Asking the hard questions is key
Major setback or challenge? John Pampallis looks at the ANC after the municipal elections
LIKE almost all ANC members, I was taken by surprise at the extent of the losses we suffered in the municipal elections. The results reflect deep disillusionment among many who had previously looked to the ANC to fulfil their hopes for a better life. This should spur the organisation to ask itself why it is steadily losing support. Clearly the ANC needs to make some radical changes in the way it operates.
One would expect the leadership to see this setback as an incentive to look critically at the organisation and ask some hard questions. Instead, it is disconcerting to see the statement of the national executive committee (NEC) after its last meeting.
There is no real problem with most of what is in the statement; the problem lies in what has been left out. The statement acknowledges that many previously stated objectives were not properly implemented – but with no self-criticism over non-implementation.
It hardly says one thing that has not been said before – as if nothing fundamental has changed, as if we had not lost the control of four major metros.
The language is full of clichés and tired adjectives that have been used so often they have become almost meaningless.
We read, for example, that the ANC should “immediately and courageously embark on bold strategies to re-energise our structures and supporters”; that key structures must “take urgent measures to rid the movement of factionalism”; that the NEC calls for an approach that will “effectively deal with this cancer (ie corruption) without fear or favour”; that the NEC will “effectively deal with the triple challenges of unemployment, poverty and inequality”; that the government must “reprioritise the budget to give effect to the imperatives of the NDP and the 9 Point Plan”.
One cannot dispute that these things are extremely important. But we have heard it all before.
We need to ask ourselves why some of these issues have not been dealt with already, even though some progress has been made. And how will our approach be different in the future?
On a positive note, the statement sees the NEC meeting as “the start, rather than the end, of a continuing process of introspection with the aim of re-engineering the ANC”.
This process should involve the entire movement, including the branches.
I would suggest that some of the deeper issues that need to be discussed include the following: Why did so many former supporters vote against the ANC or abstain?
The statement does not really engage with this question. On the contrary, it alludes to the need to “deal with perceptions of the ANC being arrogant, self-serving, soft on corruption and increasingly distant from its social base”.
Really? Does anyone still believe that this is just a perception? The implication is that all we need to do is persuade people that their perceptions are wrong, rather than to actually tackle the problems head-on.
Does the membership of the NEC fully reflect the membership of the ANC as a whole?
How many NEC members can, based on current experience, speak for the rural and urban poor or even middle-income-sal- aried workers?
The ANC has made important strides to ensure that women are among its leaders and its public representatives. Can something not be done to ensure that other usually overlooked groupings are equally recognised and heard?
What is the role of leadership and how should it be kept accountable? The NEC decided to take collective responsibility for the poor election performance.
This is fine as far as it goes, but it is not really enough. If everyone is responsible, it actually means that no one is held accountable.
Surely the NEC should evaluate the performance of its leading cadres as individuals. They hold positions of great power and it is by their performance that the South African people judge the ANC as a whole.
Why does the ANC not seem to excite the youth any more? Plenty of young people do vote for the ANC and some do join. But there is no longer the kind of enthusiasm or willingness to do voluntarily work or serve the people that there once was.
Why have the minorities abandoned the ANC? For over a century, coloured and Indian people were an important component of the struggle against racial oppression. Today, coloured and Indian residen- tial areas vote overwhelmingly for the DA. Even a large proportion of the few whites who supported the ANC have shifted their loyalties. The ANC should look carefully at what has caused these shifts.
The ANC was once known as the party of non-racism. Can we still say this now?
Why is the ANC not leading the fight against corruption? Is it because so many of us are compromised, putting our own interests before those of the country? It often appears that the state is seen as primarily a source of personal enrichment rather than as an instrument for serving our people.
How should the ANC behave when in opposition as it now is in key municipalities? We don’t have much opposition experience and have not been particularly effective where we have sat on opposition benches.
The opposition has an important role to play in keeping a governing party accountable and in placing alternative policies before the people. When in opposition, what can the ANC do to promote equality, economic development and the struggle against poverty, inequality and unemployment?
Lastly and crucially, what can our organisation do to regain the people’s confidence?
These and other raise issues beyond our electoral performance should be considered by the entire membership.
Ordinary members in branches are close to people’s concerns at local level and must be centrally involved in analysing and resolving the challenges. This needs to be done soon.
Bringing the national conference forward to an earlier date is one way of doing this. Another would be a national consultative meeting; the understandings it reaches can then underpin discussions at the scheduled national conference.
In conclusion, after a major setback it is easy to become overly despondent. There is no need for this.
The ANC is still by far the largest party in South Africa and still controls the national and eight provincial governments. It has a rich and proud history, with vast experience and many thousands of loyal and dedicated cadres. By developing a deep understanding of its weaknesses and its challenges it can maintain its strengths and win back the positions it lost.
The key is to ask the hard questions, to confront the challenges honestly and to take the necessary corrective action. John Pampallis has been an ANC member since 1978