/ 13 March 2008

In the mind of Motlanthe

I have interviewed African National Congress (ANC) deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe seven times between 1999 and 2008, and I have watched him change. Yes, he has been buffeted by the winds of neo-liberalism, but in my last interview with him (“‘ANC must go back to the masses’“, February 8), I see a far more forthright socialist emerging.

Of course, the jury’s out on whether he will be able to take this position with him into government, but the Polokwane conference, it seems, has emboldened Motlanthe, something that the independent left should welcome.

My earlier interviews between 1999 and 2005 showed that he was a great listener, but not willing to acknowledge the weaknesses and failures of the ANC. He did not have a blind loyalty, but always tended to play down problems, denying any crises in the party and he even rationalised the adoption of the neo-liberal growth, employment and redistribution (Gear) strategy in 1996.

He insists that we are in a post-Gear epoch, though I differ with him and believe he takes a narrow view that equates the policy only with limited social spending. We are still locked into its overall policy and strategic framework.

Gear consisted of much more than a limited budget for social spending. It included the decimation of the textile industry and great loss of jobs, the substantive commodification of basic services in townships, placing adequate satisfaction of the most important needs of households beyond them and serious budget cuts for education, hospitals, housing and much more. Restructuring also led to many public-sector workers being retrenched.

And though social spending has increased, social hardships have continued and sometimes worsened.

In the earlier interviews I sometimes had a sense that the tough mining industry and the policy shifts in the ANC altered Motlanthe’s radicalism and inculcated political pragmatism.

But Motlanthe has been emboldened by the results of Polokwane. He is much more assertive and even somewhat strident, and his body language was more positive and confident in the last two interviews.

Today, he speaks freely and openly about problems confronting the party and particularly those that preceded and produced Polokwane. He seems to be a man who has been freshly liberated from the fetters President Thabo Mbeki and his allies imposed on leaders of the ANC at Luthuli House.

My interviews last year and early this year make it very clear that Motlanthe has moved to the left. The earlier trenchant defensiveness has been replaced by a far greater openness and a willingness to confront many uncomfortable realities in the ANC.

Jacob Zuma’s dismissal by Mbeki, without meaningful consultation with Luthuli House and the ANC’s allies, was Motlanthe’s turning point.

The new Motlanthe welcomes the radicalisation in the ANC and sees no reason why anybody should try and arrest it. He strongly criticises the Mbeki-led Cabinet’s domination of the ANC. He hit out at Gauteng premier Mbhazima Shilowa for thinking that his premiership gave him the right to do as he pleased, with scant regard for the party that placed him in that position. He says that policy must not be cast in stone and that the membership of the ANC must appropriate it for ends they wish.

The criticism that Motlanthe lacks charisma pales into insignificance when considering the manifest shifts he has undergone and the fact that there is a real shift to get him into the government.

But the key question we must ­confront is: will Motlanthe go the way of most former labour leaders when they enter government? I don’t think so. The key drivers for a radical agenda within the ANC will be secretary general Gwede Mantashe, communist leader Blade Nzimande and himself.

Significantly, in the last interview Motlanthe also moved from a focus on structural and accountability problems between the government and the party to policy matters. He said that members will not dislike a leader for any reason other than policy and organisational decisions that adversely affect their lives.

Within current optional limits, I believe Motlanthe to be a better presidential candidate for the country and for the left’s support than ANC president Zuma, who has been on a mission to placate markets from Davos to Sandton.