Former president Thabo Mbeki’s letter to Paul Mashatile is timeous. It is a refreshing reminder to the ANC that it has grossly gone off track in its core mission, and it stands at risk of extinction in the near future.
Two things are being made clear by Mbeki. Firstly, the ANC was not established to serve its members or its leaders. It was established to serve the people of SA to achieve a democratic society and a more peaceful world.
Secondly, in order for the ANC to achieve this mission, it had to overcome a deeply immoral system of colonial apartheid which was led by a racist consuming class of greedy whites who used cheap black labour to accumulate the advantages they enjoy today.
As the ANC waged the Struggle against this racist regime, it premised its revolutionary work on a moral high ground. It argued that a more fair, equitable and peaceful world is possible and such a world will be brought by the leadership of the ANC working together with the people.
Such a leadership will be a total opposite of the immoral white regime. The ANC fashioned a visionary leadership that would possess the moral values the apartheid leadership did not have: honesty, bravery, selfless service, a commitment to equality before the law and the liberation of the people.
One important factor to underscore among these moral values is the notion of equality – the ANC vowed that it would usher in a society free of inequalities.
This included a commitment to call out injustices wreaked on the people – even by its own members and leaders. The moral commitment was so intense that the ANC was prepared to sacrifice its own in the name of justice.
This framing of a democratic society is written in our constitution, which was the antithesis to how immoral power was being exercised under apartheid.
But when the ANC began to mature as a party in government, with many of its leaders receiving the big salaries and benefits of the modern state, the historical values of selfless service, sacrifice, total commitment and honesty started to become ambiguous.
Leadership now became associated with income, assets, houses, flights, hotels, medical aid, popularity and children at private schools. The revolutionaries started to live comfortably, like the apartheid class they fought against.
The revolutionaries in essence took over the offices, houses, benefits, habits and lifestyles of the oppressor. They started to live in wealth while the overwhelming majority of society lived in poverty.
In essence, the ANC changed totally. Its character, its image and the character of people it attracted changed. Fundamentally, its historical interpretation of its own moral values changed. Its leadership no longer saw value in aspiring to hold the high moral high ground that was different from the apartheid class of rulers.
Instead, the leadership of today want to emulate the exact characteristics of the dodgy figures they promised not to emulate under apartheid.
Mbeki’s letter reflects a fundamental frustration with how quickly these heroic values that formed the base of the ANC have been eroded. He is upset at the fact that the overall mission of the ANC is no longer central to its leaders.
The Struggle was never about the leaders and members. It was about the people.
The central principle of equality with the people has now been lost. The ANC is willing to save its own leaders who break the law at the people’s expense.
It has taken a decision to dispense with the moral high ground to take a more “down-to-earth” approach of behaving like other compromised members of society driven by greed – and the desire to keep safe their government positions and their benefits against all odds.
Mbeki views such behaviour as strange, foreign and the antithesis of the Struggle that he joined.
The ANC and its leadership have two options: to either read this letter and genuinely implement what it recommends in order to save what remains of its original mission – or ignore the letter, wage personal attacks on its author, blame bureaucratisation for the party’s immorality and continue defending its compromised president until its demise.
We as the people, on the other hand, have already made our choice. The ANC will see the people’s thoughts in the 2024 polls and beyond.
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