'Purge the whole lot!'
ANC HEAVIES UNDER FIRE
TOMORROW, loyal and disciplined members of the ANC, representing the aspirations of millions of supporters of Africa’s oldest liberation movement, will launch a bid to reclaim our organisation from the marauding, selfseeking predators who have captured it and hollowed its soul.
As part of the youth-led and member-driven #OccupyLuthuliHouse, they will demand that the entire leadership step down and allow the veterans of our movement to organise a credible special national elective conference.
Never before has the position of the ANC as a leader in the democratisation of our broad state been contested. This position is not preordained; the ANC earned it through a century-long struggle against apartheid.
Through the actions and inaction of the current ANC leadership, this position has been severely undermined. Consequently, the hopes of the poor to realise the dividends of freedom are under threat. The movement has been rocked by rent-seeking, corruption, predatory politics and capture by private interests. This cannot continue unabated.
As members and the youth of the ANC, we are inspired by its rich traditions of political organANC. isation. Today, when the centre is not holding, we draw inspiration from the courageous campaign for the renewal of the ANC led by Chris Hani in the aftermath of the ANC’s first armed military operation, the Wankie campaign.
Hani and his comrades saw that the urgency of the struggle demanded a new normal; a clear political direction through which our people had to be organised. They also observed that the bureaucratic trappings were not going to deliver the much-needed changes. They petitioned OR Tambo and his leadership, and engaged them robustly.
Instead of ducking and diving, Tambo exercised leadership, and heeded the call for a much broader conversation on the ANC’s future and the struggle against apartheid. The Hani memorandum heralded the watershed Morogoro conference. During this, the leadership of the ANC took stock of its weaknesses and agreed on resolutions that guided it throughout its exile existence and drastically reshaped its politics.
Today, we have our own Morogoro moment. Something drastic must be done; something the current bureaucratic makeup of the ANC will not deliver. We need to transform and modernise the Regrettably, this will not be delivered by the current leadership; after all, they are complicit in the decline in the ANC’s fortunes.
We are convinced the national executive committee has neither the political will nor the desire to renew the ANC. They have failed on many occasions. Examples include the lack of political accountability after the Marikana tragedy; the inability to arrest the Nkandla debacle and the attempts to whitewash it; the failure to hold the president to account after the Constitutional Court found he had acted in dereliction of his duties and oath of office; the failure to address the glaring allegations against the Guptas, that they had offered Mcebisi Jonas the post of finance minister. The list is endless. It all points to inability, complacency or complete ignorance of what leadership requires.
As former acting president of the ANC Youth League, I served in the NEC as an ex officio member and I’m reluctant to believe that the NEC, armed with sophisticated internal research ability and competence, is not aware of the causes of the losses suffered during last month’s elections. Having looked at their record in resolving pertinent political matters, why should the members believe this NEC will reform or reconstruct the ANC? Why should we believe in their consultation processes?
These are a sham and will deliver no tangible result. If anyone is to find out why the political fortunes of the ANC are in decline, it certainly will not be those who caused it in the first place. Only a wider conversation among members of the ANC, not mediated by this NEC, can deliver a credible result. The NEC must step aside.
The responsibility for this introspection lies squarely with us as its members, especially the youth, who have much to lose. We have allowed the party to be captured by a horde of unprincipled, rent-seeking activists and economic predators. The impact of these new class forces on our movement has been devastating. All of a sudden people realised it was good business to be a member, and our branches were filled by all kinds of careerists, opportunists and philistines.
We therefore cannot fold our arms like Pontius Pilate and pretend we do not have a problem. Nor can we point fingers at individuals and argue that if we remove so and so, the problem will be solved. Yes, President Jacob Zuma is a big problem, but not as an individual. Individuals only make history in circumstances inherited from our own historical circumstances. Zuma remains the head of this predatory cartel, which is slowly destroying our movement. This is why we do not stop at demanding his resignation, but say the entire NEC must go with him. We admire that they’ve taken collective responsibility for the dismal performance in the elections. But they have to go, and it would be pointless for them to go now and offer themselves for re-election at the special national conference.
They shouldn’t be allowed to organise the conference and stand for any positions. This is the only way we can lay the foundations of building the movement anew. And this battle must start from the branches. The time has come to ask the critical question: Who becomes a member of the movement? And what is expected of a member of our movement? We are inspired by Hani.
Lamola, a former president of the ANC Youth League, is an admitted attorney and an ANC member in good standing
Party captured by a horde of unprincipled, rent-seeking predators