Nelson Mandela declared, " the time comes in the life of any nation when there remain only two choices – submit or fight. That time has now come in South Africa. We shall not submit, and we have no choice but to hit back by all means in our power in defence of our people, our future, and our freedom". There also comes a time in a life of a nation when its cognitive elites, thinkers, and common sense driven members of society are called to respond to a national calamity of the proportions our leadership deficit is displaying.
The
time to be realistic about the nature of our democracy, its politics, and the
breed of leadership the realisation of our constitution-based liberation
promise is entrusted, has come. At CODESA, where the RSA Constitution was
negotiated and ultimately made law through a Constituent Assembly process,
political scientists correctly predicted that assumptions of the permanence of
the type of leader we had during negotiations were a risk to the endurance of
our constitutional democracy.
The
modelling of democracy around the visionary prowess of those history places
at its birth has in many democracies proved to be to the disadvantage of
posterity. The cohort of leaders who chiselled into the South African
constitution the vision of a non-racial, non-sexist, and democratic South
Africa will forever be remembered for thinking beyond themselves. Fundamental
to their ability to read the above social divides characterising many societies their resolve to protect the people's will as the ultimate
arbiter on the legitimacy or otherwise of any authority over society.
As
a society, South Africans have, for a while, before the 1996 Constitution, been
on a search for arrangements with which to govern each other in a way that guarantees
fundamental human rights. The protection of the cardinal freedoms humanity does
not seem capable of living without became the plank upon which the
democratisation of the world-famous divided nation would be based. These are
the freedoms of speech, assembly, association, and the media. Placing these at
the centre of democracy required institutionalisation beyond the risks of
human discretion but locked into the power of standards to indicate their
existence.
Developing
institutions with which social order and harmony could thrive without the
interference of the human element required a context where the cardinality of
the rule of law set the conditions for freedom in society. Coming out of a
system that framed institutional racism and legalised structural inequality,
the liberation promise required a legal framework with which the legality of
equal opportunity for all is matched with the legitimacy of having expectations
of equal outcomes where state intervention could be a vehicle. Clearly, crafting such a future required a multi-generation of leaders who would make
it their mission to lead society.
The
concept of leader of society was birthed out of the total human
activities whose end could only be lived beyond those designing such a future.
As South Africans were building a democracy along a continuum that excluded
others from a system whose design was contextually relevant for the country's development, some individuals continuously saw beyond the short-sightedness associated with incumbency. In 1955, at Kliptown, an alliance of
South Africans believing in the equality of human beings gathered to declare
that;
"We, the People of South Africa, declare for all our country and
the world to know: that South Africa belongs to all who live in it,
black and white, and that no government can justly claim authority unless it is
based on the will of all the people; that our people have been robbed of
their birthright to land, liberty and peace by a form of government founded on
injustice and inequality;".
This
declaration got codified into a Freedom Charter. The ANC took leadership of
this alliance for freedom and defined it as the basis for
establishing a liberation movement with which it could execute and discipline
the liberation struggle of those denied these freedoms. In dedicating itself to
the achievement of Freedom Charter objectives, the ANC knew the centrality and
necessity of government as the significant active agency of the State to translate
these visions about society into implementable programs. Equally, the ANC
entered this path with the object of changing any arrangements that excluded
blacks. To do this, the ANC never looked to be in government as the only terrain.
The
task of building a future represented by the Freedom Charter required South
Africans with a 'leader of society' mindset to anchor the ANC-led
alliance against apartheid and colonialism, including their impact beyond its statutory
revisions by a post-apartheid parliament. The ANC declares,
“The
primary task of the ANC remains the mobilization of all the classes and strata
that objectively stand to benefit from the cause of social change. The dictum
that the people are their own liberators remains as relevant today as it was
during the days of anti-apartheid struggle”.
In capturing the essence
of what it means for a member of the ANC with ‘the leader of society’ mindset,
it imbues all members that,
“In
order for it to exercise its vanguard role, the ANC puts a high premium on the
involvement of its cadres in all centers of power. This includes the presence
of ANC members and supporters in state institutions. It includes activism in
the mass terrain of which structures of civil society are part. It includes the
involvement of cadres in the intellectual and ideological terrain to help shape
society's value systems. This requires a cadre policy that encourages
creativity in thought and in practice and eschews rigid dogma. In this regard,
the ANC has a responsibility to promote progressive traditions within the
intellectual community, including institutions such as universities and the
media”.
The
demand, therefore, for a 'leader of society brigade' from within members
of the ANC by the historical moment and a patient society is not only
realistic but defines its capacity to renew itself. Belonging to this
brigade cannot be reduced to the mechanistic payment of a membership fee; it should
be a task given to those that have graduated from being in the books of the ANC
as unfortunate tradable commodities during conferences but a quality brigade that
understands what it means to lead society. This brigade should refuse to mask the difficulties of reconciling exigencies of political
power contestations and the mission of the ANC being a leader of society.
A true leader of society will, and as non-negotiables, pursue a South
Africa,
· Which belongs to all who live in it, albeit within defined citizen
rights and accommodating to national grievance-related restitution issues
· That has a government which can justly claim that its authority to
govern is based on the will of all the people. This might also mean accepting
that the will of all the people does not include the ANC
· That will not veer from protecting what the Freedom Charter professed as minimum demands of society at all material times.
· That will defend the rights of all South Africans to the
liberation promise written into its constitutional settlement, particularly the
bill of rights.
· Which guarantees that our country will never be prosperous or free
until all its people live in brotherhood, enjoying equal rights and
opportunities
· Which ensures that the democratic nature of our nation-state is based
on the will of all the people and secures all their birthrights without
distinction of colour, race, sex or belief
As
the ANC prepares for its national conference in December 2022, prime in its
occupation should be how it filters into its centres of power cadres that will
be the substrate of its leader of society character. Given that a series of
challenges facing the ANC as leader of society—widening frustration over
encroachment into its leadership by the criminal element; outrage over economic
collapse and mismanagement; and seething anger at its handling of the energy
security crisis, and a political elite establishment that has shown little
regard for the needs of the people—have now converged into a crisis of
legitimacy for the ANC to continue governing, the time for a leader of society
brigade has arrived.
The
ANC's public profile opens it up to greater public scrutiny in respect of the
ethicalness it has rightly dragged to the centre of leadership criteria and its
membership integrity management systems, which would, if it is found wanting,
weaken its standing as an institution of leadership in matters of leading
society.
This challenge is compounded by the fact that the ANC has won national elections with a
majority of lower voter turnouts since 1994. Internally the current President
won the in-ANC presidential election with the lowest margin in the liberation
movement's history. This indicates the intensity of factionalism, a context
ripe for manipulation by wedge drivers interested in killing the ANC. The
movement faces the contest for its highest office at the apogee of the
country's anti-corruption and graft activism, which have taken a reputational
toll on the ANC's claims of being a leader of society.
Some
of the critical tasks a 'leader of society brigade' infested ANC should deal with
are, but are not limited to, the following;
· Position the ANC as a custodian of South Africa's national
interest, irrespective of how broad or narrow they are.
· Position the ANC as the defender of the people's will regarding their political choices. This might include working with
coalitions that are unimaginable for as long as the public posture of the ANC
is the pursuit of the will of the people
· Position its development agenda as the biggest training platform
for society to become a perpetual leaning nation. Competence development,
especially its skills aspects, should drive public expenditure spending to make public service vocations trading platforms for the private
sector.
· Rebuild state-owned companies complex, which will ultimately
become commanding to how the economy grows. The rebuilding of
industrialisation supporting companies (such as ESKOM, maybe a return of ISCOR,
DENEL, and others) of South Africa should at best, be a state-driven endeavour and, at worst, a public-private partnership.
· Building the country's national security apparatus from a
position of leading society. The reintroduction of youth military conscription
and repurposing of the police service should be considered conduits or
platforms out of which patriotism could be nurtured.
· Positioning the economy in one or two primary industries. Factor
endowments the country commands should be targeted to create beneficiaries
multiplier industries.
· Leading society must include interest in science and innovation in the movement
· Position its past leaders and presidents of the Country as
repositories of specialised wisdom with which the continued leader of society
role of the ANC could be incubated therein. This would make these leaders less
of nests for breeding factions or strange behaviours every time the in-ANC
succession discourse begins.
In
this path to give space to the leader of the society brigade within
the ANC to take over, the movement must establish itself into an institutional
behemoth within which its way of doing business becomes a set of norms held by
its membership yet enjoying the endearment of South Africans. The new social
function of the ANC should thus be,
· to again carry the structures and systems of society through time.
· to insert the benefit of being free from our difficult past into
the general behaviour of society as an institutional requirement.
· to establish as a
realisable future context for society a South Africa anchored in the commonly
shared values and purposes about itself.
If the ANC is to lead
the rebuilding of South Africanness with itself as the core substrate, it must
search from within its shelves its pre-existing customs of leadership to
influence the departures it requires to lead society. This task belongs to the leader of society brigade. CUT!!
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