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A weakened ANC hopes to avoid becoming one of those among those liberation movements that fall flat after two decades in power.
Perhaps its this kind of hope that drove national executive committee member Nathi Mthethwa to not want to entertain the possibility of how the ANC could find itself bargaining with the position to form a coalition government.
Mthethwa, also head of ANC’s political education, told journalists on Monday that the ANC would not be pre-occupied by thinking about coalitions because that in itself was “defeatist”.
He insisted the important thing to do ahead of the 2019 elections, was to deal with the rot in the party, regain confidence and confine the ANC to transforming the lives of South Africans.
This would also ensure the ANC survived beyond the two decades in power since the attainment of freedom.
“We look around us and different liberation movements, some indeed fell flat after attaining freedom, especially two decades later,” he told journalists on the fourth day of the ANC policy conference at Nasrec, south of Johannesburg.
Other former liberation movements – like in the case of South West Africa People’s Organisation in Namibia and the Tanganyika African National Union in Tanzania – faced problems, including dwindling membership, but were able to win back lost ground.
“They were able to gain lost ground like we would, and they were able to self-correct,” he said.
“The ANC has to get its house in order to win the confidence of the people of South Africa.”
Mthethwa contradicted the content of one of the ANC’s discussion documents, when asked about how the ANC planned to handle possible coalition government in 2019.
His response was that the ANC would not preoccupy itself thinking about how it should prepare for coalition government but rather how to fix things to avoid such an eventuality.
“We don’t believe that we should be preoccupying ourselves with coalitions. First it’s a self-defeatist position to take.
“Second thing is, we have conviction that we know what the answers are. Those answers are in our hands and we should actually do that which we can to correct, including reconnecting with our people who have lost hope.”
However, the head of the ANC’s subcommittee on legislation and governance, Ayanda Dlodlo, said in March a document on coalitions was still under discussion and would be sent to branches and provinces once completed.
The document, said Dlodlo, “speaks to the planning processes and how we need to deal with situations of coalitions, what it is we need to put on the table, what is negotiable and what is non-negotiable”.
“We believe that as we get into the details on the actual programme of action we would be able to turn around the situation,” said Mthethwa.
He did not believe that the ANC was at a point of no return, even as the party grappled with what he described as outside forces trying to effect a regime change agenda.
Mthethwa said the gap between the ANC and people would cause problems for the ANC come 2019, because the ANC was installed to power by the people
He said delegates also took stock of what happened at the last local elections, where the ANC lost two metros to an opposition-led coalition.
Mthethwa said the ANC lost metros because it did not attend fully to concerns on the ground.
The 104-year-old liberation movement faces a real test in the 2019 national elections as it tries to dampen the fires of its controversial president and his allegations that he has outsourced his power to his friends, the Gupta family.
Asked whether the commission discussed how the Gupta family wielded too much influence, Mthethwa responded: “we didn’t entertain current affairs”.
Focus has been on the contested issue of white monopoly capital.
He said it was a “fallacy” for anyone to say there wasn’t white monopoly capital in SA.
South Africa, he said, was a living legacy of a special kind of colonialism which took a form of white monopoly capital.
“Monopoly capital has to be addressed understanding the colonial character of the country. Whether today it is a dominant force within our economy, or maybe 150 years from now it becomes black monopolies, our attitude is we cooperate and contest,” he said.
About 500 ANC delegates converged in Johannesburg from across the country, to embark on the crucial task of reviewing ANC policy, to be adopted at the party’s national elective conference in December.
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