To+complete+the+revolution,+Kgalema+Motlathe,+Mail+and+Guardian

Mail and Guardian, Johannesburg, //25 March 2007 11:59//
=To complete the revolution=


 * Kgalema Motlanthe**

There is an ANC branch in Randburg named after the late Bram Fischer. Recently it held a gala dinner to celebrate being named the best performing ANC branch of the year.

The branch takes its work seriously. It has an impressive recruitment programme in an area of Johannesburg not generally regarded as an ANC stronghold. All new members are inducted into the policies, traditions and practices of the movement. The branch has an intensive programme of internal political debate, tackling some of the most significant challenges facing both the ANC and the country.

The branch is firmly rooted in its community, playing an active role in the local development forum, residents’ association and the community policing forum. It conducts campaigns on local issues — such as the provision of low-cost housing, healthcare and business development — that draw on the skills and energies of all branch members.

The Bram Fischer branch is an exemplary ANC branch. Its achievements are an inspiration to structures of the organisation across the country.

Importantly, the branch also provides a guide to the priorities and challenges of the ANC’s 52nd National Conference, due to be held in Polokwane in December. At heart, this conference is about the ANC branch — its involvement in the community, its coherence and unity, its ability to nurture a new kind of cadre, and its capacity to guide and monitor the implementation of a programme of national democratic transformation.

Many people think of an ANC national conference as a five-day meeting in a large hall draped in black, green and gold. In reality, it is a year-long process of organisational activity, involving all ANC structures and a large portion of its membership. Over the next few months, starting this week, ANC branches will be debating a range of policy discussion documents and reviewing the structures and programme of the organisation.

The aim of these activities is to ensure that delegates (90% of whom come directly from branches) bring with them clear mandates based on extensive and informed deliberation. The process also serves another function: to improve the political life of branches and develop the understanding of members. By undertaking a thorough and frank process of introspection, both with respect to the state of the ANC and its successes (and shortcomings) in government, the organisation is better able to respond to the challenges of the present and the future.

The national conference is the culmination of this process. Its success or failure will be determined by whether it does actually serve to strengthen the branches of the ANC and equip all its cadres to advance the programme towards a better life for all.

One of the main documents currently under discussion is the draft //Strategy and Tactics//. Once adopted in its final form by the conference, this document will serve as the guiding political vision and basic programme of the ANC, replacing the document adopted in Mafikeng 10 years ago.

The new draft highlights some important developments in the country and within the ANC over the past 10 years. It reflects an organisation that, 13 years into democracy, is older and probably wiser. While there have been important achievements to reflect on, the intervening years have better exposed the ANC to the challenges of governance and the consequent impact this has had on the character, cohesion and capacity of the movement.

It seeks to define better the various features of the national democratic society the ANC is committed to achieving, confirming the continuing need for a systematic programme to correct historical injustices on the basis of race, class and gender. It notes that the need for such affirmative action will decline to the same degree as all centres of power and influence become broadly representative of the country’s demographics.

It envisages a society with a mixed economy, with state, private and social (through cooperatives, for example) ownership of capital. Specifically, it says: “The balance between social and private ownership of investment resources will be determined on the balance of evidence in relation to national development needs … at any point in time.”

It must be a society that has at its core the improvement of the lives of the poor. The draft therefore defines the ANC as “a disciplined force of the left, organised to conduct consistent struggle in pursuit of a caring society in which the well-being of the poor receives focused and consistent attention”.

The draft //Strategy and Tactics// does not propose a substantial departure from the vision, character and tasks of the ANC. But it does seek to articulate these in a more precise manner. It also seeks to identify how the ANC should understand and respond to problems arising from the reality of political incumbency and the “unprecedented opportunities for individual material gain” that have opened up since the achievement of democracy. These problems include the potential that exists for the development of “social distance”, patronage, arrogance of power, bureaucratic indifference and corruption. Then there is the impact that these problems can have on the ANC itself, contributing to factionalism and the co-option (or wholesale purchase) of structures for personal advancement.

As they prepare for the conference, ANC members will have to confront these difficult issues. They should be wary of exaggerating the extent of the problem, as some outside commentators are wont to do. But they cannot and should not ignore the significant harm that these tendencies, left unchecked, can potentially do to the movement and its historic mission.

One of the hallmarks of the ANC over the decades has been its capacity for self-criticism and self-renewal. Our external critics may be vociferous and unrelenting in their attacks on the movement, but there are few organisations that have the ANC’s resolve and ability to honestly and frankly examine its own weaknesses, to correct problems and to renew itself.

The //Organisational Review// document, distributed to structures this week, takes a long, hard look at the ANC, and asks whether it is properly oriented and structured to undertake the substantial tasks it has identified for itself.

There are certainly many strengths the ANC can build on. Successive elections have demon­strated its capacity to mobilise millions of South Africans behind its vision of a new society. The ANC has broadened its support base and increased its membership. It has a veritable army of public representatives in all spheres of government, working daily to implement programmes of reconstruction and development. It has gained valuable experience and developed an impressive skills base among its cadres in government.

But there are important weaknesses. The deployment of this “army” of cadres into government and other areas of work has deprived the ANC of the dedicated attention of some of its most experienced organisers and political thinkers. Its ability to formulate policy, monitor implementation and call public representatives to account has been compromised. So too has its capacity for cadre development and renewal, and its ability to run mass campaigns outside of elections and engage in the contest of ideas taking place in society.

The conference must respond to these problems in a practical way. It needs to review not only the operations and structures of the organisation but also the policies it has put in place to transform the economy, meet basic needs, ensure peace and stability, and contribute to the regeneration of Africa.

Past experience suggests the debate around these questions will be robust and frank. There are a variety of perspectives in the ANC on these issues. If the positions finally adopted by the conference are to reflect the views of the membership, then there needs to be a free exchange of ideas in ANC structures.

In addition to setting the direction of the ANC for the next five years, the conference will need to elect a national leadership collective fully capable of guiding the movement along the path determined by the membership. Branches will therefore need to debate the individual and collective qualities required of such leaders in the light of the current challenges facing the movement. They will need to ensure that this group of leaders broadly reflects the various sections of the motive forces and centres of authority, and that there is an appropriate gender balance and generational mix.

This conference will be the last before the ANC’s centenary in 2012. It must therefore set the tone and prepare the groundwork for an organisation which reaches its 100th year fully determined and ably equipped to complete the revolution that its founders set in motion.

Among other things, this conference is being asked to set a target of at least one million members by 2012, thereby implementing, somewhat belatedly, a resolution of the ANC national conference in 1942.

If the ANC is to achieve this target, it will need to emerge from its 52nd National Conference with a programme to build structures like the Bram Fischer branch in every city, town and ward in the country. That is the central task the ANC must take up as it heads for Polokwane.

//Kgalema Motlanthe is secretary general of the ANC//


 * From: http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=302794&area=/insight/insight__comment_and_analysis/**

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