THE AFRICAN National Congress (ANC) party’s year-long centenary celebrations, which begin this weekend, have sparked a widespread debate in South Africa about the former liberation movement’s deficiencies as much as its historical successes.
Since the launch of the ANC’s 100-year anniversary in July, senior party members have been determined to use the event and the organisation’s history as a public relations vehicle to spruce up an image tarnished by scandals linked to nepotism, corruption and greed.
South African president Jacob Zuma reminded South Africans during his new year’s speech that unity has always characterised the party. He urged them to celebrate “the strides the country has made in destroying colonial oppression and apartheid, and promoting reconciliation and nation building”.
ANC chairwoman Baleka Mbete also said that this year the ANC would focus on the values of the generation that has passed on, to ensure the party retained its essence.
“Part of what’s going to be continuous engagement . . . is the history of the ANC, a focus on its values, the values we need to learn from this generation that are going,” she said. “Their discipline, their respect, their commitment . . . In the study of these individuals, we learn lessons.”
However, influential South African commentators have been increasingly critical of the ANC, and some believe it is already too late for the party’s leadership to harness the values of its former chiefs.
Political analyst and investigative journalist Max du Preez said recently that the ANC had changed so much in the past decade that it no longer resembled the party led by iconic men such as Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu and Oliver Tambo during the apartheid years.
In a December blog he wrote: “We are witnessing the manifestation of years of abuse, immorality, nepotism, corruption, hunger for power, greed and entitlement.
“It is not the ANC that will be drinking expensive whiskey and bragging about the trappings of power . . . next month. The ANC is, in fact, dead. It is a political party led by charlatans and power-drunk autocrats that has taken on the name of the ANC that it will be celebrating.”
The ANC has also been accused of rewriting history so the contribution of other local anti-apartheid organisations is watered down. Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, who once said witnessing Nelson Mandela becoming president of South Africa was the highlight of his life, has attacked the ANC for neglecting the influence of church leaders during the struggle.
“The trouble is that the ANC on the whole reckons that the freedom we enjoy is due to them,” he said. “Everyone else is just a sideline.”
The ANC was founded in Bloemfontein, in the Free State province in 1912 by John Dube, Pixley ka Isaka Seme and Sol Plaatje to bring Africans together to oppose the racial injustices foisted on them by the newly formed Union of South Africa. After a slow start in the 1920s and a period of dormancy in the 1930s, it got a new lease of life in the 1940s after ANC Youth League leaders Mandela, Sisulu and Tambo strove to turn the organisation into a mass movement.
These men and others such as Govan Mbeki followed Albert Luthuli to lead the ANC. Luthuli himself led the party between 1952 and 1960 when he won the Nobel Peace Prize – the first non-European to do so – for his non-violent approach to seeking racial equality.
Their reign coincided with the decision to take up arms against the South African government in 1961 after 69 blacks were killed and 186 wounded by apartheid security forces in the Sharpeville massacre.
As the years progressed the ANC’s top leaders were either forced into exile or jailed, but the fight continued on the ground throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, led by a new generation of ANC leaders.
In 1985 the ANC called on people in the townships to make them ungovernable by destroying the Black Local Authorities, a move that forced the white racist National Party to the negotiation table. This led to the eventual release of Nelson Mandela and his comrades from jail.
For much of the decade that followed South Africa’s first democratic elections in 1994, the ANC was revered both locally and internationally as a beacon of hope.
Political analyst Joe Mavuso told The Irish Times that while the ANC had made many mistakes since it took power 17 years ago, this did not mean their achievements should be dismissed.
“The party is still young in terms of learning how to govern. But their achievements are worth celebrating when you see the reconciliation that has taken place. We live in a stable country that is trying to forge ahead without too much reference to the bitterness of the past,” he says.
Nevertheless, the theme of unity that Africa’s oldest liberation movement has placed at the heart of its celebrations may prove more difficult to deliver in practice given the leadership battles that lie ahead of the party this year.
The ANC holds its elective conferences in December, where senior party leaders will be fighting for their political futures. Mr Mavuso says any unity on display at the celebrations will be purely for show, because the ANC is a deeply divided movement beset by infighting and power struggles.
“There are a number of different factions within the party vying for control of the top jobs,” says Mr Mavuso. “We know that Zuma is seeking another term as ANC president, but there are senior party members who want him replaced. The party leaders will pretend to be unified, but I think any unity will be short-lived.”
Some of Mr Zuma’s lieutenants have already plotted against him, and he has been openly challenged by ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema.
In November Mr Malema was suspended from the party for five years for calling for regime change in Botswana and for sowing divisions within the ANC. He has appealed the decision.
Analysts say Mr Malema’s demise was politically motivated by Mr Zuma’s supporters within the ANC to protect his re-election bid for the top job this year.
Mr Zuma has also been criticised for placing political allies in influential posts in state prosecuting authorities. The party’s decision to push a law through parliament that allows journalists to be jailed for up to 25 years for publishing classified information has soured relations with the media.
CENTURY OF ACHIEVEMENT 'TATA' MANDELA TO MISS CEREMONY
AT LEAST 100,000 people, including 46 heads of state, are expected in Bloemfontein in South Africa's Free State province this weekend to mark the beginning of the African National Congress (ANC) party's year-long centenary celebrations. However, the former liberation movement's most famous leader, Nelson Mandela, will not be among the guests because of his advanced years, said ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe.
"I think it would be unreasonable for any South African to expect Tata [grandfather] Mandela to travel from Mthatha [in the Eastern Cape] to Bloemfontein," Mr Mantashe said yesterday. Mr Mandela, who is 94, was in good spirits but very frail when he saw him in December, he said.
Celebrations to mark the centenary of the movement founded on January 8th, 1912, to fight minority rule began with a golf tournament yesterday. A ceremony at the Wesleyan Church in Bloemfontein, where the ANC was founded as the South African Native National Congress, will take place tomorrow.
South African president Jacob Zuma will give a keynote address in front of an estimated 100,000 people. But his most outspoken critic within the party, suspended former ANC youth league leader Julius Malema, will not be allowed to make any public remarks at the event.
Among the 6,000 invited VIP guests at the celebrations will be 46 heads of state. Other guests range from regional leaders to representatives of anti-apartheid organisations established in Germany and India. The weekend's events, which are open to all South Africans, will cost at least €10 million, the ANC says.
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Bill Corcoran