The increasingly bitter debate over the presidential succession has taken a new twist, with the African National Congress Youth League suggesting Thabo Mbeki should quit as ANC leader when he leaves the presidency.
Youth league president Fikile Mbalula told the Mail & Guardian any proposal to separate the party presidency from that of the country was divisive and a distortion of ANC history.
Mbeki retires as president at the end of 2009, as the Constitution only allows two terms. But the ANC constitution is silent on the number of terms its presidents can serve.
KwaZulu-Natal ANC chairperson S’bu Ndebele put the contrary position last year, telling the Sunday Times nothing stopped Mbeki from staying on as party president after the 2007 national conference. The idea was later supported in unsigned comments on the ANC website.
ANC Today rebutted media assumptions that the party would choose a new leader to succeed Mbeki in 2007, saying these were ”inventions dressed up as facts”.
”Absolutely nobody knows whether the 2007 ANC national conference will decide to replace President Mbeki … as the president of the ANC. The ANC constitution has no term limitation affecting any official position.
The youth league, which, in recent weeks, has noisily endorsed Deputy President Jacob Zuma as South Africa’s next president, rejects the notion of two centres of power.
”The suggestion is some people in the ANC are indispensable, and that is a lie. All ANC leaders are equally capable. I suspect there is another debate they are trying to sneak through the back door,” Mbalula asserted, refusing to clarify.
”Why are we creating two centres of power which will only create confusion? We have seen that it does not work in the provinces. Zuma is by history, by culture, by seniority the most appropriate ANC president. If comrades want to suggest alternative names let them do so openly!”
Mbalula’s remarks come in a week when the youth league clashed with the women’s league, which opted to defer the debate to a later date.
He told Wits University students that by prevaricating, the women’s league was being ”paralysed and paraplegic”, and its members ”holy cows whose views will be judged by the march of history”.
The Young Communist League (YCL) also endorsed Zuma this week, saying it was unwise for the ANC to try and suppress a debate which was already taking place. But unlike the youth league, whose support is ”unconditional”, the YCL said it was not offering blind support.
”Zuma has the right leadership skills because of his ability to keep the alliance together and negotiate internal ANC issues. With South Africa playing the role of peacemaker in the continent, Zuma is best placed to take over the baton from Mbeki. But we will not say we support him come what may, because issues of corruption are serious ones,” said YCL national secretary Buti Manamela.
‘Power must be our aim’
Spearheading calls for the South African Communist Party to chart a new and radical future for itself is a group of young turks led by Young Communist League (YCL) national secretary Buti Manamela.
At 26, Manamela epitomises what the SACP envisaged at its last congress when it revived its youth structure, dormant since it was banned in 1950.
Manamela wants to smash capitalism and usher in the egalitarian society envisaged by Karl Marx.
With the correct credentials as a former stone-thrower in Nylstroom, leader of the South African Students Congress and organiser for the South African Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers Union, Manamela belongs to a generation that analyses society from a left perspective.
He and his ilk believe the SACP has been pussyfooting for too long, and that it is now time to push for power.
Manamela said the proposal that the SACP field its own election candidates was popular in the YCL.
”There is no political party anywhere that takes itself seriously that does not want to contest for political power. In the long term the party must aim to make a significant impact on our society. Seizing power does not mean violent insurrection, but how we influence Parliament, public service and other state organs,” he said.
Manamela crossed swords with African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) leaders before the league’s congress last year. After the alarm was raised that young communists were engineering a takeover, all YCL candidates were roundly defeated when they stood against members of the ANCYL.
Youth league leaders snidely remarked on ”paper tigers with no history”. Manamela retorted that the ANCYL lured members by promising access to jobs and tenders.
The YCL claims a membership of about 10 000 in 246 branches. It boasts, that unlike the ANCYL, it brings fresh perspectives to its mother body. — Rapule Tabane
Punching above its weight
A fired-up Fikile Mbalula rose to the podium and raised his clenched fist: ”We are the future,” he cried. The 200-strong student audience at Wits University sat silently. ”Comrades when I say that, you have to respond: ‘No one can stop us’,” he explained.
It is a measure of his energy and zeal, which leaves some of his constituency behind. African National Congress Youth League chief Mbalula takes some stopping these days. This week he declared that the league needs no permission or authority from anyone to say what it thinks on any matter. The previous president, Malusi Gigaba, seemed to wait for the line from Luthuli House before he opened his mouth.
At the last league congress in August the dark-suited Gigaba sent young people to sleep with a long speech before Mbalula, clad in a simple T-shirt and jeans, shocked them awake.
At 33, Free State-born Mbalula is on the elderly side of youth. With more than 15 years of participation in the youth movement, he represents the link between the South African Youth Congress of the early 1990s and the 18-year-old Wits students who still have to work on their revolutionary greetings.
The league now exudes so much energy that many feel it is punching above its weight. Having elicited grovels, apologies and promises from the men running cricket and rugby, it is now demanding a say in the running of the 2010 World Cup soccer tournament.
Its method has been to accuse the soccer authorities of mismanaging the game. Such over-confidence and recklessness, imparted by its diminutive leader, has riled many.
In the six months he has been league president, Mbalula has accused the Congress of South African Trade Unions of right-wing tendencies, called the Mail & Guardian ”counter-revolutionary” and the women’s league ”paraplegic”. Watch this space … — Rapule Tabane