The Patriotic Alliance: Making the power of ONE count in multiples of service delivery and economic emancipation for the disenfranchised

By: Clyde Ramalaine

Part 003: What type of Party is the PA?

Emeritus Political Science professor Maurice Duverger and author of Le Partis politiques.  reminds us that a political party is a group of persons organised to acquire and exercise political power.  The term of the party has since come to be applied to all organised groups seeking political power whether by democratic elections or by revolution.

It is also important to appreciate the fundamental distinction between cadre parties [those manifesting dominated elite groups of activists as we see in Europe and the USA.] and mass-based parties [those that unite hundreds of thousands of followers, at times even millions]. Duverger further notes these two types do coexist in many countries in particular  Western Europe, where communist and socialist parties have emerged alongside the older conservative and liberal parties.  South Africa equally have these types of parties in coexistence.

What then makes the PA different?

I will contend Rajbansi’s embryonic minority front politics is evidencing maturing in a PA dynamic with a distinct difference.  Three things explain this difference. The PA despite not big on marketing or public relations spaces gravitates to inclusivity in which South Africa’s race reality is not excluded albeit not entrenched. Meaning you likely to find an empowered ANC national question ‘African’ empowered by the PA while you may find an apartheid beneficiary in the claim of white identity equally present not to mention Indians.  There is enough evidence to prove this as not a phenomenon but increasingly natural phenomenon.  In instances where the PA in Economic Portfolio in the City of Joburg have jurisdiction CEO’s CFO’s, executives  and board across the spectrum confirms this undeniable reality of SA’s full racial representation notion. Yet, that does not come at the expense of the rooted constituency or foothold community of a Coloured identity. For a party its size it’s commendable to have such early matured stance.

The second more pertinent observation perhaps vacillates on the identity of its leadership. Its leaders are not politicians but businessmen who hail from abject poverty yet have managed through hard work to sit at the table of economic advancement. Their story is the opposite of most ANC politicians who got into politics broke and used it to become wealthy. McKenzie is thus a maverick and unorthodox by-default politician. His acute grasp of the capitalist economic world which sees footprints in major sectors of the economic renders him a phenomenon to others such as the UDM, COPE, EFF, ACDP, ID etc leaders.

The third thing that distinguishes the PA leadership is their conscious keeping of their proverbial feet on the ground. We recently saw with the untimely death of Nathaniel Julies how the PA leadership naturally was present not in photo-shoots and media hogging TV statements as the lusty ACDP Gauteng leadership is becoming notorious for but in simply sitting next to hurting parents and an angry community. It is this simplicity of presence that confirms a party leadership mature enough to fight where it matters, to negotiate for the essential and to compromise with a greater goal in mind.

Is the  PA growth organic?

A short answer is yes when one appreciates the foothold community or constituency the PA has as its cardinal focus. It’s equally yes because the DA which for an elongated period claimed this same community foothold as its meal- ticket to power is haemorrhaging since it manifests what we as students of politics know to be a conservative white interest-based party nucleus although clad in faded liberal garments. South Africa’s liberal parties always at central level defy the espoused  liberalism since they confirm a conservatism embedded in white interest ideology as a fundamental.

Some will demonstrate its growth is accidental and a short-lived reality that will balance itself out.  I dare assert I think the ANC in COJ was of the same mind, thinking they will regain power and kick the PA to the side come 2021. This is precarious miscalculation on the part of of the ANC because it discounts what can be done in the period between the time of the pact and the next elections. A second reason why its growth is possible in future of existence emanates from the central issue of economic disenfranchisement.  The issues that the PA rally around are not going to disappear into thin air tomorrow morning. They are our abnormal-normal and continuing to define the societal level in all its expressions as a struggling reality.

Its growth may in typical fashion underscore the mass-based party footprint since it may not in organic sense at this stage define an elitist notion. Yet, there may also be dialectical tension  since its founder president and core leaders in any circumstance may be accused of being elitists for their economic class disposition.

What should the PA now consider as its critical next steps?

The PA’s growth trajectory will invite diverse ideological opposites. I dare assert that the PA manifests in both nucleus and peripherical constituencies if we appreciate that nucleus [Coloured]  and peripheral beneficiary [Africans, Whites and Indians] identity constituencies.

It must therefore, begin a process of defining its central organizational identity and values.

• It warrants clarifying itself in the classical distinction of being either a cadre or mass-based political party with due consideration of the ramifications for such choice.
• It must solidify its focus on local government as its flagship and mainstay. Meaning any leader to be earmarked for the province or national must have come through the ranks of its PA Local Government orientation programme.
• It must begin to succinctly articulate its nucleus and peripheral constituencies bases that define a PA party.
• It warrants investing in its political education infrastructure and content in a paradigmatic yet programmatic expression.
• It has to streamline its common strategic ethos that confirms a PA cadre distinct from others.
• It warrants rethinking its organizational structural fit.
• It has to invest in a combination of an effective communications infrastructure and populate that with seasoned communications specialists.
• It warrants a reflection in the humility of the strides hitherto made.
• It warrants concretizing its relations with the communities it harvest its constituency base from.
• It must concretely and consciously develop a PA membership measurable in a Codde of Conduct that confirms a disciplined cadreship ventilated in database that speaks to membership, from which it will evidence further growth.
• It warrants developing political content in policy positions and resolutions informed by research.
• The PA leadership below its president warrant a presence to show the dexterity and expanse of skills, mobilization, communications specialists, strategic advisory and intellectual muscle in discourse and trained foot soldiers.
• Weekly messages from its President would be a welcoming initiative.
• It warrants sharing its epistemology and overarching definition of South Africa it sees in frames of 20, 30, 40, 50 years.
• It must work on its Strategies and Tactics framework for 2021 and beyond.
• Revisit its Manifesto and ascertain what is relevant in the epoch and what must be dispensed.
• Lastly to keep its head down and continue working while the rest accuse it when the results of that work a beginning to show.

In conclusion, while it is early days to celebrate the relevance and effectiveness of Minority representation and the inroads of the Patriotic Front in strategic metropole definitions, there is reason to watch it as a party that begins to assist our understanding of what it means to be a small party with a big heart. It is my unsolicited view that if the PA can arrest these abovementioned issues over the shorter term of the next six months it may contextualise its growth more and more not as accidental but intentional since. It  would from the bedrock of its convictions, political content, ideological thrust, membership, strategy design and tactics interpret and direct its growth trajectory along a positive curve.