It’s a Saturday. The sun is unforgivably hot. Probably it’s the absence of an umbrella on my part. How could I? None of the ANC volunteers can afford an umbrella. It would be rude and unfair of me to have one covering my head alone while others are left at the mercy of the sun so I decided not to buy or carry one with me. One thing is for sure, life is difficult on this side of the country.
I have been meaning to write these reflections but have been far too busy. Today I tell a story: straight and honest. Our duty (as ANC national organisers) is not to complain about the weather but to forge ahead door-to-door asking our people to consider voting for the ANC. That is what we have chosen. We are at a place called Matolweni — Stutterheim. This place is extremely rural. Without waiting for people to ask us we already know that we must answer about the lack of electricity and the dilapidated road.
We know about the road because we travelled on it coming here. What are we going to say? Create hope? No ways. This municipality is dominated by Cope councillors. I will not say what I do not know. Our people have been neglected by the leadership during the days of Nosimo Balindlela, I will not answer for Cope. Let them come and answer on their own. She must tell people why she neglected them when she was in government, only to remember them after she was fired.
The contingent of volunteers we are working with is relatively young and energetic. They are enthusiastic, though hungry, they keep singing as though we are celebrating. These volunteers themselves are unemployed, which explains why they are with us here during the week when they are supposed to be either at school or at work. Don’t be mistaken. Most of them have passed matric but could not proceed to tertiary education for lack of money.
Economically deprived or rich, we are all the same, it’s election time. That’s how capitalist democracy works. During elections the leaders and the led mingle together as though they are one, but beyond the similar T-shirts lies extreme economic differences. Internal problems aside, we approach a house whose inhabitant is an old and frail woman. She waves at us dismissively. She seems to be telling us to go away and asks: “nizenge-Coke?” (Are you here for Coke?) With “Coke” rural people mean Cope. Noticing this fact we quickly attempt to explain: “size-nomkhonto nevili” (we are here with a spear and a wheel) — the ANC.
She cannot help but be vigilant. Old people have been misled on more than one occasion here in the Eastern Cape. They have been told that the ANC has changed its logo and removed the spear and only left the wheel. For some their particulars have been taken under the guise of registering people for electricity and social grants. That is how organisations have been increasing their membership without actually recruiting anyone. I am sure everyone has seen how in the back-to-back bi-elections the ANC has won, displacing incumbent councillors for new ones. First she looks thoroughly at the logo on our T-shirts so as to check if we are not misleading her when we say we are ANC.
After satisfying herself about the authenticity of our statements she nods, smiles and allows us in. Her smile seems to have trapped us. We relax, expecting no questions because she seems to be an ANC supporter, we think. We sit down inside the house expecting to be pampered. Alas! The floodgates open. Even before we start speaking she fires the first salvo. She accuses us of being liars. She says we think we are clever because we are educated. She claims that we are using “them” and their votes to finance our lavish lifestyles. Lastly she alleges that we only know “them” during elections. She also demands that the ANC should build roads. She asks for electricity, demands that the councillor be removed and tells us to go and tell those who sent us to her house that these are her views.
In conclusion, she tells us she will vote for the ANC. Not because of us but because this is her organisation, not ours. Just as I am thinking of a response she cuts in “yinyani, akuyonyani? Nizosikhumbula xa kuphinda kuvotwa, andithi?” (It is true isn’t it? You are going to remember us again during the next elections?) Yes, although I don’t say it, it is probably true. These nationalists are going to remember our people in the next elections. It is not only the ANC, but all political parties, the old woman contends. I for one, being a communist, am taken aback, but at least happy with her conclusion. After all these things she still says she will vote for the ANC. Wow! This is what Cope probably misread — the anger people feel is not, certainly not yet, anti-ANC anger, but anger at the leadership — parliamentarians, ministers, MECs, mayors and councillors, not the ANC.
And indeed, our people have a right to be angry at these people. Most of them are not even part of this door-to-door campaign. All they want is to get to parliament and that’s it. But one thing people have to learn is that anger should not lead to disengagement. It should propel them to participate and root out the “accumulation regime” that is under way, both inside and outside the state apparatus. Back to the old lady; the things this woman says are true. Although we are not lying, many among us are willing to lie to get people to vote. We don’t think we are clever but some among us are taking advantage of the uneducated to get their votes and yes, to get into government and finance their lavish lifestyles.
DA, Cope, UDM and all other petty bourgeois organisations are guilty of this. Even some members of the SACP are guilty of this fact. It’s a shame that some use our party to advance their narrow economic interests. But I will not leave the party because of these elements. I will stay on and fight. Most of the houses we visit give responses which are more or less the same — people complain about the lack of service delivery but point out improvements. They demand more and seem to be giving up. This is bad, not only for the ANC but for the party as well. The South African working class has been substantially demobilised by the top-down economic and political interventions that have taken place over the past 15 years.
Most of our people seem to have accepted being spectators whose duty is to deride or praise work being done by political representatives. This is not at all sustainable. There is a programme, where we are, though piecemeal, to assert people’s power through the removal, installation and election of ward councillors. The crisis is the inability of the South African left to use the existing measures to build working-class hegemony. Back to the old lady; what lessons should we draw as communists from this old woman’s perspective? Is there hope in Cope? Well, frankly, in the eyes of many of our people Cope is nothing but old wine in new bottles. It is Thabo Mbeki under a new mask. Who can blame them. Nosimo was premier of the Eastern Cape until late last year and presided over the most incompetent provincial government. Now all of a sudden she goes around promising people things. Why did she not do them when she was still in government, ask our people? So in peasants’ eyes Cope represents the outgoing government albeit under a new name.
Cope is only new to the middle classes who see the preservation of their economic interests should Cope take over. But to those who have lost enough in the past 15 years a continuation of the old order is simply impossible. Change is necessary. Even if this change is only at the level of leadership and not policy. To them the current “accumulation regime” cannot proceed. It must be disrupted, even if replaced with another one. This is what people say with their own mouths. For many of our people the ANC represents them and their aspirations. It is a living embodiment of their struggle and resistance against apartheid capitalism. Correctly or otherwise this is the case. Any illusions that the ANC’s base can be dismantled by lukewarm, feel-good political parties like Cope who do not present any alternative to the ANC but are a carbon copy of the movement under a new name and logo is simply disastrous. By the look of things the working-class base in the ANC is going to remain, probably for some years to come. Any serious left formation should not abandon the working-class base in the ANC but contest it from within.
Where the working class is found, working-class formations should be present. Of course this is not to suggest that working-class organisations must tail behind the ANC. Our central committee directed us to rally behind the ANC and ensure a massive electoral victory for the ANC. Any communist who respects SACP organisational democracy should abide by these directives. Whoever disagrees with this notion must wait for our party congress and contest this perspective lawfully within the bounds of party policy. The way in which the SACP at times performs its role is probably incorrect. It cannot be correct that the ANC is heavily criticised under a Mbeki leadership, which was pursuing a neo-liberal agenda, but uncritically cheers the current leadership which is not pursuing anything different and simply because our leaders have better personal relations with the present ANC leaders.
I for one will vote for the ANC and will do all in my capacity to convince working-class people that in these elections, between progress and reaction, the ANC is the alternative. Opting out of the elections is out of the question, let alone imagine defecting to other political parties. Of course armchair revolutionaries will theorise about what should have been. My contestation is that elections are on the 22nd April and the SACP is not on the ballot box. Who do you choose? White minority parties such as the DA? Conservative black petty bourgeois organisations such as Cope who already have a record of suppressing us for 15 years under an ANC banner? Or do you choose the ANC which is a product of contestation between the left and the right? The choice is clear. Polokwane might not have brought all the necessary changes, but it is better than yesterday, under the suppression of Mbeki. Anyway, had genuine left forces not kept on fantasizing about an ideal situation, they could have played a meaningful role in determining what came out of Polokwane. While everybody else saw that Polokwane could produce better, people were busy with Zuma and his faults as though Zuma was the only one to be elected out of Polokwane. The ANC lives, the ANC leads!
Lol. Ah man it’s like goose stepping in Leningrad 40 years ago. So now the past 15 years of mismanangement must be blamed on COPE? hahahaha, tell me Mr. 20% how long have COPE been around? You talk of things you know nothing about, least of all the aspirations of honest citizens. Go back to school
I assume you mean corruption in the SA government is what you mean by ‘root out the “accumulation regime” that is under way, both inside and outside the state apparatus’.
This is the single most important reason why most of the ex-communist states, many developing Africa and elsewhere have failed miserably in its transition to democracy. The best way to root out corruption is having politicians keep each other in line through a multi-party democracy. The past 15 years have shown the danger of have a too dominant majority party.
Imagine if you are wrong in assuming Cope is a disguised form of Mbeki’s regime. Aren’t we losing a valuable opportunity in creating a viable opposition to keep the ANC in check and reduce corruption? Maybe what you secretly wish for is a communist SA, in which case nothing I say will make sense to you. A one-party state will eventually function like a communist state anyway. If we really want to attack corruption in the SA government, building a strong opposition party that can stand up to the ANC is the only alternative.
“Don’t be mistaken. Most of them have passed matric but could not proceed to tertiary education for lack of money.” So who’s to blame? COPE? Nah those that bought guns instead of education for the poor!
That is a breath of fresh air. Long time. Welcome back from your Thought Leader self-imposed exile.
Did you explain to her that your Mr Paul Mashatile, when minister of finance in Gauteng, could have given 96 old ladies in her position R1000 each, but after due consideration decided it was more important for him to have a R96000 lunch at Auberge Michel?
Did you explain to her why your Mr Stofile, when he was premier of the Eastern Cape, spent R6 million having a 2nd lift installed in the 3-floor office building, so that he would not have to ride with the other plebs?
One thing we do know. We are quite certain that she did not ask you if you had any concept of shame.
welcome back mfo kandamase…your silence was beginning to put a strain on our patience!
is it by coincidence that you’ve posted your comment when president zuma has been freed from the chains? the electioneering is genuinely taking the toll out of creative hands? while you’re still thinking about answering those questions, let me jump to the 2nd part.
your work with mbaluli in delivering those by-elections to the anc selfishly will never go unforgotten…you shall keep campaigning tirelessly until the 23 april where we will all be dancing the 2/3 majority.
indeed, anc lives & leads…
Brilliant contribution. The best I have read on this reactionary forum.
Amandla!
The logic of this escapes me. Cope is the “old” ANC? Zuma is tne “new” ANC?
But they are both ANC. And the ANC has not delivered but stolen from the people by corruption what should have been spent on services. And corrupt people stay corrupt.
So why vote for either?
I get the feeling you, and many Black SA voters, are living in the past as much as Mugabe and ZANU pf.
I would suggest that you have one more election left to act like this, and then those who have spent their lives in a free SA and have received an education that is not Bantu, will be coming up to their majority.
And they will give you the shock of your political lives when you realise “Liberation Heros”, and bourgouise means nothing to them as they have had nothing to be liberated from but an ANC majority, and many of them will be the new Black Middle class and bourgousie that is no longer held down by Aparthied, only discriminated against by the ANC political rhetoric.
You wouldn’t put the boot into the useless premier, Beauty Balindlela, as long as she was parasiting on the working-class people of the Eastern Cape wearing her ANC head-cloth.
Oh my, my my my….I dont even know what to say to say to this….drivvel.
At the time Mr Stofile was putting in his R6 million private lift in the little Eastern Cape building, some pro bono white lawyers were in court trying to get him to pay the social grants owing to upwards of 3000 of his destitute constituents.
But you can be sure that all 3000 will be voting for Mr Stofile and friends soon.
Lazola
I really enjoyed your article. There seem to be a number of truths contained in it (not all necessarily new, but all worth repeating):
Most (all?) parties consistently treat the poor and disempowered as stupid; the ANC takes their vote for granted and the opposition parties assume that their support for the ANC is unquestioning, uncritical and unnuanced. They are all wrong.
The dilemma that SACP / COSATU supporters face, as outlined in your final paragraph, is a real one and not some unpleasant truth that these supporters just sublimate during election time.
I am a capitalist, but I acknowledge that COSATU and the SACP have been the moral compass of the country when it comes to championing union rights and democracy in Zimbabwe and Swaziland, and refusing to offload arms headed for Zimbabwe. To use a crude division, the capitalist-aligned cabal under Mbeki had no moral compass and was a source of shame for many SA citizens.
I will also not be voting ANC in these elections. I wish my vote was a subtle instrument but unfortunately it is a crude way of signalling my unhappiness with current policy. I believe that a more even contestation of power would help to root out the ‘accumulation regime’ you write of. Maybe we are both naive in our different ways.
The author is definitely scared of the realities he has seen in his door to door canvassing. That is why he has opted for the status quo. Those realities are poverty, illiteracy, and under development. To make his situation worse is the tools he employs to try to reason out the causes of the situation experienced. Marxism is not helpful in making the author understand and solve issues at hand.It is therefore not surprising that we see one glorifying and romanticising these hardships. Worse you cannot shift the blame on policy shortcomings in the past 15 years to individuals.Please wake up and appreciate that South Africa belongs to all who live in it. Rich and Poor, Black and White, Employed and Unemployed.
Lazola, nice article! Mbeki was to blame for the suffering of that old lady and her people. He surrounded himself with cigar smoking and single malt whisky drinkering capitalists. He refused to take action against a failure like Balindlela despite the alliance’s insistence that she should go. The masses are not that stupid not to know that the lack of service delivery should be laid squarely at the hands of previous ANC leaders like Lekota, Shilowa, Balindlea, Mlamba-Ngcuka and Mbeki himself! The new leadership of our organisation is like a breath of fresh air and we all know that incompetent ministers and Premiers days are numbered! “VIVA to the 70%”
Interesting that the ANC disclaims liability for its record. Cope has been in existence for 3 months? The ANC in government for 14 years? How ironic. I wonder why it is that the ANC must claim ownership for good deeds since liberation but the rest is jut not their doing. I find it disingenious that people like Nosimo, like her or not, are now tounted as anti ANC? Weren’t we all comrades until recently post Polokwane? Was she operating alone in the past 10 years, give or take? Interesting perspective indeed.
enough said–i think
viva la revolution
Mbeki’s rewarding of loyalty over ability and delivery, and the centralisation of power and decision-making are major reasons why the Eastern Cape is in the mess that it is. But I still do not see compelling arguments for why it is so bad in the Eastern Cape. Other provinces were also stocked with Mbeki loyalists.
Why is the Eastern Cape so poor when it comes to delivery of water and sanitation services to the poor, when one compares universal service coverage in 2001 with coverage in 2007? Can the old realities of independent homelands – the old Transkei is particularly bad in terms of delivery – still be blamed?
I don’t think other respondents have credited you with some of the self-reflection that is evident in your article, but I am in agreement with some of them that there are still blind spots in your analysis. Parachuting yourselves into rural areas during elections, albeit with sincere and passionate volunteers, confirms to the electorate that you are not serious about their day-to-day struggles.
I (sincerely) look forward to further articles from you AFTER the election, communicating to us the slow, incremental, unglamorous, successes of hard work in strengthening civil society and increasing access of basic service delivery. 13 years after 1994, Mbhashe LM has 25% of its population with access to piped water, Mnquna has 42%, both are in Amatole, the same DM as Matolweni. The people won’t accept this standard of living for much longer.
Lazola keep up the good work in the Eastern Cape.Our justice system has just robbed SHIKOTA of its electioneering tool- lets burry them on the 22nd of April.
Geejay- perhaps you need to go back to school.
Pasile, I don’t have to I am university graduate, something that only 3000 Blacks will attain this year out 700,000 who originally sat down to write std 9. Viva 20% viva. Viva ANC arms and corruption, viva. Viva no service delivery for 15 years viva! And by the way our justice system robbed no one, that is the exclusive domain of the ANC. They steel from the poor and give to rich.