Political and social transition

We have a dream to sustain

If you read any of our newspapers today, you could be forgiven for thinking that South Africa is about to implode. Scholars of political transition would attribute this to the psychosis associated with fear of change. Transitions, by their very nature, make for fragile societies.

Compare this period and its sense of doom to that which prevailed leading up to our first national democratic elections. And also thereafter, that which followed, what were to be termed, as the miracle years of the Mandela Presidency, prophets of doom were at it again. Uppermost in the minds of many was the question: what will happen when Mandela goes? For every transition, we have had to contend with this fear. Prophets of doom were at it then, feeding on insecurity.

We are now again fed the same diet. We need to counter the vicious message out there. It does not seem to matter that the ANC has pronounced itself on its policy direction. At its elective conference in December 2007, the party adopted policies that should guide the present leadership for the next five years. These policies, which none of the leadership can change, were made public. There is nothing secret about the policies and the deliberations that surround them.

The ANC does not only preach transparency, it practices it. In doing so, it has been argued, it exposes itself to a lot of criticism. While some may have been intolerant of different perspectives, especially those emanating outside its ranks, there is a growing realisation in the movement that criticism helps in sharpening our understanding of issues. Indeed, we are enriched by alternative perspectives. And so we live with criticism.

The challenge of the present is how, despite the pessimism, we scale the next summit. Our task is almost as impossible as seemed in 1994. We made it then, because, despite the pessimism, our people believed in us. We have that certainty now. We are on track. We are going through a change of leadership - nothing more, nothing less.

Every era, every generation, every period has its challenges. And for those confronted with those challenges, the present is burdensome and onerous. The victory of human nature is that it is always drawn by hope to strive. And so it is that from time to time we are so weighed down by the challenge that we forget that human beings are primed to get beyond the challenges.

What defines a great people is how they respond to challenges.

There is no way we could have avoided the cold wind blown in our direction by the international economic downturn, nor could we have avoided the food price crisis. These have conspired to create the backdrop of doom against which each of our problems are scrutinised and by which we are judged. This should not, in any way, be read as an attempt to minimise or deny that we are faced with enormous challenges.

Some things we could have avoided, like the energy crisis. While we could have done things better, what we have done right should not be obscured by the pessimistic cloud that hovers above our head ever so constantly.

There has been an accusation that the Constitution of this country is under threat in the hands of the leadership of the ruling party. This kind of logic is reminiscent of the mentality and paranoia of the colonial masters at the period of independence in Africa. "Could these people be trusted? Can they handle the responsibility of government? Why, they can't even use a knife and fork, how would they manage the intricacies of modern governance? What if these people subverted all the institutions of governance we have carefully put in place?" And they frantically set up all the checks and balances, just in case.

Similarly, no sooner was the new leadership of the ANC elected, than such concerns spread like wildfire. And everything that has happened since has fed into that. The spectre of barbarians at the gate!

The ANC leadership has no intention whatsoever to undermine the Constitution or any of the institutions that underpin our democracy. In the words of ANC President Jacob Zuma: "We were ready to lay down our lives for democracy, we deliberately created each of these institutions to protect and safeguard that which we fought for. Why would we now seek to subvert or undermine them?"

Why indeed? No one forced us to adopt the Constitution we have. We freely, willingly and proudly crafted it to represent all the aspirations of our people. Why, for heaven's sake, would anyone want to believe that it is in danger in the hands of people who fought for these aspirations and rights?

We have criticised the Constitutional Court in the instance where we felt it had acted improperly, because we believe it is a democratic responsibility to point this out. Like all other sectors of society, we care that all institutions of our democracy abide by the principles of justice, and the bar is so much higher when it is the highest court in the land. That did not mean we do not respect it. Quite the contrary. It is precisely because of our respect for it that we voiced our concern.

At the very first National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of this new leadership, in January 2008, we reaffirmed our commitment to the independence of the judiciary, the rule of law, and the principle of equality before the law. We did indicate, however, that these principles require that the institutions of state are able to fulfil their constitutional mandate without fear or favour, as it requires them to respect the rights and dignity of all individuals charged or under investigation.

We are all familiar with the challenges we face. These include housing, unacceptable crime levels, the challenge of poverty, ensuring equitable access to quality education and the need to address access to health.

The ANC's January 8th statement 2008 spells out a number of issues that will be tackled by the ANC government:

"The development of integrated human settlements is a critical element in our fight against poverty and in improving the quality of life of our people. There are a number of Conference resolutions that we will need to implement, including the issue of legislation to address the proliferation of informal settlements, interventions to curb the costs of construction, and a central planning approach for directing resource allocation to human settlements.

"Branches of the ANC need during the course of 2008 to identify and work to remove those obstacles that continue to limit access of our people to poverty alleviation programmes. We need to put in place local campaigns to inform communities about the resources and services that are available to them.

"During the course of 2008, we must sharpen our anti-crime campaign. We need, this year, to build on the work already done to mobilise our communities more effectively to beat crime. Conference took a number of decisions that will enhance our efforts to forge safer communities. These relate to the structure and functioning of different elements of the criminal justice system, but also, importantly, to the role of mass mobilisation in the fight against crime.

"We will seek to work with religious formations and traditional leadership throughout the country from urban areas to the countryside, to intensify the struggle against crime. We also acknowledge and appreciate the ongoing contribution of the business sector in the fight against this scourge. We must act now, and act together."

We hold the view that education and skills are central to our future. We also believe that our progress and ability to address present challenges would not be swifter than our progress in education.

Dare to dream

We need to ensure our success is continued. All successes are held together by a relentless pursuit of a dream. And our dream is to create a non-racial, non-sexist and prosperous society. And to create a society that is at peace with itself and where the people embrace the Constitution; a society where the institutions of democracy are used to protect our democracy and not abused or even perceived as such.

In 1957, the Soviet Union embarked on what was considered to be a technological breakthrough by launching Sputnik into space. For the United States of America, at the height of the Cold War, this was a call to arms. The American scientific and technological advances were inseparable from their quest for ideological supremacy. Their response at the time was to conjure an impossible mission. They vowed to put a man on the moon. If such a venture was mooted by lesser mortals like ourselves, we would have been consigned to a mental asylum for our own sake. They dared to dream, and to dream the impossible.

The US government sought to deploy huge resources to meet this challenge. Their entire security apparatus was primed to prioritise this. New research laboratories were established. Science and mathematics education became compulsory at school. Every high school graduate was expected to have proficiency in scientific and mathematical literacy. The notion that science and mathematics is a no-go area for some was immediately dislodged from the minds of all Americans. Ten years later, the USA was ready to put a man on the moon. Their ideological supremacy entrenched, and the rest is history.

The impossible mission was realised. This notion of crafting missions that are impossible can only occur in a society that believes in a "can do/should do attitude", where the stakes are so high that all has to be subordinate to the realisation of a goal.

Those who dream rise above the mundane, the obvious and reach out to something that is much above their present condition.

We continue to cherish a dream. It is a dream and belief in humanity that led to the formation of the ANC. It was the same determination of the power of a dream that led 20,000 strong women to challenge the Pass Laws in 1956. It was the same commitment and belief in ourselves that led to the adoption of the Freedom Charter. The same determination led us to commit ourselves to the struggle for emancipation. It was the same determination that led to the adoption of the present Constitution. Against the backdrop of the noise that masquerades as a critique of the ANC, it is easy to forget what we have sacrificed for this country. We are bemused when some create a line between the people and the Constitution and project themselves as standing up for the rights of our people.

The de-linking of people's sense of justice and the Constitution is one such mischievous attempt. Rather than spend an inordinate amount of time bemoaning its challenges, the US turned the challenges into opportunities. We are determined to do the same.

We can explore this notion of opportunities further by reflecting on a case study given in several business schools. It is a story of a business that manufactures shoes. In trying to explore new markets, the company sent out marketers to some province of a foreign country. India is a favourite hypothetical country in this instance. The marketers found that people in that province did not wear shoes. The first marketer reported that there is no market for the company in that province. The people wore no shoes. The conclusion therefore: they had no need for shoes. He encouraged the company to explore elsewhere.

The second marketer came back very excited. She reported the existence of an unlimited market, virgin territory and even went on to suggest that the company should relocate to the said province. There was a huge market for shoes. There are those who are given to seeing doom when faced with challenges, others see opportunities.

We in the African National Congress are wired to succeed and to look for opportunities to succeed. We have to consistently counter negativity and we cannot cede that public space to others. We are determined to aggressively occupy it and reassure our people that we are on track.

We are confident of the future. We are a living embodiment of democracy; the kind of democracy that exists in very few organisations that run governments. We need to celebrate democracy and make it work in all those areas that should improve our people's lives in housing: a pivotal indicator of economic success; in education - the bedrock of development; in health -the litmus of sustainable development.

We have come a long way, we have achieved much. We have a long way still to go, and promises to keep. Together we have a dream to sustain. The dream that our forebears entrusted to us, that of sustaining freedom.

** Lindiwe Sisulu is a member of the ANC National Executive Committee. This is an edited extract from an address to a Progressive Business Forum (PBF) event, 11 August 2008.

What the media says

The machinery of the apartheid state used a range of dirty tricks to sow division in the ANC. It spoke of communists and nationalists, of moderates and radicals; it spoke of tribalism, militants and 'good' leaders.

Those opposed to the ANC and to genuine progress will never abandon efforts aimed at dividing the organisation. However, today they just use different nametags. The contemporary approach is to categorise ANC structures and members into one of two factions, supposedly owing allegiance to either Jacob Zuma or Thabo Mbeki.

In an article in the Sunday Times of 17 August 2008 entitled 'ANC makes the state its enemy', Njabulo Ndebele, former vice-chancellor of the University of Cape Town, takes up this theme. He writes that "the ascendant Zuma faction has been heedlessly chipping away at the institutions and offices of democracy".

Just two months earlier, Presidents Zuma and Mbeki published a joint article entitled 'There are no ANC camps'. In spite of what Zuma and Mbeki say in the statement about the non-existence of camps in the ANC, Ndebele still sees his 'ascendant Zuma faction'.

The ANC suffers the wrath of Ndebele simply because the programme of the ANC rally to celebrate Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday designated Zuma as president (of the ANC), and both Mbeki and Mandela as former presidents (of the ANC).

Ndebele says, "although this may be the way the ANC ordinarily handles its protocols, it is nevertheless intriguing that the organisation does not proclaim a sitting head of state as its own and accord him the normal courtesies of protocol."

What in fact is 'intriguing' is not how the ANC handles its protocols, but how on the basis of such handling, it can be accused of "chipping away" at the state institutions by someone who readily admits that such handling may well "be the way the ANC ordinarily handles its protocols".

Ndebele is a learned South African. He knows very well that if he needed to establish whether the ANC departed from organisational practices with respect to the composition of programmes, all he would have to do is compare the programme in question with all our previous programmes. He did not do this, because he knows he is not going to find any inconsistency. Which is why his grumblings are not as innocent as they are made to appear, but are part of a sinister attempt to sustain a perception of division in the ANC.

He says, "while the designers of the programme may not have intended to convey such a signal, it is possible to read it in the light of current internal party leadership disputes." What current leadership disputes is Ndebele talking about?

In December last year the ANC held its national conference, debated and resolved many issues ranging from its Constitution to resolutions on the various aspects of our country's political, economic and social life, including the issue of the cadreship that will lead the movement to its centenary celebrations in 2012. Such vigorous debate and political differences as demonstrated during Conference represent a natural democratic expression of views typical of any democratic and large organisation.

Contrary to what some may believe, it is a lack of honest debate that constitutes a threat to the ANC and our country. It is the culture of vigorous and open debate that helps us to tap into the varied social experience, and strengthen the quality of the decisions we take about the future of our country and its people.

In their statement of 8 June, Zuma and Mbeki write, "both of us have nevertheless been alarmed by the persistent campaign to communicate a false message that we are at war with each other, as alleged leaders of two opposed factions."

"This shameless speculation and negative campaign have provided a very convenient basis publicly to project the false view that the ANC is a movement at war with itself."

Despite all this, in August 2008, Ndebele is still dreaming about his "party leadership disputes."

We have never asserted that the ANC is made up of people who agree on everything. In any case, we do not even need such a monolithic ANC. It is incorrect and mischievous to portray and elevate honest and open debate in the organisation as if such were an end in themselves, and not a process towards reaching consensus. The ANC is united by its commitment to the realisation of a truly non-racial, non-sexist, democratic and prosperous South Africa. Debating every issue before reaching agreement is what will get us there.

Contrary to what Ndebele thinks, the President of the Republic, Thabo Mbeki, attended Mandela's 90th celebrations not as the country's president but as a leader and member of the ANC. Perhaps Ndebele would not understand this; we members of the ANC are part of a heroic tradition of struggle. We are very proud of our membership of the ANC. Mbeki, like Dube, Tambo, Mandela and others, occupies a very honoured place in the history of our organisation. That they are former Presidents of our heroic movement is for us, of deep significance, as a reflection of their commitment to the cause of freedom and justice.

Ndebele says, "The high suggestibility of the programme's intention in this regard is not entirely unreasonable given that Zuma indeed wants to be the president of South Africa. In this way we are subtly prepared for such an eventuality."

If Ndebele had taken the time to read the resolutions of the Polokwane Conference, he would have seen that part of the resolution on organisational renewal reads: "That the ANC President shall be the candidate of the movement for President of the Republic."

It is difficult to see any subtlety in a decision pronounced publicly by the ANC Conference in 2007. The ANC does implement policies and decisions that had been hidden from the people. The policies it implements are published decisions adopted by Conference.

Thus Ndebele reduces the decision of Conference to a personal ambition. Why? Indeed, to tell the truth in this case would not have served his misguided portrayal of the ANC as an organisation in crisis, ravaged by 'factions' and an organisation whose leaders are driven by personal ambitions.

Contrary to what Ndebele thinks, apart from the hard election campaign the ANC must still undertake, it is not necessary to prepare anyone for Zuma to become President of the Republic.

We must assure Ndebele that his fears about the possibility for the ANC to betray "an illustrious history" will never become real. Like him, we are immensely proud of this history. It inspires us and strengthens our belief that working together as South Africans, we shall build a caring, humane and just society. We shall realise the goal of a better life for all. This is not to say we do not, or will not from time to time experience difficulties. Despite the difficulties, we shall continue - as our track record indicates - to make steady progress.

In his book of short stories, 'Fools and Other Stories', Njabulo Ndebele writes, "There are young men whose assertiveness is so transparently the effort of an immature cock trying to crow with a deep voice."

Ndebele is a great writer of short stories. Like all humans, he possesses a great capacity to master any skill should he desire to pursue another one. Which is why we invite him to become an active member of the ANC. This will help him develop a keener understanding about the culture, the inherent dynamics, and the workings of a democratic organisation of the calibre of the ANC.

In the meanwhile, we need to make the point that ANC meetings, private or public, are not meetings of dignitaries, they are meetings of people committed to the fundamental transformation of our country, to realise a united South Africa based on the will of the people, an improving quality of life for all, and the restoration of the birthright of all South Africans. These meetings are meetings of people who are committed to the eradication of the apartheid legacy to ensure lasting peace and development for our country.

All ANC leaders, including Thabo Mbeki, are revolutionaries who do not expect bouquets to be thrown at them in recognition of their status. They derive their satisfaction from their lifelong service to the people.

This is not to suggest that the ANC is not mindful of the fact that it has produced individuals who command great respect in our society and internationally. We are. The point is that those individuals know that they are first and foremost members of the ANC, and if we are to secure a better future for our children, things must remain just like that.

Ndebele, this great author of short stories, would be well advised not to allow himself to be absorbed into the gang that defines the ANC in such terms as "the ascendant Zuma faction." He should heed the words of Zuma and Mbeki when they say, "Thus an attempt has been made to entrench the perspective that our country is condemned to experience a terminal war between the ANC and our government, despite the fact that the latter, in all three spheres, is nonetheless made up of loyal ANC cadres who unequivocally accept and respect all the outcomes of the 52nd ANC National Conference. This includes the unreserved acceptance of the fact by Thabo Mbeki, a member of the ANC, that Jacob Zuma is President of the ANC."

"There is no Zuma camp in the ANC. There is no Mbeki camp in the ANC. Nobody, including members of the ANC and the media, should use our names to pursue divisive goals that have nothing to do with the truth, and stand in direct opposition to the noble history, the real nature, and the historic objectives of the ANC, and our commitment to serve the people of South Africa."

We are certain that Njabulo Ndebele will have the courtesy to take Zuma and Mbeki at their word. It would be sad to conclude that Ndebele's interpretation of political events resembles "the effort of an immature cock trying to crow with a deep voice."

Return to Index