The involvement of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leadership in the frenzy of corruption around VBS Mutual Bank has been well known for some time. The involvement of many people in the ANC, including the now deeply compromised Zweli Mkhize, has also been known. Sadly we have now learnt that the South African Communist Party (SACP) was also involved.
The EFF corruption is particularly gross because Julius Malema and Floyd Shivambu used the loot for nauseating levels of high status personal consumption. The SACP used their share of corruption to pay a conferencing bill owed by the party which, while still outrageous, is at least not a matter of personal spending on luxury goods.
We all know that there will never be an apology from the EFF, whose claim to be “pro-poor” is just self-serving cynical spin. Hopefully the SACP will reflect on its complicity and issue a sincere apology.
It is difficult to see a successful realignment of the left without including the mass organisations of the left, namely the trade unions in and out of the ANC alliance, as well as the SACP and Abahlali baseMjondolo. The SACP is an important actor in its own right as a result of its large membership. It is also a significant player in the trade unions that remain aligned to the SACP through labour federation Cosatu.
Many middle class journalists and commentators tend to see the left as other middle class people, most often the left-leaning NGOs and academics. They often take the views of middle class people on mass-based organisations uncritically while ignoring the views of the mass-based organisations about middle class actors.
NGOs and academics on the left are an important part of the ecosystem in all the countries where the left is a powerful force. But these types of NGOs and academics are not taken as the left in countries where there is a successful left. In these countries it is clear that the mass-based progressive organisations of the working class and the poor are the left. It is understood that the role of middle class actors is to support the development of mass organisation, not to replace it. Realignment of the left in South Africa will not get anywhere until we understand that an effective left can only be rooted in the mass-based organisations.
I have been arguing for a realignment of the left to overcome its divisions for some years. Others have made similar arguments. In the past the major stumbling block to this was the question of the ANC. The SACP and Cosatu were still committed to the ANC while the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) and Abahlali baseMjondolo were outside of the ANC and firmly opposed to it. Abahlali baseMjondolo was and still is particularly militant in its opposition to the ANC as a result of all the assassinations the movement has endured.
The SACP and Cosatu have mass-based support and they both have some very smart people in their brains trust, but they cannot achieve effective left realignment on their own. The left forces outside the ANC must be included too.
Numsa is by far the largest trade union in the country; in fact it is the largest in Africa and it is a militant union constantly organising strikes and regularly winning gains for its members. Abahlali baseMjondolo is the largest popular organisation in the country outside of the trade unions and also consistently wins impressive gains for its members. It is essential that both of these organisations are part of a left realignment.
In the past the line between people in and out of the ANC was firm, making collaboration with forces outside of the ANC very difficult. But the new alignment of the ANC and Democratic Alliance (DA) could be a game changer for the possibilities of a left alignment. After all, if the ANC can work with the DA why can’t the SACP and Cosatu make some overtures to Numsa and Abahlali baseMjondolo? This, of course, will require political maturity all round. Abahlali baseMjondolo will have to moderate its position of refusing to work with any ANC aligned organisation.
If this can be achieved there would be three poles in our politics. The liberals would be grouped in the DA and the ANC, the kleptocrats in the EFF and uMkhonto weSizwe party, and the left in a working alliance between the SACP, Cosatu, Numsa and Abahlali baseMjondolo.
There are a number of red lines that should separate a left alliance from the other two forces. One of these is corruption.
In all the reporting and analysis on the VBS scandal one important part of the story has been consistently missed. In 2018, senior people in Abahlali baseMjondolo were approached by the National Funeral Practitioners Association of South Africa (Nafupa-SA), which was very strongly aligned to Jacob Zuma, and VBS with a proposal that the movement set up a funeral business with support from VBS.
We all know that VBS loans for businesses linked to political actors and organisations were really just bribes paid for political support and there was never any expectation that “loans” would be repaid. But, unlike the EFF, the ANC and the SACP, Abahlali baseMjondolo did not take the VBS money. Instead, Abahlali members who made the deal with the Nafupa-SA and VBS were recalled from their positions and expelled from the movement in an open and public general assembly.
This was not the first time that Abahlali baseMjondolo has acted decisively against corruption. In 2014, it expelled its general secretary for corruption.
South Africans are sick and tired of corruption. We all feel emotionally overwhelmed by it and it has produced high levels of alienations for political parties and the electoral process in general. Corruption cost the ANC its majority in the 29 May poll and resulted in an election in which most people did not bother to vote.
The left has no chance of succeeding against the liberals and the kleptocrats if it does not reignite hope in politics and win the support of millions of people. One of the many things that will be required for the left to achieve this is a clear and decisive break with the politics of corruption.
The SACP is not the only organisation that has problems with complicity with corruption. For instance, the South African Democratic Teachers Union is notorious for outright gangsterism.
If the left can build a working alliance across the mass-based organisation that alliance will have to be grounded in shared principles. These would have to include things such as opposition to xenophobia, support for Palestine and support for public healthcare. Among these opposition to corruption would be central.
As the only political organisation that we know to have been approached by VBS and to have rejected its money, Abahlali baseMjondolo has provided an important model of how a popular movement can deal with this question. When I spoke to insiders in 2018 when the members were expelled, they told me that three key factors were at play.
The first is the movement holds open mass meetings, which it calls general assemblies, where the agenda is developed from the floor and everyone can speak. The second is that all leaders are elected and subject to the right to recall by a vote at a general assembly. The third is that anyone found to be guilty of corruption is, without exception, recalled from their position and, if necessary, expelled.
These practices worked to protect the movement from the VBS debacle. They should be adopted by all the mass-based left organisations.
Dr Imraan Buccus is a research consultant and political analyst.
