Writing on ANC wall

Concern about the fate of the African National Congress (ANC) and its predicted future detriment as it slowly progresses on its current course were hot home truths spoken when erstwhile and current leaders of the organisation and the Progressive Youth Alliance (PYA) in Limpopo exercised podium power this past weekend.
Saturday afternoon’s seminar organised by the ANC Youth League (Ancyl) in Limpopo for all their structures across regions at a venue at the new Peter Mokaba Stadium served as platform for expressing views on the current status quo within the ruling party. Ancyl Provincial Chairperson Vincent Shoba described the gathering as a contact session seminar for members to engage the leadership and look at providing solutions to problems faced by the organisation.
Sasco concerned about state of affairs
South African Students Congress Provincial Chairperson TK Mphahlele expressed concern over what the future held. Until such time that they took an honest approach to set factionalism, opportunism and careerism aside they ran a risk of inheriting an ANC that was a shadow of itself, he argued. They were worried and unhappy with the state of affairs and didn’t know in which space their leaders existed as they didn’t respond to the issues presented to them. He referred to the campuses of the Universities of Limpopo and Venda being closed as result of the situation across the country. He stressed they were worried that the ANC-led government was unable to provide leadership in such turmoil.
Confronting challenges as united force
In his address Shoba said that having emerged from the 2016 local government elections they convened the meeting to reflect on the outcome thereof and their contributions. The ANC in its many years of existence has navigated out of difficult challenges, he said. Yet again in 2016 they were faced by challenges for which they had to find solutions. They were not going to navigate out of the problems if the PYA was not united and speaking as one voice. The time of competing against one another had to come to an end and they needed the unity of the alliance, he stressed. They needed to confront all the challenges they faced as a united force. He said approaching the 2017 national conference they had to strive for the unity of the ANC. Shoba said they would be lying to themselves if they thought their structures could respond to the challenges their people faced on a daily basis. He continued saying they needed to revive the ANC.
Demand for 40% youth representation
Ancyl National Executive Committee (NEC) member Sifiso Mtsweni started off his discussion by reflecting on an Ancyl remaining united after 12 months of its executive being elected into office and the healthy status of the youth league in Limpopo based on the crowd drawn to the gathering. Turning to matters of age and the call for 40% representation of young people of 35 and younger on all decision-making bodies across the board, he raised the question of where the country was going. He said going forward the revolution required young energetic, vibrant and creative people.
One of the things to critically discuss was that the time had come for them to call for a younger leadership of the ANC and they had to be unapologetic about it, according to Mtsweni. As it started renewing itself it needed a young face, he reckoned. He further called for the modernisation of the ANC, saying that they were moving backward election after election. The right people had to be appointed and they needed the right image for the organisation, stating the need for professionalising the ANC. Referring to the expression that likened the ANC to an elephant moving slowly but crushing everything in its wake, he said “We are calling for the elephant to move away. We don’t want an elephant anymore. We want a cheetah.” In 2017 elephant had to step aside to allow cheetahs to take over, he suggested.
Writing on the wall
The harshest words were delivered by Rudolph Phala, member of the ANC provincial executive. He aligned his presentation to views on the future of the ANC as a ruling party expressed in an ANC publication of two weeks prior. Largely addressing the debate on the performance of the movement in the recent elections, he said that short of magic and miracles they were actually in the last phase of the ANC. If they didn’t do things right the reality was that, over years, they would lose power at national and provinces one by one until they were a non-governmental agency, he remarked. “We are facing the possibility of an ANC out of power.”
The most recent elections were a wake-up call to the movement, according to Phala. Members of the ANC had to act now, he advised. The reality of the death of the ANC was not a small thing and it would take decades for it to go, but only once it seized to be significant certain things might become clear, Phala predicted. It was in everybody’s interest and those of future generations to fight for the ANC to remain a giant movement, otherwise they would inherit ruins, he reckoned.

Story and photos: YOLANDE NEL
>>observer.yolande@gmail.com

Featured photos: Rudolph Phala interprets the writing on the wall. Ancyl National Executive Committee member Sifiso Mtsweni delivers a fiery address. Ancyl Provincial Chairperson Vincent Shoba addresses the gathering.