William Gumede, Mail & Guardian
Twenty years since the founding of South Africa's democracy,
the country's existing party political system, the parties and their leaders
appear unable to fulfil the needs of the majority of voters.
The increasing disconnection between the voters and parties
undermines the accountability of the country's democratic system and diminishes
the quality of its democracy.
It is rather obvious that any political party serious about
winning an election in South Africa must grab a significant slice of the black
vote.
If it was only so simple.
The majority of black voters, in terms of economic beliefs,
appear to be on the mainstream left, even if they may be socially or
politically conservative.
In terms of economic orientation, the problem is that most
of the existing opposition parties and new parties formed after 1994 are to the
right of the ANC and its mass black support.
South Africa has now reached a tipping point at which many
ANC supporters who have had a deep emotionally affinity with the party are not
able to identify themselves with the current version of the party and its
leaders any more. They appear to be ready to look for alternative political
homes.
The dilemma, however, is that many disillusioned ANC
supporters – many of them on the left of the economic spectrum – feel they do
not have credible options, given the fact that most of the established
opposition parties are on the right (or at least centre-right) in terms of
economics. So it is likely they will just not vote.
In real terms, this will mean the ANC will be re-elected,
albeit with ever-smaller margins, and the opposition parties will gain a little
bit more but, essentially, the perceived flawed party political system remains
the same.
The reality is that appealing to the good heart of current
ANC leaders and to the glorious examples of responsible leadership of former
leaders such as Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo and Walter Sisulu is not going to
get the urgency to be more caring, responsive and honest across to the current
ANC leadership.
Only the prospect of losing its traditional supporters to
other parties and the prospect that it may lose elections or at least do so
poorly it may be forced into coalitions will force the current ANC leadership
to change for the better.
The fact that the current opposition parties are not yet
appealing politically and especially economically to the ANC's mass base is
providing the current ANC leadership not only with a valuable lifeline but also
entrenching the extraordinary high levels of complacency in its leadership
ranks.
The opposition Democratic Alliance is entrenched on the
economic centre-right with mostly neoliberal policies. For another, it still
suffers from perceptions among majority black ANC supporters that it only cares
about the issues of white South Africans.
The Congress of the People (Cope) was hived off from the
ANC's right flank. In the beginning, Cope not only had black credentials, it
was also perceived by many ANC supporters to be no different in economic
outlook from the ANC itself. Of course, Cope descended into chaos and lacks
credibility as a responsible force.
Agang SA, launched recently by former Black Consciousness
leader Mamphela Ramphele, is also on the right of the ANC. In its current form
it is more likely to appeal to South Africa's small black middle class, which
will be inadequate to win national elections, rather than the majority black
township and rural poor.
A number of smaller far-left socialist parties have been
formed since the ANC's 2007 Polokwane conference. In truth, they are too
pie-in-the-sky ideologically to be relevant to ordinary black people struggling
with the daily dilemmas of how to put bread on the table or care for families.
Is there a way out of this political cul-de-sac?
Disillusioned ANC members could close their eyes and vote en
masse against their natural instincts for opposition parties that may not
appeal to their economic views.
In this way, the voting tally of the opposition parties could
bulge and the ANC could get a serious wake-up call and introduce the urgent
reforms needed – making the party internally democratic, bringing in more
accountable leaders and governing more honestly and responsibly.
But South Africa's democratic system would be best served by
a genuinely democratic mainstream trade union-based party, à la Brazil's
Workers' Party (PT), which is to the left of the ANC, with the ANC remaining at
the left of centre and the current opposition parties on the right, leaving the
populist Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and the far-left socialist parties on
the flanks.
The trade union federation Cosatu's largest affiliate, the
National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) is mulling over
launching such a party.
The practical danger of Cosatu's association with an
unaccountable version of the ANC is that its affiliates could break away from
the trade union movement and form new ones.
The splintering of the National Union of Mineworkers, once
the most powerful Cosatu affiliate, is a case in a point.
The presence of Cosatu in the ANC alliance has given the
party valuable grassroots and "left" credibility, even if the current
ANC leadership has backslid on the party's original ethos and mandates.
However, as the ANC loses further credibility under the
weight of the governing party's decidedly mixed performance in reducing poverty
and delivering jobs and effective public services to the black majority, Cosatu
also risks sinking with it.
Expelled former ANC Youth League president Julius Malema
astutely understands the large vacuum in South Africa's electoral firmament and
has embedded his new Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party, the country's first
out-and-out populist and youth party, with leftist economic messages.
Malema's populist message may appeal to the restless youth
but it is unlikely to appeal to the masses of mature and sensible middle-ground
ANC supporters, however disaffected they may be with the current ANC.
But, if the EFF transforms itself into a social movement
party and successfully aligns itself with breakaway Cosatu trade unions such as
the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union, and many of South
Africa's disgruntled grassroots and community groups, it will not only take
sizeable chunks of votes from the ANC but may also hive off some members of
Cosatu too.
Cosatu's decision to back one faction at the ANC's 2007
Polokwane conference, instead of being principled and remaining neutral, may
cause the break-up of the trade-union federation as its fortunes are now linked
with the foibles of that faction.
Cosatu affiliates will have to decide whether to take over
the ANC completely and transform it, to continue to support the current ANC
leadership in its current form and risk its own break-up, or form its own trade
union-based political party.
The formation of the PT in Brazil in the 1980s was different
from the formation of most trade union-based parties in the developed world,
such as the British Labour Party or the German Social Democratic Party, and has
clear lessons for any trade-union efforts to form a party in South Africa.
The PT, although it was initiated by the metalworkers'
unions, mobilised a much broader support base than just trade union members.
What stands out is that it was not launched on a populist platform – it was
based on principled policies, pragmatism and honesty. Lula da Silva, the
founding PT leader, embodied these values, in person.
Lula was the leader of the metalworkers' union in Brazil.
The success of the PT was that "workers"
encapsulated more than traditional trade union members and included all wage
earners, the unemployed, professional groups, academics, community associations
and neighbourhood watch groups.
For another, it included such diverse organisations as the
Brazilian landless movement (MST) and progressive churches, which were involved
in social justice work.
As important, the PT was also formed specifically to promote
and deepen democracy.
Brazilian trade unions believed that existing parties,
including the Brazilian Communist Party, were irrelevant and had become so
ossified that they were not able to pursue a progressive economic, social and
democratic agenda for the country.
But Lula and the PT were not dogmatic or rigid ideologically.
Already in the 1980s they were critical of rigid Soviet Union-style socialism
and grasped that the PT had to be more imaginative and innovative and to search
for out-of-the-box solutions.
What is clear, any South African trade union-based party
must be on the mainstream left rather than on the far left. Moreover, a
successful trade union-based political party must align itself with a broad
front of community, civil society and issue-based groups.
Quality leadership is important. In Lula, the Brazilian PT
had a genuinely democratic, honest and pragmatic socialist as leader of the
party.
The arrival of a new party based on the trade union movement
that is pragmatic, mobilises civil society on a broad front, is nonracial and
is based on principled leadership has the potential to breathe new energy into
South Africa's paralysed party political system.
