The political discourse in South Africa is about to be recharged, a festival of ideas is looming. After the dormant birth of the
National Dialogue, which would have infused the political schedule with diverse
content, the ANC published in its influential journal, Umrabulo, a Base
Discussion Document for its December National General Council. This upcoming
NGC is not just another event, but a critical opportunity for the ANC and South
Africa. It is a moment of anticipation and importance, as it could redefine the
party’s strategic position and direction. Done properly this could result in a new trajectory for the subcontinent. 

The
ANC’s National General Council, Policy Conference, and Elective Conference
documents have historically garnered significant intellectual attention beyond
its membership, as they hold considerable influence over RSA’s political
landscape. With its political sway officially pegged at a rounded 40%, and
polls forecasting a further decline to below 30% in the upcoming municipal
elections, the discussion documents from the National General Council have not
attracted the usual enthusiasm. Save for internal ANC discussions, which
might be a monologue on what they would otherwise agree on, there have not been
unmuted discussions on the base documents yet.

Known
as an organisation that sparked a festival of ideas about South Africa, the ANC’s
analysis of the political landscape drew interest from think tanks, academia,
political and policy analysts, and the media community. The document’s
renewalist stance, coupled with its attempt to reflect on the past thirty
years, holds the potential to inspire new and diverse thinking. This could be
the catalyst to address the elusive questions of what is to be done within the
ANC, instilling a sense of hope and optimism in the country, and region. 

The
base document offers an assessment of performance that balances a desire for
honesty with a strong urge to celebrate victory. The commitment to keep South
Africa within a National Democratic Revolution (NDR) continuum is a prominent
theme and tone of the document. The 1994-1996 political settlement, which South
Africa commemorates every 27 April as Freedom Day, is portrayed as a democratic
breakthrough rather than a decisive event that transferred political power to
the people by granting universal franchise. This alone creates
a conceptual quagmire that prevents the renewal discourse from drawing a clear
distinction between the NDR as an anti-apartheid construct on one hand, and as
a post-apartheid legal and overall politically legitimate endeavour to create a National Democratic Society on the
other.

Reading
the document, if you are a member of the ANC, you might believe there is still
a struggle to achieve the objectives of the NDR, despite having the political
power to implement programmes that should have advanced the NDR further than
its current state. The significance of the enabling constitutional framework as
a platform for political or other engagements to ensure the legal rollout of
liberation promises receives little attention in the document. 

The
legally enforceable political programme outlined in the 1996 Constitution of
South Africa, bequeathed by the ANC as it advanced its policy positions in the
1994-1996 Constituent Assembly, is not regarded as the most decisive victory of
the liberation struggle. Instead, the document portrays this victory as somewhat
hollow by restricting ANC members’ ability to think beyond transformation and
to take ownership of being accountable architects of the future that the 1996
Constitution has codified. 

The
triumph of multiparty democracy, although it came with the self-inflicted
erosion of political power, which the document frames as the May 2023 setback,
is presented as a risk to the NDR. The inability to believe that several of the
NDR objectives are now in the custody of the state and that whichever political
party gets state power will, as the constitutional order is designed, be
accountable to Parliament about how it is pursuing the NDR objectives
is also presented as a risk to the NDR. 

It is unimaginable to
have a South African Parliament, or any of its legislative authority chambers, regardless of who commands the majority of seats or holds
the executive authority of the republic, that do not adhere to the
fundamental provisions of the 1996 Constitution. The fact that the ANC did not
use its majority over the past thirty years to scrutinise the form, nature, and
character of the past injustices recognised by the Constitution does not imply
that the need for such scrutiny has disappeared now that it no longer holds
absolute power to govern alone. The responsibilities of freely elected
representatives to establish a society founded on social and economic justice,
fundamental human rights, human dignity, the rule of law, and non-racialism are
constitutional and do not necessitate that the country be governed solely by
the ANC.

Admittedly,
the ANC declares, bolded in the document, that the ANC must never
lose sight of the fact that its historical mission is not simply to govern but
to transform society. (Its) Our presence in any government should continuously
be assessed against this strategic objective. Through this admission, the ANC
positively acknowledges that RSA is a multiparty democracy, the NDR objectives
are now a beyond-ANC national programme, and the contest for political power is
the legitimate right of every citizen. Differing with the ANC on advancing the
NDR-instructed or inspired 1996 Constitution cannot be considered counter-revolutionary.
The transformation of society to align with the 1996 Constitution is now a
programme of the State, and anyone who presides over state power has that
responsibility. 

Fundamental
to the discussion document should be how to regain control of the state without
problematising it solely because the ANC is losing its grip. The festival of
ideas should focus on restoring lost hegemony. This calls for a hall of mirrors
to be entered by leadership and members. Such a hall must, for a time, have its
windows closed so that the analysis reflects more accurately what those inside
the ANC are doing. If the NDR and its objectives are
the Revolution, the counter-revolutionary would likely be found in complex substrates and concentrations
within the ANC itself. 

 

While
the base document recognises what is happening around the ANC, it is dominated
by a paradigm of when we don’t know what to do, we do more of what we know.
Unless this changes, the ANC might emerge from the NGC having built its own
prisons and then locking itself inside. The current leadership is responsible
for reframing the NDR. This would require moving beyond narrow, mechanical
approaches to understanding the true nature of South Africa and what the people
expect from the ANC when in control of the levers of state power. 

The
scripts that the ANC produced for South Africa before 1994 now belong to all
the people, and members of the ANC are not the only ones who are considered the
people. The new role of the ANC is to create scripts or scenarios to guide
societal action in critical situations such as poverty, inequality,
unemployment, high crime rates, collapsing infrastructure, a struggling
economy, and national security. The focus should be on viewing these as a
realisation of the liberation promises it has worked on for more than 112
years—from its 1923 African Bill of Rights to the 1996 Constitution, which it
adopted at its 50th National Conference in Mafikeng.

The upcoming NGC must
be regarded as one of the final chances for the ANC to redefine its core
purpose. It should abandon dogma and nostalgic ideas of being the ultimate
context when the ground has long shifted beneath its feet. Unless it leverages
the NGC to regain its footing, create new options, and develop strategies that
truly make a difference, it risks writing its political farewell. Who attends
the NGC will be crucial to this process.