PRETORIA - The 2024 National and Provincial general elections were a tough litmus test for the African National Congress' resolve to renew itself.
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The KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng provinces, as expected, showed poor performances during the polls and called into question the party’s ability to navigate the trying time that began in the 2016 local government elections.
At the core of the ANC's problems has been its inability to renew and present the people of South Africa with a trusted and vote-worthy (at least in the sense of regaining its majority) organisation.
The question is, can the ANC renew itself?
The answer, for now, is a big fat no! Who can forget the Adiweles, N3 and N1s of this world? Who can forget the outright purging of one faction or another and the use of propaganda to destroy each other within the ANC? These were symptoms of a disease that has besieged the ANC. A viral infection called factionalism, a cancer of thoughtlessness that has resulted in a democratic backslide.
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The most recent bout of factionalism was whether the ANC should disband the Gauteng and KZN structures. The question becomes, why? For what good reason? Shouldn't the national structure also ask if it should go to an early conference if election results were the barometer with which we measured the leadership of a structure?
Most importantly, why should blame be portioned on one group or another?
These are internal ANC questions, but the image projected from within leaves these questions to the public. Whether we should trust the ANC that despite losing its majority, still finds it prudent to renew by way of apportioning blame on others? What happened to an ANC that was collectively driven? What happened to the ANC of Mandela? An organisation that would take renewal decisions that despite differences, everyone would take collective responsibility?
The ANC has some of the best policy positions to drive change and lead South Africa to a prosperous democratic society. However, the rising tide of apportioning blame without taking collective responsibility and ensuring that the whole leadership collective is geared towards renewal is further indicting the ANC in the eyes of the electorate.
The bottom line is that the ANC currently seems to have no capacity whatsoever to renew. This is at least an observation one makes from outside.
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A quick scan of the ANC’s history with renewal would tell you that a new leadership has to emerge for the party to correct itself. In the wake of the internal stagnation of the 1930s, the likes of A.B Xuma and D.D.T Jabavu formed the All-Africa Convention to unite the African people. It was these efforts that led the ANC to recruit A.B. Xuma into its ranks and renew itself. Further uniting with the Indian Congress with the famous Three Doctors’ Pact of 1947 that gave the ANC a new look and more determined focus.
In the same period, a radical mass of young people led by Mandela and Sisulu, among others, emerged as a defining feature towards the regeneration of the ANC. This generation would later lead the ANC in adopting the armed struggle, and the back-to-basics policy of the ANC Youth League with the likes of A.P Mda. The bottom line is that this generation gave the ANC a renewed vision and dealt decisively with the reactionary preoccupations of the time.
In the late 1960s, the likes of Chris Hani and others acted as a wake-up call to the ANC to renew itself amidst stagnation in the armed struggle and a theoretical deficiency that had emerged. This led to the famous Morogoro Conference. The conference would later give birth to a policy and Action impetus to the movement.
These are some of the examples of the magnitude of renewal the party needs in the current epoch. But the question remains, is the ANC capable?
Nkateko Muloiwa is an MSc in Science Communication candidate at the University of the Witwatersrand and a researcher at eNCA. His views do not reflect those of his employer but are his own.