History repeats itself in the re-groupings from ANC

SEVERAL things that I heard or read in the news last week jarred me.

First, I read a comment made by former public protector Thuli Madonsela, in her latest reincarnation as a university professor.

She said that all along, BEE was bound to fail as a restructuring device because “one-size-fits-all policies do not work”.

According to her, they often brought about unintended consequences that proved to exacerbate the very problems they sought to solve.

Instead, she said, South Africa needed policies that would enable people to pull themselves up, giving them a hand along the way; instead of handouts that created a culture of dependence.

She said we had been creating inequality – with good intentions.

Then I heard that ANC chairman Gwede Mantashe had been shouted down by members of his own party.

This, because he is now one of the reformers, in this new phase known variously as Ramaphoria, the New Dawn and Zexit.

Such unexpected chronicles made me think that history was repeating itself –reformation was giving rise to a counter-reformation.

The Protestant Reformation was a huge cleansing project, driven by Martin Luther (German), William Tyndale (British) and John Calvin (French), among others.

These are usually called the Reformers, but they could have easily been called “the Stalwarts” or even “Save Christianity”.

They used similar tactics to the formations we know, shaking the church’s foundations and challenging its top leaders – and the way they were conducting church affairs.

They rejected the corruption that was implicit in papal fundraising by selling indulgences.

They exposed the patronage networks whereby kings and even emperors were subordinate to the Vatican.

They adopted revisionist beliefs and slogans like “justification by faith” and “the priesthood of all believers”.

To the 16th century mindset, these were radical notions that could be compared with “expropriation without compensation” and “radical economic transformation” today.

Since the merger of the Roman Empire and Christianity more than a thousand years earlier stretched the Middle Ages.

The phenomenal success of “Roman Catholicism” was based on a success formula that was decoded and adopted by Deputy President David Mabuza last year. He called it “unity”. Here’s how it works – you have to balance identity on the one side with universality on the other.

The ANC has had more than a century to galvanise its identity.

The Stalwarts and the Reformers were adamant that the Zuma government had betrayed these cherished convictions and values.

Now remember that Christianity had emerged from Judaism. But the Jewish faith was dominated by men.

Its identity was well defined, but exclusive.

It was when early Reformers like St Paul challenged the stalwarts and argued in favour of universality, that Christianity split with Judaism.

This happened again at the time of the Protestant Reformation – the Reformers rejected the change in identity that had evolved over a thousand years and called Christians to return to their roots.

The “unity” strategy adopted at Nasrec is like this – don’t lose what is sacred to the beloved ANC, but keep it inclusive as well. Or else there will be a split.

Like there was between Judaism and Christianity, and between Catholics and Protestants.

The truth is that Jesus was Jewish and Martin Luther was a Catholic priest.

Both were stalwarts, who wanted to restore the true identity that had been misplaced. But both also wanted to restore universality.

For example, the day of Pentecost was the undoing of the tower of Babel, which is where different language emerged.

At Pentecost, everyone could hear St Peter’s sermon in their own language and the worship that day was in all the vernaculars of those present – not just in Hebrew (as in the temple).

Likewise, the Reformers wanted to translate Scripture into all languages, and liberate the laity through literacy and education, so that they no longer needed the intermediation of a clergy.

But the Protestant Reformation was eventually answered by a “Catholic revival” – usually called the Counter-Reformation.

By then, too much time had passed with too many reforms (and associated peasant revolts) to try to call back the faithful to the mother church.

Its members had already departed and re-grouped.

Even though some aspects of the Counter-Reformation were aimed at repairing broken parts of Catholicism, the primary effect was to stabilise and reinforce Catholic practices.

It would be fair to say that the Counter-Reformation, especially the founding of the Jesuits and the results of the Council of Trent, slammed the door shut on any possible reconciliation with Protestantism or the Reformers.

A look at the map of Europe at the height of the Protestant Reformation is instructive.

Southern Europe remains mostly Catholic.

Northern Europe has become mostly Protestant.

Middle Europe is a chequerboard.

Expect to see this kind of admixture after next year’s elections in South Africa – the DA has its sights on the Northern Cape and Gauteng. KwaZulu-Natal seems to be launching a new party – a quintessential Counter-Reformation?

Or conservatives there may opt for the IFP?

Mpumalanga has always had the highest density of ANC vote, of any province.

And the middle provinces will be a chequerboard.

Even more so, predictably, after the 2021 municipal elections.

Just as many “denominations” emerged from the Reformation, we now have UDM, COPE, EFF, Agang, BLF and so forth.

Beyond the Protestant Reformation came the emergence of nation-states.

In fact, there was a symbiosis between – for example – German princes and the Lutheran church.

Expect Zulu ethnicity to become a new force – like Catalonia in Spain.

Shaking off “imperialism” is nothing new – for the political allies of the church Reformers, it was to loosen the hegemony of Rome over their nations.

Expect some censorship, too, especially in areas that support the Counter-Reformation.

Jacob Zuma has already started to warn people not to provoke him.

Expect the Counter-Reformation party to send out militant missionaries, not Jesuits but Jacobites.

COPE was formed by Thabo Mbeki loyalists.

It was launched at a congress in Sandton. The Counter-Reformation organised the Council of Trent.

Policy-wise, COPE is not that different from the ANC.

The real noise about policy came from another ANC splinter group, the EFF.

Its pioneering slogans about “land expropriation without compensation” and “radical economic transformation” have now been adopted by the ANC, leaving the EFF looking a bit like a preacher without a pulpit.

All that is lacking now is for these various groups to switch the emphasis from problem analysis to envisioning.

From the negatives that they are against, to the positive directions they want to go in.

It looks like Mabuza’s “unity” project is on the ropes.

Ramaphoria is only cleansing a part of the ANC, not all of it.

The backlash is regrouping because human nature has never changed.

‘ Ramaphoria is only cleansing a part of the ANC, not all of it