Lies have short legs!

This year we were fortunate to spend a good part of Africa Day, 25 May, with the Members of our National Assembly. This was because the Assembly had set this date for the discussion of the Budget Vote of The Presidency.

Appropriately, this gave parliament and the representatives of the various political parties the possibility to convey our collective best wishes on this important day both to our people and the sister peoples of Africa and the African Diaspora.

Since it had convened to discuss the budget of the Presidency, the Honourable Members were also afforded time to address the Assembly and indicate what they thought might be done especially by the Presidency, to move our country further forward on its road to its successful reconstruction and development.

One of the Members drew attention to persisting "fears" among sections of our white population. She spoke about how these fears sometimes distort reality, leading people to feel terrified, even when in fact there is absolutely no threat of any kind. She explained that this happens because these white people have accepted particular negative stereotypes of black people, whom they then expect to act in a manner that is consistent with those stereotypes.

She was supported by another Member of Parliament, who drew the attention of the National Assembly to a specific stereotype. He spoke about the evident unease among some of our compatriots at the emergence of successful black business people, especially those associated with the ANC.

He explained that this unease was based on the stereotype shared by some white people at home and abroad, that Africans are inherently corrupt. He said that it was therefore very easy to attribute the success of black business people to corruption, since the same frame of mind would also suggest that Africans are, in any case, not that competent to succeed as major business players in our economy.

Interestingly, in a recent article Professor Willie Esterhuyse of Stellenbosch University discussed issues about perceptions of Africa that are related to the matters raised by the two Members of Parliament.

He quoted one writer as having written that, "Africa has been effectively demonised in a post-colonial discourse of perpetual catastrophe and unnatural disasters". Another, referring to the way the West discussed the issue of the incidence of AIDS in Africa, said: "we are witnessing a fundamental reorganisation of Western racism, as the constitutive colonial analogy between race and class is dissolved, and African blackness is re-conceptualised as an analogue of the sexually perverse."

With regard to the latter, Professor Esterhuyse quoted "a respected academic" whose comments were published in 'Rapport' on 27 January 2001. The academic had written: "Because (Mbeki) refuses to confirm the white perception that blacks are promiscuous, he fails to give critically important leadership on the Aids epidemic."

This "respected academic" wanted us to accept the age-old white stereotype that we as Africans are sexually depraved, which he/she described as "the white perception". The leadership we would then provide would be to act as the loud black propagandist communicating this "white perception" to the black majority.

According to this "respected academic", the task of leadership in this instance would be to confirm the gratuitous insult directed against Africans, which has been part of the armoury of white racism for at least the last 300 years, that as the academic said, "blacks are promiscuous".

All these examples relate to the phenomenon described by one of the authors quoted by Professor Esterhuyse who wrote that "Africa has been effectively demonised in a post-colonial discourse of perpetual catastrophe and unnatural disasters".

The stereotypes that our Members of Parliament spoke about are also of the same kind, in that they project a threat of perpetual catastrophe simply because we are an African country, led by an African government, as the two Members of Parliament pointed out.

Of course, the other side to this projection of a perpetual catastrophe is the communication of the view that life was better when Africa and South Africa were under colonial and white minority rule. Seamus Milne, comment editor and columnist of the British 'Guardian' newspaper wrote recently on this matter in an article entitled "Britain: imperial nostalgia".

Milne cited one Andrew Roberts as saying, "Africa has never known better times than during British rule." Milne describes Roberts as a "conservative". It should therefore come as no surprise that Roberts sings the praises of British imperialism and colonialism, as conservatives in our country would, perhaps not so overtly and brazenly, sing the praises of colonialism and apartheid.

What comes as a real surprise, and a matter for serious concern, are the comments made by the British Labour Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, the presumed successor to Tony Blair as British Prime Minister.

Seamus Milne says that while on a visit to East Africa in January this year, Gordon Brown said that, "the days of Britain having to apologise for its colonial history are over". This followed on remarks he had made at the British Museum in London four months earlier, in September 2004, that, "We should be proud...of the (British) empire".

Milne makes the correct point that in reality, the UK has never apologised to the millions of people across the globe that it colonised. With regard to what British colonialism did, Seamus Milne writes:

"Britain's empire was in reality built on genocide, vast ethnic cleansing, slavery, rigorously enforced racial hierarchy and merciless exploitation. As the Cambridge historian Richard Drayton put(s) it (in June 2004): 'We hear a lot about the rule of law, incorruptible government and economic progress -the reality was tyranny, oppression, poverty and the unnecessary deaths of countless millions of human beings."

Milne then refers to the book "Britain's Gulag", written by Caroline Elkins, and published this year. Elkins reports on the suppression by the British of the Mau Mau Uprising in Kenya during the 1950s. She says that, among other things, the British put 320,000 Kikuyu in concentration camps, killed well over 100,000 people, engaged in mass rape, and mutilated the bodies of dead Kenyan freedom fighters.

Seamus Milne says that, "Like most historical controversies, the argument about empire is as much about the future as the past. Those who write colonial cruelty out of 20th century history want to legitimise the new imperialism..."

The colonial cruelty of the 20th century described and treated Africans as barbarians blessed with the gift of colonial and white minority rule. The "fundamental (post-colonial) reorganisation of Western racism" to which Professor Esterhuyse referred, maintains and perpetuates the stereotypes that informed the earlier ages of racism. As the authors quoted by Professor Esterhuyse said, those stereotypes include the projection of our country and continent as destined to experience "perpetual catastrophe and unnatural disasters", given that we have now been deprived of benevolent and morally upright white rule!

The "freedom" we have gained is therefore but mere licence for us to behave as to the manner born, destined to build a society consumed by corruption, sexual depravity, autocracy and criminal violence.

Professor Esterhuyse ends his article with the following paragraph:

"I think that Afrikaners have forgotten how to clean up their own mess. The majority of Afrikaners and their opinion makers are still suffering from a historical 'black-out' as far as white racism and destructive perceptions of black people are concerned. The second and third generation after 1990 will hopefully be different. Like Mikro's seven-year-old Afrikaner girl (where her mother also attended school), looking around the school asks her mother: 'Mommy, what's a non-white?' This normalisation at micro-level has fortunately already begun and gives cautious hope for the future."

Willie Esterhuyse is correct that normalisation has already begun. I would venture to say he is overly cautious about the future. In his article he also says: "It is not that all Afrikaners are racist or voice destructive perceptions of black people...Those who think otherwise, however, are not heard or seen."

The Afrikaners who are not racist and do not voice destructive perceptions of black people are the catalyst that will bring normalisation of relations in our country much sooner than Professor Esterhuyse allows for.

Our passing misfortune is that as long as these very decent South Africans and Africans are neither seen nor heard, so long will negative messages remain the most easily marketable commodity in our country.

Understanding these market conditions, and informed by false notions of "the golden age of empire", the purveyors of pessimism will remain hard at work. They will continue to market the canard that the new South Africa is gradually sinking under the combined burden of rampant crime and corruption, maladministration, growing impoverishment, a lethargic economy and massive job losses, a rapidly increasing death rate, and growing marginalisation of the national minorities.

The passing advantage they have is that because of the durability of the negative stereotypes of which the Members of Parliament spoke, ours remains a seller's market, favourable to those who find it in their interest to peddle the certainty of eventual perpetual catastrophe.

During the month of May, 2005, the international consultancy, Grant Thornton published its International Business Owners Survey 2004, covering 26 countries, including South Africa.

Among other things the Survey reported that South African business people were more than twice as confident about their economic prospects compared to the previous year. Our business people came 4th in the level of global business confidence, with India topping the rankings, followed by Australia and the United States.

The Survey found that during the previous year 56% of our companies had increased their number of employees. Thirty percent had maintained the same number, and 13% had cut down on jobs. During the previous three years 75% had increased their revenue/turnover.

Concerning the current year, 79% expected to increase their turnover/output. Fifty-one percent expected to increase the number of their employees, and 6% foresaw a decrease. Fifty-four percent would invest in new plant and machinery, and 36% in new buildings.

Compared to the previous year, 23% said they were "significantly more focused" on attracting and retaining key skilled members of staff; 48% were "more focused"; and 22% were "as focused" as during the previous year.

The business people identified regulations/red tape and availability of skilled workers as the two biggest constraints in terms of the possibility to grow their businesses. Most interestingly, contrary to everything said about the impact of crime, the threat of terrorism and insecurity in general were insignificant as causes of stress among the business people.

Commenting on the employment situation globally, Andrew Godfrey, Head of International and European Services at Grant Thornton said that, "in this climate (consistent with the upward phase of the economic cycle)...we are also seeing a renewed vigour in attracting and retaining staff. In India and South Africa where there is a healthy economic environment, this need is particularly acute. However, the converse applies in Singapore and some European countries like Italy and France where workforce skills are not seen as such a big plus."

This information from the Grant Thornton Survey about our country tells a story that is radically different from the one communicated by those who find it in their interest to propagate negative stereotypes about us as an African country.

This is a story of a growing and resilient economy. It is a story of increasing job opportunities. It is a story of hope for a better life for those who will qualify from our skills development programmes.

It is a story that says the principal owners of productive property are supremely confident about the future of our country. It contains an appeal by these business people to our government, that it should make it easier for them to increase their productive activities and create new jobs.

Seamus Milne ended his article with the appeal that rather than legitimising a terrible past, such as ours, what is required of those who belonged to the oppressor nations is "to celebrate those who campaigned for colonial freedom rather than the racist despotism they fought against". This is what our Members of Parliament did on Africa Day.

They also acknowledged and welcomed the progress achieved to eradicate the legacy of that racist despotism. At the same time, they pointed to the challenges ahead of us in terms of realising the goal of a better life for all. They made the firm statement that hope and not despair is what will determine the future of our country and Africa as a whole.

There will be no perpetual catastrophe. The stereotypes will neither define who we are nor dictate what will be.

Unity and diversity / Part 2

The challenges of the present

South Africa's political landscape changed dramatically following the democratic breakthrough of 1994, posing fresh challenges to the unity and cohesion of the ANC.

Political democracy brought with it the dividend of new opportunities for self-advancement for black South Africans, especially africans. Careers in professions hitherto closed to blacks, access to centres of the economy from which blacks had been excluded, meant that they could now compete on more equal terms with their white counterparts - in the professions, in business, in sport, in the arts, for state and government posts and in the accumulation of wealth. Creation of equal opportunity was always among the objectives of the liberation movement and had motivated large numbers of its adherents.

During the previous three decades membership of the ANC or even association with its aims entailed risk - imprisonment, loss of livelihood, even death. Even during the 1950s, when the ANC was not yet banned, its members and supporters were the victims of police harassment, job insecurity and proscription by the state. Arbitrary arrest, imprisonment and surveillance by the apartheid state's security agencies were not uncommon. Personal courage and a willingness to sacrifice in the service of a cause were valued qualities; personal ambition and self-seeking were traits that were disdained.

The opening up of new opportunities for many who never had a chance to pursue their own ambitions, aims and individual aspirations before has created an environment conducive to an emergence of a class of black capitalists, a stratum of very senior black managers and business executives, a stratum of black civil servants and bureaucrats, a stratum of black professionals, as well as a black lower middle class. And there is nothing wrong with this.

Yet, as the party of government, the ANC today is regarded by a small minority as the instrument for advancing individual careers, creating new opportunities, and the pursuance of personal ambitions. The ANC has inevitably drawn into its ranks a minority of people who joined it in pursuance of personal agendas. A new phenomenon, political careerism, has now become evident in the ANC, its allied structures and among its supporters.

We have witnessed people who do not win a seat in an ANC structure transferred to the SA Communist Party (SACP) structure in the hope of winning one there, and vice versa; persons who fare badly in the two transferring to the SA National Civics Organisation (SANCO). There have even been instances of ANC members contesting local elections against ANC selected candidates. All these are manifestations of political careerism, which places the personal ambitions and agendas of individuals above the interests of the movement.

Ethnicity, race, class and gender

The ANC's non-racialism and non-ethnic ethos is not merely a matter of high moral principle. The endurance and sustenance of these norms, which many today take for granted, has not been unproblematic. The ubiquitous racism in South African society and the ethnic and tribal segmentation encouraged by the apartheid state were powerful currents against which our movement had to contend.

Historically the movement itself has been the site of intense politico-ideological struggles around the issues of ethnicity, race, class and gender. During the 1930s, for example, a conservative section among the ANC's founding fathers led a campaign to expel communists from the movement and to move it closer to the liberal fraction of the white establishment. Shortly thereafter, John Dube led the bulk of the ANC branches of Natal out of the mother body to set up his own regional organisation in opposition to the ANC. During the late 1940s some of the ANC Youth League leaders again sought to drive communists out of the ANC, claiming that communism was antithetical to African Nationalism.

At the height of the struggles of the 1950s, the Africanists, led by Potlako Leballo, tried to manipulate the justifiable anger of africans against their oppressors on an "Africanist" platform, a large component of which was also opposition to communism. The majority of ANC members resisted these siren songs despite the evident emotional appeal of the "Africanist" slogans.

Feminist politics at one time were not widely accepted in the ANC, many even suggested that an emphasis on gender would be divisive or diversionary at a time when maximum unity was imperative. A struggle by the women inside the ANC and in society, with the support of President Oliver Tambo, finally forced the issue of gender onto the ANC's agenda during the late 1970s.

There have been repeated attempts through the years by others to whip up residual ethnic loyalties and sectional inclinations as a means of mobilising support around platforms of dubious credibility. At the 1997 ANC National Conference in Mafikeng, for example, whispers circulated about the domination of one ethnic group and the need to resist it. Recently a columnist in 'The Star' alleged that the ANC takes certain provinces for granted and does not reward them with cabinet posts while retaining ministers from the Eastern Cape even when they do not have "impressive" performance records.

To the credit of the ANC's membership, none of these attempts has thus far been successful. Which raises the question: Will that always be the case? Is the ANC leaving those of our people who identify ethnically to the political wolves of ethnic entrepreneurship? Or does the ANC have a responsibility to combat ethnic mobilisation in every aspect of our national life so as to render it a political irrelevancy?

Since 1994 the multi-class character of the ANC itself has not changed. But it has become a bit more complex than in the past. Whereas in the past there were no captains of industry in the leading organs of the ANC, today there are National Executive Committee (NEC) members who head some of the largest conglomerates trading on the Johannesburg Securities Exchange. These corporations, moreover, employ thousands of other ANC members as well as ANC supporters.

For the first time it has become conceivable that ANC members employed by state-owned enterprises could enter into conflict with an ANC member who heads that corporation; that ANC members who are members of a union could clash head-on with another who heads a large private corporation; that ANC members who possess skills and professional training could be separated, both in lifestyle and even spatially, from their comrades who lack these.

Stratification within black communities is reflected in the ANC and can produce its corollary, class conflicts in which ANC members find themselves on opposite sides of the conflict. This has already generated tensions between the ANC and its principal alliance partners, the SACP and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), both working class formations.

These are tensions, which if not correctly managed could cause division within the movement. Denial of the conflict potential between ANC-aligned capitalists, company directors, MDs of corporations and the workers employed by them will neither dissolve such potential tensions nor offer a sound basis for managing the new contradictions that have arrived within society and consequently in our movement.

The contest over the distribution of such resources can sometimes find distorted expression within movement structures, leading to racially defined blocs and lobbies that could undermine unity. The political opponents of the ANC are keenly aware of such possibilities and have unashamedly played to them for political gain.

Diversity and unity

The potential and actual points of tension within the ANC-led alliance and within its own ranks are not new to the movement's experience. Except in the most intractable instances, as in the case of the Group of Eight of the 1970s, who constituted themselves into a political faction that pursued its own agenda in opposition to that of the movement, the ANC has fallen back on its traditions and tried and tested practices, avoiding expulsion, exclusion or suspension of dissident voices. The ethos of the ANC is that we debate and argue about contesting political positions, but once a majority view has emerged, the minority view submits to the majority.

The struggle to push back the frontiers of poverty and to create jobs requires the ANC in the present to enter into various alliances and coalitions. Coalitions and alliances always entail a measure of compromise to achieve mutually agreed goals. Such compromises, however, cannot involve the movement reneging on or repudiating its strategic objectives and its principles. Nor should they foster illusions about the nature and character of the partners and allies we may attract. As the survey of ANC political practice illustrates, some coalitions are tactical, some are strategic; some alliances are designed to be long-lasting, others will be short-lived.

The ANC at the age of 93 is a veteran of nine decades of struggle. It learnt the skills for growth, renewal and continuing relevance in the crucible of the struggle for freedom. Through participation in internal and public debate the movement armed itself with the courage to retrace its steps when necessary and to rethink strategy when required to.

Within the living memory of many veterans of the ANC, what was considered heterodoxy at one point has often been embraced as the new orthodoxy at another. Working in an ever-changing environment, the movement also acquired a remarkable tactical resilience.

But what has enabled the ANC to play this role is its understanding that diversity and unity are not diametrical opposites, but dialectical opposites; that these are mutually reinforcing aspects of democratic politics. The unity among its ranks and supporters is what has made this movement strong and imbued it with the capacity to give leadership to our diverse people and nation. But the movement never misconstrued unity as uniformity. The ANC has always valued the breadth of its appeal and the diversity of its ranks, but placed equal value on unity in action. The creative management of that tension is the secret of its success.

The ANC embraced certain key democratic political values, principles and practices to which it has consistently adhered, both in its public and its inner life. It is by remaining true to those ideals and values that the ANC has remained relevant to the people of South Africa and to the world.

The story of the ANC is that several thousands of ordinary South Africans, working and struggling together as comrades, to propound the vision of a South Africa that would be a better place for all its people. After ninety three years, the ANC lives and the ANC still leads.

** This is an edited extract from a discussion document prepared for the ANC National General Council (NGC) being held in Tshwane from 29 June to 3 July. These documents are currently being distributed to ANC branches for discussion, and are available on the ANC website at: www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/ngcouncils/2005/index.html.

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