The decline of political engagement in the structures of the ANC at the altar of a politics-for-money culture has impacted the value of being a member of the movement. There was a time in the history of the ANC, being its member attracted prestige because of how sophisticated those who belonged to it were. The pursuit of democracy and freedom was represented by those that spoke about it. As role models, they became an abstraction of the reality that freedom itself can become. Those who articulated the idea of freedom and emancipation from apartheid colonialism made joining an otherwise risky enterprise of being in the struggle a lucrative endeavour to recalibrate political power relations in favour of changing the lives of 'the people'.
Being recruited into the movement was designed to be distinct from one that compels you into the peripheral activities created as a firmament within which a member of the movement would thrive. As young people, we were attracted to spaces where our hobbies could be expressed in the glare and appreciation of peers. Hobbies, the socially approved activities we did in our free time because we enjoyed them, which included acquiring knowledge, doing crafts and group activities, and exploring unknown, if not intriguing, subjects, were a magnet that pulled a special breed of youth together.
Scouts for cadres with which the liberation struggle could be advanced were planted in these spaces. It would seem the brief was to search for young men and women who would not treat being a member of the ANC as a hobby but as a commitment to the National Democratic Revolution. Once spotted, inducted, recruited, and enrolled as an activist, cadre, and leader of society brigade material, you would be redirected towards activities centred on acquiring knowledge in political education, "umrabulo" or "mpolompolo" as the nomenclature went. The content of your character would be continuously matched with the range of being in the movement, and elders that understood what this is all about would be assigned to you at all human custodial spaces you found yourself. At school, there would be those teachers that became nodes and faucets of your formal development. In church, you would discover coincidental ideological fits. In sports clubs, there would be peers, and so on. This was not an R12 to R20 matter; it was a movement understanding that it was up against a system.
Much of the time we spent on activities of the movement and the politics it represented or stood for is best described as an inward-focused and personal activity by people who understood this was for the people and ourselves as individuals. We were trained never to craft programs on political news commentaries save to use them as inputs to the theory of our cause. We were taught to refuse engagements that sought to drive a wedge amongst us, thus derailing the course of history.
As we grew in the movement, we could identify those who came into the movement because of the benefits associated with being members. Some were in it because of the 'girls' recruited and some for the ‘hunks’ captured by the imagination of abstract freedom. Some were paid to join and spy on the movement. Some knew of the further study benefits craftily organised by the ANC at Ivy League universities and other tertiary institutions. Some understood the employment opportunities of being recruited to factories to advance the trade Union movement. The convergence point of these interests was the pursuit of a National Democratic Revolution whose central objective was transferring power to the people who were its motive forces.
In its wisdom, the ANC did not take the challenge of political education for its cadres for granted. The movement understood that the "dearth of in-ANC discourse about 'what is to be done' at the altar of 'who should lead' would affect the in-ANC order it would have perfected to earn the status of being a 'leader of society'. Then sages of the movement had a vision that was beyond themselves and understood the inevitability of what is now robustly being engaged inside the ANC as to who should lead the ANC and not what should be the agenda to lead society according to the ANC and spread the net wide in preparing cadres.
What should have been envisioned is the extent to which opening ANC membership to all and sundry without a recruitment system would impact its character. Without vitiating the truism that the point of politics is gaining power, the power which the NDR angled to be transferred to the people aimed to build a united and democratic South Africa based on human dignity and social justice. Unfortunately, the most popular political activities have swallowed ANC cadres, especially those expected to be leaders of society brigades. They are now consuming news, cheering for personalities and the political party, just voting, engaging in ideologically deficient activism, and being vulnerable to money for votes in politics. It is becoming clear that membership to the movement isn’t the transfer of power to the people but personal aggrandisement by those the post-1994 net got out of the membership fishing base.
With the decline in the number and commitment of leaders of society brigades, true in-ANC political actions have become passive hobbies. Shallow, crass and greed-mediated activities that satisfy the short-term emotional needs or interests of those whose leader of society status is compromised have taken precedence but do nothing for anyone else. In another rendering on this blog, attributes of the leader of society brigades were proffered. These indicate that being a leader of the society brigade (or rather an advanced ANC member) is something other than a hobby. It is a calling. Many in the current crop of ANC leaders will not make this minimum grade, let alone pass through the ANCs eye of the needle. CUT!!!
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