ANC divide exposed
THE RULING by the Pietermaritzburg High Court this week that the ANC’s KwaZulu-Natal elective conference was null and void, could spark a leadership crisis in the province, or it could force the ANC to deal with the widening fissures in the organisation.
In the wake of the 2016 local government elections and the secret-ballot vote of no-confidence in President Jacob Zuma, the ANC conceded that it was in need of some serious soul-searching.
It would appear that more soul-searching needs to be done to see how the ANC came to be so divided in a province it had considered a stronghold a few years ago.
Those who took the party to court and who later became known as “the rebels”, bemoaned the fact that their complaints about the way the 2015 provincial elective conference was conducted were dismissed by the National Executive Committee.
They believed they were railroaded into submission and that ANC provincial chairperson Sihle Zikalala had replaced Senzo Mchunu unlawfully.
The court agreed but those who had opposed the application may appeal the decision. This is not an ideal situation for a party that prides itself on dealing with such issues through internal mechanisms.
So where did it all go wrong? The first public signs of a split in the party emerged in the months before the Polokwane elective conference in 2007 which led to former president Thabo Mbeki being fired.
In the years since Polokwane the party has never fully recovered from what was a seismic political event and has become more fragmented, as power struggles play out from the highest levels down to its branches.
And it is these branches that will be crucial ahead of December’s elective conference, yet factionalism and manipulation of branch membership, gate-keeping and a lack of transparency have resulted in bitter infighting in some branches.
The ANC has acknowledged that it has become arrogant in its approach to internal politics and the judgment is a clear indication that branches and aggrieved members are willing to look beyond the party to resolve disputes. It also sends a clear message to those in the party’s top six that the branches may have finally realised how powerful they are.
For the party of Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu and OR Tambo, it remains to be seen if KwaZulu-Natal will attend the elective conference under a united banner.