KENNETH MOKGATLHE | ANC must be clear about its coalition choices or Flounder

The ANC’s current political challenge will certainly impact the party’s ideological direction which has been confusing or multifaceted over the years.

Attempting to manage its diverse membership, it has often called itself a “broad church” to signify the party’s flexibility on ideological fora. Although this belief is not sustainable, it has been able to contain the electoral support for the ANC at least for 30 years. 

The Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) in 1959 and EFF in 2013 could be identified as ANC splinter groups which arose from the ideological fracas.

Like Robert Sobukwe, Julius Malema is in favour of a more socialist agenda than the ANC which defines itself as centre-left party. While it could be criticised for its weak economic policies, the ANC has been able to carry out meaningful social programmes for the most needy of this country which includes the old, the young, pupils, students, orphans and other vulnerable ones. 

The party was established as a response to the white-only government known as the Union of South Africa, established on May 31 1910. The ANC was to become the voice and political authority for the black people in SA. It was formed, led, and influenced largely by traditional royal families who are regarded to be the custodians of their communities who were dispossessed of their land.

From 1912 to 1955, it was clear whom the ANC was representing, the black people who were marginalised and had been driven to poverty by the minority government. 

The adoption of the 1955 Congress of the People’s Freedom Charter redefined the ANC’s ideological position and how it foresaw the future of SA. The ANC worked with other organisations from other racial groups, espousing “multi-culturalism” as it used to refer to it before subscribing to the term coined by Sobukwe, non-racialism.

After this watershed moment of the adoption of the Freedom Charter in 1955, displeasure and disillusionment were coming from a group of members of the Congress Youth League, the party’s youth wing who labelled themselves as Africanists. 

Led by a charismatic, intelligent but humble Sobukwe, these Africanists were influenced by the successful outcomes of the Pan African Conference held in Manchester in 1945. The conference resolved that the decolonisation of Africa and the West Indies was of paramount importance. We saw the first African state, Ghana (Gold Coast) gaining its independence in 1957, two years before SA’s PAC was born.

Although the ANC was worried by the splinter group PAC, in 1959, it regarded them as an angry mob who would not go any further. The ANC allowed and accommodated anyone interested in joining the party including those who were coming from the Black Consciousness Movement who held completely different ideas on how SA should look like. 

It is important to note that the ANC has welcomed anyone from various political backgrounds in recent years which has made it very fragile to divisions. Some call themselves “RET” (radical economic transformation) and claim to be in favour of a radical shift of the economic outlook in the country to favour the black majority while others are advocating for neoliberal economic policies with government intervention in economic and social issues.

There is doubt that any decision on who to co-govern with is likely to influence the shape and the size of the party in the coming years. There is no one absolute choice for it, the party itself is more divided on who it should go to bed with. Whatever decision it makes will have a profound political and electoral impact on the coming local government elections in 2026 and national elections in 2029.

The ANC has to be decisive and make a choice about whom it wants to go to bed with rather than continuing with its populist antics. Malcolm X reminds us that a man who stands for nothing falls for anything. It is time for the ANC to make its decision and tell us who it is rather than hide its faces on who it is. It cannot represent the rich and poor at the same time, it has to make a choice.

• Mokgatlhe is a political writer, analyst, and researcher.