Jaspreet Kindra
Moses Mayekiso is vague when asked whether he has the blessing of many African National Congress leaders for the launch of a civic association in opposition to the South African National Civic Organisation (Sanco).
Rumour has it that key members of the ANC’s national executive committee, angered by Sanco’s support for the union movement’s anti-privatisation stand, are backing his breakaway body, with the unwieldy name of the Congress of South African Non-Racial Civic Organisations Movement (Cosancom).
Mayekiso, one of Sanco’s founding fathers and former president, neither confirms nor denies this. But he says Sanco is “an albatross round the neck of the ANC and [the] government”.
“Sanco cannot function like a political party,” says Mayekiso. “It cannot jump on the bandwagon of other organisations, as it did with [the Congress of South African Trade Unions] and the South African Communist Party on their anti-privatisation campaign. It has no policy of its own on the issue. It cannot simply follow others. It is directionless.”
He adds that Sanco’s performance and role “trying to be the tripartite alliance plus one” are the subject of widespread discussion.
“Government wants stability. It wants a civic movement that will shape South Africa and is guided by people on the ground.” Civic movements cannot be driven by ideologies, he insists, and should not try to be “socialist or nationalist parties”.
Defeated in the race for Sanco’s leadership this year, Mayekiso denies allegations of “sour grapes” and accusations of forming a rival body.
“I am not trying to form a rival body. I approached Sanco’s leadership to join hands, but they refused to see me,” he says.
He says the majority of Sanco’s regional structures in at least three provinces have rallied around his proposal for a new body.
“I am not a powermonger I am not after any positions. I was in the national executive of the ANC, the general secretary of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa [Numsa], a member of the central committee of the SACP. I left all these positions to strengthen the civic movement.”
Mayekiso has a long history in the civic movement, having spearheaded, in 1985, the formation of the Alexandra Action Committee, which laid the foundation of civic bodies across the country. He describes himself as “one of the founding members of civics in South Africa.”
His organising experience began in the union movement, where he worked in the metal and engineering sectors at an early stage. At Numsa’s formation in 1987 he was elected general secretary.
Mayekiso’s vision of a civic body in South Africa would entail mobilising community associations and ratepayer bodies across the racial spectrum behind the ANC-led government. “We have to mobilise people of all racial groupings and people under traditional authorities.”
Asked whether people of all political persuasions would be willing to rally around the ANC-led government, Mayekiso says: “It is an ANC-led government. If we want delivery, it must drive the issues.”