ANC’s liberation nostalgia is all it has going for it, but it’s wearing thin

The ANC may be a shadow of its former self, with almost all its key structures under “administration” – but it won’t ditch its liberation movement tag because it’s the only thing that still gives it votes and the image as the one that must lead South Africa.

This is according to political analyst Dr Ntsikelelo Breakfast, from Nelson Mandela University’s department of history and political studies, who said by calling itself a liberation movement, the ANC aimed to gain the upper hand in relation to other political parties and “create the impression it was the only one qualified to lead”.

Despite structures such as the ANC Women’s League, the ANC Youth League and regional and provincial executive committees currently under “administration” after they were disbanded and replaced with interim task teams, the organisation would not give up the liberation tag as it boosted its hegemony in South African politics.

“First, we need to ask the question, why does the ANC calls itself a liberation movement? It calls itself a liberation movement because it benefits from that. Remember, the greatest advantage of liberation movements is their collective memory.

“When you call yourself a liberation [movement] you are able to ignite the emotions of the people because you remind them how they laid down their lives for the struggle for liberation, freedom, and so on and that translates into votes,” Breakfast said. But the ANC hegemony had been dealt a blow with the low voter turnouts in the past few elections.

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The analyst was convinced that if things continued as they were, there was a strong possibility the ANC might lose power in future elections.

“The ANC needs a thorough clinical process of restoring its values; it needs to cleanse itself, but I am not sure if that is possible at the moment because, throughout history, the ANC has had ups and downs.

I mean, where there are human be- ings, you have problems,” he said. The party had conflicts in the past but they were different from the current infighting because it was informed by “who stands a chance to benefit from the material gain”, said Breakfast.

“So, people need to have access to economic resources – that’s the greatest threat to the ANC.

The reason why the ANC is in disarray today is because people don’t want to lose political power because losing political power is like losing political protection.”

After coming to power via elections, any party should not regard itself as a liberation movement, although it is aware it is not the only liberation movement, as both Azanian People’s Organisation and the Pan Africanist Congress were also a liberation movements. But the two could not compare with the ANC in terms of their electoral performance. – ericn@citizen.co.za