UNITY THROUGH RENEWAL: CHALLENGES FACING THE ANC

n By Lawrence Modimokwane

RENEWAL of the ANC should not be a maze of intrigues. It should rather be a socio-political hub that resonates with the wishes and aspirations of the people. Oneness and unity of every socio-political system can never be realised unless the understanding of the renewal has been grasped. The ANC is facing a crisis of existence and as the membership of the ANC we should take the threat extremely serious. Coming with methods of how to modernise the ANC and make it appealing to the people is critical. Renewal means opening the curtains to allow the sunlight to saunter in. Renewal means opening the door to permit fresh air to permeate our living house, but of course, being wary of mosquitos.

The Strategy and Tactics of the

ANC, (amended and adopted at the 51st National Conference Stellenbosch 2002) asserts that:

“greed and individual selfish interest are dangerous to the social cohesion of our embryonic national democratic society”. It further warns us about: “Rampant Capitalism”. That is: “a system in which formal democracy should be underpinned by market forces”. Which means, all should kneel in prayer and supplicate, as in the words of Charles Darwin: “survival of the fittest; elimination of the weakest; everyone for himself. God for us all. The devil take the hindmost”. Ostensibly, this is the ideology of neoliberalism which dares the national democratic state to emasculate itself.

The nexus of the super-rich black capitalists, big monopoly capital and the unscrupulous political demagogues is problematic. The natural and material resources that are presented to the people are being snatched by this nexus. It has contributed immensely in people losing faith in the ANC. The propensity to manipulate the developmental state into a predatory state is also troublesome. All of these demonstrate that the term “patriotic bourgeoisie” is a far more objective reality. Big capital and the black bourgeoisie are not held accountable by the state, but, in turn, hold the state accountable to certain sinful performance standards. In private, this class appropriates gains and profits at an enormous cost to the people.

The majority of our people, especially the poor, look to the ANC to provide solutions to the problems of our country; but, the ANC is held hostage by this nefarious nexus.

The era after 1994 has opened the membership of the ANC to new cadres who had little or no understanding to the values and principles of the ANC. The 1994 Conference in Bloemfontein tried to address this matter and how these new members could be inducted. The 50th Conference of the ANC in Mahikeng in 1997 also tried to address the matter of organisational renewal. This was propelled by the emerging negative tendencies of careerism, cor- ruption, gatekeeping, buying of ANC membership and settlement of disputes in courts by ANC members against the ANC.

This phenomenon is now rampant in the organisation. For example, in the North West Province there are more than four (4) litigations in the High Courts and one (1) in the Constitutional Court. All of these, in one year and within a period of 4 months only. The North West-ANC is kept busy in the courts instead of rebuilding itself and ameliorating the destitution of our people from inequality, poverty and unemployment.

The National General Council (NGC) of 2000 in Port Elizabeth, attempted to modify a cadre of the ANC into an agent of change. The philosophy behind this resolution was to aggressively challenge the venom of greed within the ANC structures. The Stellenbosch Conference of 2002, tried to inculcate a revolutionary culture of high discipline and high moral conduct amongst cadres of the ANC. This resolution was taking cognisance of the generation of new members within the ANC who saw the ANC as a springboard for the accumulation of wealth, greed and self-enrichment. The 2007 Polokwane Con- ference established a new monitoring and evaluation policy for the deployees of the ANC and put emphasis on accountability to the ANC. The 2012 Mangaung Conference crafted a comprehensive organizational renewal document that attempted to lessen the social distance between the deployees of the ANC from society and the organisation itself.

The 2015 NGC of the ANC resolved on the establishment of the Integrity Committee of the ANC as a way of dealing with corruption and nepotism. The 2017 ANC Conference in NASREC provided more powers to the Integrity Committee to monitor performance standards by deployees of the ANC. Such monitoring would make accountability obligatory and recall deployed cadres when the need arose. The blemishes that have attacked the moral standing of the ANC in society are corruption, elitism, putrefaction of factionalism, nepotism, arrogance and social distance by deployed comrades in the levers of state power and sometimes in private sector. The loss of support of the ANC within the middle class or stratum and sections of the intelligentsia is a stain on the soul of the ANC.

The weakness of leadership from the top and its ripple effects on the lower structures of the organisation is part of the challenges that affect the organisational existence of the ANC. Giving more powers to the Integrity Committee, to make cadres of the ANC accountable and provide consequence management will, indeed, contribute to the renewal of the ANC.

Selflessness, collective leadership, discipline, justice, temperance, courage, wisdom and magnanimity should be the catalysts that define the renewal of the cadre of the ANC. The renewed, modernised and united ANC, as a disciplined force of the left, is what the people hunger for. An anathema of this social discourse is rampant capitalism and the corrupt networks of factionalism and patronage.

President Kwame Nkurumah of Ghana (1909-1972) astutely manifests: “we need to bring order and unity within the democratic framework and establish a firm base for our national development. We are fighting to construct and not destroy. A young state has to work doubly hard, has to deny itself many of the trimmings that have become the accepted norm in other nations.” Verily, we need to bring order and unity in the ANC and continue with our national task of building a national democratic society. But our immediate task is: “Unity through renewal of the ANC”. We face this 55th National Conference of the ANC with such renewed resolve.

Apology

A different article was attributed to the author and this heading on 20 December 2022. We wish to apologise profusely for the error.