* *
“*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**
* *
Many of us continue to* *contemplate about what ought to be decisively done
about the progressing state of decay of ethos and trend of the subversion
of our organizational culture within our beloved ANC and alliance. We do
this not because we are some blinded loyalists or wishing to live a life of
a career politician one day but because like ‘Oom Gov’ {cde Govan Mbeki} we
believe this organization gives us a real collective ability to solve the
problems of the people and serve the people.
In the same light, many level headed people inform us that the former
principled and glorious ANC (and liberation movement) had long transformed
into a different animal characterized by careerism, corruption,
factionalism, opportunism, ill-discipline, indecisive leadership, slate
voting and just deep-seated rot*.* Fortunately or otherwise the very same
challenges or problems have long been recognized by the ANC. For example is
some shape or form these challenges have been highlighted within political
and organizational reports Mafikeng in 1997, Stellenbosch in 2002,
Polokwane in 2007 and respective National General Councils (NGCs).
The closest decisive moment in this timeline in attempting to deal with
these challenges, it was when the Polokwane conference made the clarion
call for renewal and the year 2010 NGC that dealt extensively with the need
to take serious steps to reverse negative tendencies that are eroding the
political integrity and moral standing of the ANC among our people. However
even now towards the June 2012 Policy Conference, the organizational
renewal document is part of the discussion documents to be tabled. The
worrying part about how this matter has been handled is that the document
is failing to decisively outline the fundamental causes of this decay and
provide a clear coherent approach of correcting the tendency; instead it
continues to emphasis the symptoms.
The key theme of this piece is about reflecting on factors that might be
hindering the ANC towards curbing and reversing the rot.
One of the pitfalls I have witnessed within the attempts by the ANC to deal
with this issue has been the inclination that this subversion of our
organizational culture is a function of a lack of political education or it
can attributed to specific individuals who hold leadership positions. In
this regard, Steven Friedman outlines that a more insightful outlook
on the ANC’s
crisis, is to see it as a crises with several dimensions, all of which can
be traced back to the difficulties of moving from liberation movement to
party of government.
By far the most serious being what we call ‘sins of incumbency’- the
temptations of wealth. The combination of the objective conditions of
governing, which provided a reasonable avenue for many to climb the social
ladder and the inadequacy of the ANC to effectively manage leadership
transitions and deployments radically contributed to the decay. But the
ultimate manufacture of the decay that we are experiencing now has to be
the influence of money in our politics and lack of organizational rules on
how to curb this reality.
As I had stated before that the 2010 NGC has been the only conference thus
far which took time to robustly discuss organizational renewal, however one
cannot help but notice the sheer limited outlook of resolutions taken by
the NGC on the topic. If we agree that the entrenchment and influence of
money in our politics is probably the most dangerous threat to internal
democracy and the survival of the ANC as we know it, then we would agree
that the NGC’s solution of setting an integrity commission, instead of
forcing politicians (and political parties) to reveal their sources of
funding was rather inherently limited and weak.
The setting up of some integrity commission is limited because the same
commissioners might be accused of being politically bias or tainted. The
challenge with the ANC today is that the contest for positions is
heightened and even violent in some parts of the country. As you know by
now these contestations are not about differing ideologies or policy
positions but access to financial sponsors for positions to make money. The
damaging implications of this trend is that in policy debates some may
distort our intentions for their own ends i.e. Proposals which claim to
seek a redistribution of wealth and a sharp reduction in poverty are very
often attempts to enrich some of their advocates (e.g. nationalization of
mines).
In essence, as we are preoccupied with discussing deliberate distortions in
our policies, this grouping is stalling the advancement of genuine working
class struggles and compromising the ability of the ANC to uplift the
quality of life of all South Africans. Out of these observations, a
reasonable question may arise whether is the ANC be capable and adequate to
reverse this rot? In this regard, I am of a firm view that for the ANC to
have any chance of self-correcting the decay it ought to literally
challenge the real forces at play, which is forces of greed, which are
generally anti-democratic and opposed them head-on.
However, the difficulty is that the some within leadership which we always
expect to be beyond reproach is tainted in the very same factional battle.
It is against this background that for us to make meaningful strides we
need rules, which will be directly meant at getting rid personalized
financial sponsorship of comrades. We need our internal lifestyle audits
for leadership…this is the critical point wherein leadership ought to lead
by example, if we are to stand any chance of reversing the so-called
“credibility crises”. This is the sphere in which we are seeing DA and
their twins in liberal camouflaged (some NGOs) seem to be rallying support
and growing confidence in their propaganda.
*Aphiwe Bewana *
--
"It is our aspiration and our aim that everyone should become socially
conscious and effective; but to achieve this end, it is necessary to
provide all with the means of life and for development".
--
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