ANC Today
*Cohesion in times of factions, money and sins-of-incumbency* *Aphiwe Bewana, ANC Today, Johannesburg, 6 July 2012 */"Sometimes people hold a core belief that is very strong. When they are presented with evidence that works against that belief, the new evidence cannot be accepted. It would create a feeling that is extremely uncomfortable, called cognitive dissonance. And because it is so important to protect the core belief, they will rationalize, ignore and even deny anything that doesn't fit in with the core belief."-/ Frantz Fanon
The fundamental question we have today is how do we programmatically address the challenges confronting the great majority of South Africans. In our attempts to comprehend the extent to which the ruling party is fit to govern; we also need to equally grasp the social condition in which the ruling party has been operating and evolving in. The ruling party has long reflected on this: "While it is correct to look at the traditions of the ANC from years of struggle, we should also acknowledge the new situation within which we operate as the leading organization in government ... This has thrown up new tasks which are in many ways of a different nature" (ANC: Challenges of leadership in our phase 1997).
One of the key challenges facing the ANC has been comprehensively managing the difficulties of moving from a liberation movement to a party of government (Friedman 2012). Moreover given the state of unreadiness in which we found as acknowledged by President Mandela at the opening of the 1994 Conference, where he admitted that "ours was not a planned entry into government. Except for the highest echelons... We were disorganized, and behaved in a manner that could have endangered the revolution".
The participation and being in a leadership position had changed from a sacrifice which would translate in harassment, exile, jail time or even death into a reasonable avenue for many to climb the social ladder. But even more profound has been the 'death of a cadre' (people changing the ANC instead of being changed by the ANC). Given this radical shift in social conditions, I am of the view that the explanation of today's subversion of organizational culture and organization's internal ills is fundamentally more than just a function of a lack of political education and leadership.
My conviction is that the ANC needed to structurally and practically re-assess its mode of operation as a whole in adapting to new realities, particularly in maintaining vibrant internal unity and cohesion. My premise is the same as the evolutionary science theory advocated by Charles Darwin which states: "It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change." One can assume the role of a denialist when we talk about these core challenges or one can be frank with the hope that we can learn and attempt to reserve internal damage being done to the organization; I assume the latter.
For the purpose of this article I have selected a few crucial internal problems that continue to haunt our beloved organization and movement. These problems are factions, money and sins-of-incumbency. Put simply, I am of a firm belief that most of our challenges within the party are manifestations of failing to conclusively deal with these problems. The ANC has long indentified these problems and made the clarion calls for organizational renewal, however little if any intervention has signaled to meaningfully addressing and reversing these problems.
For obvious reasons the depth of manifestations of the problems become even more pronounced towards elective conferences. As such, rational thought hints at the fact that if little is done to rectify the structure of our mode of operation (rules) to at the very least manage these contractions, then we have a serious problem on our hands. We should not allow a situation where the ANC is in a state of perpetual disciplinary hearings.
In attempting to fundamentally deal with the problems I have mentioned above, we need to conceptually characterise them concretely and identify conditions which produce or replicate them. In this regard, the 'sins of incumbency' can be seen as the temptations of wealth, 'money' as influence of money in supporting a person or policy view, and 'factions' which can be viewed as parties within a party. What is of importance to me is the nature and interplay between these unfortunate factors.
The general accepted notion is that these challenges exist as manifestation of an important contest for the soul of the ANC. Moreover, Prof. Steven Friedman importantly points out that the core issue is the clash between an antidemocratic form of politics and its opponents. The good professor further elaborates that a key tactic of this group is the use of strident nationalist rhetoric to justify a patronage politics that hopes to use money to gain position and position to gain more money. And those who practice these politics are hostile to the ANC's left.
Whilst this analysis may seem sound, it falls short of actually dissecting the dynamic nature of these 'factions'. Experience in Polokwane showed us that it is always likely some elements which constitute one faction to sway to the other side when it is convenient to do so. This therefore leads to some conclusion that our factions are not rigid and static but can be heavily influenced by the balance of forces of the day.
This issue should not only be limited to the fact that these factions do not differ on ideological or policy direction per se but what influences their actions. This ought to be one of the most troublesome tenets of how our factions operate. The issue is that the very same faction that opposes antidemocratic practices and use of money in our politics is not inherently immune from committing the same errors it opposes if that meant winning conference.
One of the fundamental concepts which theoretically bind the two problems is determining what is of personal interest versus organizational interest and how does the organization thus set up rules that enforces a clear mode of operations. Within the ANC there are now two strands of thought in this regard with its own implications. One view is advocating for the organization striving for some convergence between personal and collective interests whereas another view warrants an individual person's interests should be superseded by those of the organization.
If we also agree that to larger extent factions are produced or replicated by personal interests over-shadowing those of the organization, then it stands to reason that in line with its traditional roots the ANC ought to jealously defend the latter perspective and formulate rules to enforce it. The change needed should be based on structural rules rather than on rallying or only relying on leadership to one day rise above the 'sins of incumbency', 'influence of money' and 'factions' in which they are inherently entangled to. These problems manifest themselves in a lot of dimensions which in essence derail the organization from programmatically addressing the challenges confronting the great majority of South Africans.
I do believe that one of the useful areas in which the ANC can attempt to formulate a new set of rules would be how it manages leadership transitions, managing manifestations of problems I have mentioned above. What is true is that the current system {mode of operation} is not coping with the new realities within which the ANC finds itself. The ANC needs to re-assess how it elects its leadership. Currently after five years a small fraction of the ANC membership from branches gather to a national congress to resolve on the policy path and elect leadership.
Whilst this is necessary and essential in ANC life, I do believe in harsh factional times it will forever reduce the capacity of the organization to robustly engage and resolve on policy to address the challenges confronting the great majority of South Africans. Energies will be spent on leadership issues, of which I am not arguing are mutually exclusive in any way.
I do believe the main role of congress is to agree on a policy and how it will be effectively implemented. The ANC ought to make that the core business of congress and elections be done at branch level, wherein all the members will vote and have a direct say in who leads it. The argument is simple, the current system that we have was appropriate for the struggle times when the ANC was harassed and exiled and banned. It was appropriate to convene 'consultative conferences' using proportional representation to determine delegations and had to discuss and elect leadership in one event. But it now poses a serious challenge to cohesion in the new social conditions (i.e. vastness of ANC, diverse and factional interests in ANC, and winning conference at all cost etc.)
We are observing that it is forever a difficulty to foster a healthy and comradely competition for positions, but the system is evolving into a brutal contest which undermines what the organization stands for. So if we are frank and honest with each other, we would agree that combining 'discussion' and 'election' tasks for a fraction of delegates (sometimes even disputed) in one congress event is problematic. The contestation, fights and disputes of marginalization and sidelining with regards to branch audits and delegation audits, especially towards a conference has become a norm in our organization.
These tendencies are chopping away the confidence our people have on the ruling party and more. The change in election task to include all its subscribed members has the advantages of deepening democracy within the organization and the nation and subsequently fostering participation of all members in the functioning of the organization. In that way the manifestations that get heightened towards the conference can be managed.
In simple ANC must radically transform its posture to reflect the organization than individuals, i.e. songs, slogans must place an emphasis on collective not individuals as in times of factions our rich culture and practice will be subverted for narrow factional gains and threatened our cohesion.
/"It is imperative to contest all factions for complete victory, so the army is not garrisoned and the profit can be total. This is the law of strategic siege."/ - Sun Tzu
* *Aphiwe Bewana* is an ANC member in Port Elizabeth Ward 2 *From: http://www.anc.org.za/docs/anctoday/2012/at26.htm#art2* ** ** * * -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] .
<<inline: ANCtodayNew.gif>>
