Builders not brokers

18 January 2012 - 02:10 By S'Thembiso Msomi
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Amid all the deafening noises generated by the yet-to-be-official ANC leadership succession battle, an important conversation seems to be taking shape within the ranks of the ruling party.

It is the type of conversation that is unlikely to hog front page newspaper headlines yet, but if carried out with the maturity and the brutal honesty it demands it will have far-reaching consequences for both the party and the state.

For most of last year the political situation in our country was pretty depressing. The ANC appeared to be repeating the fundamental mistake it made in the run-up to its 2007 national conference.

Back then, the entire party was so consumed by the raging battle between its then president, Thabo Mbeki, and his then deputy, Jacob Zuma, that there was little consideration of the many challenges that confronted South Africa in its endeavour to become a successful nation.

Instead of being engrossed in debates about the calibre of leaders the party and the government would need if South Africa were to take its rightful place in a rapidly changing environment, the ANC and most of society became obsessed with personalities.

Mbeki and Zuma were the political versions of Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates: if you supported one, you had to hate the other passionately.

As a direct result of this mentality, election slates - and not the leadership qualities of individual candidates - determined who was voted in to key positions at the conference.

No matter how skilled and talented you were, if you were perceived to have backed the "wrong" camp, you stood little chance of being elected to a senior party post or deployed to a key post in the state.

This scenario played itself out over and over again at provincial and regional ANC conferences.

The headline-grabbing noises being made now by a section of the anti-Zuma lobby within the ANC suggest that we might be headed for a repeat of 2007 and its disastrous consequences.

But, if you listen carefully, you will hear that, beyond the acerbic rhetoric of attention-seeking youth league leaders and the singing of the "shower song", there are voices in the ANC that are beginning to ask the right question: What type of leadership will the party need if it is to take South Africa successfully beyond her first 20 years as a free and democratic nation?

It is a question with which even the ANC national executive committee appears to have begun grappling. In its January 8 statement, read out by Zuma two Sundays ago, the NEC promised to "roll out" a "leadership development programme" for party members.

"This will protect the ANC from the tyranny of slates, factions and money, and ensure that at all times the organisation is led by the most experienced, most committed, most talented and best collective across generations," the NEC said.

Even more encouraging were reports that came out of a seminar hosted by one of the most active ANC branches in Johannesburg, the Bheki Mkhize branch, on Sunday.

Among the key speakers at the seminar were the party's Gauteng secretary, David Makhura, Public Enterprises Minister and former youth league president Malusi Gigaba, and respected ANC thinker and NEC member Joel Netshitenzhe.

Instead of the usual pro- or anti-Zuma rhetoric we've become accustomed to hearing whenever the leadership question is discussed, the conversation at the seminar did not revolve around personalities.

Party members were made to confront the reality that, as South Africa continues to change for the better and its communities became even more integrated, the ANC will find it increasingly difficult to rely on its past struggle glory to win elections.

According to those who attended the summit, Netshitenzhe stressed the need for a leadership that has the know-how necessary for the party to devise a clear vision for the country.

He pointed out that in China, most of the ruling Communist Party leaders are qualified engineers and are therefore able to draw up long-term plans for their country.

Other participants in the seminar are said to have argued for the ANC to abandon the election of leaders on the basis of the role they played in exile, jail or other terrains of the liberation struggle, Instead, those who were best qualified to take South Africa forward should be voted in.

The Bheki Mkhize branch's approach - of focusing on the calibre of the "cadres" needed to take the country forward rather than on personalities - should be followed by the rest of the ANC because it allows for frank debate without any of the sub-groups feeling that their preferred leaders are being attacked.

Only once there is a common understanding of what is required of leaders should the debates over candidates begin.

Another encouraging development at the seminar was the insistence by Gigaba and Makhura that young people in the party be equipped with the skills to lead a modern economy as sophisticated as ours.

A similar conversation took place in the ANC in 2000, when the party's national general council called for the development of "a new cadre". Such a cadre would not only be steeped in party ideology and politics, but would have an above-average understanding of economics, technology and the management of public institutions.

The "new cadre" was, unfortunately, swept aside in the clamour for power that characterised the run-up to the 2007 conference.

Party members should not again allow this important conversation to be drowned out by populist noises that hog the headlines.

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