Sunday will go down as the day on which President Thabo Mbeki lost the leadership of the ANC, but it’s party chairperson Terror Lekota who goes home with the biggest headache.
What a day! It’s never been this good (for journalists) and so bad (for the ANC). The day ended as it began: with a bewildered NEC being implored to stay behind in the plenary hall by a chairperson who has lost his power. Terror Lekota has had a terrible day; only slightly worse than that of President Thabo Mbeki who watched his authority disappear in full glare of the media and of a party that turned his back on him.
Delegates exacted an awful revenge on Lekota; he was gerrymandered every step of the way. He failed to chair the meeting and twice had to be rescued by the party’s secretary general, Kgalema Motlanthe, who looked more presidential than anybody else on the podium. It’s a massive irony as he was the Jacob Zuma of the Mafikeng conference 10 years ago: the man whom delegates used as their lightning rod to score the changes they wanted then.
Motlanthe secured an early detente on a highly confusing altercation about methods of counting votes that seemed nothing but an assertion of power by a grassroots baying for change.
To sit in the middle of the hall, amid delegations from KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga (all strongholds of Jacob Zuma), was to realise that this battle had been won long before anybody got to Polokwane. The voting is almost moot and the tally to watch is only the size of the victory.
From that vantage point, the NEC out front, on comfy leather chairs on a stage festooned in black, green and gold, looked impotent despite the trappings of high office. The people took power, booing every time an image of a member of Mbeki’s inner circle was flashed on to the overhead television screens.
It would be a massive miscalculation to see the delegates as voting fodder who are the hand-maidens of a populist wannabe president. There is a very determined bid to change the shape of influence and power in the ruling power. It is well-planned and determined, and while there are some Zuma groupies about, many delegates we spoke to are highly articulate about the problems in the ANC and the country.
The push has been given impetus by the massive wealth accumulation that ordinary members of the ANC have witnessed. The gap is highly visible at the conference where senior leaders arrive in the very latest gleaming BMWs, Chryslers and Volvos, while ordinary members arrive as they have always done: by bus , taxi and on foot. A T-shirt with Jacob Zuma’s face and the slogan “Fit to rule” says as much. At the back, it contains the following inscription:
“We did not struggle to be poor [ANC spokesman Smuts Ngonyama’s famous explanation of how he could make over R 50-million on the Telkom deal] but neither did we struggle to get rich while others get poorer.”
It’s all change now. My money’s on Kgalema Motlanthe as deputy president and a radically different national executive committee.
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22 Responses to “A day of terror”
Clear as day that ANC membership is disillusioned with the fruits of the revolution. It is not anti-mbekiism, it is anti-post revolution emancipation.
While many cannot believe that a man such as JZ is being supported- It is purely logical, the masses have now had enough of the parties attempts to do what is actually in their best interest, they want more, and they want it faster.
Support for JZ is a desperate bid by the membership to try something new, no matter what it is - in the hope that something will change.
Mbeki has faced a hostile and dissapointed membership - but he at least always had the leeway of a period of time to achieve objectives.
JZ will be in a terrible position come two years down the line, he represents expectations of a membership that wants change now and immediately, he doesn’t have the benefit of time to bring about change. JZ is being thrown into an impossible situation, one that he could not satisfy even if he tried……in two years time he will face a crowd even more hostile and desperate than the one which mbeki has.
My take on the electronic voting issue is that the rank and file suspect that the electronic process can be manipulated more easily behind the scenes by “experts”. The electronic ghost in the machine obviously worries the Polokwane crowd. They’d rather see the votes being physically counted.
Their concern is arguably emblematic of the divide between the africanist ‘intelligentsia’ (read Mbekites) and the soldiers of the national democratic revolution (read Zuma supporters). The former are educated exiles who are familiar with hi-tech gizmos; the latter are sons (and, lets not forget, daughters) of the sun-scorched african earth. They cannot afford the luxury of laptops.
Moving on.
Hobson should be left to choose between Zuma and Mbeki. Hopefully the comrades will see reason and find a third way. I’m backing Kgalema for the top job. Who knows - Jake may well still be charged and could be found guilty. If so, he cannot stand for high office. In that case Kgalema could well be smiling behind his grey bokkie - ensconced in the plush offices of Tuynhuis in 2009. That would be the best result from what’s currently a pretty bad situation.
This is typical Haffajee commentary, lacking anything of substance but excited and pretentious all the way. Typically, her article has no meaningful information, given that the editor should at least be in a position to reveal “news”, or something new - not gossip.
Brandon, I don’t think you’re right in saying “Clear as day that ANC membership is disillusioned with the fruits of the revolution. It is not anti-mbekiism, it is anti-post revolution emancipation.” What is anti-Mbekiism? What is anti-post revolution emancipation? Is this how you interpret the message from ANC members?
The fact is that Thabo Mbeki’s government failures in themselves are not a problem. The problem is that there is an explanation for these failures. The explanation is a simple one, Brandon.
1) For every failure in serving the people, there is visible success in individual enrichment among ANC leaders!
2) Mbeki clearly has favoured ANC beings he protects. He has others he attacks even if they have done nothing wrong as long they are seen to be potential trouble for the favoured.
3) White economic power remains intact, and abusive - with BEE serving to enrich the whites and a few chosen ANC blacks.
In short, Mbeki has abandoned the Freedom Charter in favour of selling out to the white minority. He is turning the ANC into an organisation for “managing capitalist relations” – white capitalists of course. As ANC members, we are fighters for the Freedom Charter. We want the Freedom Charter as a whole, not piece meal.
Jacob Zuma’s success begins the day he defeats Mbeki. It will peak at the point when he gives us a change of direction from the present neo-apartheid capitalist course. Just a change of direction, that will be success for Zuma. By change of direction I mean restoring the Freedom Charter as the basis of political discourse and policymaking. For example, we need Constitutional reforms to abolish private property in land. The Freedom Charter constitution must restore communal property in land, and as the basis of cultural development – free education, for example. We need Freedom Charter policy to nationalise the land, the mines, and finally the big banks - starting with Standard Bank, the most ready of them all. Now Mbeki and his supporters are opposed to all this Freedom Charter programme.
The Freedom Charter is the true emancipation agenda in SA. Not BEE bribery by the neo-apartheid capitalists. Not your “anti-post revolution emancipation” fantasy.
The ANC is going through a revolution as we I write here. That revolution is going to work its way through society as the Freedom Charter comes to life again.
PS. Private property in land amounts to a defence of what the colonists seized from us – land, cattle, fruits of our labour, etc. The Constitution is neo-apartheid because it defends this colonial private property. Communal property, the property of the Freedom Charter, is the original state of property among the Africans who were turned into a vast propertyless and diseased working class that we see today in the towns and cities. The Freedom Charter is the true meaning of emancipation and it must be fought for, by all genuine fighters for freedom in our country. BEE is a negation of the Freedom Charter. It is a means for the further consolidation of the relations of neo-apartheid oppression by a small white capitalist class.
The 2009(8?) elections are going to be fascinating. If the Markinor and TNS Market Surveys poll results are accurate (which puts support for Zuma at around 40%), the ANC may not have as easy a stroll to Tuynhuis as in the past. It will be interesting to see where people who can’t stand the idea of President Zuma make their marks, or if they’ll abstain.
Johan van der Berg on December 17th, 2007 at 3:37 pm
The betting game
___________________
I wonder if the media should not “place its money”
on civil society (excluding the state).
The confuson; within the ANC is healthy,possibly transitional,and an opportunity for ordinary people to realise their voting power and other means of effecting change.
Power does not secede without engagement.
For the media to further empower citizens, would be a creative challenge for journalists leading up the general elections.
If I should be placing any bets, or scractching cards, it must be a civil society card. And I guess,that cannot be (a) wild (card).
If as you suggest, one man has held the ANC to ransom, then nothing stops the next from doing so to.
I don’t believe this to be the case, I think the ANC has been swallowed by an internal move…a very clever one involving the SACP, based on Adolf Hitlers Blitzkrieg strategy, the anc will dissapear into the belly of the SACP and COSATU.
I really do find it difficult to accept that the ANC - with powerful policy on removing such a renegade ruler as you describe, would need to resort to a self destructive battle such as this - when only a vote of no confidence is needed.
No one can deny that ANC policy has been usurped by another, and that thought is about to destroy the ANC completely — it is SACP of nature, it fits every Stalinist strategy and method of execution.
Henceforth the ANC has been subjugated to the SACP and Mafioso, a collective will detach itself from this monster, and another party will emerge, which will take up the struggle of the ANC.
All in all, this is to the betterment of democracy in South Africa — not actually what the rebels intended.
Capitalism and the free market pulled 250 million peasants within 30 years out of poverty in Communist China… perhaps it is time some of our comrades take a tour of China and visit Russia and talk to their old communist pals that destroyed the statues of Lenin and Stalin in 1990.
Nobhala, I am impressed that you could fit so much BS into so few paragraphs.
I am white and I come from England. Do you know how many times my motherland has been colonised since 1000BC? About 7. Compared to South Africa’s 2 times, excluding the arrival of the West African peoples, but that was hardly colonisation, because there was nobody else here. Singapore, Indonesia and India were also colonised until 50 - 60 years ago. Did they sit around whining about their lot? No. They did something about it. But whining is more comfortable and easier, isn’t it…
Needless to say, if you want to follow the letter of the Freedom Charter, it’ll be like following the letter of the Bible, what with eyes being plucked out for causing one sin, etc. You will end up with a Russia or a China.
Based on what we are seeing in Polokwane, do you REALLY trust the leadership of the ANC to behave ethically if you nationalise everything and concentrate all power in their hands?
The struggle is over. The honeymoon is over too. Now the hard work begins. What nobody in the ANC seems to realise (and neither do you) is that democracy is only as good as the people elected by the votes of the masses. How do you think the Americans wound up with George W Bush? Welcome to democracy, kiddo!
Rob, the Englandman, do you know of a bank called Northern Rock? Do you know of a company called Network Rail? What is common between these two?
Do you know what condition is the financial system in your country? Can you tell us how you plan to sort it out without making the poor of the world to suffer for it? Or are you a English Tory colonist preteding to know something here in SA?
The ANC is going thorugh a revolutionary cleansing process in Polokwane. This process is good because it will restore the Freedom Charter as the basis of policy discourse and policy making. Revolutions are not gentlemanly conversations between agreeable individuals - no. They happen in their own way, wether we like it or not. This is the nature of progress - it is messy.
From Polokwane, there are three broad directions of development that are already underway:
1) The State - further development of the Freedom Charter’s principle of democratic self-government to consolidate peoples’ democracy in the localities;
2) Economy - elaboration of the cooperative system of enterprise as the economic system of the Freedom Charter
3) Common property - further articulation of the principle of restoring wealth to the ownership of the people as a whole, beginning restoration of common property in land, mines, and the big banks.
These are the three broad direction of development that will allow us to consolidate progress on the Freedom Charter.
REFERENCE:
“Freedom Charter: What the People Want in the Fight against Neo-apartheid Oppression”, Freedom Charter 50th Anniversary Pamphlet, 2005.
Clearly spot on.When Blade says the whole NEC is business men and have stakes in gov tenders, he is ridiculed and they still enjoy sitteng at the pedestal of the described chairs. Come to think of the latest flashy cars, an ordinary member will have to think more of why they shud be voted out. An expansion of wealth accumulation and R100 to ferry one to secure a seat in the NEC by this bureaucrats. Indeed Zuma represents the rank and file. The haves will still want to outgun each other at the expense of our hard gained liberation.
Your observation is spot on Feriel.
I am worried about the adoption of the credentials report that will impact on who shud vote. Obviously the 94 delegates disqualified from Gauteng tells the extent of how much tman wud want to hold on.
Nobhala is out of touch with reality.The outcome of the elections will be put to a test either by dispute or walk-out. The Zumani is coming strong and sorry that Nobhala cannot see the writing but fonts
Nobhala, do us all a favour and just cut to the chase.Say straight-out that you are advocating ‘Magabenomics.’ No food,no electricity,no clean running water,no crops,no living wage,no free press,a worthless currency,stone-age living standards and a dictatorship.Do you want everything to be given to you for free or are you prepared to work for some of it?Zimbabwe’s life expectancy is dropping every year so if you are 37 or older then count yourself lucky to still be alive!!By the way,even though ‘Animal Farm’ was only a fairy tale, we do have a modern day version in Zimbabwe!
I’m just very dissapointed with Terror Lekota’s chairing. Given his sustained public outbursts, i has not expected much good from him, as a leader, but i think his ability or is it disability… to chair was just sheer embarrasing. Flauting normal and widely held procedures and in the process cultivating fertile conditions for delegates to disrespect him. All the disrespect aside, he simply was a bad chair!
If Lekota was capable of learning, he would withdraw his nomination to avoid embarrassment and minimise the possibility of total exclusion of Mbeki camp from the top six.
Lekota is a liability. Nobody supports him in Free State, his home province.
After this conference, the power will shift to the hands of ordinary South Africans. We will have to make a decison, regardless of what happens in Polokwane about who to vote for in 2009, or if things go pear shaped sometime next year.
I look forward to that. The ANC has taken its broad membership and the people of this country for granted for far too long. The people of this country also need to hold their leaders accountable. We must speak with our votes and remind people that they are there to serve their citizens and not use state power and resources for themselves and their friends.
Quote: “After this conference, the power will shift to the hands of ordinary South Africans. We will have to make a decison, regardless of what happens in Polokwane about who to vote for in 2009, or if things go pear shaped sometime next year.” Chocky
It sounds like a good campaign to me. Tell me more about your party Chocky. What does it stand for? What is its position on slave wages in white commercial farms?
The winner in the Polokwane leadership contest is not JZ someone else who will take over when he is charged is the victor. He has carved his path to power with skill that would make Thabo Mbeki look like a child. I am sure TM respects this man where he is and does not see him as an enemy. Its like an unfolding drummer in a novel or movie. Very exciting staff. Watch this space!
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Ferial Haffajee is the editor of the Mail & Guardian, the country's premier investigative newspaper.
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Sunday will go down as the day on which President Thabo Mbeki lost the leadership of the ANC, but it’s party chairperson Terror Lekota who goes home with the biggest headache.
Clear as day that ANC membership is disillusioned with the fruits of the revolution. It is not anti-mbekiism, it is anti-post revolution emancipation.
While many cannot believe that a man such as JZ is being supported- It is purely logical, the masses have now had enough of the parties attempts to do what is actually in their best interest, they want more, and they want it faster.
Support for JZ is a desperate bid by the membership to try something new, no matter what it is - in the hope that something will change.
Mbeki has faced a hostile and dissapointed membership - but he at least always had the leeway of a period of time to achieve objectives.
JZ will be in a terrible position come two years down the line, he represents expectations of a membership that wants change now and immediately, he doesn’t have the benefit of time to bring about change. JZ is being thrown into an impossible situation, one that he could not satisfy even if he tried……in two years time he will face a crowd even more hostile and desperate than the one which mbeki has.
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