Mogomotsi Mogodiri
Pretoria - The mood including the booing and heckling through the Wenzen’ uZuma song that prevailed at the recently held provincial conference of the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal forced my hand to write about the disturbingly institutionalised factions within and across the organisation’s structures.
I had intended to write on another subject, but the events of some of the conferences that epitomise the extent to which the ANC has morphed from being a liberation movement into a political party within a neo-liberal set-up made it difficult for me to ignore making a deep reflection on this appalling state of affairs.
In fact, the raging shouting matches are a false debate devoid of revolutionary content and substance, let alone political direction and clarity.
The debate seems to be centred on form and optics instead of dwelling on the root cause of the malaise. This infatuation with vagueness might, once again, lead to a misdiagnosis of the real issues.
If the weird naming of these factions was not as pronounced and “acceptable” within and across ANC ranks, one would have easily dismissed it as political satire that is part of the silly season of elective conferences.
Alas! It is a sad reality of our time and it is fast becoming part of the DNA of the ANC. It is against this backdrop that even the names of factions and their conduct should be viewed.
The extent of the entrenchment and institutionalisation of factionalism seems to suggest that unless you embrace and align with a faction, the chances of one occupying a leadership position in the ANC are nil.
But how did we arrive here? Maybe the starting point should be to acknowledge that factions, caucuses, cabals (remember the UDF) and whatever names you attach to these groupings are as old as politics itself.
Lived experiences also point to people gravitating towards those with whom they share common views or interests. This happens in organisations be it at work, politics and so forth.
The manner in which we view and approach these interactions and organisational dynamics determines whether they become healthy or detrimental to an organisation.
If those involved place the interests of the organisation above their own, these groupings can contribute to the well-being and growth of the organisation.
However, they can become extremely destructive and toxic when they utilise the organisation and its machinery for selfish and nefarious intentions.
It is common cause that the ANC has experienced, and is experiencing, its fair share of factionalism and rogue behaviour. But it has also benefited from groupings and generations that contributed to its growth and influence.
The generation of the 1940s invigorated and injected militancy into the ANC. Hence, the shift from going cap in hand to appeal for “accommodation” by the British colonialists. The Defiance Campaign remains the flagship of that generation’s mission to reposition the ANC in pursuance of true liberation.
In the 1960s and in the midst of heightened repression, bannings, detentions, imprisonments and life in exile, a historic intervention was made by a generation or grouping led by the late chief of staff of Umkhonto we Sizwe, Chris Hani, when discontent and demoralisation were settling in within the ranks of the people’s army.
As a result, the first National Consultative Conference was held in Morogoro, Tanzania, where a brutal and honest assessment of the ANC and MK’s state of affairs and the execution of the Struggle was undertaken.
The introspection and self-reflection were followed by the adoption of a programme of action, with the late president of the ANC, Oliver Tambo, summing up the conference with these words: “This is the order to our leaders; to all of us. The order that comes from this conference is: Close Ranks and Intensify the Armed Struggle!”
Then there’s the 1970s generation that “reawakened the sleeping political giants” by galvanising and mobilising the youth and other sectors of society against apartheid colonialism.
The generation of young lions of the 1980s played a pivotal role in rendering the country ungovernable and the apartheid colonial system unworkable.
Rudimentary organs of people’s power, including street committees and self-defence units, were established in pursuance of the objectives of the national democratic revolution.
The striking feature of all these generational missions is their inclusive and unifying character. At no stage did these generations think that they alone could defeat the enemy or lead on their own.
Fast-forward to today, and the ANC, while in government, is fragmented, inward looking, detached from its constituency and repurposed by factions. There is a sense that the party is on autopilot, with its moral compass long lost and its historic mission forgotten or having gone off the rails.
Talking to a friend, he emphatically argued that the ANC is not on autopilot, but is in freefall. His argument is that a plane on autopilot can still land safely, but the one in free fall is bound to crash.
Anyway, the ANC is gripped by an ever-deepening existential crisis with a leadership that is proving to be out of its depth, or disinterested, or simply having other interests with its focus somewhere other than fixing what is wrong with the organisation.
What do ANC members do and say in response to this existential crisis?
Instead of undertaking an honest self-reflection like the generations before us, we dig deeper while in a dark, deep hole already.
Denialism, rhetoric, dishonesty and worse still, factionalism, become our refuge.
At best, we pretend that “all is well” and it’s business as usual and convene conferences simply to tick boxes while getting further divided. At worst, we balkanise the organisation under the guise of “lobbying” in order to occupy vantage positions at the “looting trough”.
ANC members seem to see no wrong in neglecting issues like illegal immigration, crime and poor service delivery. They would rather focus and expend a lot of energy on composing and rehearsing songs that are sung at conferences and elsewhere. Worse still, they brand their factions with names like Ankole, Panya Panya, Adiwele, Taliban, Mapogo and so forth.
In public relations and political terms, everything is in a name. A name reflects who you are and what you stand for even before you utter a word. Some of these names have shameful social or political connotations.
Not that I accept or condone factions, but why are we proud to be called Ankoles, for instance? In Uganda and other countries, farmers take pride in breeding and making a living out of them.
Not in our country, given the notoriety that they have gained due to the reported burglary and the alleged cover-up of criminality that took place at President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala farm two years ago, the ongoing investigations notwithstanding.
Then there’s Adiwele. In political terms, what does it mean or stand for? I have read a few writings about it, but I am battling to get its political essence except that it is a faction that contested at the ANC Gauteng conference, and it has now turned itself into “a movement aimed at a generational takeover”, if those who have been writing on its behalf are to be believed.
If indeed it is a movement, the question then arises: why a movement within an organisation?
Panya Panya: Is it a car indicating a desire to turn, and where it is taking us? It’s not clear for now.
Lately there’s the Taliban. Even though they fought against their imperialist masters, they have not covered themselves in glory, especially regarding their gender record.
The less said about Mapogo the better because there isn’t, nor has there ever been, anything political about the name. For the ANC to extricate itself from the existential crisis that is gripping it, there needs to be a thorough introspection as happened at Morogoro and Kabwe.
The party needs to reimagine itself and rediscover its moral compass and revolutionary path. It must also guard against the new-found populism, irritating infantile disorder, sloganeering, adventurism and demagogy.
The optics don’t look good for the ANC, and its members can assist in improving its political fortunes by steering well clear of internecine factional battles and calling themselves names that are alien and even offensive to its constituencies.
Hopefully, the upcoming conferences, including the national policy conference, will be seized with substantive issues affecting not only ANC members but also the country.
This will go a long way in restoring the ANC’s relevance while allowing it to play its role as leader of society.
iANC ayisafani (the ANC is no more the same). It has been repurposed to serve nefarious and self-serving agendas, but it needs to be reclaimed, repositioned and returned to its original mission of being an agent for genuine decolonisation.
Pretoria News