The th!nc Foundation

The ANC’s Polokwane Conference marked the beginning of in-ANC strife for the soul of the movement as the nexus of social, political and economic life in South Africa. It marked the beginning of a transition from a movement schooled in the principle of democratic centralism to a one that ‘must’ operate in a world dominated by a neo-liberalised democratic culture. In this culture, society is managed to embrace the notion of ‘equality of opportunity’ as opposed to the struggle era promise of ‘undefined equality’ that blurred the extent to which society is ready to accept an ‘equality of outcomes’ dispensation. The centrality of the individual as opposed to a collective is thus challenged by the concretising neo-liberal firmament that has also redefined communists from what they are traditionally known to be. The focus on establishing a governing consensus within a heterogeneous ideological firmament is fast outpacing what has traditionally legitimised the struggle against apartheid col...

The notion of a nation-state has over the last decade undergone a process of rigorous review to an extent that society has now become complacent to discuss it as a base concept for political engagement and discourse. The preoccupation with the growing hegemony of dominant economies and established ‘nation-states’ as epicentres of the globalisation process is one in a myriad of reasons why ‘the nation-state’ discourse is fast disappearing in our understanding of public administration. The entrenched globalisation discourse is fast creating conceptual co-ordinates within which scholars argue the position of their thoughts, and in most cases within a sub-context of detaching with their indigenousness at the altar of wanting to intellectually leapfrog themselves to some ‘first world’ paradigms. Consequently we find a growth in ideological bankruptcy and a corresponding indebtedness to the dominating discourse, irrespective of its geographical and/or ‘political ideological origins’. In his ...

As a coffee lover and a person that has taught himself to manage the chronic South African sickness of seeing everything in black and white, I one day went through an interesting experience on this white and black thing. I was at a café somewhere in Tshwane (if Kallie Kriel agrees) where I ordered black coffee from a ‘non-black’ waiter. Oblivious of my attitude when ordering the waiter asked me if the milk in my coffee should be served hot or cold, I loudly responded and with a ‘baas’ attitude and said “I said black coffee!”. The waiter went through to the kitchen and prepared a very hot black coffee for me. When he delivered it to my table he asked a very soul piercing question about my attitude to him when he wanted to know how milk should be served with my coffee. He asked “is the reason for drinking your coffee black because the milk is white or are there are other reasons. I laughed and my attitude was managed for the day, where after I became sensitised on how I relate with waite...

In one of his seminal speeches Martin Luther King Jnr warns society that “in the end, we will remember not the words (or noises) of our enemies, but the silences of our friends. The ascendance of Mr Julius Malema to what is arguably the most powerful position to be held by a young adult in South Africa has attracted noises and silences that only history will tell of their animosity or friendliness. In whatever manner the answer turns out to be, Mr Malema has entrenched himself as both a legitimate leader of a sizeable section of South Africa’s youth and a political phenomenon available for intellectual inquest. As a youth leader Mr Malema represents the biggest organised youth constituency in the developing world. According to the ANCYL conference attendance procedures, every delegate that graced the conference in a representative capacity commanded 50 registered members of the Youth League. The conference has been reported to have had 5300 delegates; this translates to 265 000 members...

The 2011 local government elections have come and gone. The results have been released by what is arguably the most efficient elections management agency in the entire developing world, the IEC. Political analysts and statisticians are now grappling with the implications of the numbers and how these are reflective of the continuing South African story. In this forest of opinions, consensus on the fact that the country’s democracy is maturing has emerged. Critical in understanding this consensus will be what areas are being consolidated for the current growth path. In the South African scheme of things it was very heartening to observe the inner circle of the DA, which is numerically still white, embracing the monuments of the struggle against Apartheid colonialism as their own. The launch of the DA’s manifesto at Kliptown, the ANC’s ancestral policy mecca became yet another positive in this maturity path. The launch represented a tacit adoption of the Freedom Charter dictums as the con...

The ANC’s cleansing ceremony at the Solomon Mahlangu Square in Mamelodi, supported by the Mahlangu family, raises fundamental questions about the liberation struggle legacy ownership. The gallantry and moral high ground that continues to characterise the South African liberation struggle has arguably made its legacy the most sought-after political asset of our time. Towering this legacy, like any historical narrative, is the contribution of individuals at historical points. The national discourse that emerged after the ANC closed its 2009 national election campaign with a Nelson Mandela-attended siyanqoba rally sent a signal that struggles heroes are gradually becoming heroes of the whole nation. As a person born in Mamelodi, I grew up knowing Solomon Mahlangu as an equivalent of the many national liberation heroes decorating national monuments around the globe. I wish that one day, he would be inscribed in the annals of South African History in the same way we see General Louis Both...

The ANC was formed in 1912 as both a response to the exclusionary nature of the 1909 Convention that defined the borders of present day South Africa, and the rise of nationalism in Southern Africa. The founding fathers of the ANC sought to create a vehicle with which they would articulate both the aspirations and discontent of the African masses for their exclusion in an essentially whites only state and government. The seeds of a nationalist project for the South African State was thus set, and incidentally crowned by the formation of a parallel whites only nationalist movement that was to conduct its narrow race based nationalist ‘struggle’ against British Colonialism through electoral politics. The exclusion of the ANC in the space of electoral politics became a key ingredient amongst a myriad to define the character of the ANC as we experience it today. In its early days the ANC sought to make known its ‘demands’, and sometimes ‘requests’ for self-determination and equality throug...

The terminological, conceptual and political breadth associated with the term ‘Boer’ as well as its multiple applications to mean different things to different people and political constituencies has evoked scorn and praise from a broad spectrum of South Africans. Whilst these interpretations are its strengths, in historical terms, it has also grown to become its prominent socio-political liabilities, particularly given the historical truths characterising a pre-Mandela South Africa. The growing unreflective use of the term ‘the Boer’ as a context for restitution driven political discourse in South Africa creates a vector of analysis that makes its varied meanings a victim of misinterpretation by protagonists of its context laden meanings. The liberal democratic tradition of insisting on labelling individuals and ascribing context to them with a chronic risk of dislodging concepts from their original meaning, is creating in South Africa a culture of ‘concept consumption’ (a condition w...

THIS ARTICLE WAS PUBLISHED FIRST BY THE THINKER: VOLUME 20 ;JUNE 2011 ISSUE The use of metaphors and parables remains one of the greatest assets in the African education system. Supported by a rigorously used system of storytelling and use of symbols, metaphors have for centuries provided indigenous scholarship about and for African civilizations. The intellectual resilience of African wisdom cues and philosophy endowed idiomatic expressions have not only served as repositories of community values but also anchored a normative environment comparable to recorded philosophy of other civilizations. The use therefore of metaphors creates for society a rather neutral platform to reflect on itself in relation to presented phenomena. With the advent of technological advancement, machines have come to create new and interesting metaphors. The train is one such metaphor in the explanation of the evolution, growth and development of South Africa’s democracy. A train is a mass carrier of goods a...

The 2011 Local government elections have come and gone. The political landscape and template has definitely changed. Voting patterns have been redefined with historical slogans been subjected to a new acid test. The Mandela and Mbeki era born generation is fast ascending the stage of political influence with ‘genetically modified seeds’ of what the struggle history means to them. The era of party branding that is linked to collective loyalty is fast been replaced by the rise of the sovereign individual demanding loyalty to individuality. The South African democracy is maturing and responding to the dictates of present day demands of society. The salient elements of constitutional democracy as conceptualised by the CODESA consensus are now taking shape. The benefits of multijurisdictional election mandates found prominence in the 2011 elections. The idea of a national ruling party learning to become an opposition whilst in control of the majority of votes is a lesson of democracy for p...