ANC at a crossroads as PECs compete in leadership stakes
Constitutional delinquency in pursuance of self-serving goals is counter-productive
THE break-neck speed at which some of the ANC provincial executive committees (PECs) are competing against one another to pronounce their unmandated leadership preferences leading up to the ANC national conference this December is a matter of grave concern, especially for an organisation that claims to be “renewing” itself.
This ill-discipline is not only annoying, but also divisive, and runs against the ethos and established norms of the ANC. More worrying is the propensity to jump the gun and pronounce elitist leadership preferences when only a handful of branches have convened to deliberate on the national conference and preferred outcomes, including the fit-for-purpose leadership during the existential crisis engulfing the ANC.
From where do these PECs derive their mandate to brazenly impose their preferences on the basic units of the ANC (branches)? Even more disturbingly, why do they act as though they are a law unto themselves, and thereby muster the gall to flagrantly violate the provisions of the ANC’s constitution and the recently published rules on provincial and national conferences, their shortcomings notwithstanding?
Talking about rules, the head of the ANC Electoral Committee, Kgalema Motlanthe, wrote a letter to the acting secretary-general, Paul Mashatile, warning the PECs to desist from what amounts to breaking the ANC’s constitution and rules.
The offensive PEC pronouncements give the impression that constitutional delinquency is being normalised, in complete disregard or blatant violation of the ANC’s constitution.
Furthermore, the ANC’s constitution stipulates that “at least 90% of the delegates at conference shall be from branches, elected at properly constituted Branch General Meetings”.
The PECs have no business to interfere with, or improperly, if not unlawfully, influence or manipulate these processes.
Branches should be given space and time to assess progress or the lack thereof since the last national conference, to diagnose the current situation and then make proposals for the appropriate programme of action that adequately responds to the challenges that the ANC and our country face.
It is only then that the branch can be in a much more informed position to identify the best among ANC members who can lead this change management programme. Jumping the gun by bandying about names, as some of the PECs are doing, is not only the highest form of ill-discipline, but defies logic, given that it is unscientific, subjective, divisive and self-serving.
It started in Limpopo, during the ANC’s 110th anniversary celebrations, where the provincial chairperson, Stan Mathabatha, unprovoked, felt compelled to make a pronouncement about a “second term” for the incumbent president of the ANC. Mathabatha became a party pooper as his comment became the story, instead of the historic celebrations.
We had thought that the Limpopo PEC’s stern rebuke and swift clarification of the matter – that their chairperson was representing himself when making that pronouncement – would serve as a lesson to others.
Alas! Other usual suspects, like the Northern and Eastern Cape, with Gauteng being the latest delinquent, followed suit.
Our obsession with personalities or names and what position our favourite(s) occupy is suicidal in the extreme.
We are preoccupied with which name “emerges”, without giving due regard to that person’s abilities and capabilities, knowledge, skills, reputation and delivery record as long she or he is in a particular faction.
Without any proper assessment, these individuals then make it on to our preferred slates because they have pledged unquestioning loyalty to a faction, instead of the ANC.
Gone are the days when leaders are identified by how loudly they shout slogans or act like sycophants.
The current challenges, brought about by the sins of incumbency and other malfeasances, including ill-discipline, arrogance and a lack of accountability, need a sober mind and clear programme that is led by capable and politically well-grounded members, if the ANC is to extricate itself from the ever-deepening existential crisis that grips it.
The illogical spin about “PECs providing guidance” does not wash as we
are aware of the state of ANC branches.
While some are functional, the vast majority are either dysfunctional or non-existent and are only activated for purposes of conferences, including leadership elections. The guilty PECs and fellow travellers should not be allowed to exploit these weaknesses for selfish and nefarious ends.
The insistence on holding an elective conference when the ANC is riddled with factionalism while on its deathbed, strangled by an existential crisis, defies any logic. Even those in leadership positions seem to be content with these fragmentations engulfing our movement.
If ANC members were honest with themselves and clinical in their approach to “renewal and unity”, they would have long realised that there is an urgent need for a national consultative conference (NCC) in the mould of the Morogoro and Kabwe conferences.
This much-needed NCC should be seized with an honest and thorough introspection on where we are in terms of addressing the first sin of colonisation – violent land dispossession from natives by settler colonialists and the horribly skewed economic patterns where a tiny minority owns the wealth of our country and perpetuates the persistent inequalities of poverty and unemployment.
Based on the outcome of this frank exercise, the ANC will appreciate the challenges it and the country are facing and then develop practical ways of confronting them.
The programme to be adopted should take into cognisance the lived realities of ordinary South Africans who bear the brunt of landlessness, economic exclusion and brute racism on a daily basis.
For it to be credible and relevant, the programme must clearly spell out deliverables on key issues like the expropriation of land without compensation, disruption of the current racist ownership of our country’s economy and rebuilding of state-owned enterprises, if the notion of a capable, developmental state is to find concrete expression.
All these should be coupled with clear timelines and accountability and consequence management mechanisms built into the mix. In essence, the national consultative conference should be aimed at reimagining our country’s developmental trajectory so as to open space for full participation by the native majority that is mainly black and poor, without excluding workers.
The NCC must emerge with a programme of action that will turn the tide in order to give hope to the hitherto downtrodden.
This will help the ANC to reconnect with the people and win back their trust and confidence.
It would be remiss of the national consultative conference not to prioritise the energy crisis engulfing our country.
Eskom and energy insecurity pose a real danger to both the ANC and our country.
The current, unprecedented rolling blackouts threaten our energy security and the economy that is still to recover from the effects of Covid-19 restrictions and other factors.
Unfortunately, every time people are without electricity, they are reminded of ANC failures. Except for outrage mainly on social media, there are no meaningful discussions and dialogues within the ranks of the ANC about our energy policy, Eskom’s failures and its impact on the ANC and the government.
Eskom is proving to be the most difficult test the ANC government has ever met, yet ANC members are obsessed with leadership positions without due regard of this crucial issue.
The absence of a serious conversation on our energy security that is led by the ANC is tantamount to the abrogation of responsibility. Hence, the NCC will have to put this matter of national importance under the microscope, and immediate and shortto long-term solutions, including the appointment of a competent and capable board and management, should be found and implemented.
Without exaggerating the relevance and appropriateness of the national consultative conference, holding it instead of an elective conference provides the ANC with a fighting chance to survive, let alone retain and even grow its electoral support.
ANC members need to decide whether they pursue a suicidal path of holding an elective conference at all costs, or if they see the wisdom of changing course.
The ANC is at a crossroads, and what members do or do not do will seal its fate as a potent, reliable agent of real change, or a shadow of its former vibrant self with more than a century of rich history.