Delivering on the legacy of liberty
January 07, 2005
So much has been accomplished, so much remains to be done. Having won freedom for South Africa's majority, the African National Congress has yet to conquer poverty, unemployment and homelessness.
Fortunately for the organisation, which is tomorrow celebrating its 93rd anniversary, its supporters - and the electorate at large - remain patient. Just under eight months ago, the ANC won 70% support at the polls.
As it looks at the challenges ahead, the ANC's attention is also been drawn to the past - to 1955 to be precise, when the Freedom Charter was adopted. How far has it come in delivering on its basic demands?
The charter says "There shall be work and security" and that "Rent and prices shall be lowered, food plentiful and no one shall go hungry".
In a Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) review book, The State of the Nation: 2003-2005, chief researcher Benjamin Roberts, citing a 2003 study, estimates that 4-million people became poor between 1999 and 2002.
Quoting another 2003 study, Robert says that while 1,6-million jobs were created between 1995 and 2002, the number of unemployed increased by 2,3-million "due to the large number of labour market entrants".
Sankie Mthembi-Mahanyele, deputy secretary-general of the ANC, feels the ANC has delivered on the main, crucial themes of the Freedom Charter.
"When we look at the policies of government currently, you will realise they get their guidance from the Freedom Charter. When we look at the thrust and focus of this government towards the population, you will realise that our target group is the poorest of the poor," she says.
The charter also says "There shall be houses, security and comfort" and "All the people shall have the right to live where they choose, be decently housed, and bring up their families in comfort and security".
Ndivuyo Mabaya, the spokesperson for the Housing Department, has revealed that 2,4-million people are without adequate housing. They constitute, he says, about 22% of all households.
Considering that the ANC has had only 10 years to address the problem of housing, says Mthembi-Mahanyele, this cannot be considered a delivery setback.
"We are providing our people with housing," she says. "Today about 8-million people have shelter and security tenure."
But she concedes that there is still a long way to go to redress the inequalities of the past. "Perhaps we have not (made a dent) to the extent we would have liked, but we have made inroads. We have begun to identify those areas of the economy that need to be attended to."
Mthembi-Mahanyele adds: "We may not be able to count how many people are now millionaires but we can say, by the way the economic policies of this country are structured, that we are beginning to address the needs of the poor."
She believes the ANC has fulfilled the Freedom Charter clause that says "The aged, the orphans, the disabled and the sick shall be cared for by the state".
However, she becomes defensive when responding to criticism that ANCfat-cats have interpreted the clause, "The people shall share in the country's wealth", to mean making personal gains through black economic empowerment (BEE).
Three prominent members of the ANC's national executive committee - Saki Macozoma, Cyril Ramaphosa and Smuts Ngonyama - and the party's former provincial leader, Tokyo Sexwale, are benefiting greatly from BEE.
Mthembi-Mahanyele says there is nothing to prevent ANC members from playing a role in business. "People choose to forget that members of the ANC have constitutional rights like everyone else and the freedom to engage in activities in which everyone else engages."
"There's nothing wrong with ANC people being in the private sector, there is nothing wrong with ANC people benefiting from BEE," she says.
Adam Habib, an executive director at the HSRC, says the Freedom Charter may be criticised or defended by whoever wants his or her interests served by the document. For example, he says, Ngonyama might say the document means that he is free to benefit from BEE, whereas Cosatu might say that all, and not a small elite group, should benefit.
Habib says it's unfair to accuse the ANC of not being committed to the charter.
"The core of the ideals in the document has been met generally," he says. "Nobody has been denied access to schooling because he is black, and that's the document's objectives - racial equality and equal opportunity."
In any case, according to Habib, the goals of the document have been enshrined in the constitution. "(The charter) has not been a policy cornerstone of the ANC since 1994, when the constitution surpassed it as a living document."
Habib says the ANC has matured as a modern political party but it is still an old, grand-nationalist movement, and one which is oversensitive to boot. He says this is personified in its leader, Thabo Mbeki.
"The ANC is inspired by modern developments. It wants to be different from other liberation movements on the continent and to show the rest of the world that it is a matured party that can handle a modern, sophisticated country. It is committed to multiparty democracy, political modernity and a free market economy."
This, Habib explains, is what makes the ANC different from Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu-PF.
On the other hand, he adds, the organisation still sees itself as a defender of the people of Africa against the dominance of the West and against racism.
"That is why President Mbeki wants to walk in the street of London and be seen as an African. That is why he wants an African country's presence felt in (major global forums) and contributing towards a world disaster (in south-east Asia). It is the ideals of a grand-nationalist movement."
The drawback of the nationalist, freedom-fighting mentality, says Habib, is that it has made the organisation extremely sensitive to criticism, especially from black journalists and prominent black figures such as Desmond Tutu and Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi.
"(The ANC) can't understand why you can't see things within the context of nation-building and the broader struggle," says Habib. "That's one of its immature characteristics."
The ANC has now come to a point, like Zanu-PF in Zimbabwe and Swapo in Namibia, where the leadership succession debate has reached a crescendo.
Habib says the organisation was fortunate before 1990 in that there was a smooth power balance and transfer between Oliver Tambo, who was in exile, Nelson Mandela in prison, and the modest Walter Sisulu, who never had ambition to be in the forefront.
But at its 1991 congress there was a bitter power struggle between Mbeki, then ANC chairperson, and Ramaphosa, then secretary-general.
Now, says Habib, the struggle is between two camps - one represented by Deputy President Jacob Zuma and one by Mbeki.
But Mthembi-Mahanyele dismisses such talk. "I have made the observation that the media may be chasing a story which is not a story in the ANC," she says. "We are in 2005 and people keep wanting to take our minds to 2000-whatever."
"We have many issues to deal with right now, and that's why (the succession issue) is not a priority on the agenda," she says.
The challenge that will test the ANC's endurance - and its leadership - is how it manages a modern, cash-strapped economy while chasing the goals set out in a 50-year-old document.
