The ANC, the ‘parliament of the people’, is undoubtedly in the belly of the beast, embroiled in a crisis that is greater than any it has experienced since the Class of 1994 walked the hallowed passages of the Union Buildings.
Its ability to provide solutions to problems that have resounded in each democratic election has been sharply questioned.
The chants of freedom that lit the eyes of past generations bear little significance to the average youth, whose revolutionary instinct is evoked by tweets rather than speeches at rallies, or the mother, who has been waiting for an RDP house since the1990s.
The communication machinery of the ANC has moved on since the days of Radio Freedom but the relevance of its message depends on how legitimate it is viewed by those who it vowed to take to the promised land. As we have witnessed in the past 24 years. the ANC in its ‘Washington Consensus’ leaning, neo-liberal macro-economic frameworks has placed emphasis on procedural democracy through elections every five years rather than answering substantive questions that would tackle the triple challenges of unemployment, poverty and inequality that present to those who are outside the patronage networks of the ruling party.
Thousands of South Africans have carried the green and gold membership card of the ANC over the years.
However never in the history of the ANC has its membership card wielded social capital to the extent it does now when we have seen it becoming a ticket to procurement contracts rather than a card that pays allegiance to the ethos and values of great leaders such as Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo. It was once associated with those who fearlessly infused radicalism in the DNA of the then pragmatic African National Congress of ‘gentlemen with clean hands’, by leading a delegation of the Youth League that met with then ANC president Dr AB Xuma (the first black medical doctor). Those leaders conquered the fear of speaking out of turn by explicitly criticising the ANC’s lack of success in advancing the course of the revolution and influenced the fight against apartheid until this was no longer sustainable for the National Party.
Similar bravery is required from today’s ANC members to confront SA’s challenges but this is unlikely to be forthcoming since the revolutionary message of the ANC that navigated it through difficult terrain has been eroded by ‘tendencies’ who prefer to buy members rather than invest in political work and community outreach programmes which would break the dichotomy between the party and its potential voters and allow its message to resonate in the hearts of many ordinary South Africans.
Leading up to the 2019 national elections the ANC will once again hit the streets and vie for votes in one of the most highly contested elections since 1994.
This will be against the backdrop of losing major metropolitan municipalities just over two years ago.
The message of the ANC that will be conveyed through its manifesto will need to be relevant to the rank and file South Africans but the manifesto alone will not be enough to sway many.
An encounter with a local ward councillor for example, or the service received from a government department is likely to be more memorable for many than listening to President Cyril Ramaphosa speaking on a local radio station and these experiences may well affect people’s decisions at the polls.
The recent strikes in Buffalo City and Stutterheim indicate people are growing impatient. This is a microcosm of what is happening in other parts of the country.
The ANC for the first time in our democratic history is being coerced to head to elections with not just slogans and the glow of its glorious history but with substantive input on how it plans to address its failures and direct South Africans to a prosperous future.
Asemahle Gwala, a political science student at Nelson Mandela University, is Sasco Claude Qavane deputy chair..