For the first time the party has to confront internal dissent on a significant scale, says Drew Forrest
Seven years after taking power, the leadership echelons of the African National Congress are showing signs of growing entropy.
A senior ANC man speaks of “loss of coherence and focus”, adding that the party has been through “a particularly bad patch”. “This year has been a particularly bad one for us,” says another.
Spats between party grandees – Steve Tshwete versus Cyril Ramaphosa, Jeff Radebe versus Saki Macozoma, S’bu Ndebele versus Bulelani Ngcuka – have broken spectacularly into the open. There are complaints that certain leading figures consider themselves above discipline.
Economic policy has triggered fierce public exchanges between the party and its union and communist allies, most of whose members also belong to the ANC. Cosatu’s anti-privatisation strike in September triggered moves by a conservative faction in the national executive committee (NEC) to marginalise leading communists who defended the stoppage.
Internal discontent over government’s HIV/Aids stance, including its refusal to release the Medical Research Council (MRC) report on Aids mortality, has surfaced through the parliamentary committee on the status of women and the ANC’s health committee. Some members of the ANC parliamentary caucus harbour grave doubts about the handling of the arms-deal probe, which forced the resignation of ANC MP Andrew Feinstein and crippled the key watchdog committee he served with some distinction.
The labelling of opponents has heightened internal conflict, according to some members. Particular mention was made of the spreading use of “ultra-leftist” to describe communists and union leaders.
For one ANC loyalist, distorted perceptions -due in large part to the ANC’s own failure to keep its members and the public informed – are the root problem.
“There is a perception that we are soft on corrupt and incompetent leaders. Why, then, did we pretend that [Ekurhuleni mayor] Bavumile Vilakazi resigned when the Gauteng executive committee pushed him out? We could have presented this as evidence of our commitment to clean government.”
Similarly, the perception that state institutions were supplying anti-retrovirals only in the Democratic Alliance-controlled Western Cape had fuelled unhappiness with the government’s Aids record. In fact, there were five such sites in Gauteng, with two more planned by year-end, and others in North West and Free State.
“The waters were muddied by the health minister’s statement that there was no Cabinet approval for the Gauteng pilots. When the province checked with the president, it was told otherwise.”
An NEC member argued that leaks about internal discord, as a way of embarrassing government into correcting its mistakes, were “tactically childish”.
“No reasonable person can doubt that the MRC report is broadly correct about Aids deaths in South Africa. But nothing is achieved by describing the president as ‘mad’; politics is not about knocking people off their perch. All that happens is that people close ranks.”
The source added that the controversy around the timing of the report’s release had deflected attention from its contents to the publication process. If government was indeed trying to sit on it, the final explosion would only be louder.
“Send the report to a Cabinet sub-committee; in the end, if they say it’s nonsense, they’re going to have to account for that view. None of them are scientists.”
The source suggested the ANC’s “moment of madness” had passed, and that the NEC meeting two weeks ago – where there was broad agreement that the party should not air its dirty linen in public – marked a closing of ranks. “Policy differences must be tackled internally, through structures, and in a collective way,” the source said.
In one sense this is good news. Like it or not, the ANC is set to rule for many years to come. A leadership hopelessly divided against itself, which dissipates increasing energy on public recrimination and infighting, serves no one’s interests.
On the other hand, there is a real risk that contentious matters will be shelved in the cause of unity, or because ANC members are too career-minded or fearful of crossing party hierarchs.
“People who criticise us for soft-pedalling on [Tony] Yengeni must realise that the ANC constitution makes it very hard to get rid of people,” says a party communicator. “You need properly constituted hearings, formal evidence; there’s a right of appeal. If you get it wrong, you can land up in court.
“The question of tightening disciplinary procedures was raised at a party conference in relation to Bantu Holomisa. It was rejected precisely on grounds that the leaders might use it to suppress dissent.” Strictly, one source points out, Feinstein should have been formally disciplined for his public dissent over the handling of the arms deal inquiry.
Most ANC insiders insist that authoritarian control, often associated with the party’s president, Thabo Mbeki, is not the issue. “I’ve often voiced unpopular views, but have never been made to suffer,” says one insider.
“Too many people are too careful about their careers. If you’re going to confine debate to party structures, people must be prepared to speak out.”
One well-known parliamentarian argues that there are naive expectations of the ANC, which after seven years in government is transmuting from a motley host of anti-apartheid saints and martyrs into a political party much like those in other democracies.
“Power blocs are starting to emerge, together with the same kind of fights and rebellions you have in the Westminster Parliament. The honeymoon of the Mandela era is over. We’re all discovering that politics is a rough and often dirty business.”
The MP said the ANC’s alliance with the unions and the South African Communist Party had complicated matters, to the extent that it had polarised debate on the economy between the authorities and the left.
As a consequence, those who voiced concerns about the effect of government policy on the poor tended to be pigeonholed as leftists, while criticism of the labour movement was read as pro-capitalist Africanism in the Peter Mokaba mould. “The unions have seized the moral heights. If you speak out against them – and God knows they make plenty of mistakes – you’re seen as linking up with Mokaba,” was one insider’s comment.
The MP said that the party was for the first time having to confront, and learn how to manage, internal dissent and division on a significant scale. One way of dealing with it was to open up more space for the social democratic middle ground, where most people in the ANC’s leadership echelons found their home.
“A lot of dissent is raised by people who are clearly and identifiably on the left, and this crowds other voices to the silent margins. Room needs to be created for a wider range of opinions within the ANC.”