Is the Alliance dead?

Human beings construct and re-construct their reality. Importantly, they attach meaning to reality. Periodically, they interrogate conditions under which they live in order to make them conducive to their wants and needs.

From time to time they assess and evaluate the impact made by prevailing circumstances on their livelihood. Society is perpetually in a state of motion.

What was relevant in the past may be irrelevant to the present situation. Organisations operate within a rapid changing environment, hence it’s of paramount importance for them to keep up with the pace of societal evolution. Political organisations are no exception.

Failing to do so, organisations may become redundant, irrelevant and locked within an obsolete conceptual framework underpinned by conservative orthodoxy.

Political entities that are trapped in the past tend to be intolerant to proposed paradigm shifts, and lambaste thinking patterns transcending party political and ideological dogma. This trend neuters intellectual evolution and innovation.

The latter is perceived as a menace to political traditionalists' interests sustained through the application of conservatism.

To stay relevant, an organisation should undergo self introspection and re-configuration processes to align its shape and content with new demands and needs. This trajectory may pave the way to organisational renewal perspective and a modernised global outlook. This may ultimately deliver an enlightened organisation with the ability to sustain itself in unchartered spaces. This approach may enable the organisation to better position itself in a highly contested political market. Strategies and tactics of the organisation should be informed by overarching conditions under which it operates in order to tilt them in favour of the broader long-term direction.

Kgalema Montlante (at a time he was ANC S-G) once made a remarkable and poignant point that the ANC alliance should re-think its form and content. He expressed this view when he delivered a constructive, open and frank secretary report on the state of the alliance.

The report made it unambiguously clear that the alliance was defunct. Alliance secretariat meetings could not adhere to their schedule. No coherent programme in place to guide the national agenda. By the look of things, it seems the alliance was secretariat driven and not organisationally driven. Remember, theoretically the alliance is the custodian of the NDR under the leadership of the ANC. If it is said that the alliance is de- funct, who provides constant leadership to the execution of the NDR? This leaves many questions hanging over the notion of the NDR.

A plus was added by the current S-G of the ANC Gwede Mantashe’s prolific reports (the highlight of the moment at the Mangaung ANC elective conference), that the alliance is organisationally dysfunctional. Montlante and the current incumbent Mantashe should be commended for their boldness to spill the beans on the state of the alliance.

Blind loyalists would have ice-creamed their reports in the name of defending the revolution in order to ensure that their hands are buttered.

Their heavy political clout has opened a gracious political space to debate the relevance and the fate of the tripartite alliance at this juncture.

Debates of this nature were suppressed through blackmailing informed by political myopia. Those who tried to bring the debate to the fore were vilified and labelled as anti revolution without even hav- ing listened to the substance and the cogency of their theoretical input. The adopted hostile posture militated against the enrichment of the body of knowledge. Divergent views on the nature and character of the tripartite alliance should be allowed to unfold free from trammelling factors.

This notion could face resistance because some may have used the current status quo unabatedly to preserve their dynastic interests.

The resuscitation of the debate may bring light to the public domain and enable the public to engage with the hidden dynamics underlining this phenomenon.

The sacrosanct status bestowed upon this trajectory could also be subjected to scrutiny in order to re-invigorate national discourse around this body of knowledge. Some may have used this platform for upward mobility in society. Subjecting the present trajectory to scrutiny could be perceived as a threat to the shortest route to the land of milk and honey.

The alliance is a socio- political construct created by human beings at a particular point in time in the evolution of society to serve a specific purpose within a particular context. We have now entered a new unchartered space that requires new paradigm shifts, new sets of skills, knowledge and expertise, innovation, reconfigured attitudinal and refined outlooks and creativity.

Political and ideological reorientation is necessary in order to provide leadership to the creation of a caring and people-centred society. The latter has become a pie in the sky at the moment. This demonstrates the fragility and weakness on the part of agents for change and transformation.

Tacit consensus exists that the alliance requires re-configuration – Cosatu and the SACP commented to that effect in a pregnant manner. Re-configuration, content wise, could mean different things, hence it’s vital that these organisations develop and present their conceptual frameworks on the new direction the alliance should pursue. Their overt articulation on the subject matter could add value to the ongoing unstoppable debate which might gain momentum in the near future.

Thought-provoking questions should be posed to test our political and ideological cognitive abilities without prejudice. Previous generations evolved organisational conceptual frameworks informed by conditions of the time. Descendants of previous generations should innovate in order to be able to grapple with conditions characterising the unchartered terrain. It’s only traditionalists and conservatives who want to take us back to primitive methods of doing things. Their dominance in the political space creates room for retrogression through hilarious doings and frivolous political narratives. This has become a dominant feature in the current political mainstream. Substantive issues have taken a back seat, and criminality has permeated the political mainstream.

Very soon, a synopsis will be given on the balance of forces within the tripartite alliance and the ANC in particular. Without any doubts, traditionalists enjoy political hegemony over other political and ideological strands in the political mainstream. Reports presented by the former ANC S-G and the current ANC S-G could be used as a theoretical departure point in taking the tripartite alliance debate forward. • Christian Mxoliswa Mbekela

is a strategic work consultant specialising in HR, EE and risk

management. He is a former Sayco NEC member and he was

part of the team that re-established the ANC Youth League. He

is currently doing a PhD in the Sociology Department at Rhodes

University. www.cmmmindpower.co.za