Business Day, 27 May 1999
WHEN the Pan Africanist Congress went to the polls in 1994, it was unprepared.
Up to the eve of the elections, the PAC had been engaged in debates and arguments on whether to participate or boycott the elections and continue the armed struggle. And added to this the PAC leadership, particularly its president Clarence Makwetu, did not enjoy popularity within the party.
When the PAC finally decided to be part of the elections, it was too late. It had sent conflicting messages to its supporters and sympathisers and there was not enough time to campaign.
Neither was there time to produce a sound election manifesto. They ended up campaigning around the slogan: "The land first and everything will follow."
This led to people ridiculing the PAC, saying they were archaic and were stuck in the past like a scratched long-playing record which kept on repeating the same old tune.
A joke doing the rounds in the Eastern Cape, where Raymond Mhlaba was the premier elect for the ANC, cost the PAC dearly. The ANC took advantage of the PAC slogan to vote for the land - or "mhlaba", which means land in Xhosa.
By telling rural peasants to vote for "mhlaba", the ANC's Raymond Mhlaba was the one to benefit.
For a party that has been perceived to be truly representative of African aspirations, many analysts believed they were "a dark horse" claiming that beneath every African, there was an Africanist struggling to burst out.
But the PAC suffered its worst humiliation, the PAC polling less than 2% of the votes.
The defeat at the polls and the poor performance of their president forced PAC members, particularly the Pan Africanist Student Organisation (Paso), to find solutions.
A convention was called in 1996 and Bishop Stanley Mogoba was the keynote speaker.
Mogoba, who had served time on Robben Island for his PAC activities, was a respected church leader and educationist who on that day won the hearts and minds of the delegates.
A new chapter was opened for the PAC. Under Mogoba's reign, the party has regrouped and members who were no longer active came back to the PAC and took up positions.
Mogoba, in his gentle clerical way, has been able to bring out the best in most of his followers. But this style of dealing with people has elicited some criticism from inside the party.
The reason for this is that recently, when some of his lieutenants appeared to be involved in a power struggle for leadership positions, he is reported to have stood back and not taken appropriate action to discipline the members involved.
The central figure involved in the recent jockeying for position was party secretary general Ngila Muendane, who has been accused of upstaging Mogoba.
There were claims that Muendane personally altered the Gauteng provincial candidate's list by scratching off the name of the person at the top of the list and writing his own name in.
In spite of this tension, the party has been able to produce a strong manifesto which concentrates heavily on fighting crime and which speaks of "economic justice" for all.
Another attraction to the voters the PAC is reaching for is the promise of land distribution for agriculture, economic development as well as housing.
Although there are still financial constraints the party appears to be making headway in the rural areas, particularly the Northern Province, where Mogoba comes from, and North West.