John Allen
8 October 2008
Cape Town — South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC) moved closer to its most significant split in half a century on Wednesday, when the country's former defence minister, Mosiuoa Lekota, announced consultations which he predicted would lead to the formation of a new party.
Lekota, who was party chairman until he was voted out of office last December, announced in a news conference broadcast live from Johannesburg that a group of ANC members who were dissatisfied with the current party leadership would be holding consultations in the next two to four weeks on calling a national convention "on how to defend democracy in this country."
He did not treat a split as inevitable but acknowledged, "This is probably the parting of the ways, it probably is. We hope that sense may still prevail... if not, there is no going back." Asked later whether the members he represented were in "marriage counselling" with the party, or headed for divorce, he added: "It seems that we are serving today divorce papers."
Lekota resigned as defence minister two weeks ago when the ANC asked former President Thabo Mbeki to step down. Lekota declined on Wednesday to be drawn on whether Mbeki was playing any role in the prospective split, but the ANC has in recent days said that it planned to involve Mbeki in electioneering for the 2009 parliamentary polls. Mbeki's roots in the party go back further than Lekota's - his father was one of the ANC leaders jailed with Nelson Mandela for life in 1964.
Lekota is a blunt-spoken activist who began to express his unhappiness at the nature of the revolution within the ANC which brought Jacob Zuma to power in the months leading up to, and then following last December's ANC national conference.
On Wednesday Lekota returned to the attack on the same issues, accusing the new ANC leadership under Zuma of "veering away from the course that attracted [many of] us to the ranks of its membership."
He condemned vigorously the "tribalism" associated with Zuma supporters who wore T-shirts carrying Zuma's image and reading "100% Zuluboy." In an apparent reference to Zuma's theme song, "Mshini wam" ("Bring me my machine gun"), he deplored the singing at party rallies of "strange songs... which advocate violence, at a time... when we are supposed to advocate peace and development."
He accused ANC leaders of deviating from the movement's 1955 Freedom Charter, which promised equality before the law, by calling for a "political solution" to end the trial of Zuma on corruption charges. He also critcised "mobs" on the streets who engaged in "a tirade of attacks on the courts and the judges....
"We must stand up to oppose this deviation, this arrogance," he said.
The only individual Lekota named was Julius Malema, the youth leader who has said he is prepared to kill to ensure Zuma's accession to the presidency of South Africa next year. "Let it be the people of South Africa who choose whether they want to go with the Malemas of this world, or whether they want to go with sober men and women" committed to the Freedom Charter, Lekota said.
The last major breakaway from the ANC was that of the Pan-Africanist Congress in 1958, which took exception to the role played by white communists in the alliance of movements of which the ANC was part.
Lekota, 60, cut his teeth in the black consciousness movement made famous internationally by activist Steve Biko, who was killed by police in detention in 1977. Lekota was jailed for six years on Robben Island at the end of the apartheid's government's principal show trial of black consciousness leaders in 1976.
Like many black consciousness adherents, he transferred his allegiance under the influence of ANC members in prison, and he went on to become a leader of the United Democratic Front (UDF) - which included many ANC supporters - as an above-ground anti-apartheid movement in the 1980s. The UDF was dissolved after the ANC was unbanned in 1990s and most of its leaders moved into ANC positions.
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circus buffoon mswati
best description I have heard in a long time.
All liberation movements have to go through transformation from bush parties to parliamentarians. Those parties were founded with one goal to fight colonialism. The specific job is complteted. A new era have dawn whereby economics,jobs, education and health issues have been or should be politicians focul points. Members of the ANC or SWAPO are not and should not be forced to be homogenous in their approach to the above-mentioned issues. If they are, then we have a problem. These people come from different parts of the country, different classes, therefore different expectations of how the government should serve them… [Read Full Text]
Good old Prem. Your passion and paranoia for all things African makes your certifiable. Unfortunately for you your deep passion for us is not reciprocated and your "love" for us will remain unrequited. You willnot find a single solitary African as passionate about you and your people as you are about ut. You are to be found on the Zimbabwe and South African websites daily!!! You are a busy, busy boy.
Democracy should start at party level. The ongoing political party splits in Africa are symptomatic of lack of democracy within the parties themselves and within the governments of such parties. Often these parties fail to move with the times and to be relevant to the emerging challenges. They remain relics of the past,mired in their romantic dreams of their heroic exploits during the wars of liberation! Under this lack of democracy, impunity rules where some members of the party now start pocketing the party as if it were their personal property! How long will Africa remain saddled with this sad… [Read Full Text]
I was so pleased when the ANC came into power but this latest mindless kefuffeling is worrisome! Let the Justice system be criticized by their peers, these intimidatory marches and hooded remarks bode ill for the future, lay reviews by unqualified politicians are just so much hot air. I was no fan of Mbeki but the mishandling of his departure and subsequent name-calling is unwarranted and undignified. To replace all dissident senior ANC positions smacks of perverted cronyism and is reminiscent of the “Broederbonders” who too would not tolerate any dissenting views and thus lost South Africa many opportunities and… [Read Full Text]
A possible split in the ANC and the eventual emergence of a new party to be set up by the disgruntled may prove a blessing to people in SA and the SADC region.
Since the defeat of the apartheid regime, the ANC has been at the root for continued stability of the country. Some people are not happy of the accommodating role of the ANC, but it has been a lesser evil. The country has been able to be put back on a firm footing.
The advent of a break-away group would certainly be painful to the founding fathers, but… [Read Full Text]