Later this month, thousands of Zanu-PF members will gather for the party’s annual congress. The well-fed party leader and Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe will no doubt bamboozle them with demented rhetoric about what a great power Zimbabwe is and how his government is heroically standing up to the neo-colonial, imperialist, blood-sucking capitalist West. Meanwhile, all over the country, starvation and disease will take their toll on ordinary Zimbabweans. There will be the ever-present reality of repression as Mugabe’s party continues to crush political foes. That is the nature of Zanu-PF, a liberation movement that fought one of last century’s classic guerrilla wars. Today it is rotten to the core.
Just the other week, Namibia’s Swapo held its congress and elected a new man to take over after 47 years of Sam Nujoma’s leadership. It chose current State President Hifikepunye Pohamba, who is almost as old his predecessor. The party, reeling from the defection of veteran Hidipo Hamutenya, is beset by issues of corruption, nepotism and autocracy. In Angola, the ruling MPLA, a shadow of Agostinho Neto’s party, recently celebrated its 51st anniversary. Eduardo dos Santos’s party is undoubtedly one of the most corrupt political formations on the continent, if not in the world. Under Dos Santos, the leader and the party are the same thing and the party and the state are the same thing and the leader’s bank account and the nation’s fiscus are the same thing. In Mozambique, things are somewhat better. Although citizens complain about widespread corruption, a sound ethos still runs through Frelimo. But this, too, is under threat. Gangsters and associated vermin are getting a grip on the ruling party.
Dangers the ANC should have anticipated
Which brings us to the home of the continent’s oldest liberation movement, an organisation known as the African National Congress. With much of its leadership having lived in countries governed by liberation movements, one would have expected the ANC to have taken careful notes from its sister parties. It should have learnt from the mistakes of its comrade movements and foreseen the dangers that come with the transition from liberation movement to governing party. The sorts of dangers that come with having access to state coffers, budgeting decisions and tender processes. The perils of having the power to curtail liberties and circumvent rules. One would have thought that it could have anticipated that power comes with ambition and all sorts of temptation.
To be fair, for a while it seemed to be thinking about these things. Position papers were written and initiatives were undertaken to create the perfect ‘new cadre’, the type of ANC member who would put people and republic above all else. The party’s handling of the transition also seemed exemplary. Delegations from all the countries mentioned above trekked to Johannesburg to seek counsel. The ANC, even though a government novice, was always willing to provide guidance.
A soiled liberation movement
Then somewhere, somehow, something went wrong. The ANC lost that desire to be good. The malaise that afflicted other liberation movements started to affect the party. The ANC will go into its conference next week a soiled liberation movement. The principled party that fought a romantic struggle and made the South African revolution a cause célèbre has been reduced to just another bunch of brawling, squabbling Napoleons (the porky kind, that is). The party now risks losing everything the world respected it for, including its remarkable management of this society from its racist, narrow-minded past to its nonracial, democratic present. With the loss of that respect goes respect for us all as South Africans. For, whether we like it or not, we are defined by the ANC. It will be the dominant political force in this country for some time to come. It runs through our societal veins.
If the ANC rots, South Africa rots
As has been said before: if the ANC rots, then South Africa rots. There will, of course, come a time when the ANC is no longer so dominant, when South Africans have much more realistic and diverse political choices. For now, our fortunes rest with the party. Its follies and foibles are ours. Hence the mood of depression and concern that has set in across the land in recent weeks, as ANC factions threw out the rule book and chose to devour each other.
It has been painful to observe, especially knowing that even the voices of right-minded ANC members have been drowned out by the crunching sounds of breaking bones. The likes of ANC veterans Pallo Jordan and Zola Skweyiya have tried to intervene to stop the bone-crushing fest. To no avail. Others have attempted their own quiet interventions, including introducing ‘third way’ thinking. Did anyone listen? Nyet! Now Winnie Madikizela-Mandela has seen fit to break her silence. Although her solution may not be seen as ideal by many, will her desperate cry for sanity at least be listened to? South Africa’s struggle would never have been won if those who partook in it had given up on the ideal of a democratic society. We need to reclaim our right to be idealists, believers in a good society, rather than the depressives we have become.- Sunday Times
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