Sense of disillusionment among Indians for ANC palpable
Many within party’s leadership tolerant of corruption
PROMINENT political leaders in the Indian community who once played critical roles in sustaining the Struggle against apartheid during the years the ANC was banned, are sitting on the horns of a dilemma.
Disillusioned with the current leadership of the ANC, they are in a quandary over how to approach the May elections.
As leaders of the old Natal Indian Congress, should they continue to show undivided loyalty to their parent organisation, once led by such acclaimed stalwarts as Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo and Walter Sisulu?
Or should they accept the political environment has changed radically over the past 24 years and it’s time for them to openly express their deep disappointment with the leadership of the ruling party as it exists today?
The differences in leadership between the old guard of the ANC and its present hierarchy was brought into sharp focus recently by veteran politician, Mangosuthu Buthelezi, leader of the Inkatha Freedom Party recently.
In an opinion piece in a local newspaper, Buthelezi observed how different the ANC of today is from the original liberation movement; and how different its current leaders are from the men and women of integrity who helped build the name and tradition of the ANC over the decades.
I spoke to several leading lights of the now-dormant NIC this week and the sense of disillusionment was palpable.
“What have we struggled for?” was the popular refrain.
Although the community makes up barely 3% of the total population, their role in the Struggle for democracy was significant and totally out of proportion to their numbers.
Although the records tell us that the historic Morogoro Conference in 1969 was when membership of the ANC was formally opened to all races, the involvement of Indians in the ANC armed wing (uMkhonto we Sizwe) began many years earlier.
In fact, members of minority communities were involved in underground ANC structures and were an integral part of historic events like the signing of the Freedom Charter in 1955, the Defiance Campaign and the Rivonia Trial, all long before Morogoro.
As former NIC executive member Thumba Pillay said: “There will be few who will deny that but for what was left of the Natal and Transvaal Indian Congresses, the Coloured People’s Congress and the Communist Party (SACP) after the onslaught by apartheid’s henchmen, the ANC would have been hard put to have established an underground presence in the country.”
In recent months, calls for the revival of the NIC, which went dormant in the early 1990s, have increased.
And this is largely because of concerns that the community lacked credible leadership to take up issues directly affecting them, such as their rights under black economic empowerment policies, racial attacks directed at Indians by leaders of certain political parties and recent incidents of land invasions in predominantly Indian areas.
Former NIC leaders say their current sense of disillusionment stems largely from concerns that many within the ruling party’s leadership have been too tolerant of corruption.
And, they say, former president Jacob Zuma bears much of the responsibility for the current malaise in the ruling party.
As Paul David, a former executive of the NIC, put it, many people had made huge sacrifices towards the liberation Struggle “only to be wasted at the altar of corruption and unbridled greed”.
David said NIC supporters “idealised” past ANC leaders like Mandela, Sisulu and Tambo.
“They were perceived as guardians of a tradition of integrity and honesty. But people like Zuma have done much to damage that image of the ANC, built up over decades.
“You must understand that many NIC members and activists were also part of the ANC underground and we had this idealistic picture of ANC leaders being honest and humble servants of the people.”
Despite their current indifference towards the ANC leadership, David says many NIC supporters argue that the organisation under the leadership of Cyril Ramaphosa, should be given a chance.
“After all, there is no viable alternative to the ANC. We must give good people like Pravin Gordhan (Minister of Public Enterprises) a chance to prove that his and other’s efforts to root out corruption and graft has credibility. It’s a strong argument.”
Is he optimistic about South Africa’s future?
“If Ramaphosa’s influence in the ANC grows significantly and the fight against corruption becomes widespread and profound, significant strides can be made,” he said.
It is quite evident that the ANC has lost support among minority communities, hence the party’s recent attempts to woo back that support, especially in KZN.
Pillay, who is a retired judge, points to the fact that prior to 1994, ANC branches had fairly strong representation among minority communities.
“They have all but disappeared today. The mass rallies of the ANC which draw hundreds of thousands of people are revealing poor minority community support.”
He recalled that when Mandela returned to the country incognito in 1961, he relied almost entirely on comrades from the NIC to facilitate meetings with the then ANC president, Chief Albert Luthuli and other leaders.
There were also several meetings that Mandela held with the NIC leadership when it was decided to take up the armed struggle against apartheid.
After the banning of the ANC, Pillay recalls, the NIC played an invaluable role in keeping the spirit of the Freedom Charter alive and the flag of the ANC flying, so much so that apartheid’s security establishment issued banning orders against a host of key NIC leaders. Pillay was banned in 1964.
“Rather than ban the NIC itself (probably out of fear of possible reaction from the Indian government to such action against an organisation founded by Mahatma Gandhi), the apartheid state adopted the tactic of decimating the organisation by rendering the leadership voiceless.”
Pillay and other former NIC leaders say that have encountered many enquiries from disillusioned members about the possibility of reviving the organisation because the community largely lacks credible and tested leadership.
Some members of the community were also under the impression that the NIC had disbanded, but Pillay set the record straight.
He said during preparations for the first democratic elections under the new order, an ANC delegation led by Mandela met members of the NIC and Transvaal Indian Congress at Shell House on January 19, 1994, to discuss strategy.
Madiba acknowledged the sterling role played by the Indian congresses during the years that the ANC was banned and their role in opposing the tricameral parliament and other race-based institutions offered by the National Party.
He said the NIC had never disbanded but with the launch of the United Democratic Front (UDF) in 1982, key players in the congresses were simply absorbed into the new mass movement.
But whether the NIC can be restored to its former glory is debatable.
Apart from Ravi Pillay, who is MEC for Human Settlements, and Maggie Govender, who once held the same provincial portfolio, others hoping to make the ANC list either lack credibility or are the usual “party hoppers” with little or no track record.
Is the NIC worth reviving? Pillay has serious reservations. “I do not believe it would be in the best interests of national building or social cohesion for the revival of the Indian Congress unless the revival has the blessing of the ANC as the majority party, mindful of the fact that, as is also true of other minority communities, it can prove an invaluable tool to address the peculiar concerns of those communities and regain their confidence and support in any election.”
Pather is a newspaper columnist and former editor of several newspaper titles in the Independent Group