Ryland Fisher
At a recent webinar hosted by the Mitchells Plain Development Action Collective on the history of the United Democratic Front (UDF) – which was formed in Mitchells Plain on 20 August 1983, 37 years ago – former ANC deputy general secretary and UDF leader Cheryl Carolus justified her continued support for the ANC, even in its flawed state, with words along the lines of: “We will not allow tsotsis to steal our history and our contribution. We have sacrificed too much to give up on the ANC.”
Many who were tuned into the webinar, mainly former activists who were involved in the UDF (which led internal resistance against apartheid until it was disbanded by the ANC after the organisation was unbanned in 1990) nodded in agreement. In some ways it signalled a desperation among those who grew up politically in the ANC for the organisation to reform itself from the ugly creature it had become in the past 26 years of democracy, with a process that started even before Jacob Zuma became president more than a decade ago.
There are many people, including me, who supported the ANC during the struggle against apartheid and who have been desperately clinging onto reasons to continue supporting Africa’s oldest liberation movement as we have seen a decline in political leadership and morality over the past two decades and a bit.
Over the past 10 years or so, specially since Jacob Zuma took over the ANC presidency from Thabo Mbeki, there have been some former ANC supporters or activists who left for what they assumed would be better, and I suppose more honest, political prospects, but many have since returned. There are others who have left but would like to return.
No one is quite sure when the rot started, but it could be around the time of the arms deal scandal, for which the only high-profile “victim” appears to have been Tony Yengeni, who served time for fraud: he was found guilty of accepting a discount on a luxury car during a tender process for the arms deal which he was supposed to oversee as a member of the parliamentary committee on defence.
Yengeni was sentenced to four years in prison in the mid-2000s but served only four months in the modern prison in Malmesbury. If proper justice had been done, one supposes he would have been sent to the overcrowded Pollsmoor Prison in Tokai.
But Yengeni’s star in the ANC has not dimmed, despite his conviction. He remains on the national executive committee, the ANC’s highest decision-making body outside of their national conferences.
The only other person who could be seen to have been a “victim” of the arms deal and related corruption was Jacob Zuma’s former benefactor and friend, Schabir Shaik. He was found guilty in 2005 on two charges of fraud and corruption in a trial in which the main feature was the perception of the “generally corrupt relationship” he enjoyed with Zuma. Evidence was heard during the trial of politicians seeking kickbacks from companies that had benefited from the arms deal.
Shaik, of course, was found to be “terminally ill” in 2009 and released from prison after serving just over two years of a 15-year sentence for fraud and corruption. More than 10 years later, he is sometimes seen on golf courses or fighting with strangers in parking areas of mosques.
Zuma lost his position as Deputy President of the country as a result of this case, when he was fired by Mbeki, who he later fired as President of the country when he became president of the ANC. After installing Kgalema Motlanthe as caretaker President for less than a year, Zuma finally took over the country’s number one position in 2009 and lasted almost two full terms before being removed by the ANC now led by Cyril Ramaphosa.
The arms deal started while Nelson Mandela was President – and this does not mean that Mandela knew or was involved – but the corruption only really came to the fore while Mbeki was serving his second five-year term in office. Corruption in government appears to have escalated over the past decade.
While I understand the position of people like Cheryl Carolus and others in the ANC veterans group who have been pushing for reforms in the organisation, it is difficult to justify continued support for any organisation with so many rotten eggs. There are many hard-working, honest people in the ANC, but their good work is being undone by the shenanigans of those who have only their selfish, corrupt interests at heart.
It has become so bad that one is unable to keep track of the number of corruption allegations senior people – and some who are not so senior – in the ANC face. It is also difficult to keep up with the amounts mentioned. When one hears allegations, whether at the Zondo Commission or in the media, that billions have been squandered by this or that “comrade”, it becomes just another number, even though it is a number that most people cannot fathom, or it would be enough to feed a few villages for a couple of years.
Whenever there are arrests and prosecutions, like in the case of former member of parliament Vincent Smith this week, our hopes go up that maybe, just maybe, there is hope that the ANC will come right.
Over this weekend, the ANC is having another crucial (aren’t they all?) meeting of its national executive committee and some political commentators are hoping that corruption will be discussed. From the agenda, it looks like the focus will be on the “extraordinary measures” needed to rebuild the economy. The cynical among us are already seeing images in our heads of comrades licking their fingers at the prospect of having more opportunities to loot the state.
Many of us are going to be disappointed again when the ANC’s top six report back on their meeting on Tuesday or Wednesday next week or as details leak over the next few days. I suspect that there will be more promises, but no real action.
In a perfect world, with our progressive Constitution, we should have been much closer than we are to the South Africa we promised our people, during the struggle and in the first few elections of our democracy. But the best plans can be waylaid by bad implementation and bad intentions. I don’t think any of us anticipated the levels of corruption that we have seen.
The ANC is an important organisation, not only because of the role it played in the liberation of our country, but also in the important role it played in determining the kind of society towards which we should be striving.
Not many of us considered during the struggle that the party who led the struggle might possibly not be the correct choice to govern after liberation.
But what other choices did we have? What other choices do we have at the moment?
I have always thought that the best opposition to the ANC would have to come from inside the ANC, but after looking at the performance of COPE and the EFF, I have reviewed my thinking. Both have their flaws: the one has no show, the other is all show, but there appears to be nothing concrete or constructive in anything they do.
The less said about the DA, the better.
The best opposition to the ANC will be one that is truly mass based (and here I am not talking about Twitter followers), embraces the values that are enshrined in our Constitution and are prepared to listen to what so-called ordinary people have to say.
The ANC, like all other political parties, has become an organisation for the elite. It caters to the needs of its upper- and middle-class members and forgets the poor people who vote for it election after election.
In some ways the ANC has gone back, or maybe it never was any different, to the organisation of middle-class gentlemen it was when it was founded as the South African Native National Congress in Bloemfontein on 8 January 1912.
Over the past few years, while reflecting on the waywardness of the ANC and listening to hundreds of people involved in all kinds of amazing activities in many parts of our country, I have realised that the best way to put pressure on the ANC and other political parties (because they are all bad to a greater or lesser degree) is by building strong community and civil society organisations which can hold parties to account at all times and not only when there are elections. If we do this properly, political parties will be forced to listen better and act more responsibly.
I have always believed that the best way to counter crime is by catching criminals, making sure that they are brought to justice quickly and, if convicted, making sure that they complete their prison sentences.
The same should apply to politicians. They are less likely to commit acts or fraud and corruption if they know that they will be held accountable and, if they transgress, they will be prosecuted and convicted.
There is nothing that deters people with criminal intent more than the prospect of spending time in prison and, unfortunately, there are many criminals and potential criminals in the ANC. And there are enough equally corrupt people in business who are willing to encourage them to break the law.
For the sake of people like Carolus, who gave most of their lives to help build the ANC and its fraternal organisations, I hope that the party can be saved, even though I do not hold out much hope.
(Written as a blog for this website on Friday 2 October 2020)
