking not only soul-searching, but fundamental questions about the nature and direction of democracy in our country.
I would spend more time in Soweto, the villages and with the grass-roots to really understand this beast called the African electorate. By living and engaging in the politics of the privileged, the tribe, die volk, the province and racism, opposition parties pose a threat to democracy and stability.
No matter how one looks at the issues, one comes to the sobering conclusion that unless the African is placed at the centre of the transformation and national agenda, our country will not be stable, productive and competitive. In health, education, industry, economics and politics we have to address the condition for the African in a systematic, but uncompromising fashion.
The truth and reality in South Africa today and into the future is no longer European or white, but African and more often black. The sooner the opposition parties get this message, the better. The days of white politics, white privilege, white constituency and white truth are over and will never return.
Unfortunately, the opposition parties in South Africa spent an inordinate amount of time, energy and resources on “dirty tricks” tactics, rather than formulating attractive alternative policies that can capture the imagination of the people.
To this day the opposition has offered no vision, definition, policies or programmes on social transformation. They approach politics from a legalistic rather than a sociological viewpoint. Hence their eagerness for prosecutions rather than policies.
Is this opposition a witch-hunt or obstruction politics? We the people want — and need — to know what the policies of the opposition are in order to exercise our democratic choices. We are still waiting.
Finally, this conference was also about change in leadership. A generation was handing over the baton for our journey of thousands of miles of liberation. This transition went smoothly without any blood-letting. What was remarkable was how this large organisation could change almost its entire leadership without recriminations.
Let us remember what happened two years ago, when one white-dominated university tried to change a single position in its leadership. There was blood everywhere.
I want to suggest it is time that opposition parties begin wholeheartedly and psychologically to associate themselves with the aspirations, anxieties and ambitions of the African majority. To avoid their imminent social and political extinction they must Africanise rapidly at the deeper levels of their consciousness.
M William Makgoba is a professor of molecular immunology at the University of the Witwatersrand/South African Institute for Medical Research
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