The 2006 local government elections marked the formal dissolution of the New National Party, following the decision of many of its leaders and members to join the ANC. Renier Schoeman reflects on his own personal experience of this transition and the challenges ahead.
I had the privilege of attending the ANC National General Council in June 2005 as a deployed cadre. In the many documents we received there was a section headed, "Peoples Power in Action", which for me captured, in a unique and powerful way, the essence of the challenge we face when we seek to mobilise support for the ANC in communities which have not yet supported ANC in significant numbers. I believe this can be changed.
According to the NGC documents: "While the majority within the white community harboured misconceptions about democratic majority rule, experience since April 1994 is showing that, loss of ill-gotten privilege aside, the new system affords them the kind of freedom and security which is legitimate, long-term and therefore more meaningful.
"Indeed, many of these and other sectors of society who benefited from apartheid harbour a positive ambivalence or even critical support towards the process of change. These sectors, and indeed the white community as such, are therefore not an exclusive terrain of parties opposed to change.
It is the task of the democratic movement to try and liberate them and, where possible, their political representatives, from the prison of fear, hatred and antipathy towards the process of transformation... The benefits they enjoy deriving from the new order, and the new sense of proud belonging they nurture, are among the elements that should be harnessed."
Against this background I want to sketch my own exposure to and experience of the ANC over a number of years. It started after 2 February 1990 and the release of Nelson Mandela and others and the return of exiles. Not long after that point, I became Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs under President FW de Klerk and had my first contacts with President Thabo Mbeki, who was then ANC Foreign Affairs spokesperson. Even after my first personal interactions with him at a conference in London I was vastly impressed with his self-confidence, balance and international skills and standing.
Although I was not part of Codesa, I had exposure to many ANC leaders like Terror Lekota, Ronnie Kasrils, Aziz Pahad, Tito Mboweni, Cyril Ramaphosa and many others. My first impression was of a group of highly motivated, well-prepared people who were ready to play their role in building a new better South Africa, which is what we in the National Party of President De Klerk understood would have to come about under ANC leadership. It was at this time that I also had my first contacts with people like Sbu Ndebele, Zwele Mkhize, Mike Mabuyakhulu and many others as political competitors in KwaZulu Natal.
After the ANC took power in 1994, in terms of the Government of National Unity, I had the great honour of serving under President Mandela for two years from 1994 to 1996 as Deputy Minister of Education, working under Prof Sibusiso Bengu with whom I had a very cordial relationship in a difficult portfolio.
The first two years of our participation as the National Party was not always easy because, quite naturally, given where we all came from, there was a very cautious approach from both sides, sometimes even suspicion.
There was great pressure on the ANC to deliver, fast, and on the National Party to be defensive and protective, especially on issues like education.
Unfortunately, the route the NP took to withdraw from the Government of National Unity in 1996 was a fatal mistake from which it never really recovered. Our decision to withdraw from a sharing of governance and rather to play only an opposition role was not what the voters really wanted or the country needed.
THE DA DETOUR
I am not going to dwell on the consistent weakening of the New National Party (NNP) over the following few years but I do want to refer briefly to the disastrous detour which we took into the Democratic Alliance (DA), and which was in retrospect also a major mistake.
The DA actually harms rather than promotes the legitimate interests of minorities in South Africa. This is because of the way the DA engages in the national debate. It seems to be consistently destructive and overstates its case, resulting in a loss of credibility.
For example, the DA's leader, Tony Leon, makes a highly tendentious statement when he says: "...and so nation building is reduced to venal rent-seeking as individuals trade on their race to achieve wealth and power."
This cynical accusation simply does not stand up to critical examination.
The evidence to the contrary, among other things in the repeated pronouncements and actions of President Thabo Mbeki, is there for all who are not blinded by prejudice against the ANC to see. The DA collectively, with the exception of a few of its leader group, has an obvious "blind spot" in respect of the ANC, which precludes it from a decent engagement with the ruling party. It seems that the DA actually contaminates every cause that it tries to embrace and so ensures the failure of that which it is trying to achieve.
By generalising in a negative way, the DA is not only contributing to polarisation but is being seen as resistant to changes aimed at improving the quality of life of many South Africans, mainly black South Africans, who are living under totally unacceptable conditions.
In contrast to this, our message to the people must be that there is another, better way and that is to support the efforts to build a national consensus founded on true South African patriotism as a critical instrument in the effort to deracialise our society and to develop a unity of purpose to confront the great challenges of our country.
It was precisely with this in mind that Marthinus van Schalkwyk and a few of us other senior leaders led the NNP into a historic new relationship with the ANC in November 2001, which culminated in our decision in 2005 to disband the NNP after 91 years and to join the ANC.
In November 2002 I had the honour to be appointed as Deputy Minister of Health under Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang. What was really striking in my second term in an ANC-led government from 2002 was the ANC's confidence in government after the six years that had passed since 1996. The quality of cabinet discussions and presentations were of a world-class standard. As one who has been close to government at cabinet level in various capacities for most of my career, I think our governance at cabinet level compares with the best in the world.
Another NGC document, entitled "Unity And Diversity in the ANC", says:
"Working in an ever-changing environment, the ANC has 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 it 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 of 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."
I can identify with every sentiment here. Let us all be a part of that living and leading in the ranks of the ANC.
Renier Schoeman is a member of the ANC and a former executive director of the New National Party.
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