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Save SA convenor Sipho Pityana doubts that the ANC will “self-correct” at its December elective conference.
Pityana warned that the conference would probably reproduce “varying shades of the same leadership that has plunged the organisation into its worst crisis in its history”.
“The ANC we see today is not the ANC I know,” Pityana said at Oxford University in the United Kingdom, where he was presenting the Bram Fischer Memorial Lecture on Thursday.
Even though many people see the December conference as the final throw of the dice for the ANC, Pityana was not optimistic.
“We should not be surprised at the possibility that the conference may end up being a gathering of powerful pawns of interests that are external to the ANC; interests that may well be agnostic to the preservation of the movement or, even more importantly, the survival of South Africa’s democratic project.”
He added: “Judging from the nominations currently doing rounds, and the National Executive Committee (NEC) slates of the respective candidates, what will be coming out of December is less of a revolution and more of an accommodation, bound to reproduce varying shades of the same leadership that has plunged the organisation into its worst crisis in its history.
“By rejecting previous calls for the resignation of the NEC and the convening of a consultative conference, the ANC has instead chosen the path of a revolution from the top – a fight to the finish among factions, or a false truce, built on an unprincipled ‘unity pact’ – that will perpetuate the life of the various divisive factions.”
Pityana said there was a strong perception that the ANC “has become little more than a vehicle for thieves and looters, with only their self-interests at heart”.
“They have truly captured the organisation and left many of its tried and tested cadres – once proud revolutionaries – as a hand-wringing lobby on the margins.
“The thieves are nothing if not single minded,” he said. “They believe that holding a position in the ANC is worthwhile only because of the proximity it provides to government resources, and to private business linked to the state.
“They try to extort money in the ANC’s name from businesses, desperate to secure contracts from government. The once-proud ANC name is used and abused without hindrance because the party has little or no control over these rogues.
“More and more of us are starting to ask whether we will ever again see the ANC in which we grew up, to which we devoted our lives, and for which we sacrificed so much,” said Pityana.
“Is the ANC capable of correcting itself? Can it retrace its steps? Can it rediscover itself? Painfully, I doubt it. I honestly do.”
Pityana pointed out that the ANC was “tone deaf” during the recent vote of no confidence in President Jacob Zuma in August.
“The current situation inside the ANC Alliance calls upon true and honest cadres to take a hard look around, and accept that there are many among them who are perpetuating this toxic status quo.
“They must also accept that there can never be a price big enough to pay to isolate and exorcise them out of the ranks of this great movement.
“That is why we must resist calls for unity at all costs, as it might come at a very high price. In any event, in the ANC I know, unity has always been based on values and principles – not personalities.”
