Wally Mbhele makes very bold statements about the disunity of the African National Congress in the Free State (“Fresh splits in the Free State ANC”, May 21 to 27). And the article has done a disservice to the understanding of the nature of Free State politics.
Essentially, Mbhele sees red in the ANC where it does not exist, as indicated in his article. Winkie Direko, the ANC’s Free State premier candidate, is supposed to be “marginalised by a significant section of the provincial leadership”.
Nothing can be further from the truth.
For starters, the ANC provincial chair, Ace Magashule, and the provincial executive committee have pledged their support to the premier candidate, and in all branch meetings and rallies in the province this is the kind of support members and leaders of the movement have publicly expressed to Direko as the ANC choice for premier.
In fact, we have yet to find out which branches have opposed the appointment of Direko as premier candidate, as Mbhele and his sources constantly allege.
We are treated to a story about fresh splits in the ANC because of Direko’s appointment. What fresh splits I ask? Against what? Exactly what are the underlying political issues that made Mbhele make his bold statement?
The ANC as an organisation reserves a right to conduct its internal affairs in a democratic way suitable to itself and its members. And it is mischievous for people to make statements to the effect that it may not be necessary in the future to hold list conferences.
On the speculation that Patrick “Terror” Lekota has had an influence on the outcome of the lists or whether Direko did not author the letter to the ANC asking for the removal of certain members from the list, these are essentially issues not fundamental to the challenges faced by the ANC.
Curiously, I find it interesting that Mbhele quotes with authority from a letter supposedly written confidentially by Direko to ANC president Thabo Mbeki.
I am tempted to conclude, on reading his rather factually incorrect article, that there are hidden agendas in the manner in which differences in this province are elevated to issues of national concern.
But the issue is, what are the fundamental issues raised in the article?
Firstly, the ANC is not a federal organisation. Neither is it like a self- help scheme where individuals invest the money and look forward to reaping the best individual profits.
Secondly, the premier candidate is being demonised in the media as a factionalist even before she assumes her position, and the “anonymous” ANC sources feeding Mbhele do inculcate that particular view.
In fact, the “anonymous” sources in the ANC Free State expressing the view that the ANC leaders are operating in “the old Pretoria style of politics” have absolutely no understanding of ANC history and tradition.
These statements do nothing except to cast aspersions and doubts on ANC president Mbeki and the national executive committee (NEC), as a bunch of dictators within the ANC bent on promoting their own factions.
Every ANC member is aware of the 1997 Mafikeng conference decision to mandate the NEC and the president to appoint premiers. To suggest that this is a Luthuli House dictatorship is silly, as much as it is infantile.
The ANC is by far the most democratic in its internal processes, in comparison to modern parties/movements in South Africa. And it is this very character that makes it difficult for some of us to believe in this imagined rebellion by ANC branches and provincial leadership to the appointment of Direko as the premier candidate.
We all need to focus. There is need to focus on the mandate South Africans have given to the ANC to deliver social services.
We need to pay allegiance to ideas, policies of the ANC, and not personalities/individuals with some hope of reaping some patronage along the way.
The focus, during this election period and beyond, should be:
l Accelerating the delivery of basic needs.
l Transforming the state and building capacity for delivery.
l Combating corruption and crime.
And we should not be distracted from this strategic focus, for anything else would be playing fiddle with people’s lives.
We have a responsibility to the Free State and the country at large to be serious about what our duties are, and not play fiddle with people’s lives and futures.
A time will come, I believe, after elections, when the ANC will have to take stock of real and imagined division in pursuance of good governance in the Free State.
Noby Ngombane is special adviser to Free State Premier Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri, an ANC Free State member and a member of the provincial executive committee of the South African Communist Party