The ANC must adapt or die

Change must go beyond a reshuffle of leadership and, crucially, must put the movement first, writes Tokyo Sexwale

IT was a deeply disturbing call from my elderly father. It was about the Marikana tragedy - a massacre.

Like Nelson Mandela, my father was born in 1918. In 1939, like many young men his age, he answered the call to defend his country against the Nazis in North Africa.

My father is a man of impeccable principles and unquestionable morality, with proven credentials as a patriot. After risking his life for the British Empire, he and many other black soldiers returned home not as heroes, but as discarded lepers while their fellow white soldiers were showered with honours. That's my father.

He still lives in our home in Dube, named after ANC founding president John Langalibalele Dube. He lives in Thabo Street, named after ANC and Communist Party stalwart Thabo Mofutsanyana. Thabo is also the name Govan Mbeki chose for his famous son. Thabo Street produced five death-row political prisoners. All ANC.

The conversation with my father over Marikana has weighed heavily.

He said to me: "No son of mine should become part of a government that kills its own people with rifles, in the manner we saw on TV. Take a stand and leave the cabinet."

He quickly added: "I do not say leave the ANC. But leave the cabinet."

I'm always careful about arguing against this ancient soldier, who is well known throughout Dube Village as a tough disciplinarian.

My response was a measured one. I explained that one does not necessarily have to leave the cabinet to make a statement. I felt, in a modest way, I could still make a valuable contribution. I said there were good men and women in our government who were committed to making ours a better country and making a better life for its citizens.

He concluded: "It's your call. But you know my view. I'm ANC and I will die ANC."

As we hung up, I was unsure of any assurances to him. The conversation is imprinted on my mind. It was haunting. But one question bothered me: Could it be that I had underestimated the situation?

His shaky voice, speaking about Marikana, echoes inside me just as much as Marikana continues to echo inside all compassionate and right-thinking people in our country and around the world.

For he was not just speaking about Marikana - he was talking about the ANC. Our ANC.

The ANC that my father and I love so much was formed in Mangaung six years before my father's birth, with one mission: to unite the people in a new phase of struggle against colonial occupation and white domination.

The founding fathers who gathered 100 years ago left us a legacy in the form of an ANC that serves as a special vehicle for national self-determination, a democratic society and for freedom from oppression.

The ANC is and has been a unique and special vehicle that serves many purposes. It is essentially a defender, protector, fighter for the underdog; a refuge centre for the powerless; a thunderous voice for the voiceless; a parliament for the disenfranchised.

In a few months' time, the ANC will be returning to Mangaung, our cradle, to assess how far we have come over the past century as well as to chart the way forward into, hopefully, another 100 years and more.

Important questions have therefore arisen - questions that impact on the comments made to my father, and on my attempts to reassure him.

What kind of organisation is the ANC today? To what extent has it moved with the times? What type of membership have we attracted into our ranks? What quality of leadership is in our branches, right up to the national executive committee - including the top six?

What kind of material conditions prevail today that the ANC needs to study in order to take forward its work?

The ANC is in government and no longer an opposition, as it was 100 years ago. In this respect, how well is the ANC shaping up as leader of government? How well equipped is the ANC in managing the twin tasks of running itself while governing at local, provincial and national government level?

Is the ANC equipped to deal with threats and risks such as tribalism and factionalism?

Several risks can be identified as the ANC moves forward, but we need to look particularly closely at one issue that may lead to the demise of the ANC.

Although this risk does not have a name yet, it is a process that is clearly identifiable - the process of denialism, best summed up in the adage "there are none so blind as those who will not see".

The ANC is well known for continually re-examining itself through criticism and self-criticism to enhance its vibrant internal democracy.

ANC president Jacob Zuma said in his address to the June 2012 ANC policy conference: "To maintain its character, the ANC should be able to cleanse itself of alien tendencies which range from wanton ill-discipline to those linked to incumbency. These tendencies include social distance, patronage, careerism, corruption and abuse of power; ineffective management of the interface between the movement and the state; a flawed approach to membership recruitment and a decline in ideological depth among cadres."

Considering the points made by our president, and the broader set of circumstances in which the ANC finds itself, it is imperative that change should occur. Yet are we talking the same language when referring to change?

So far, the debate seems to be dominated by a conversation over a change of leaders. That may well be so, and indeed necessary. However, a mere rotation of leaders, which leaves the substance and content of the problem as it is, would not only be pointless, it would be an encouragement of the perpetuation of the deterioration of our movement.

This cannot and should not be allowed to happen on our watch.

We need a change in attitude towards one another and the electorate, for it would be a cardinal sin to underestimate the electorate.

We need a change of conduct, behaviour and discipline at all levels of the movement.

Change is required to win back diminished public trust in our leadership structures and the government we are running.

We need change to restore the credibility of the ANC within society and the government, if not the state.

We need change to recoup the losses we suffered in the last two elections, which saw our majority in all provinces bar one significantly reduced.

We require change to avoid a situation where 11000 service-delivery protests nationally in 2011 have ballooned to more than 11000 even before the end of 2012 - the very year of the ANC's centenary.

We need change in order to stabilise local government and where there is a danger of the ANC losing Mandela Bay. We need change to re-establish the authority of the state as a servant and not the master or boss of the people.

We need a change of tactics so that coherent strategies are clearly understood in order to jack up the performance of our economy, and not just to pay lip service to the intractable triple problems of poverty, unemployment and inequality.

Indeed, real change is needed to ensure that school-leavers are not destined for unemployment.

Fundamental change is requisite in our thinking to understand that fundamentally, whatever happens in 2012 at Mangaung, the real test is the 2014 elections where a frustrated electorate is awaiting leadership.

Our conduct at Mangaung and thereafter will determine whether confidence in us is restored, or whether electoral support will continue to shrink.

All these challenges about change can be summed up in one word: "renaissance". The ANC needs to slaughter its own ghost and undergo soul searching, introspection and critical analysis based on the fundamentals of its own democratic norms.

We have a choice between decline and demise, or renaissance and renewal.

As we make these choices, change must be accompanied by one word of caution: If the ANC comes second or last in Mangaung, then there shall be no victors among us.

Sexwale, an ANC NEC member, is Minister of Human Settlements. This is an edited version of a paper presented at the African Renaissance Colloquium at Fort Hare on Friday