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Fight for ANC control drives succession tensions The divisions between nationalists and socialists over control of the African National Congress (ANC), and those between factions competing for control of the government’s economic policy, are gaining a foothold in an emerging leadership succession struggle. It could yet surpass the ferocity of the struggle between Jacob Zuma and Thabo Mbeki prior to the ANC’s 52nd National Conference held in Polokwane in December 2007.
Although rumours and denials were once again flying thick and fast since late last week, it is no secret in ANC Alliance circles that the ANC Youth League (ANCYL), led controversially by its president Julius Malema, is championing an early campaign to have a past Youth League president and current Deputy Police Minister Fikile Mbalula replace SA Communist Party (SACP) national chairperson Gwede Mantashe as the ANC’s secretary-general at its next national conference in 2012.
The ANCYL is also opposing a rumoured bid by SACP general-secretary and Minister of Higher Education and Training Blade Nzimande to be elected deputy president of the ANC in 2012.
The ANCYL’s war with the Left, particularly the SACP, was boosted by a report drafted by Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale on the recent incident when Malema and other ANC members were booed by communists at an SACP Special Congress. On Friday, Sexwale handed his report to the members of the ANC’s national executive committee (NEC).
Sexwale, who had attended the SACP meeting in his capacity as a government official, sided with Malema in blaming Mantashe and Nzimande for not acting to stop the booing. But he also said that Malema had known beforehand that he would be booed.
After the incident, the ANCYL had accused Mantashe of failing to protect the ANC delegation and further accused him of wearing too many hats, therefore rendering him “conflicted”.
The question of factions positioning themselves and their candidates early for a leadership succession battle in the ANC has cropped up frequently in various guises over the past year, compelling ANC President Zuma to call for a retreat by all parties and an end to lobbying. Zuma said it harmed the ANC, as it promoted a vote of no-confidence in certain elected leaders of the ANC who were being isolated and made suspect.
Attempts by socialists in the SACP and Cosatu to position the Alliance (as opposed to the ANC) as the strategic power centre in order to gain control over the ANC and the government’s economic policy, have been met with strong opposition from ANC centrists who are instead advancing the movement’s nationalist tradition.
But the ANCYL at the weekend again denied that it had begun discussions around the leadership succession issue or that it was devising a plan to block the Left in its bid for ascendency in the ANC. It said that when it did start such a debate, it would not be done in secret.
But the ANCYL’s – and especially Malema’s – particularly ferocious war with the SACP and Mantashe was reportedly pitched several notches higher on Friday when Malema was asked by another communist member of the ANC NEC, Jeremy Cronin, to explain the ANCYL's position regarding Mantashe. Malema apparently responded by laying into Mantashe and saying that the ANCYL would nominate Mbalula to replace Mantashe. Malema had clashed badly with Cronin previously, over the issue of nationalising South Africa’s mines.
These developments led to Mantashe downplaying the tensions on Monday and saying the ANC would not be drawn into a “street fight” over leadership positions. Reporting back on the ANC’s weekend lekgotla ahead of a Cabinet lekgotla next Wednesday, Mantashe said the position of the 8 January statement had been reaffirmed, namely that the ANC as "the leader of the Alliance and strategic centre of power must take responsibility for providing political direction to the Alliance".
Mantashe said the NEC would initiate a broad discussion on the history, law and current tasks of the Alliance and seek to “manage the contradictions inherent to the Alliance in a manner that builds the unity of purpose, understanding of distinct roles and programmes of each component”.
He urged Alliance members to conduct themselves in a "manner befitting revolutionaries" with respect for each other's organisational integrity while avoiding public clashes. The booing of Malema and NEC member Billy Masetlha at the SACP congress would be discussed in a bilateral meeting with the SACP, said Mantashe.
However, none of this has so far served to diminish the crippling tensions within the Alliance, which have Zuma trapped between a rock and a hard place.
Zuma relies equally on the support of the Left (represented by the SACP and Cosatu) and the nationalist centre (lately represented by the ANCYL), and making any move against either could have disastrous consequences for him.
And while these battles over leadership issues are fought, this is a mere sideshow to the greater battle for the heart and soul of the ANC and of the Alliance focused around strategic control of the ANC, and the Alliance and the core ideological issue of macro-economic policy.
