MATHOLE MOTSHEKGA | Scramble for crumbs scuttles ANC’s grand vision

For more than 100 years, African people waged a protracted struggle for the achievement of their right to political, social and economic freedom. Through the 1994 democratic breakthrough the black majority achieved political freedom without social and economic freedom. Thus President Nelson Mandela correctly declared that in 1994 we achieved the freedom to free ourselves from social and economic bondage.

In 2012 the ANC entered the second phase of the transition to social and economic development. However, the progress we made in this regard shows that much more remains to be done. The limitations of the ANC to achieve social and economic freedom have added to the social distance that developed between the ANC and the people which was caused by the organisation’s focus on the resolution of factional battles which started during the presidency of Thabo Mbeki.

The achievement of political power without social and economic power unleashed a scramble for the crumbs that fell from the table of the apartheid regime and their capitalist allies. The black economic empowerment policies also meant that the political office and proximity to political office bearers brought people closer to the crumbs.

Thus, the broad-based economic empowerment policy gave the political elite and the politically connected, rather than the masses of the people, access to the crumbs. This led to the struggle for power within the ANC as the victors would gain access to the crumbs. Also, the economic policies adopted during the presidency of Mbeki did not address the second phase of the transition to social and economic development.

It is suggested, therefore, that the scramble for the crumbs and the conflict on economic policies planted the seeds for social distance between the ANC and the people. This social distance grew wider from 2007 because some of Mbeki supporters who lost to Jacob Zuma and his supporters broke away and formed the Congress of the People. From 2007 the newly elected ANC leadership focused on rebuilding the unity of the ANC, rather than the closure of the distance between the ANC and the people.

From the outset, Nelson Mandela saw the right of the black majority to political, social and economic freedom dynamically interlinked and indivisible. When the ANC and its allies presented the Reconstruction and Development Programme document to Mandela he pointedly observed that the document focused solely on political and economic issues and neglected the arts, culture and heritage, which are the mainstay of the African soul, and their inherent ethical and moral values that are the building blocks of socially cohesive and prosperous nations.

Mandela founded the Moral Regeneration Movement (MRM) to address moral impediments to social and economic emancipation of black people. The leaders of the MRM failed to heed Mandela’s call for harnessing the African arts, culture and heritage for the recovery of the African soul and social power.

This failure and /or neglect impeded the achievement of social emancipation by the black majority. Black communities have been embarking on service delivery protests against the government, which further increased the distance between the ANC and the people.

The last most important reason for the social distance between the ANC and the people is the failure of the government to resolve the land question. In 1988 the ANC constitutional guidelines for a democratic SA recorded that failure to resolve the land question would keep Africans trapped in poverty forever.

The social distance between the ANC and the people is rooted in: a) the ANC’s focus on its internal matters at the expense of the people and, b) the failure or neglect to resolve the land-related questions such as water and mineral rights.

The challenges facing the ANC in the coming national conference are: firstly, to agree on a renewal agenda and to elect a leadership that will restore the credibility of the organisation and; secondly, to produce a social and economic plan that will not only address the moral decay and dehumanising social-economic conditions, but will also speed up service delivery.

The achievement of these objectives will close the gap between the people and enhance political, social and economic stability of the country.