WILLIAM GUMEDE | Blame past injustice? If anything, ANC may finish what apartheid started

The ANC governing the state narrowly for the party and its members only, from deploying its handpicked cadres to the state through cadre deployment to black economic empowerment (BEE) in public procurement reserved for its politically connected, has resulted in the increasing fracturing of South Africa, with different ethnic and colour groups seeking safety in their ‘own’ community laagers to secure their interests.

South Africa is now at the tipping point of ethnic and racial fragmentation. Blaming foreign nationals or Western powers for that, or blaming ‘other’ colour or ethnic groups, and not putting the blame squarely on the ANC for excluding masses from state opportunities and dismissing their policy input and ideas, won’t cut it.

The current fracturing of South Africa’s diverse communities is not a conspiracy engineered by foreign powers. It mostly stems from the ANC governing, deciding and adopting policies that are solely in the party and their leaders’ interests, and not in the wider interests of South Africans. The marginalisation of non-ANC supporting groups, their ideas and their energies, has brought this country spiralling towards racial fragmentation, tribalisation and Balkanisation.

The combination of state failure ― caused by the corruption, incompetence and indifference of the small ANC governing elite, who have been recycled from one government department, cabinet position and BEE tender to another ― and the exclusion of non-ANC ideas, talent and energy, has driven communities who feel marginalised to form ‘ethnic’ parties or their own institutions to deliver public services, such as higher education institutions, or to emigrate.

The legacies of apartheid and colonialism obviously are still robbing the opportunities of many previously disadvantaged communities. However, the ANC in control of the state for 32 years, through its record of state failure while enriching a small, connected ANC elite, has compounded the suffering of vulnerable communities still bearing the brunt of apartheid and colonialism’s legacies.

If the GNU had worked properly, it could assemble different parties and groups to draw from the widest pool of talent, ideas, energy and resources, from all ethnic and race groups, to tackle complex challenges.

As the ANC fails in government and loses voter support, many of its leaders have cynically blamed apartheid and colonialism for problems that have been specifically caused by the party. Many ANC leaders and populist leaders from the party’s spinoffs, such as the EFF and MK Party, have weaponised the justified anger at continued apartheid and colonial disparities, deliberately inflamed apartheid-originated ethnic divisions and blamed self-inflicted failures by the ANC-run state on past injustices.

The government of national unity is an ideal nation-building national governing structure, as it unites political groups of all races, colours and ideologies to co-govern the country. The GNU’s potential lies in marshalling different parties, groups and communities to collaborate across ethnicity, colour and ideology and find a pragmatic middle ground.

If the GNU had worked properly, it could assemble different parties and groups to draw from the widest pool of talent, ideas, energy and resources, from all ethnic and race groups, to tackle complex challenges.

However, the ANC’s stubborn insistence that it is still the sole governing party in the GNU, rather than co-governing with its diverse partners, apparently seeing partners as only add-ons, undermines the nation-building potential of the GNU.

The Madlanga and Zondo commissions of inquiry have publicly laid bare the corruption at the heart of the ANC-run state. This has undermined the credibility of the party. It has also undermined its credibility to advance its party-centric policies, whether good, progressive or advancing ‘transformation’. It has also discredited the ANC as an honest broker for inclusive nation-building.

Yet ANC leaders are pushing through ANC-conceived ‘transformation’ or ‘progressive’ policies, when the party, because of corruption, incompetence and the marginalisation of non-ANC groups, is perceived by many non-ANC citizens as self-serving.

Because ANC leaders do not consult non-ANC individuals, groups and communities, they are increasingly talking to themselves into ever-narrower echo chambers of their ‘own’ connected party leaders, cadres and apparatchiks, wrongly believing this bubble represents all South Africa.

ANC leaders, government officials and apparatchiks mistakenly believe the ANC is still embraced as the unifying rather than divisive force in our diverse communities. But many South Africans, feeling marginalised based on race, colour and ideology, are now seeking safety in their own community laagers or abroad, from the ANC’s corruption, incompetence, self-enrichment and marginalisation of them and other non-ANC voters.

Under these circumstances, ANC-generated ‘good’, ‘progressive’ or ‘transformative’ policies are likely to end in a dead-end, causing more divisions and alienating more non-ANC groups and communities as fearful, marginalised South Africans seek refuge in their ‘own’ ethic, racial or colour groups.

Transformation can only happen if it is done inclusively, by making transformation policies that are in the interest of all South Africa, that it is co-formulated by the widest spectrum of race, political ideology and talent.

‘Transformation,’ ‘progressive’ policies can only secure buy-in from all of South Africa if ANC leaders who devise it are not corrupt, incompetent and marginalising the views of non-traditional ANC members, supporters and voters. ‘Transformation’ or ‘progressive’ policies devised and implemented by a small ANC elite who dismiss the opinions, input and energy of everyone else, will not be widely embraced by non-ANC groups, no matter how well-intended these are. It will only lead to further fracturing, tribalisation and Balkanisation.

To prevent South Africa from further fragmentation, the ANC must make all decisions, policies and state appointments and contracts in the interests of the country, not the interests of the ANC party, apparatchiks and patronage beneficiaries.

The ANC must accept it’s not the majority party any more, decide collectively with its partners in the GNU and not enforce its decisions and policies or favour its cadres for key state positions. The ANC must also canvass ideas, policies and state appointments more broadly, beyond its narrow connected elite, to secure buy-in for its policies, no matter how good, progressive or transformative these policies may be in the eyes of ANC leaders, members or supporters.

If the party continues on its current path of only involving its own loyalists in decision-making, policy-making and appointments ― and marginalising all other communities — South Africa will see accelerated fragmentation as groups marginalised by the ANC seek refuge in their own groups or leave the country, take their skills, their capital and their energy with them.

• William Gumede is the founder of the Democracy Works Foundation and the author of the bestselling Restless Nation: Making Sense of Troubled Times (Tafelberg)