I have just finished reading a book on reinventing capitalism. One of the striking revelation about capitalism is the power of price to aggregate information about a commodity into a figure. That figure captures all and/or most dimensions of the product in ways that the product itself becomes passive in the process that is about its exchange.
Power, and political power to be specific, is a commodity whose ultimate market is Davos. It’s ultimate price is determined there. The creme de la creme of power as a commodity have an annual pilgrimage to its perfected market, DAVOS. In Davos, the rules of the market of ‘political power’ are determined.
As power is categorized downwards from its pinnacle market, Davos, it is traded in ‘various’ markets for a ‘price’ that aggregates ‘different’ sets of information thus creating imperfections in the ‘power trade market’. The greater the imperfection the lesser the integrity of players in the market.
In the main, the data and metadata used to aggregate information into a particular ‘price of power’ has human interests as its ontology. The basis of ‘power transactions’ is interests, and these are perfectly managed through coalitions that humans create to migrate societal preferences.
NOW, at some point in its history the ‘interests’ of the ANC-led human coalition, also called a liberation movement, was anchored on the eradication of Apartheid. The in-ANC ‘power trade’ and ‘market’ was regulated by the nobility of the anti-apartheid cause. Trade had a ‘cryptocurrency’ characterized by points related to your ability to advance the objectives of the so-called NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC REVOLUTION.
So being bought in the ANC might be what the current market for ‘power’ dictates. As a member you start by buying your space into the ANC through an affiliation fee. The value attached to you as a person to enter is pegged according to what has been determined to be affordable by all that are allowed entry at that level. Your further value will be determined by the extent of your influence when inside it. As you ascend its hierarchies, dependent on how you allow it to 'proverbially' deploy you, you increase your value to those that have an interest in it as social and political capital.
In the new role as a member in the hierarchy, affectionately referred to a 'leadership', you will either have roles of being delegate at its variously hierarchized elective conferences, a participant at its for-governing list conferences, and other 'deployment' influencing centres. You price as a member makes the most sought after prize to influence the control, capture, and/or otherwise of one of the most sought after political capital in the African continent.
The ultimate of markets where members with a 'delegate' status are traded it its national elective conference. As a heritage, the ANC has made its conferences to be the ultimate of democratic expression in an organisation. This is heritage that got built during its phase as a liberation movement in a struggle against apartheid colonialism, and not when it had access to the very power utilised to establish apartheid colonialism. This heritage was anchored on the quality of the membership it had, in any case the costs of being a member could only attract a conscious quality of persons than the quantity driven quality that swelled its ranks post 1990.
It is the quantity focus, mainly instructed by the demands of citizen electoral as a means to acquire the ultimate prize of politics, government, that begun the gradual dilution of the quality required to manage a sophisticated political economy that South Africa is. The value of being a member was thus aggregated into elements through which a price was set, and those that could afford it stood at the political shelve space to buy the influence. The figure set would of course be based on the information about the commodity on display and available. In the case of the ANC member, the socio-economic status of the member becomes a key variable in the information mix. With evidence that most members who make it to the conference are of a socio-economic status making them vulnerable to be bought as voting stock by various influence blocks therein, the reality of vote auctioneers being at play in conferences has become a feature with which ANC elective conferences are no longer imaginable.
The passive role of members in determining their net worth in these auctions has had as a casualty the capability of the ANC to be qualitative in the decisions it is processing, including the collective leadership quality emerging therefrom. This is more a function of the supply and demand dynamics instructing to the in-conference market. The cash supply has thus far been the driver of demand, members that do not know the true value of their delegate status have been price takers. The battle for price taking has now shifted into all levels of the organisation. The earlier you can buy members, the more guaranteed you are at the ultimate auction platform. Without sounding absolutist, I contend that herein lies the basis of patronage with state resources in order to invest into this political capital.
The natural question would thus be, what next? There might be a compelling need to recalibrate how the ANC elects its leadership. This might have to include regionalising contestations. There are 52 regions of the ANC in the country. These could be institutionalised into its NEC. This means each region must have a right to representation in the 80 member NEC, this will leave the NEC with 28 openings, of which 2 per province should be institutionalised, and the remaining 10 be reconfigured to constitute a top ten which should replace the current top 6. The election of the top 10 would then happen either at the National Conference or on a national basis by members in good standing. In that way, the national conference will assume a character of engaging in the policy aspects of the organisation as leadership issues would have been resolved before it starts or outside it.
The ascendance of delegates with substance attending the conference may be restored. Whilst this might not totally eradicate the auctioneering inside the ANC, it might have an impact on the ultimate quality of discussions and policies at national conferences which might over time start to impose the centrality of qualitative leadership into all other decision centres. This arrangement might even influence how the basic units of the organisation work. If it is known that for the entire Tshwane there will at all times be a NEC member from the region, the new demand would thus be for the same arrangement to mirror at provinces for regions, and at regions for zones, as well as at zones for branches.
This is a thinking that is ignited by the price volatility of delegates at conferences that has proven to have had an impact on leadership of society, given the historical political capital the ANC has accumulated to date.
🤷🏽♂️A ndzo ti vulavulela
🤷🏽♂️Be ngisho nje
🤷🏽♂️Ek praat maar net
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