State of South African Politics

SA’s opposition political parties must be some of the lousiest ones in amy democracy on the planet. Even the opposition parties got involved in the ANC leadership race debate in a way in which they virtually pleaded for Mbeki to be elected without explicitly saying so. How pathetic. Instead of exploiting the situation to increase support for their parties, they just took a fatalistic view conceding that there is nothing they can do other than to just try to hold on to their little power bases. Or was it strategy perhaps? If ANC supporters saw them virtually supporting Mbeki, would they then vote Mbeki and “save the day” or revolt and vote for Zuma, leaving the ANC in disarray. Hard to tell, but I was not convinced it was strategy on their behalf as much as it was unfounded apocalyptic fear. Instead of exploiting the divisions in the ANC to increase their support, the opposition parties were all just content to speak to a certain market – retaining their constituency – rather than expanding upon it. What losers?! These people have no ambition other than to be minority parties. None of them have the vision nor the wit to want to rule.

The opposition parties of course are as much victims as the result of SA’s past. The ANC is mainly black, the DA mainly white, the ID mainly coloured and the IFP their own brand of Zulu nationalism. SA’s politics is regrettably still driven primarily by the axiom of identity rather than an axiom of the movement of ideas (identity is an idea, yes, but one that has consistently lead to division and war).

South Africa has rather unfortunately always been beset by nationalist politics. As if it weren’t enough for the old Nationalist Party to rule for close to half a century, we now have the dubious honour of having a ruling party that is also likely to rule for just as long. God forbid it will be longer. The ANC as I see it is a different side of the same coin as the old Nats.

I have maintained for some time now that the only way SA’s democracy will begin to be an innovative one that can adequately rise to meet the challenges the country faces, specifically with regards to civil society building, rather than nation building, is when we move away from this identity driven politics to an idea driven one in which ideas compete vigorously in public debate for majority approval. That is also the surest way to keep corruption in check provided there are constant changes or the possibility of regular changes in government.

The ANC is an umbrella organisation housing many diverging policy schools of thought. They all aim for roughly the same outcome, but there are differences in their philosophies and approaches to implementation. In the past the ANC has had to be an umbrella organisation for a good reason. In a way, that has been a blessing which has enabled SA to grow economically for the longest uninterrupted period in its history where there was no real conflict between labour and business. It also had political spin-offs which prevented a predictable African decline into ethnic rivalry and warfare (the unspoken of hot potato in the recent ANC leadership race). The time is overdue though for those diverging movements within the ANC to forge new identities and to put it to the test amongst the population.

The Zuma / Mbeki saga showed clearly how the COSATU & SACP alliance members manipulated politics. They can be seen to be “bench politicians” a corruption of arm-chair politicians. They sit on the benches in parliament which they occupy purely as a result of piggy-back riding on the ANC and from there they influence national policies.

However much I was opposed to Mbeki, there was a faint strand of hope in me that if he were to be re-elected as ANC president, he would be loathed enough to cause the alliance to split. Following the last general election in 2004 it became clear that opposition in the country was more likely to come from within the ANC than from opposition parties, who lack vision, ambition and a will and capacity to rule, sticking to their own little pigeon holes rather than reaching for the sky. We have now seen that opposition within the ruling party and it is little surprise that it was divided along the lines of SACP/COSATU vs. the centrist “Mbeki-ites” (in quotes because of Mbeki’s disastrous strategy to not allow anybody else to lead them, now to his and their and perhaps the country’s loss).

Zuma’s victory means that such a split is now less likely. It is regrettable, because our politics desperately need to mature. It is unlikely to do so for as long as the ANC remains an umbrella organisation in a climate in which there is no longer any collective storm of political oppression to weather. Politicians are more likely to keep the alliance alive from all sides because it is more likely to guarantee them a seat in Parliament and an annual income in excess of R600,000 - a sizable portion of which no doubt goes to the various parties’ coffers.

“Mbeki’s strategy” thus far to keep the SACP/COSATU alliance within the ANC and thereby to ensure cooperation rather than confrontation in economic politics was a good one that has now died a brutal death. If the alliance partners have not hi-jacked the ANC it has certainly overrun it. A split can now only come from those centrists who would have found a natural home in an alliance with the Democratic Alliance and I do not see that happening. Such an alliance would also have given the official opposition DA the opportunity to expand beyond its narrow vision of catering to a select constituency and afforded it the opportunity to become a more representative party.

The politics of inclusion has its benefits, especially in SA’s case as it comes from a deeply divided past. It also has it drawbacks and it is on account of those drawbacks, such as nepotism, corruption, complacency and acquiesment of opposition and effectively, of cross-checks and balances, that the umbrella needs to be closed.

Mbeki and the ANC knows that COSATU is the only movement that could conceivably have formed an alternative governing party – the “Labour Party”, using contributions from trade union members to fund such a party. The SACP is a dead duck that turtle-back rides on the alliance as a whole and they will die a sudden death if they don’t piggyback ride – what plutocrat would possibly want to fund them except those trying to buy influence, which they would be far better off buying elsewhere – I see support for the SACP to be nominal, no more than 12 percent or so of voters if that many (which is of course a lot more than the current opposition parties have). However, if COSATU might appeal to those who already have work (or else they would not be part of a labour union), the SACP might appeal to the real poor people, those with no chance of a job.

Such a division might appal many within the alliance who still identify with the common identity forged in “the struggle”, but it makes sense on every other account. The ANC stands to loose its ground amongst the rising middle-classes in a matter of a decade, unless it differentiates itself from the party of lower earning and poor people. Perhaps the lousy opposition parties are just sitting and biding their time for that to happen, but it would be foolish to take for granted that it will.

Such a division is the only way in which I foresee SA ever moving beyond the racially defined identity politics which has been the country’s making, nearly resulted in its unmaking and still has the potential to do so.

I guess it will be business as usual now. The net effect thereof is that SA is only somewhat as innovative and leading as it could be.