Mbeki+must+take+cue+from+Luthuli+in+dealing+with+alliance




 * City Press, Johannesburg, September 17,2005**

=**Mbeki must take cue from Luthuli in dealing with alliance**=


 * S’Thembiso Msomi**

Chief Albert Luthuli had a tough decision to make, on that was to change the course of South Africa’s history forever.

And so he sent for Moses Kotane, general secretary of the then banned Communist Party of South Africa.

After a few hours of intensive discussions with the communist leader in a bush near his Groutville house, north of Durben, the ANC president funally made up his mind.

Although he would not actively participate in the formation of an armed wing, uMkhonto we Sizwe, the Nobel Peace Prize winner told Kotane that he would not condemn ANC members who did so.

Such was the relationship of trust between the two leaders in the early 1960s that, according to the then ANC deputy president Oliver Tambo, Luthuli would always insist on picking Kotane’s brains on “issues calling for wise leadership and delicate decision”.

Fast forward to present-day South Africa and imagine President Thabo Mbeki deep in thought and strolling down the green lawn at Mahlabandlopfu, his official residence, with SA Communist Party (SACP) general secretary Blade Nzimande and Congress of South African Trade Union's (Cosatu) Zwelinzima Vavi alongside him - discussing the state of the nation.

Inconceivable. To say the relations between the president and the leaders of the key components of the alliance is frosty, would be an understatement.

That the leaders of the two key components of the ANC-led alliance do not have a hotline to Mahlabandlopfu is reflective of relations that have progressively deteriorated over the past decade.

Much has been said about the ideological differences between the ANC and its partners and the role this has played in the tension-fraught alliance.

Yet such differences existed even during Luthuli and Kotane's times but that never succeeded in driving a wedge between them.

This was despite the fact that Luthuli was a traditionalist and staunch conservative Christian, whose beliefs clashed with those of atheistic communists of the time.

The current battle, which has raged on for much of the last 10 years and has been further worsened by the fallout over the ongoing criminal case against former deputy president Jacob Zuma, is as much about policy differences as it is about personality clashes and leadership styles.

While Luthuli and Kotane were contemporaries who had much in common even outside politics, the same cannot be said of Mbeki and the younger SACP-Cosatu leaders.

Since the unbanning of liberation movements in 1990, the SACP and Cosatu have not been able to match the ANC with leaders of the same stature as those who led the ruling party.

In exile, things were made much easier by the fact that the SACP and Cosatu's predecessor were often led by struggle stalwarts such as Kotane, Moses Mabhida, Joe Slovo and John Nkadimeng - who were all Tambo's contemporaries.

But the likes of Nzimande and Vavi are not of the same generation as Mbeki and their experience in the struggle is rooted in the mass mobilisation campaigns of the 1980s and the factory-floor struggles.

This has often led to them being treated as junior partners.

Cosatu and the SACP have often complained that, despite being in the alliance with the ruling party, they are usually among the last ones to know about government's key policy shifts.

A recent case in point was the government proposal to relax some of the country's labour laws to make it easier for certain sections of business to hire and fire employees.

According to the labour federation, it first heard about the proposed amendments from business leaders who had had extensive discussions with government on the matter.

Cosatu was only formally notified about government's intentions at a Presidential Working Group meeting - a few weeks before Mbeki announced the proposals to Parliament in his State of the Nation address.

Over a month ago, Vavi told Cosatu's central committee that while the federation's relations with the president's office have not improved, trade union organisations that are outside the alliance seem to be getting closer to Mbeki.

"Leaders of the National Council of Trade Unions and the Federated Unions of South Africa boast of wonderful relationship with the president, with monthly exchange of telephone discussions and meetings," Vavi said. "Cosatu on the other hand has not managed to develop this relationship."

At the last 10-aside alliance meeting, the SACP complained about Mbeki's non-attendance of key alliance gatherings and insisted that he be present at the next meeting.

But the SACP and Cosatu are not the only ones complaining about Mbeki's inaccessibility. Members of the ANC Youth League privately state that they have not formally met the ANC president ever since Fikile Mbalula was elected to replace Malusi Gigaba as leader at their national conference last year.

To all these parties, Mbeki and senior members of his cabinet do not take the alliance structures seriously.

They accuse ANC leaders in government of constantly undermining and contradicting alliance policy decisions.

But the alliance's failings cannot be blamed on Mbeki and his "non consultative" style of leadership alone. Under former president Nelson Mandela similar problems existed, although Madiba's larger-than-life personality often meant that no one was willing to take him head-on.

The major point of disagreement seems to be the different interpretation of what is meant by an "ANC-led alliance".

Does it mean that, as the leader, the ANC and its deployees in government can take major decisions without having to consult with the alliance partners? Or, as Cosatu and the SACP seem to believe, does it mean that all policy positions must first be canvassed in the alliance structures before they are presented to the public as policy.

In their joint statement to the ANC National Executive Committee last Friday, Mbeki and Zuma opted for a middle road: "In carrying out their tasks, individuals deployed in positions of authority in structures of the movement and in government should be guided by the mandate of the movement's constitutional structures.

"These structures should themselves in turn appreciate the prerogatives they allocate to individuals they deploy, arising out of the confidence they have in such individuals. While constitutional structures guide, they are not expected to micro-manage the activities of their deployees."

As the ANC leaders have pointed out, the Zuma debacle has plunged the movement and its partners into the greatest political crisis since the unbannings.

Yet, better handled, the Zuma issue can be a starting point for a more constructive debate over the manner in which the alliance has operated since 1990.


 * From: http://www.news24.com/City_Press/Features/0,,186-1696_1772393,00.html