The ANC Admits it is Incapable of Leading – Even Under Cyril Ramaphosa

 

After more than 100 years of existence, and almost 30 years into power and continuous governance, the ANC still does not know how to govern itself well, and therefore the country. That is according to the ANC's Head of Political education, David Makhura.

Makhura spoke during the past weekend in the background of the ANC’s trip in China dubbed a ‘study tour’ of which he is a part.

According to David Makhura, they are still “drawing lessons on how to govern the ANC well.” That is why they had to travel all the way to China with several prominent individuals in the party. Among them were Fikile Mbalula, the current General Secretary of the party, Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams who is a cabinet minister and a few others.

David Makhura was right, the Communist Party of China governs itself very strictly. Many of us know that even though we have not been to China.

The South African voters are left with a choice to make with the 2024 national elections looming.

The Cyril Ramaphosa-led ANC is unaware, but they opened themselves up widely by getting on this trip, which perhaps is seen by them as something that will make voters think that they are serious about self-correction. However, the party put themselves into a position in which they now stand to be compared to a party that is deep rooted and has been consistently doing well for its country, even when it had a fair opportunity to turn out like the ANC.

To use Fikile Mbalula’s favourite word, that may turn out to be a ‘hullabaloo’.

Just to be clear, as was once confirmed by former ANC and state president Nelson Mandela, the ANC was not founded as, or to be a political party. It was founded to be a union of people from different walks of life and with different ideologies, who were united strictly for the purpose of fighting against the political system of apartheid in South Africa.

Struggling to Adapt

More than 100 years later, the Cyril Ramaphosa-led ANC is in power as the ruling party of South Africa but is unable to transform its mentality to fit its agenda into the right mode for it to be able to address the challenges  that are faced by South Africans. The party still sees itself as a liberation movement and preaches radicalism in the old-fashioned way that does not have any meaningful implications in the current settings of the economy.

The aim of the ANC since the age of the Morogoro conference has been to establish a socialist state, which is more of what the Communist Party of China has always been saying it seeks to achieve in China. However, unlike their Chinese counterpart, the ANC has failed as result of taking the prescripts of the ideology of socialism dogmatically without seeking to adapt them to the conditions of South Africa, which is the opposite of what the CPC has been successfully doing all the years in China.

The ANC has been pursuing a development programme that it calls the National Democratic Revolution with little to no success.

The NDR has a strong anti-capitalist tone and that poses a challenge for the ANC in the present  world in the sense that the grouping among its leadership ranks that has realised the anti-capitalist tone is no longer relevant and seek to promote free market policies cannot do so since it is stuck in an alliance with the South African Communist Party and the Congress of South African Trade Unions that won’t budge on their belief on a socialist economy in the fundamental sense which seeks to have excessive direct participation and ownership of the government in the economy.

That lack of consensus in the alliance has the ANC stuck in a pool of mud, unable to move forward.

From Over-regulation to the Brink of Collapse

The ANC, much like the Communist Party of China, sees central planning of the economy as vital to achieve certain economic outcomes. However, whereas the CPC has mostly done its planning in such a way that it allows the free market to flourish, the ANC has mostly choked the free market with excessive regulation of the economy which has not worked out so well for the country.

South Africa is at the brink of collapse as it sees capital flight, political instability and an uncertain future for the ANC which might see itself out of majority rule after the 2024 elections.

That part scares the market even more since they believe that if the ANC is crushed below the 50 + 1% required to claim a majority in the elections, it will be forced to get into a coalition with the Economic Freedom Fighters of Julius Malema, who is largely perceived to be against free market operations.

The markets think that if the ANC gets into a coalition with Julius Malema’s party, the left-leaning leader who is known for making excessive demands will force the ANC into policies that are not favourable for the economy and lead to its total collapse.

A Poisoned Chalice

The strong dependence of the ANC on the SACP and COSATU for support in order to dominate voting results and maintain power means that the ANC has to tread carefully in terms of straying from dogmatically following socialism because that may strain relations within the alliance.

In other words, the ANC will not be completely free to pursue free market policies before its alliance partners open up to them since it is beholden to them for support. The same is believed will be true in a coalition with Julius Malema’s EFF.

The ANC’s alliance partners’ refusal to accept free market operations and policies was made clear when in his State of the Nation Address (SONA), Cyril Ramaphosa openly said that the private sector is responsible for creating jobs, which resulted in a lot of discontent, opposition, and criticism from alliance partners.

Such was also the case in the 1990s when the GEAR policy of the Thabo Mbeki-led ANC government was criticised for being neo-liberal although it did have somewhat of a positive effect on the economy. Thabo Mbeki is largely regarded as the only ANC president whose economic policies were largely implemented and had positive effects on the economy.

The Inability to Innovate

The ANC keeps maintaining and expanding the Black Economic Empowerment policy that has proved to have failed in its intentions but enriched only a few politically connected elites.

The BEE is a marketing tool the ANC uses to attract gullible middle-class voters who hope to somehow benefit from the policy, but in reality, it has not done much. In fact, it is now seen by many in the business world as being too pervasive and, on its way to paralyse healthy businesses.

The ANC got into an agreement some years back with the Communist Party of China, which is meant to see ANC members being trained in China by the CPC. This is more than admission by the ANC that it is has no idea what it is doing after more than 100 years in existence.

The Discord Between Leagues

The absence of concert among ANC leagues is another issue that has exposed the ANC’s inability to govern and lead.

For example, the youth division of the party, being the ANC Youth League, has recently shown in an open manner, its support for Russia’s course in the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine even though the official position of the ANC and the South African government is that of ‘neutrality’ on the matter.

That is a very delicate matter on which there must be a concerted public response more especially from those entities directly associated with the ruling party because of the high stakes involved. However, the ANC has not shown serious leadership in that as in many other matters.

All Talk No Action

A lack of implementation of policies by the ANC is part of the reason it is failing in transforming South Africa.

Look, every generation of leadership of the Communist Party of China has brought evolution in the direction and nature of ideology and economic policy of the country. The ANC has not evolved and has stayed true to its socialist views that have been at its centre since its early years.

Most of the ANC’s leaders, except perhaps for Thabo Mbeki, have not been able to formulate and implement truly transformative policies that changed the South African economy for the better and make a serious difference in the lives of poor South Africans.

It may be argued that the ANC’s biggest achievement after the dawn of democracy is South Africa’s social welfare programme.

By looking at the ANC’s history, you can say with confidence that the party was only more productive and effective during the years of Oliver Tambo, Walter Sisulu, Nelson Mandela and their peers.

The late 2000s saw the rise of populist politics and sloganeering within the ANC, which came out to supress the intellectually capacitated within the party. Even when their counterpart, the Chinese Communist Party was doing great things in China during that time engaged in politics of real change, the ANC did not learn anything.

Perhaps at that time the party was a bit cocky because it was still running at the back of success of the Thabo Mbeki-led economic performance which was commendable compared to what would be seen thereafter.

Lack of Self-Preservation

The ANC can now be compared to somebody that can’t swim, in a large swimming pool, close enough to reach the edge of the pool by an arm stretch and get out of the pool but instead, they are calling out to the guy that can swim to show them how to swim whilst still in that pool and choking.

How about getting out the pool for preservation, watch the other guy swim, then test your skills in a small pool where you still have access, and then be sure of your skills before going back into the large pool?

Why can’t the ANC take a break, fix itself and then comeback? I mean, it is like trying to fix a car in the middle of traffic.

Okay, maybe it is because it just does not work like that in politics.

The ANC’s populist politics created a cloud and hype among the youth of South Africa and the uneducated, giving corrupt ANC leaders  space to pursue corruption activities unabated until there was too much damage done so much that it would have been suicide for the leadership of the party to expose and act on the corruption, therefore leaving the country and the party badly divided, at the crossroads, with elements of anarchy starting to show.

Lack of Expertise Among the Ranks and the Consequences.

The lack of emphasis on education, expertise and certain qualities by the ANC in its membership recruitment drives is somewhat of a problem and a break from the founding era of the party wherein intellectual capacity was taken very seriously in its leadership ranks, as is still being done in the Communist Party of China.

How do you ensure efficiency when you are running a party with people that do not possess any clear and specific expertise? How do you gain the legitimacy to motivate people to seek education and skills when you preside over them and you do not possess a record of meaningful education?

It is explainable why there is a lack of credible leaders within the ANC. That is due to the absence of an elaborate development and political education scheme that is inspired by foresight and seeks to ensure continuity in the organisation as well as smooth leadership succession.

When there are credible leaders in the ruling party, that means there are no credible leaders in government since government leaders are the same people leading the party.

That problem has spilled over into the country’s state-owned entities such as Eskom where party cadres have been deployed and ran the utility the same way the ANC runs its party – with no foresight and no preparation for the future. Much like ‘make it up as you go’.

 

Learning from the Young and the Efficient

Perhaps it is true that age is just a number. The ANC was founded in 1912, and official documents say the Chinese Communist Party was founded in 1921, making the ANC older than the CPC. However, the ANC is now taking lessons from the CPC on how to govern itself.

Imagine asking your younger sibling, who is 9 years your junior, to teach you how to control yourself and lead your followers. You would be a mess at that point, right?

The Kuomintang – a right wing party in China which the communist party sought to dislodge from power, came to lose influence and support due to its inability to govern itself efficiently and engaging in corrupt activities, in that order making the opposition CPC stronger. You would expect that if the ANC knows the CPC, then it would know that part of history too and to have learned from it.

Much like the current leader of the CPC and president of China Xi Jinping, Cyril

Ramaphosa came into power through an anti-corruption ticket. Although both men did follow up on that with some action, it had to be backed up by an equally stellar action that would transform the economy for the better, which is where Xi Jinping was able to do better unlike Cyril Ramaphosa.

Overtime, the direction and nature of the CPC’s ideology and economic policy opened the economy more and more for private companies and market forces to play a role in resource allocation. The leaders were pragmatic, not true to ancient word on paper but the people of China and their circumstances.