Address by ANC Secretary General Gwede Mantashe at the University of South Africa

28 October 2008

The changing political landscape and its implications for democracy

What do we mean by the changing political landscape? The African National Congress was formed with the sole objective of uniting the people of South Africa. The call for was made having observed that divisions among African people led to the defeat of the various tribes by the colonisers in the various wars of dispossession.

Over the years all the programmes of our movement have been directed at this objective of uniting our people. The collection of demands for the Freedom Charter was an exercise which was not only aimed at getting the demands, but also at ensuring their participation so that they could determine their own destiny. It was aimed at giving the people space to talk about freedom. From where we come from the unity of our people remains paramount. The objective of the National Democratic Revolution, that of liberating the African people in particular and black people in general, has not been fulfilled yet.

The changes that we are witnessing are in the use of the rights acquired through the struggle to divide the movement. An attack on the unity of the movement is an attack on the essence and the very reason of existence of the African National Congress.

It an attack on the objectives of the National Democratic Revolution; that of uniting the people of South Africa and the liberation of blacks in general and the African people in particular.

The implications will be:

• A divided movement that has a reduced capacity to improve the lives of our people.
• There will be more parties and therefore society will look more democratic with more voices in the opposition to the ANC.
• On the other hand the ANC is going to be more mobilised to faced the dissidents whose primary programme is to divide the African National Congress and its allies.

The five point plan of the dissidents published by the Sowetan yesterday gave us a clearer indication of what we are dealing with:

• Target the disgruntled in the ANC-SACP-COSATU. Win over smaller parties and form a coalition with like-minded bigger parties like the UDM.
• Form an alternative labour federation to woo disgruntled members.
• Embark on a moral regeneration campaign through the involvement of church leaders.
• Target young professionals - black and white - who will bring their skills and resources to the party.
• Win hearts and minds of the marginalised and the poor by embarking on some community development projects.

I am going to these details to illustrate that the latest initiative is based primarily on dividing the movement than having a clear alternative programme. That is why they are scrambling to claim the Freedom Charter from our movement.

In our view they constitute what comrade Thabo Mbeki described in 2004 when he said; "many of those who are convinced that the ANC must be weakened and defeated are convinced that individually and collectively the opposition parties do not have the strength and capacity to achieve this goal. They are therefore permanently on the look out for the enemies of our movement that would have the possibility to accomplish this objective, whom they would obvious encourage and support. A favourite hunting ground for these enemies is within the ANC itself, the alliance and the broad democratic movement. The popular thesis is that the strongest and best opposition to the ANC will come from within the organisation, as well as the broad democratic movement."

Class contradictions have sharpened within the movement realigning and reconfiguring the political space in South Africa. The disagreements over the political policies in the late 1990s and early 2000s highlighted the sharpness of these class contradictions. The series of strikes over these policies between 1999 and 2002 pushed the alliance to the brink. The Stellenbosch conference was the highest point of these contradictions. The dismissal of comrade Zuma and subsequent charging hid the class content of the contestation. This polarised the movement around two strong poles, and that polarisation took us into Polokwane All Polokwane did was to made the split an immediate possibility.

A few months ago I specifically spoke of the regrouping of the counter-revolutionary forces, and used the proclaimed desire of opposition parties to form coalitions and ultimately merge not on the basis of principles, or ideology or programme, but on the basis of forming a strong block against the ANC.

This is what I referred to when I talked of counter-revolution and not the judges. Attempts to clarify the point were ignored and many analysts and commentators used this to bash the ANC as attacking the institutions of democracy.

Counter-revolution is not a swear word, but a clear programme to undercut the gains of our revolution. The new initiative is however different to the past splinters in that it is not ideological, but driven by anger and obsession with power by a tendency that cannot reconcile with the reality of being not elected into leadership in Polokwane.

The breakaway group led by Selope Thema in support of Dr Xuma called the African Minded Group was in protest to policy change brought about by the Programme of Action. The 1958 breakaway led by the Lion of the North was in protest against the adoption of the Freedom Charter The Group of Eight emerged from the opposition to the opening up of the ANC to all races. If it is undermining the revolutionary gains it will qualify for the description.

What is important for the people of South Africa is whether the ANC will still be able to deliver on the drive to improve the lives of our people. I can reaffirm that the ANC remains focused on its programme and intends to step its ability to deliver. As part of preparing for the 2009 elections we held a very successful alliance economic summit. The resolutions that came out the summit talk to intention of improving our ability to deliver. Let me highlight few of the resolutions:

• Giving content to the concept of a developmental state, we have come up with concrete proposals on the enhancement of planning, evaluation and monitoring capacity. The proposed planning commission will promote the alignment of the budgeting processes with developmental planning. This is linked to the proposal for a two-tier cabinet, strengthening and tightening the cluster system.
• Industrial and trade policy has been brought to the centre shifting the focus from macro-economic framework to the real economy. Central to this shift is the emphasis put on creating decent work opportunities. This is in recognition of high unemployment, poverty and growing inequality being the pre-eminent problems in society today. Sector development is critical for employment creation.
• Agrarian reform and rural development have to focus on food production and food security. For the first time the medium-term budget has made provision for rural development.
• The role of the development finance institutions has been refined and there is agreement that the mandate for each of these institutions must clear, eg. IDC focus on industrial development, DBSA focus on infrastructure development etc.
• Education has been identified as an area of focus for the next five years.

I am highlighting this aspect of our programme to illustrate that the ANC remains focused. We will campaign on the basis of our programme not in defence. We are engaging our people and our outreach programme is giving the minority communities space to engage directly with the ANC. Having addressed at least ten meetings with Afrikaners they are feeling listened to more than ever and feel more part of South Africa. We are hoping that any changes must improve the capacity to change the lives of our people for the better.

Issued by:
African National Congress