The 15 station interview
The President had 15 of the national broadcaster’s radio stations suspend their normal programming for more than an hour last night so that he could use the State’s ether to try one last time to hawk himself to the Polokwane delegates. Attempts were made to disguise this much publicised interview as a communication with the nation as a whole in order to justify the President’s usage of the state broadcaster. It failed.
The whole thing reeked of Thabo’s interest. It was blatant self promotion weakly masquerading as an interim state of the nation interview of sorts. You know, the kind the powers that be use to keep the voting fodder posted to make sure they stay with the program? But, judging by the looong speeches the President made in between every question the interviewer, Abey Makoe, read off the list of questions one suspects Tuynhuys handed him on his way into the studio, it was nothing more than an extended campaign promotion for the President sponsored by the state broadcaster facilitated by a puppet journalist. Even the questions that were designed to show teeth had no teeth. As usual Thabo underestimated his public’s intelligence. Poor Abey, he walked out of there almost as big an ass as the President’s “biographer”, Ronald Suresh Roberts, who, as a result of his specific association with Comrade Thabo, I am told, contracted such a bad case of political leprosy that he now mostly pays for his own lunch and couldn’t get the Tuynshuys gardener’s dog to dine with him even if he paid the mutt in pure gold.
Essentially, as far as content goes, last night’s attempt was no different than any other public address this President has made over the last decade. A lot of words came out of his mouth, but very little was actually said. And most of it was over the heads of the nation. I, for one, am still trying to figure out what exactly the point was of last night’s conversation with dear Abey? It was never properly intro-ed, wrapped or contextualised (not even to serve the pretext), but instead just floated onto the airwaves and off again like a whiff of tobacco smoke that has no significance to anyone who smells it other than making it known that somewhere in the vicinity someone is sucking on a pipe.
He should have spared himself the trip to the studio. On the ground, all but his most staunch supporters, remains untouched. “Dead man walking...” was the reaction of one young African commentator to the story thetimes.co.za carried about the interview. “Last night I had better things to do than experience the ramblings of the head of state,” writes another.
Similar reactions appeared all over the internet today and this sentiment is echoed in the dusty streets of the shanty towns by the majority of the few who even bothered to listen or heard it by chance because their regular radio station carried it or because the shebeen they happened to enjoy a beer in at the time interrupted their kwaito to air the broadcast. But altogether not many really bothered. The people have already moved on. Comrade Thabo’s window of opportunity expired years rather than months ago – the only thing that kept him in office unopposed for a second term is the fact that the party, as well as the Alliance, under the curatorship of the old guard made it a priority to preserve unity at all costs.
The old guard and the culture of unity
This notion of “unity first” is the main reason why the ANC did not develop a culture of open competition and election campaigns amongst contenders for positions of leadership, but opted instead for controlled leadership changes where a preferential candidate was selected and then elected “unopposed” as a sign of unity after all other contenders were quietly eliminated from contention. (Cyril Ramaphosa became the most notable victim of this practice when he had to withdraw his bid for leadership in the 90’s in favour of Thabo Mbeki even though he was the more suitable candidate. The country as a whole will pay the price for this outrage for decades to come if we do not manage to get ourselves back on track in the near future preferably under a Ramaphosa presidency after the next term or two.)
This practice enabled the so called Xhosa Nostra to gain and maintain exclusive control over the choice of leadership of the party for decades, precisely illustrating the consequence of a bastardised democratic process. This artificial process also stands in great contrast to the fact that the principle of undiluted democracy forms the basis that the realisation of all the other principles contained in the Freedom Charter, which governs ANC policy, rest on. ANC members are so used to this facade of unity that they were caught off guard when the first signs of serious division within party ranks started to show a few years ago. Most simply went into blissful denial. They have no reference as to how a party deals with campaigns of the kind we now see and the realisation that it is a part of the process no one can control makes them afraid – so afraid in fact that there is even an attempt to approach the court to prevent the Polokwane conference to proceed before the facade of unity is restored.
The effects of true democracy
What they do not get is that the safe, predictable, reassuring, comfortable environment of controlled leadership changes of the past that the old guard maintained is gone forever. What they now see is the working of true, naked democracy finally filtering into the processes of the party itself. The one thing Thabo said last night that stood out was precisely this. He said: “We need to accept the consequences of our own affirmation of the democratic process...”
It is a pity that many in the press chose to interpret it as a veiled negative reference to the prospect of a Zuma presidency. I truly don’t think it was. What I think he tried to convey was that it is no longer necessary or justifiable for the ANC to function in a way that is not fully democratic. That we will have to become accustomed to the way in which full democracy works and the unpredictability that comes with it. ANC members must realise that we cannot continue to preach and promote democracy on state level but not practise it in our own ranks. If it is democracy we want, then we will have to learn to live with the full consequence of it. Otherwise we will end up with some adulterated version of it that will defeat the very objectives of freedom, equality and all the other principles that we struggled for for all these years.
The bottom line in a transition from undemocratic rule to true democracy is that you first have to go through an all inclusive democratic election process which affords the whole adult population suffrage to choose their government in order that this democratically elected government can install appropriate policies and mechanisms that would result in freedom, equality, basic human rights, dignity, opportunity, etc. If the population fails to elect a government that will duly proceed to implement such policies and establish such mechanisms, they will not attain true freedom. They may at best end up with something that has the appearance of democracy but in reality is far from it. Freedom is not something that jumps out of the grass on a sunny summer day and shout hooray for all heavens to hear. Without unadulterated democracy we will not be free. That is why the principle of democracy always comes first and the rest of the elements that make up a free and open society follow it. It goes without saying that this should apply also on party level.
The old guard has made way for a new generation and as a result the party (and the Alliance) are going through painful, but crucial transition. Finally, it seems, the ANC is bringing their internal processes in line with their most basic principles. The procedural discrepancy that existed with regard to election of leaders was understandable in the light of our history as a banned liberation movement fighting against an oppressive regime from an underground network inside the country as well as from positions of exile outside of the border.
The situation in our pre-democratic past
Ideal succession processes within the party that are a hundred percent compliant with the principles of democracy and universal suffrage were for a long time not practically attainable or politically affordable to the party. It was impossible to get proper representation at party conferences in faraway places like Lusaka with the leadership and exiled members strewn all over the world and most party members unable to send representatives, trapped, as they were, inside South Africa where it was impossible to build the network of structures we have today as they had to operate in clandestine conditions and organise without being spotted by the regime’s network of askari’s that constantly scoured the townships for dissident activity. It was also crucial to show a unified face to the masses on grassroots level suffering under the scourge of apartheid to keep hope alive that one day freedom will come. Differences between leaders of the movement had to be contained and controlled for this reason and of course to avoid providing the regime with the ammunition and juicy propaganda material that news of division in the leadership would have afforded them.
We must also not forget that our role as a liberation movement, focused on the struggle for freedom and ways to sustain it, was much less complicated than the manifold one we have assumed since we morphed into a ruling party responsible for all aspects of government. (And one at the time without any practical knowledge as to how one runs a whole country.) More complication brings with it more occasion for differences to surface. It has become impossible to contain all of these differences under a facade of perfect harmony – apart from the fact that it would seem unnatural that such a large organisation can function without any disagreements amongst its leaders whatsoever.
COSATU, for instance, had to resume its true function which is to promote the interests of the workers. For purposes of the struggle these labour unions aligned themselves with the ANC and other organisations to become part of the liberation movement, but after democracy they had to go back to their primary role as representatives of labour interests. This often brings them into conflict with their struggle partner with whom they are still in a political alliance. It is an untenable position and at some stage the labour movement will have to separate itself from the ruling party somehow to avoid situations where during labour disputes with government they are sleeping with the enemy. Their support of Zuma during the succession war clearly illustrates this tendency to look for ways to make themselves compatible with their Alliance partner, the ANC. As a labour movement they had to object to the way the Mbeki government’s policies impacted on the workers. They organised strikes that paralysed government, they objected in every way possible, they fought and finally they backed a party presidential candidate whose leadership they believe will be more compatible with their objectives as a labour movement than the current leader’s approach. As a labour movement they cannot become anything other than what they are or drastically change the principles that define them, therefore they have to seek ways to change the ANC to be more compatible with them or terminate the Alliance.
The second phase of the struggle: progress deferred
The first phase of the struggle was successfully completed in 1994: democracy has been achieved. We have moved on to the next phase, namely the establishment of policies and mechanisms that would facilitate the transition into a truly free and open society where all people are equal, can live safely, and have dignified lives. It started out nice. The economy grew like a sap with it roots in raw sewerage, improvement was visible all round; the world applauded us and the rest of Africa looked upon us as a leader. But then something went seriously wrong. It started slowly, but escalated out of control until reports of achievements and successes became little islands in a dark marshland infested with predators where everyone was just looking out for himself, each one grabbing what they could lay their hands on. Forgotten were the masses that put them in these positions. Forgotten were the implementation of mechanisms that would deliver our people into total freedom that was supposed to come after democracy.
No one ever said this freedom thing would be easy, but it is definitely not harder than the first struggle was, so it can be done. Unfortunately too many late comer bandwagon jumpers who have no inkling of what was sacrificed in the struggle and doesn’t really care slipped into the works under Thabo’s reign. Too many struggle hands opted for comfort and self interest. In spite of some much publicised victories, in many respects our people are worse of now than what they were in 1994. Much of the original gains we made after democracy have now been lost. Trevor Manual’s and a few other’s achievements serve to disguise the failures in many other areas of administration somewhat, but we have lost a lot of the prestige we were anointed with after 1994. A World Bank study found that poverty is on the decrease in Sub-Saharan Africa, except in South Africa.
We need to stop this scourge which is fast becoming as damaging as apartheid was and we need to do it soon. The self interest and egotistical self indulgence underlying the current succession battle is threatening to render whatever happens in Polokwane irrelevant even before the conference has started. The anticipated Zuma phase will be just an interim, a transitional era during which it is unlikely that earth shattering measurable progress will be made in terms of the implementation of the second phase of the struggle.
However, if our new president can at least prevent any further backsliding, or even manage to regain some of the losses Thabo incurred, his reign will not be an entirely insignificant one as this may become the time during which the way forward will present itself – providing, of course, that our people will be prepared to practice some more of that super human self control for a few more years and give the ANC another chance. And providing that at the end of this interlude we elect a leader who understands what needs to be done in order to resume phase two of the struggle: the battle for freedom from disease, illiteracy and poverty and deliverance from indignity.
Otherwise this Alliance had better split up so that political merit can drive phase two of the struggle. Some people, it may seem, will only do the right thing under constant threat of replacement at the next election.
(Picture taken by Gerard van Eeden)
