ANC Today
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Volume 7,No. 47 . 30 November-6 December 2007
---------------------------------------------------------------------

<SNIP>

LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT

An urgent task of the ANC

The forthcoming National Conference of the ANC and the attendant so-called leadership succession battle, have produced a very interesting and very perverse outcome. This outcome is of central importance with regard to the very character of our movement.

The perverse outcome to which I refer consists in the interpretation of any
reassertion of the most fundamental values, policies and programmes of the ANC as amounting to an attempt to thwart the presidential ambitions of our Deputy President, Jacob Zuma. Let me list some of the specific instances to which I refer.

Some time ago, I said that ANC policy on the emancipation of women and gender
equality means that our movement would have absolutely no problem in electing a woman as President of the ANC. Some promptly denounced this as an attempt to deny Jacob Zuma the possiblity to serve as President of the ANC!

More recently, the Chairperson of the ANC, Mosiuoa 'Terror' Lekota, denounced the use of tribalism by anybody within our movement to advance any objective whatsoever. Again this was condemned as yet another attempt to thwart the presidential hopes of Jacob Zuma!

Mosiuoa Lekota then said that our liberation songs have always served as a critical component part within our strategy to mobilise the masses of our people to act as their own liberators. Accordingly, our repertoire of liberation songs has always changed with our changing conditions and tasks.

He therefore argued that there are songs that were relevant to the stage of the armed struggle, but which are counter-productive in the context of the current phase of the National Democratic Revolution. Once again, this was denounced as an attack on Jacob Zuma, with the intention to ensure that he does not become President of the ANC!

Address to caucus

Even more recently, I addressed the weekly Caucus Meeting of the national ANC MPs on 20 November to indicate one of their principal ANC tasks as an important echelon of the leadership of our movement.

Basing myself on a Statement made to the Caucus by 'EN', the daughter of an ANC MP who had passed away, I said that all of us, including our MPs, had to fight and
defeat a cancer that was beginning to establish itself within the ranks of the ANC,
with which our MPs are very familiar.

'EN' had spoken of an ANC branch she said had been taken over by criminal elements, who, according to her, had chased away all the genuine patriots who belonged to the branch, bought membership cards for people who did not even want to join the ANC, and sought to use the ANC for purposes other than addressing the interests of the masses of our people.

I said that all the Members of Caucus knew very well that the malaise of which 'EN'
spoke did not refer only to the ANC branch from which her mother was driven out, but was affecting other ANC branches throughout the country. I said that the only way to respond to this was for all of us to conduct sustained political work among our membership to defend the policies, programmes and values of the ANC.

I suggested that the MPs should treat this as their principal task during the
parliamentary recess, which would last up to the opening of parliament at the
beginning of February 2008. In this context, I must make this point that all the ANC MPs know that on the eve of every long parliamentary recess, as President of the ANC I make an effort to address Caucus essentially to indicate the major tasks of the day.

As I explained at the meeting on 20 November, I requested the special meeting of the Caucus because I would not be able to attend its last meeting before the
parliamentary recess on 22 November. This was because I would have left the country for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Uganda, travelling via Harare.

At the meeting, I quoted what 'EN' had said at a Memorial Service organised by the Caucus the previous week, and insisted that we must act on what she had said. Once more, this has now been interpreted as an attack on Jacob Zuma, and an attempt to help ensure that he is not elected President of the ANC!

With regad to the latter, I would like to quote what one of our newspapers said. In its 25 November 2007 edition, "The Sunday Independent" said: "President Thabo Mbeki made an impassioned plea to ANC MPs this week not to allow the ruling party to be led by 'rapists', 'criminals' and 'counter-revolutionaries and mercenaries...

"He embarked on what some ANC MPs interpreted as a 'last-minute campaign' and a veiled attack on ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma.

"'It became a campaign caucus. I think Mbeki is now panicking. In all the terms he
could use why did he specifically talk about 'rapists' and 'criminals'? You can't
call a special caucus to say those things,' said one ANC MP known to be a Zuma
sympathiser...

"'Everybody was surprised as to what he was talking about but nobody said anything. We just sat there and listened to him as we usually do when he comes to caucus,' said (another MP), speaking on condition of anonymity."

The sad thing for our movement is that the anonymous "Zuma sympathiser" and "another MP" who spoke to "The Sunday Independent", both of whom serve in parliament as members of the ANC, obviously think that what 'EN' said, and what I said as a consequence, are of no meaning, since they constituted nothing more than 'a last-minute campaign against Jacob Zuma'.

Obviously, they will therefore do nothing to combat the dangerously corrosive
tendency which all members of the ANC know very well, about which 'EN' spoke.

Testimony of a witness

To allow our members and readers to make their own judgement about the importance or otherwise of what 'EN' and I said, and the real worth of the informants of "The Sunday Independent", let me now quote what 'EN' said when she addressed the Memorial Meeting convened by the ANC National Caucus on 15 November. Among other things, she said:

"As you know, there are certain private things that are only shared within family
(sic). The funeral (of my mother) also gave us an opportunity to peep into another
world that she resided within with her comrades in all sorts of structures including
SADTU, ANC and parliament...

"The announcement of (my mother's) deployment (to the National Assembly) was met with great disapproval by her former ANC branch leadership, which had managed to bring to its knees a branch which was once an icon of Tshwane, the first to launch...Women and Youth League structures in that region.

"With the help of the regional leadership, the said characters with publicly known
questionable and scary credentials, including criminal records such as rape, armed
robbery and murder were allowed to, amongst others, completely overhaul the character of the branch through the purchasing of membership for people not even interested in joining the organisation and also in the process literally chased away the founding members of the branch and its authentic leadership.

"To that end, the branch still remains alive only in name as members abandoned it in great numbers. Since then genuine branch programmes were subsequently replaced by clandestine activities such as smear campaigns and even, in one instance, using the name of the deceased eldest son, 'LN', without his approval, in an election campaign pamphlet to the effect that he was in support of - as an ANC candidate - one of the questionable characters above who was incidentally competing for the chair the former held as councillor since 2000.

"No effort was spared to bring this to the attention of the organisation's
leadership, but to no avail. Some of the attempts included letters and e-mails to the Secretary General's Office, deputation (sic) to certain NEC members to forward the matter to the Secretary General's Office, and personally handing some of the text mentioned above by hand to the Secretary General's Office...

"We owe it to our deployees to operate in an environment wherein they are not under constant seize (sic) to a point where their health is even put under strain, which is what we suspect could have also being (sic) one aspect of mother's condition. The reality is that a member of the ANC is only as good as alive (sic). The departed do not build branches and create leadership. (My mother's former) ANC branch has lost such a builder and mentor. It is against this background that mother decided to relocate to Lebotloane to find a new political home where she could discharge her constituency work without harassment."

After quoting this excerpt, I insisted that the members of the ANC Caucus knew this as a matter of fact that the situation described by 'EN' was fairly prevalent in our movement. I said that this arose from the political victory of our movement in 1994 and our accession to state power.

Further, I said these developments had opened the way to mercenary elements to join our movement, as a stepping stone to state power and theft of resources meant to assist the poor to extricate themselves from the dehumanising circumstances of poverty.

Interestingly, it is all this that has led the informants of "The Sunday Independent"
to conclude that what I said to our national Caucus has nothing to do with the
rapists and criminals that EN spoke about, because to speak about rapists and
criminals is to attack Jacob Zuma!

Some fundamental truths

With regard to all the foregoing, I would like to state a few fundamental truths that the ANC will and must uphold at all times, regardless of its political calendar, and regardless of the political circumstances within the movement, in our country and the world.

One of these is that the ANC is committed to the emancipation of women and gender equality. It has absolutely no problem with the proposition that a woman should serve as President of the ANC and/or President of our Republic. No genuine member of the ANC is or can be opposed to this.

Another is that from its foundation in 1912, the ANC has been opposed to tribalism, ever determined to "bury the demon of tribalism". No genuine member of the ANC is or can be opposed to this.

Yet another is that the ANC is and has always been opposed to populism. An important part of the reason it has survived for nearly 96 years is the fact that it has always remained loyal to principle, constantly refusing to resort to any action solely on the basis that it might, at any particular moment in our history, evoke popular acclaim. No genuine member of the ANC is or can be opposed to this.

Another is that our movement will strive constantly to combat and rid itself of
opportunist elements who have wormed themselves into its ranks, seeking to use the ANC as a step-ladder to state power, with the intention to use this power for
self-enrichment. No genuine member of the ANC is or can be opposed to this.

With regard to the latter, for some time already, our movement has recognised the fact that our political victory in 1994 also brought new challenges. In this regard, in his Report to our 2002 National Conference, our Secretary General, Kgalema Motlanthe, said:

"We have also reported to the NGC on the challenges being in power has on the
structures of the movement. We found that the issues dividing leadership of some of our provinces are not of a political nature, but have mainly revolved around access to resources, positioning themselves or others to access resources, dispensing patronage and in the process using organisational structures to further these goals. This often lies at the heart of conflicts between constitutional and governance structures, especially at local level and is reflected in contestations around lists, deployment and internal elections process of the movement. These practices tarnish the image and effectiveness of the movement...

"The limited political consciousness has impacted negatively on our capacity to root out corrupt and divisive elements among ourselves. For the movement to renew itself as a revolutionary movement we have to develop specific political, organisational and administrative measures to deal with such destructive elements."

It was exactly this negative phenomenon that I spoke about when I addressed the ANC Caucus on 20 November. To ensure its integrity and maintain its respect among the masses of our people, our movement will and must continue to oppose those within its ranks who abuse their membership of the ANC to work to 'access resources, position themselves or others to access resources, dispense patronage and in the process use our organisational structures to further these goals', and thus "tarnish the image and effectiveness of the movement".

Perverse results

Earlier in this article I spoke of the perverse results produced by those who seem to be very keen to denounce any restatement of the most basic ANC positions as
constituting an attack on our Deputy President, Jacob Zuma.

This manner of proceeding communicates the unfortunate message that in the context of his desire to become President of the ANC, Jacob Zuma is opposed to the emancipation of women; that he accepts the use of tribalism to achieve political ends; that he is not opposed to resort to unprincipled populism; and that he is ready to tolerate the opportunists in our ranks, presumably because he counts on the support of these elements.

In my Closing Address at the 2005 NGC I said: "I would appeal to all our members that while we await the outcome of (the judicial) processes (affecting our Deputy
President), we must conduct ourselves in a dignified manner befitting members of the African National Congress and consistent with the traditions of a movement that our people not only respect but genuinely love and admire.