In the month since the ruling party’s national conference, ANC members and South Africans in general have expressed a variety of emotions, impressions, hopes and fears about the results of that meeting.
While a particular slate of individuals emerged victorious in the leadership elections, there was significant support for the alternative. This creates an uneasy, fragile moment for South Africa — one that everyone, particularly the newly elected leadership, needs to manage with care. Debate on the way forward should take place with due regard to conference choices, but there must be debate all the same.
Leading up to the conference, the outgoing ANC leadership, and particularly those in government, faced a sustained critique. Their opponents, mainly in the South African Communist Party and in the leadership of trade union federation Cosatu, argued that they were right-wing or neoliberal, that they favoured business and big capital over the working class and the poor, that they had bestowed favours on a few who had benefited economically from their proximity to political power, and that they had abused their position to victimise others, especially through the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).
Polokwane, we are told, was the culmination of a leftward shift within the ANC, and the working class is now “back in control” (rhetorically, anyway) of the revolution.
Yet statements by the new party leadership display mixed signals.
While on the one hand there have been calls for unity, discipline and loyalty, there have also been threats to use newly won power to act against those holding different views in the ANC and the broader alliance.
The positive messages offer important possibilities — a good working relationship between government and ANC structures, and the willingness to engage in a debate with all South Africans about the process of social and economic transformation that our society must undergo. The continued emphasis on the need for political education, on the priorities of poverty reduction, education and health delivery is to be welcomed.
Yet given that there is virtually no difference between such commitments and those championed in ANC policy prior to Polokwane, it begs the question: what was the bitter contest over leadership, with its allegations of conspiracies and abuse of power by those in government, all about?
In fact, there is no evidence of a shift to the left after Polokwane; nor, according to the ANC’s own statements, are any fundamental policy changes contemplated. Instead, it would seem that the new leadership’s priorities revolve around controlling the NPA and the judiciary — moves that would benefit a specific set of individuals.
The ANC leadership must therefore reassure South Africans in general and ANC members in particular that the debilitating period we have recently undergone is not simply all about personal interest, rather than the interests of transformation.
The nearly clean sweep of the NEC by a particular list distributed to conference delegates does create the impression that there will be little in the way of continuity. Given the often belligerent nature of statements made by individuals identified with the dominant grouping, this impression is reinforced on an almost daily basis.
There is clearly a new cohort of leaders who will make up the core of the future government. But there is also a strong sense that there will be a “disciplining” — a settling of scores — with those who have challenged this leadership in the past.
Despite the significant replacement of individual leaders, and with the exception of the 50% quota for women, the ANC NEC has not changed much in terms of its class orientation or even the general representation of our society. Only one trade unionist was elected. There are now more businesspeople on the NEC. The balance between those in national government and those in provincial government posts has shifted in favour of the latter.
All of these individual observations may be superficial, but in aggregate they suggest that the leadership “tsunami” at Polokwane wasn’t about a fundamental shift in policy or a deepening of transformation; rather it was about a fight for political power in the pursuit of individual interest.
While unity is the responsibility of all ANC members, the elected leadership has the responsibility to build unity and defuse factionalism. Triumphalism, the threat of harsh action and the perceived desire to settle scores should be eschewed by the new NEC. Any reprisals against those who differ with the leadership will reinforce the already dominant impression of factionalism. Authoritarianism will only breed resentment, since there are few in the ANC who fear the consequences of standing firmly for what they believe in.
Perhaps the new leadership’s preoccupation with the criminal cases involving ANC leaders is the biggest challenge of all. The criticisms of the NPA and the judiciary have become shriller, yet continued claims of political conspiracy ring hollow given a lack of evidence for this allegation to date. All this threatens to damage the democratic conquest of the rule of law. How can our revolution be strengthened if the movement spends its time and energy defending individuals who are facing criminal charges, rather than focusing on South Africa’s massive social and economic challenges?
Given this reality, three fundamental issues provide a way of measuring progress, or the lack of it, in the period ahead:
• Will there be any changes to policy or implementation that will ensure that the challenges of in-equality, safety and security, housing, unemployment, health, education and general service delivery facing the poorest people of our country will be addressed in an improved qualitative or quantitative manner?
• Will alliance leaders use their proximity to political power to avoid being prosecuted for alleged offences?
• Will a new cohort of businesspeople be the beneficiaries of relationships with government leaders and officials?
For progressives, South Africa’s democratic fragility as exposed by this “tsunami” is a difficult thing to endure. In the hands of today’s super-revolutionaries, who claim to act “in the interests of the workers and the poor”, the notion of socialism seems further away than ever.
But South Africans may stubbornly have their own ideas about the future. A little more than a decade ago the ideologues of the status quo proclaimed the end of history, but were subsequently proven wrong by events. Similarly, recent developments are not the end for South Africa — they may prove to be just the beginning.
Phillip Dexter is an activist, a socialist, a member of the ANC and a suspended member of the SACP