COSATU+laments,+ANC+tackles,+SACP+mulls,+Xundu+and+Boyle,+S+Times

Sunday Times, Johannesburg, 18 June 2006

 * Xolani Xundu and Brendan Boyle report**

=Cosatu document laments the state of the alliance=

//**The ANC and its alliance partners have started discussions on succession.**//

COSATU’s discussion document “Possibilities for Fundamental Social Change”, released this week in preparation for the federation’s national congress in September, takes a critical look at the socioeconomic and political environment of present-day South Africa.

It is scathing in its observation of the way the alliance partners have been sidelined over the past 12 years in policy formulation and concludes that the tripartite alliance is not the political centre that drives transformation and the deployment of cadres.

Government technocrats, conservative university economists, research institutes and business drive policy, it says.

It goes on to allege that the government does not open space for mass participation in policy development and calls for the revival of the ANC’s culture of robust debates, without which, it says, the party will die.

“The masses [are] reduced to spectators of an unfolding transformation process. There is no real popular participation in democracy. Mass mobilisation seems to be relegated to periods of celebrations and elections,” says Cosatu.

Internal democracy is constantly being undermined as resolutions of the democratic process are openly undermined or not implemented, it says. This is combined with fears of systematic sidelining of certain comrades, and of state institutions being used in a factional way.

“The ANC has a strong legacy of robust internal debate. However, there is a tendency to be intolerant of views that are not part of the official view [particularly from government],” it says.

“A disturbing culture is also developing. Leadership hardly respects the decisions of the majority. The National General Council rejected the modernisation proposal yet a new paper has surfaced raising almost the same issues under a new guise and with different motivation.”

The Constitution gives the President the power to appoint the Cabinet, and internal ANC processes also give the presidency the power to appoint directors-general, premiers and executive mayors of strategic municipalities.

“All these decisions combined increase the power of the presidency. They point to a highly centralised position, and explain why the price of the presidency, and its potential for extended patronage, is so very high,” the document reads.

The state is weak in driving a development agenda and has no central institution with such a mandate, but is, however, committed to driving a neo-liberal economic programme concerned primarily with stability rather than transformation.

To ensure that public representatives are closer to the people, Cosatu supports the call for a strong constituency element to be introduced in the electoral process at national and provincial level.

This will promote more contact between the people and public representatives and could introduce the element of constituents more directly determining candidates, Cosatu says.

The current system of proportional representation undermines independent thought, it says, as individual careers depend on party leaders and the deployment committee.

The Cosatu document then gives its members several scenarios, but indicates its preference for one that has been endorsed by workers in surveys conducted in the past. It spells out that Cosatu members should join the ANC in large numbers and redirect the party into the framework of the 1969 Morogoro conference’s strategy and tactics.

In this scenario the ANC, led by the working class at all levels, would not be hostile to socialism and would manage internal contradictions within the “broad church” with the aim of fundamental transformation of society as envisaged in the Freedom Charter.

Another scenario is to leave things the way they are, with no consensus within the alliance on what interventions are required to change the socioeconomic environment.

Another option would be for Cosatu to enforce a pact that would stipulate how the alliance should operate and the development agenda that should guide the government.

The fourth scenario is for Cosatu to walk out of the alliance and back the SACP to stand in elections.

The fifth involves the alliance disintegrating, with no clear direction and hijacked by capitalists, with Cosatu and the SACP splitting along lines of ideology and loyalty to personalities in the ANC.


 * From: http://www.sundaytimes.co.za/articles/article.aspx?ID=ST6A191185**

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=ANC tackles problems head on=

THE ANC, through a document drafted by some members of the political education committee, has given the party some options in terms of the succession debate and how it can successfully resolve the current crisis sparked by the firing of former Deputy President Jacob Zuma.

President Thabo Mbeki and his former deputy have also tried to heal the rift that threatened to tear the party apart.

Last November they presented a joint statement to the NEC saying they had “started a process of intensive interactions” between themselves in a manner that would best serve the interests of the ANC and the country as a whole.

Mbeki and Zuma said: “It is understandable that there should be pain within the movement regarding the difficulties faced by our [the ANC’s] deputy president. Precisely because of this pain and anger, it is critical that the leadership should rise above the fray and find mature ways of dealing with the challenges.”

Recently, writing in his weekly newsletter, ANC Today, Mbeki said they both “declare that we will oppose all attempts to drive a wedge between us”.

The discussion document, released to ANC branches two weeks ago and titled “Contextual Considerations in Addressing Challenges of Leadership”, is an attempt to bring stability and direction to the succession debate. It presents two options. The first suggests Mbeki’s retention of presidency of the party or the election of someone else.

The document says whatever option the ANC 52nd national conference adopts, this would have implications for the presidential candidate for the 2009 general elections.

The document, which was drafted by ANC chief strategist Joel Netshitenzhe, ANC NEC member Enoch Godongwana and head of the ANC’s elections department Mandla Nkomfe, says if Mbeki were reelected the question regarding the president and deputy president of the country would be left open and that the deputy president of the ANC or someone else could become the country’s next president.

However, if a new ANC president were elected then the “perception” would be that this person would become the party’s presidential candidate in 2009 and that the ANC deputy president or someone else would be appointed as deputy president of the country.

“While unconventional and not provided for in the ANC constitution and processes, the NEC may wish earlier than the list process to designate the ANC deputy president (or whoever else) as the movement’s candidate in the 2009 elections and ask branches to endorse [this],” the document reads.

Electing a new ANC president could convey a sense of a new beginning to society and communicate a notion of change within broader policy continuity. And importantly, it would ensure certainty going forward.

The negatives are that sudden change may worsen tensions given the current fragility of the ANC and that this may lead to disorganisation and even tendencies to undermine Mbeki.

It proposes that the ANC constitution may need to be amended to increase the number of NEC members from the current upper limit of 93 to a maximum of 120. It should include a fair representation of young people and take racial demographics into account.

The document says provision should also be made for a 50-50 gender balance.

Co-option of 10 new members would allow for regional, demographic, class and government deployment representation.

In addition, at least four positions in the NEC must be reserved for Cosatu.


 * From: http://www.sundaytimes.co.za/articles/article.aspx?ID=ST6A191137**

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=SACP mulls option of heading out alone=

THE South African Communist Party blew the covers off the national debate about the future of the ruling alliance last month with the publication of a discussion document asking questions previously debated behind closed doors.

But the answers to these questions, which could fundamentally influence the political future of the country, will be known only in July next year, six months before the ANC gathers to elect — or re-elect — a party leader.

The SACP document, which has been followed by matching essays from the ANC and trade union federation Cosatu, asks, among other things:

· Should the SACP contest the next national or local government elections under its own banner and not on the ANC slate? · Should the SACP actively back a specific candidate for president of the ANC in 2007 and for president of the country in 2009? · Should SACP members seek to increase their influence within ANC structures by backing branches and seeking ANC party office? · Should SACP members prioritise the interests of the communist party or of the ANC?

The paper has triggered debate in all branches of the alliance and between factions within each movement.

General secretary Blade Nzimande has made presentations to Cosatu and the National Union of Mineworkers about the debate, which is being managed by a commission he heads and includes the party’s politburo. They will compile a report for the SACP national conference next July.

“The document is not a power play into the ANC presidential succession debate,” Nzimande said in an article earlier this month. He said the discussion would have implications for the ANC, but added: “We have no intention of allowing the systemic issues we are trying to open up for debate to be turned into a personality contest.”

Without naming Mbeki, the paper included harsh criticism of the executive structure the President has built around himself.

“To carry forward the capitalist-driven growth-path project, the leading cadre within the ANC state have appreciated the need to forge a powerful political-technical-managerial centre within the state, focused around the Presidency with close ties to key departments, notably Treasury and Trade and Industry,” the paper argues.

It says capitalists, including the mega-rich new BEE elite, have inordinate influence while ordinary members of the ANC and the alliance are systematically marginalised.

“What is radically absent from this pillar of the project is any serious appreciation of the manner in which [strengthened] capitalist accumulation within South Africa, rather than innocently providing the resources for sustained ‘delivery’, is actively reproducing the very crises of underdevelopment,” it argues.

Whatever the answers to the questions about how far communists will go to steer the African nationalists, the SACP argues it needs to re-establish a link between the actions of the ruling party and the will of its members.

“We need to rebuild, which is to say, contest for, an ANC that is capable of leading popular struggles on the ground,” the party says.


 * From: http://www.sundaytimes.co.za/articles/article.aspx?ID=ST6A191176**

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