President Thabo Mbeki on Wednesday drew a line in the sand for the left-wing elements in the tripartite alliance who are seeking to push the African National Congress (ANC) in a more radical direction.
“The ANC has never sought to prescribe to the South African Communist Party [SACP] the policies it should adopt, the programmes of action it should implement and the leaders it should elect,” he said to cheers from delegates to the ANC’s policy conference in Midrand.
Mbeki, who entered the conference venue together with party deputy president Jacob Zuma, also denied that the conference is being driven by the struggle over the leadership succession in the party, which comes up for review at the party’s national conference in December.
“This policy conference has absolutely nothing to do with who is or will be a leader of the ANC, by virtue of election by our membership,” he said.
Mbeki said the ANC has been subjected to “a sustained barrage of propaganda” that suggests that members of the ANC remain with the party to gain positions of power at various levels of government and to accumulate wealth for themselves.
“I have spoken as I have because, even as we prepared for this policy conference that has absolutely nothing to do with who is or who will be a leader of the African National Congress, by virtue of election of our membership, those responsible for the propaganda … have made it a point to assert that what we will do over the next four days is centrally driven by what they describe as ‘the leadership succession’,” he said.
National democratic revolution
In a 48-minute address to about 1 500 delegates, including Cabinet ministers, premiers, MPs and heads of a number of government departments, Mbeki said a socialist victory cannot be achieved in South Africa outside the context of the victory of the national democratic revolution.
His remarks came ahead of what is expected to be a vigorous debate scheduled for Wednesday afternoon on the draft strategy and tactics document, setting out the ANC’s broad social and economic goals.
Mbeki told the conference that the reality in South Africa is that the trade-union and civic movements cannot achieve their goals if the national democratic revolution does not succeed in its objectives. The ANC defines the national democratic revolution as the ongoing struggle to free the mass of South Africans from colonial and racist oppression.
He said the ANC would respect any decision by “the masses of our people” that they would prefer to support a socialist rather than a national democratic revolution.
He also said the ANC has never discouraged the SACP, its partner along with the Congress of South African Trade Unions in the tripartite alliance, from leading the socialist revolution. The SACP has historically accepted that the ANC has to lead the national democratic revolution, he said.
The ANC had recognised as early as the 1940s the strategic position occupied by the working class in the economy, in society and in the struggles for the national democratic revolution.
“Accordingly, to speak about the motive forces of the [revolution] was to speak of the working class as a leading echelon in the struggle for national liberation, which would also organise and fight for its interests in terms of higher wages and better working conditions, and a role in determining the future of our country,” he said.
“The objective reality in our country is that the [revolution] cannot succeed if it does not contain among its motive forces our country’s socialist, trade union and civic movements. The objective reality is that the trade-union and civic movements cannot achieve the goals they pursue if the [revolution] does not succeed in its objectives.
“The objective reality in our country is that the victory of the socialist revolution cannot be achieved outside the context of the victory of the national democratic revolution.”
Solving problems
In an apparent reference to criticisms from the union movement and the SACP, Mbeki said it is not possible to have solved problems that accumulated over 350 years in the mere 13 years that South Africa has enjoyed a democratic government. Claims that have been made, that it is possible, are incorrect. This policy conference gives an opportunity to discuss these claims.
“You, fellow delegates, are at perfect liberty to argue that I am wrong in making this assertion, and our movement has been wrong in making this assertion, and that during the conferences the ANC has held since its unbaning in 1990, we could have adopted other policies that could have eradicated a 350-year legacy in 13 years.”
In remarks that could be interpreted as a rebuke to unions involved in the ongoing public-service strike, Mbeki also said he wants to see the conference discuss the responsibility of the members and structures of the broad democratic movement to “defend the democratic state and its institutions”.
It should look at the issue of respect for these institutions and for public property “during the exercise of the entrenched democratic right to engage in public demonstrations”.
He also criticised the use of force, intimidation and looting during demonstrations and “mass protests”.