Beyond the centenary

The ANC's main problem is that it has become hostage to its own history - refusing to adapt to its new realities as a governing party, writes S'thembiso Msomi

ON EASTER Saturday, May 10 1993, liberation struggle hero Chris Hani was shot dead in front of his Dawn Park, Boksburg home.

Within hours of his assassination, the country teetered on the brink of disaster as thousands of youths took to the streets vowing to avenge his death.

The fragile multiparty talks for a new and democratic South Africa were under serious threat, and a racial civil war seemed imminent.

The country's president at the time, FW de Klerk, was on holiday in the Karoo, and all he could do was issue a statement of condolences to Hani's family and the ANC.

But even if De Klerk were not on holiday, he would not have been able to do much to calm the situation. His was a minority government with no legitimacy in the eyes of the majority of South Africans.

What the crisis demanded was for the ANC and its president, Nelson Mandela, to provide decisive leadership.

They did not fail.

Mandela appeared on national television that evening to deliver a statesman-like speech appealing for calm and pledging his party's commitment to continued negotiations.

"In order to forestall outbreaks of retaliatory violence," Mandela was to write later in his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, "we arranged a week-long series of mass rallies and demonstrations throughout the country.

"This would give people a means of expressing their frustration without resorting to violence."

Instead of being swayed by the populist current sweeping through the ANC's rank-and-file, Mandela and his colleagues risked their own popularity by putting the country's interests ahead of the membership's desire for revenge.

The manner in which the party handled the Hani crisis, as well as its proposal of "sunset clauses" that were aimed at allaying the white minority's fears over black majority rule, made it clear to the country and the world that the ANC was the most well-placed to lead South Africa in its transition from apartheid rule to non-racial democracy.

As the ANC celebrates its 100th birthday in Mangaung, Free State, today, questions are being asked about its ability to provide the kind of quality leadership it demonstrated in the early 1990s.

As party conferences are increasingly dominated by heated battles over leadership choices, rather than policy, its hegemony over the next few decades - not to mention the next century - is increasingly in doubt.

But when more than 100000 party supporters gather at the Free State Stadium to join President Jacob Zuma and 46 other heads of state in the festivities, the internal squabbles that are threatening to tear the ANC apart will be the furthest thing from their minds.

The mood will be festive, as the party has a lot to celebrate about its achievements over the past century.

"The very fact that it has reached the milestone of 100 years is a cause for celebration. Globally, very few institutions reach that milestone. It is testimony to the ANC's endurance," says political analyst Aubrey Matshiqi.

Author and commentator Susan Booysen agrees, stating that the role played by the ANC in bringing about democratic change in 1994 should be celebrated by all.

"There has also been undeniable progress and achievement in government since the ANC came to power 17 years ago," she says.

Even Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi, a fierce critic of economic policies adopted by successive ANC governments since 1994, says there has been a qualitative improvement in the lives of the vast majority over the past 17 years.

"The victories under the ANC are countless. Our task is to multiply and consolidate these advances. We know that Rome was not built in a day, and as the ANC itself has said, more still needs to be done," Vavi said in an open letter addressed to Zuma and ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe earlier this week.

Among the more pressing tasks for the ANC in government is the reduction of the 36% unemployment rate, bridging the gap between rich and poor, and fighting rampant corruption in the state sector.

Although the ANC's electoral support remains unmatched - with the party winning every national election since 1994 - it is a party in decline.

Internal leadership battles, corruption scandals involving some of its prominent leaders and activists, and poor service delivery - especially at local government level - have conspired to rob it of the moral high ground it occupied when it first took power.

In recent years, the ANC's track record as a liberation movement that played a primary role in bringing about an end to apartheid has been the party's saving grace at the polls.

"Those who experienced racism appreciate the role the party played in bringing about change. There is a feeling of gratitude towards the ANC.

"But as that generation dies out, support for the ANC will decrease, unless the party appeals to a new generation," says analyst Mcebisi Ndletyana.

But even among the older generation, he warns, the ruling party risks losing support if it fails to improve their lives and "live up to the promise of liberation".

That the ruling party is in decline should neither be regarded as a surprise nor necessarily permanent, argues Matshiqi.

"No organisation develops in a linear fashion. Therefore we should expect that an organisation as old as the ANC will experience its golden periods as well as periods of decline," he says.

Matshiqi believes the centenary celebrations provide the ANC with an opportunity to reflect "on what it has become" over the last few years "and change direction for the next century".

The party may very well have another "golden age", Matshiqi argues, depending on whether it is able in coming years to remain a "leading force in terms of turning South Africa into a leading nation in a changing world".

Party critics doubt if it has the capacity to do so in future, pointing out that its current crop of leaders seem to be preoccupied with short-term issues, rather than developing a long-term vision for both party and country.

Even ANC national executive committee member, Joel Netshitenzhe, in a paper he wrote in his capacity as executive director of the Mapungubwe Institute in September last year, wondered if this aspect of leadership had not been neglected.

"In the ANC's history, the best among the leadership of the ANC have always asserted what constitutes a common golden thread: the emergence of a new civilisation in SA and the African continent as a whole," he wrote.

For Ndletyana, the main reason for the lack of such a vision in the ANC is that, over the past few years, the party has tended to put its interests above those of the country.

"One of the fundamental challenges for the party is to create a distinction between party and national interests. Mostly the party is too preoccupied with its own survival ... Over the last three years, the entire organisation had to focus on saving Zuma ...

"What is the broader vision? You don't have that today. In fact, the ANC has been playing defence and it has been reacting to issues rather than leading the debates ... They seem to revel in picking fights, rather than leading society," he says.

Hopefully, the ruling party will learn a thing or two from its growing ties to the Chinese Communist Party, says Ndletyana.

"Let alone its undemocratic nature, the Chinese Communist Party has been able to lead because it set itself a clear goal of modernising China. The Chinese Communist Party has its own internal contestations, but it is still able to lead," he adds.

The ANC's main problem, many political pundits have argued, is that it has become hostage to its own history - refusing to adapt to its new realities as a governing party, acting instead as a liberation movement.

For instance, the party still refuses to have open contests for political leadership, even though it is clear that this only helps to drive such campaigns underground and fuels suspicions and divisions within party ranks.

Party leaders defend this by saying it is "ANC culture" not to allow members to express their personal ambitions, but for party structures to nominate those they prefer for office.

But the ANC's history prior to the party's banning in 1960 is replete with examples of leaders who openly campaigned for office.

If the party is to survive far beyond its first hundred years, the management of the leadership succession debate is one of the issues that will have to be resolved urgently.