DIALOGUE WITHIN THE PAN AFRICANIST CONGRESS OF AZANIA An engagement with Cde Lester Lewis’s letter to PAC comrades dated 19 April 2004.
I have decided to write a relatively long response to your letter to PAC Comrades. I do this with the hope that the dialogue you have sparked will be taken up by a number of comrades as a route to open up discussions on challenges faced by the PAC. I take up the various issues below in the spirit that discussion and debate among Pan Africanists will make the PAC move forward. Further, through discussions and debates inside the PAC, clarity and unity on the challenges of the national liberation project can be achieved. Introductory remarks I share your view that the PAC needs a to hold ‘a wide ranging review’. However I am of the view that the ‘wide ranging review’ should not be just about elections, it should be an in-depth post mortem on all facets of the organisation, the country, continent and the world we live in. One PAC activist has argued this point in his biography in the following words: ‘it’s sad that, to this day, we havent’ had a PAC postmortem of our struggle to liberate Azania. We as an organisation and as a country were too quick to pop the champagne bottles. The PAC ought to call a big indaba and honestly answer some hard questions. Is the organisation still relevant and necessary? If the organisation thinks it has to continue, what does it need to say to South Africans? What must it do for them, and with them.’ (Letlapa Mphahlele. Child of this soil. My life as a freedom fighter) For the start I will briefly touch on the strategic agenda of the PAC and follow with a look at what I think are critical structural and organisational challenges facing the PAC. This is particularly important if we take into consideration the fact that in 2009 the PAC will be 50 years old. And the question may arise: does the PAC operate like an organisation with 45 years of experience behind it? Do its members understand its rich history and do they in turn conduct themselves with maturity befitting a Party looking forward to 50 years of service, suffering and sacrifice? Has the organisational machinery responded to the new challenges confronting our society? Before delving into the issues it is important to point out that there are two challenges that need to be reflected upon before any review process is set in motion. The first one is a tendency by sections of PAC activists to wait until there is a perceived ‘crisis’ in the organisation. They will then move in and call for an indaba, which degenerates into a short-term agenda to remove the leadership of the time to be replaced with another set leaders. The new leadership will then be left to work without the support of the membership and the caucus that installed them until there is yet another perceived ‘crisis.’ The same caucus will emerge again calling for the blood and removal of the leadership that has supposedly failed. One comrade has referred to this tendency as: The seasonal activism under the guise of the "save the PAC campaign." This approach should be rejected and the future of the PAC should be driven by the active branch membership. I would go to the extent of arguing that any meaningful reflection on the PAC should pay special attention to branches as the core nucleus of the organisation. Secondly, another tendency manifest itself where in the PAC reflects on its challenges and fails to implement all the good remedies proposed. One comrade remarked to me that the PAC is like a patient who goes to the most competent doctor to diagnose his/her ills, but fails to take any of the recommended medication and therefore remaining ill. This is because action plans are never devised to implement all the good ideas and recommendations and there are no task teams put in place to implement the decisions and the leadership tends to go back to the business as usual syndrome. Indeed a reading of the recommendations of the Africanist Convention and those of several workshops held by the Party will reveal the wealth of ideas the PAC has but remain on paper. The PAC’s strategic agenda Before discussing the areas that the PAC needs to urgently address it will suffice to revisit and affirm the Party’s mandate. I will do this by drawing a few but poignant points from a discussion document panned a few years back by Cde Sipho Shabalala. In his words: • The PAC must be an unwavering voice, organisation, vanguard, promoter and protector of the African and Africanist interests in the country, must fight against the marginalisation of African workers, professionals, intellectuals, scholars, entrepreneurs, peasants, pupils by people of European and Asiatic origin. • The PAC must be an authentic indigenous instrument for true and effective decolonisation and be a party for an effective introduction of decolonising constitutional, social, economic, technological and cultural development. • The PAC must be a party of the powerless, poverty-stricken African people in urban and rural areas. It must use its structures and others in civil society to mobilise them to acquire political, technical and other skills to enable them to have access to the control of national and governmental assets (through distribution of new assets and resources and redistribution of existing assets and power resources) and the control of income generated by these assets. • The PAC fights for reconciliation achieved through constitutionally driven redistribution of social, political, cultural, technological information and expertise, and economic power to the satisfaction of the African indigenous majority. It fights against reconciliation that merely provides superficial respite to exploitative settler colonial relationships and which through omissions and commissions provides fertile ground for the reproduction of the past and existing settler colonial relations of production and consumption. • Within itself and the country as a whole to be an effective instrument against corruption, sleaze, nepotism, tribalism, clanism, regionalism, elitism and hostility towards educated members and an anti-intellectual phobia. (Sipho Shabalala. Preparing for government. PAC Bulletin from Parliament. June/July 1996) The following are the areas and processes that in my opinion require to be critically reflected and acted upon as part of the process of renewal and mapping the way forward for the PAC. o The PAC needs to institute a constitutional review commission. On membership of the PAC This commission should look at issues of membership. At the moment a person can join the PAC a week before congress and be elected into national office. The constitution does not provide for a period of induction. It does not provide for a mechanism to ensure that people elected into national leadership positions have a credible history of activism in the organisation. This has made the party to be vulnerable to infiltration by careerists and opportunists. In turn those who thrive on organised disorganisation have had an upper hand in the party. One corrective measure would be in the form of constitutional provisions. For instance it would make sense that all applicants for party membership must go through the procedure individually. As it was the case with membership of the Africanist before the founding of the PAC, an applicant should, at least be recommended by two to three party members. The membership form should be scrutinised by a party branch and be approved by a higher party structure. On the PAC’s political representatives in the 3 tiers of government The current constitution of the PAC has not responded to changes that the PAC has been part of over the past 14-years. That is, the constitution of the PAC does not provide guidelines on how its representatives in local, provincial and national government should be nominated or elected to serve in these institutions. In the last three national and provincial elections different procedures have been followed as if the organisation has no institutional memory to build from. This leads to tensions as comrades behave as if they are representing themselves. There are no guidelines on how the political representatives of the organisation should conduct their activities. The constitution does not provide for the establishment of caucus structures where in party representatives can develop coherent policy positions to be articulated in the various committees in the name of the organisation but reflecting issues affecting the primary constituency of the PAC. New representatives always start on a clean slate with no tradition to build on. There are also no guidelines on how party representatives should deal with constituency work. How the party should evaluate this constituency work. There is also no political education programme to train party representatives on constituency work and the general strategic agenda of the PAC in the context of parliamentary politics. Further, there are no guidelines on how party representatives should account to the organisation. At what point can they be recalled from office. And what procedures should be followed to recall comrades from office. The practice until now has been to remove comrades for opportunistic reasons leading to factionalism. Some representatives are removed from office at the whims of individuals. This in turn breeds vicious careerism and infighting. o The PAC needs to better co-ordinate its component structures. There is clearly a lack of coordination between the PAC as the umbrella body and its component structures-Youth, Students, Women, Labour and APLA Veterans. These component structures are represented in the National Executive Committee. However, in operations there is no well thought integrated operational plan. For instance, during the 2004 elections there was speculation by the media that the youth is not interested in the elections. Both the youth and student wings of the PAC did not come out to articulate the interests of the youth and campaign around youth issues. Instead after elections they issued a statement (Sowetan Friday April 30 2004) accusing the leadership (as if they are not part of the leadership) of failing ‘to position the party as a credible opposition geared towards taking over the reigns of governance.’ They were further reported to be calling for the installation of a ‘new leadership "charismatic and appealing enough to direct and re-focus the PAC."’ Remember the seasonal activists mentioned earlier. This youth leadership is further reported arguing that ‘they believe the party’s obstacles to glory lied in the leadership.’ We can only remind these misdirected comrades of the teachings of Kwame Ture. He is on recording saying (African) ‘people need organisation and not leaders.’ What Cde Ture meant, in his words: ‘… one of our problems is that we look too much to a leader to solve a problem…All peoples, all movements depend on organisation not on the individual…consequently, if our work is for the people, it must be built around organisations of the people and not around organisations of one person.’ (Kwame Ture. The Pan Africanist Perspective. Kwame Ture: For the African Revolution) Having made all these observations about the significance of organising we do not suggest that there is no role for correct leadership in building the PAC. Indeed ‘those in the leadership of the PAC must comprise of the most dedicated the most experienced and those who have won the confidence of the masses. (Ikwezi. On the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania. June 1978) Comrade Sipho Shabalala concurs, But to look for the ‘charismatic’ at the expense of experience, depth and commitment is a childish game the PAC can not afford. The women’s section of the party has also not lived to expectation. Statistics indicate that the majority of voters in the country are women. Yet the women’s wing of the party is organisationally weak and it has not given rise to a leadership that can champion women’s issues in the PAC and the nation in general. o The PAC needs to revamp its political education programme The post 1994 period has had an unacceptable vacuum with regards to political education for PAC activists. This means there is no programme that ensures that those who join the organisation assimilate its ideology and policy positions. This negates the directives of party’s basic documents, which clearly stated that, ‘we do not want a blind following. We want an intelligent, informed and politically educated membership…’ o The PAC needs to develop an efficient deployment strategy Linked to revamping and coordinating the party machinery is how the PAC utilise its activists. In its 45- year history the PAC has attracted to its ranks individuals with various and rich experiences: There are many founders of the organisation who are still alive and believe in the party and its ideas; there are the veterans of the 1960 Positive Action Campaign, there are former prisoners at Stofberg: there are former Robben Island prisoners; there are former exiled members and former cadres of its military wing-APLA; there are trade unionists; former activist of the youth wing then known as AZANYU. These various layers of leadership and wealth of experience have not been appraised and deployed strategically in the organisation. And the PAC machinery is poorer as a result. Their experiences have not been utilised as part of the PAC’s institutional memory. They have not been challenged to document their triumphs and failures so that the younger activists do not repeat their mistakes on the one hand and build further on the foundation of struggle they have laid. Cde Sipho Shabalala has argued that the PAC must be ‘a party that perceives the past as being rich in experiences (both negative and positive) and as a departure point for a better future. A party that recognises the contribution of different generations of members within the party’s development and underdevelopment (including degeneration). (Sipho Shabalala. Preparing for government. PAC Bulletin from Parliament. June/July 1996) The PAC today operates in the era of parliamentary politics. However, it has a large contingent of followers who do not want to be part of career politics. The party needs to create space for this membership to play a more meaningful role however small it may seem. o The PAC needs to revive its publicity machinery and intellectual production The publicity machinery of the PAC is at the moment very weak. This weakness manifests itself in different ways. A lot of negative articles on the PAC have appeared in press. Though it can be safely argued that the press tends to be biased against the PAC, however party activists have not contested these negative views in the context of the right of reply. For instance a lot has been said in the public media about how PAC ideas have been appropriated by the ruling party. PAC activists have not exposed this myth and clearly articulated the PAC’s views and strategic perspectives on the continuing struggles in South Africa, Africa and the world, which remain uniquely Pan Africanist. In the past the PAC published journals like The Africanist, Azania News and Azania Combat. Its views and general ideological line found space in Ikwezi. All these publications have disappeared from the scene. Again this means the PAC has no platform to engage and contest for space in the terrain of the production of ideas. The website has become a potent platform for archiving and reaching a wider audience. The Party has not utilised this forum to the maximum. In fact the Party’s website has not been professionally developed. It has also not been kept active and live due to financial constraints on the one had and failure to use skills from among the members of the Party. Nonetheless the Party has a wealth of archives that can make its website a repository of PAC ideas and history. The party’s involvement with parliamentary politics has necessitated the development of alternative policies to those of the ruling party. Over the years policy positions have been developed on Land, economic affairs and health. A number of other social issues have only been addressed scantly in the organisation’s election manifestos. This has legitimised the view that the party is a one-issue organisation. Cde Keke Hamilton has had an opportunity to express the following: ‘…I suggest that discussions around the formulation of a theory should take place in order to work out the way forward for PAC and effect a qualitative change in the PAC. That qualitative change is very likely to improve our image because it was tarnished by the tendency to substitute thought with sloganeering…’ (Keke Hamilton. The need for theory in the PAC) It should indeed be a truism to all seasoned party activists that ‘A political party must have a theory if it is to have a coherent set of policies. A theory will enable a political party to take an in-depth look at the situation in which it is operating.’ (Keke Hamilton. The need for theory in the PAC) Clearly, this links well with the earlier calls to revitalise the party machinery as well as the call for a constitutional review commission. The various secretaries represented in the organisation can be turned into the machinery for research and knowledge production in their respective sectors. The other option would be to provide constitutionally for an office like that of the National Chairman to coordinate policy development in the Party. The Party has a research unit. This unit needs to be integrated into the machinery of the Party and be provided with necessary resources to build on the positive work it has been doing over the years. o The PAC needs to restructure its finance committee and build capacity to mobilise resources. Funding for the PAC will be largely from its members. The PAC must audit its membership properly. And then negotiate an acceptable regime and method of soliciting constant contributions to its coffers. Consequently, the recommendations of the Africanist Convention on the finance committee remain relevant to this day. Rather than re- inventing the wheel it will suffice to re state them here: o The PAC needs to structure a more dynamic relationship with other Pan African organisations in the continent and Diaspora. In its 45-years of existence the PAC has forged relationships with individuals and organisations operating in other parts of Africa and the world in general. These relationships have not been harnessed to strengthen the Pan Africanist voice in these early days of the 21st century; these relationships have not been harnessed to enrich discourse among Pan Africanists; they have not been harnessed to strengthen each party or movement organisationally as well as in the development of cadres. Conclusion In conclusion I want to reiterate the fact that the PAC is not short of ideas about positioning itself as a dynamic political force in the Azanian political landscape. We need to revisits the various papers presented at the Convention of the Africanists, particularly the contribution of Professor Sipho Shabalala. During the build up to the PAC Congress at Umtata in 2003, Cde Maxwell Nemadzivhanani distributed a paper titled…Lobbyists for Dr Motsoko Pheko also issued an action plan. The PAC should legitimise the latter two papers as unmandated discussion documents. However, the process must be properly managed so that out of the discussions and debate should evolve a programme of action born out of consensus from the broader membership. And out of a congress mandate the national executive should systematically implement and monitor that programme until we emerge victorious. Ali Khangela Hlongwane May 2004 -- Sending your posting to [email protected] Unsubscribe by sending an email to [email protected] You can also visit http://groups.google.com/group/payco Visit our website at www.mayihlome.wordpress.com
