In adopting the 1996 constitution at its 50th conference in Mahikeng, the ANC entered a terrain of struggle it might have missed entirely. It could be overlooking an opportunity to frame it as a strategic pillar of its National Democratic Revolution (NDR), as represented by the wheel on its emblem.
It is questionable if the ANC was prepared for the constitutional democracy, which it won elections to preside over in 1994. Evidence in rhetoric, political behaviour, its relationship with the rule of law, the persistent stance that ANCness is the highest authority over the law and the growing pains of a prospective federalist multiparty democracy all demonstrate an unreadiness.
The ANC is not demonstrating the intellectual, philosophical, and moral readiness required for the constitutional democracy they are helping to establish. The main danger identified here is that, since 1996, and possibly even since 1994, without realising it, the ANC has increasingly become influenced by the belief that it “won the liberation struggle vis-a-vis a political settlement”.
This has severely weakened the understanding of the true nature, form and character of the political power transferred to ‘we the people’ as stated in the opening line of the 1996 constitution.
The transfer of political power was promised to have consequences for social, economic and moral justice in form, nature and character. The later demands for economic freedom in our lifetime, radical economic transformation and the reconfiguration of the templates of economic domination find their roots in the liberation promises written in the 1996 constitution.
Never before have South Africans, including those who led the ANC, and those who opposed it, functioned within a political dispensation that obligates organs of state to respect, protect, promote and fulfil the rights in the Bill of Rights. This obligation defines ‘we the people’ beyond those who have organised themselves as political parties. We are the market for their politics, and if we are unhappy, we show it in how we vote or don’t participate.
The battle for leadership positions has reshaped how politics of the liberation movement are run.
Beyond the freedom from colonialism and apartheid awaited our freedom from the tyranny of one dominant party governments, majorities that could not be dislodged from political power and minorities organised around chauvinist issues such as race, gender and tribalism. The facility of public representation that allows anyone who qualifies as a member of parliament to become the president of South Africa purely based on a 51 plus one majority has increased the prospect for appropriate leadership befitting societal challenges.
It is not going to be easy to get a president whose standing in society is questionable. It won’t be enough that he or she enjoys a good standing in their party. As the ANC NGC deliberates on the renewal of the liberation movement, one of the standards it should keep track of is that, beyond the NGC, there are smarter voters.
In the new democratic order, the ANC faces a post-liberation paradox — to either continue centralising the logic of its existence in its branches and members, or look beyond these and anchor it on voter approval ratings. It is no secret that this paradox is known and variously analysed within the ANC structures.
What chokes it is that ANCness, which as a node of political settlement determined political power, has largely escaped sustained critical interrogation with regard to what it has become. Leadership succession and contestation have become its permanent lens or vector of analysis.
The battle for leadership positions has reshaped how politics of the liberation movement are run. The deliberative, robust and revolutionary character of the liberation movement has ceased to be the preserve of its thinking self. Ideas that ultimately prevail are sponsored by the highest bidders. It has come down to the black Woolworths grocery bag politicking.
As the NGC is in session, we the people stand at the edge of a political lifeworld populated by rented ideas, most of which will come to rival and surpass what the true objectives of the liberation struggle were all about.
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