Ageism debate a nonstarter

The ANC national conference at Nasrec next month will be a watershed for the party.

For the first time in the democratic era, the ANC faces the possibility of electing a leadership that could end up leading the party from the opposition benches.

With this in mind, one would have expected the ANC to be a bit more serious in its proposals regarding amending its constitution than for some party members to impose the backward idea of ageism.

Among the proposals made for amendments to the party’s constitution is that membership of the ANC “shall be open to all South Africans between the age of 16 years and 65 years, irrespective of race, colour and creed, who accept its principles, policies, and programmes and who are prepared to abide by its constitution and rules”.

The amendment further says that South Africans above the age of 65 years shall enjoy full membership rights except being voted for in positions of leadership.

It is neither here nor there whether the amendment will even see light of day. It is bad enough that there are ANC members who believe such amendment is worth putting on the organisation’s discussion documents.

The ageist assumption that one loses their ability upon reaching the age of 65 is at odds with a movement that styles itself as the vanguard of progressive thinking. What is more, it is a betrayal of the historic essence of the ANC as a platform for all interests in society seeking some kind of justice.

It was for that reason that the party became what it calls itself today, a broad church.

This is not about age. It is about bigotry, which by definition is holding a negative perception about an individual based on their membership of a group, usually one where they could not have had the choice of opting in or out of. When a person is born it is totally out of their hands. They may lie about their age, as many do, but they cannot change the fundamental fact of their date of birth.

To decide that being 65 means that you no longer have the capacity to be a leader in the organisation would be laughable if it was not founded on the kind of discrimination that the ANC was founded to oppose. Shame on whoever proposed the idea.