Divisions create harmful uncertainty

Government policy and programmes in a growing number of areas lately have become something of a minefield – full of contradictions, ambiguities and confusion which fuel harmful uncertainty. Leadership issues, factional struggles, cadre deployment and ideological disarray leave a complicated – and, for the business community, often dangerous – political landscape to negotiate.

In the absence of a central, overriding and binding political philosophy or ideology, the linked strategies of presenting the African National Congress over many decades as a “broad church” of many diverse groups; and the communist-driven, two-phased revolutionary strategy that the ANC expediently adopted during the liberation struggle, have both come back to bite the hand that fed them.

The first-phase national liberation has been achieved, and now a large part of the “broad church” no longer wishes to proceed to the second-phase socialist revolution. But that is merely one terrain of struggle in the current maelstrom of developments.

The ANC finally is finding out – the hard way – that being a broad liberation movement is vastly different from being a more narrowly defined and focused political party in government. What is lacking is a comprehensive and single focus emerging from a disciplined and united party and driven by strong and moral leadership. At present, it is pretty much a free for all, motivated by factional interest, power delusions and greed.

Even within the Alliance itself, recently voices have been raised increasingly, accusing President Jacob Zuma of trying to please everyone, and not giving leadership. It is this kind of situation that allows a Julius Malema to make ideological and policy declarations at odds with, and even in defiance of, the supposed centre of power.

At the same time, the system of cadre deployment, and political patronage, as practised by the ANC, is carrying this hybrid political confusion into the organs of state. There is equally an absence of any central philosophy as to the role of the state or, quite often, the role of those deployed within its organs.

This is exacerbated by the blurring of the lines between party, government and state. Conflict is paralysing many national departments.

A number of examples, where these developments recently led to policy and programme confusion, stand out:

The most controversial one at present concerns the furore that erupted over apparent plans by the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform to nationalise all productive farm land as national asset.. While the Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform Gugile Nkwinti has been trying hard to put out the fires while assuring farmers there will not be any nationalisation of their land, the director-general of his department Thozi Gwanya continues to push for the nationalisation option.

And, while Agriculture Minister Tina Joemat-Petterson has gone out of her way to reassure commercial farmers about their future security and to engage them as partners and mentors for emerging farmers, the shenanigans occurring in the Rural Development and Land Reform department is having the opposite effect.

The Department of Arts and Culture has been embarrassed and angered by the action of its minister, Lulu Xingwana, who stormed out of an art exhibition because of its homo-erotic content (which was erotic, but not pornographic, it would seem). Afterward, Xingwana’s spin doctor attempted to justify her action, saying she had found the exhibition “immoral, offensive and going against nation-building”. Insiders in her department have objected anonymously, saying their job is not to judge and denounce art, but to facilitate, guarantee its practice and promote it.

Still in the same department, it was Xingwana who went against earlier ANC and Cabinet decisions to hold back on the changing of Pretoria’s name to Tshwane. Without Cabinet approval, and while President Zuma was out of the country, she sought singlehandedly to gazette the name change. Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, acting in Zuma’s place, forced her to withdraw it. ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe then articulated what is believed to be the dominant position on this issue in the ANC at present, namely that the city of Pretoria retains its name and the greater metropolitan area is known as Tshwane.

Meanwhile, the government’s multibillion-rand infrastructure development and job creation programmes may be threatened by tensions and conflict in the Public Works department between the minister, deputy minister and senior officials. There is said to be bad blood between Minister Geoff Doidge and his deputy minister, Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu, with senior officials being divided between the two. The minister is being accused by officials of interfering in their work, doing the work of a director-general and targeting people allegedly for siding with the deputy minister. The department is being restructured and is without a director-general after the previous one left, following a clash with Doidge. In this instance, the problems seem to stem from, among others, uncertainties caused by restructuring, a departmental corruption probe, factionalism, and officials (deployed ANC cadres) acting beyond their brief within the ministerial political and policy realm.

More conflicting signals and statements have been coming from the Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs department, this time around the service delivery protests in townships and ratepayers withholding their rates and taxes. Minister Sicelo Shiceka has reacted aggressively, threatening to stamp out the protests through “brutal” and “ruthless” action against township protesters and legal action against the protesting ratepayers. Deputy Minister Yunus Carrim has taken a very different line, saying these groups have legitimate grievances and have resorted to their actions probably only as a last option. Only after Carrim’s statements did Shiceka change his stance and in a subsequent newspaper interview, made similar remarks, but still with his earlier threats intact.

There are many other examples, such as disgruntled ANC cadres previously employed by the state, the ANC Youth League and others who carry a variety of factional torches, abuse state resources to carry out witch hunts against members of the media, only for their president and party leader to shoot them down.

While President Zuma regularly meets with Afrikaner groups, assuring them of the government’s goodwill and now even wanting to set up a committee to look after the interests of Afrikaners; on the other hand, Afrikaner language, educational and other rights appear to be trampled on by various ministers, officials and departments.

This weekend, however, Malema – in defiance of Zuma’s declared wishes – again incited people to sing a controversial struggle song calling for “kill the Boer” because they are rapists.

Most infamous of all, perhaps, have been the factional battles for control over economic policy and related issues, drawing into the fray the yes-we-will, no-we-won’t nationalisation of the mines and banks; the independence and mandate of the Reserve Bank; the role and mandate of the National Planning Commission; the scope and turf of economic development under Minister Ebrahim Patel, and many others. The list becomes alarmingly long.

Alarmists are never popular, but perhaps it is high time that the alarm bells should sound almost everywhere. For with the Mandela magic now fast fading and with the Fifa World Cup soon coming and going, what will keep it all together after 2010?