In response to the conversation between professional chess players, author Allan Rufus summed up the conversation by stating that “Life is like a game of chess. To win you must make a move. Knowing which move to make comes with insight and knowledge, and by learning the lessons that are accumulated along the way”.
I have just read a newspaper article in which Human Settlements minister and ANC NEC member Mmamoloko Kubayi argues that President Cyril Ramaphosa must not be contested in the upcoming ANC elective conference in December.
As reported, she said: “For the second term that president must not be contested. The reason being you are allowing him to bring the organization and the country together. You are [shielding] him from factions, from a group that would be seen as people who have supported him and want that allegiance and support and benefit because they have put him there,”
She picks him out of the very collective that was voted with him in Nasrec. She claims that Ramaphosa needs this special dispensation because “he” will be protected from factions and will “bring” the ANC and the country together.
I must state up front that I do not wish to provide a comprehensive response to this, but rather to highlight a few issues that I believe are misplaced in the debate.
I will also avoid dealing with the individual, particularly what informs the subjective nature of her comments, particularly on the eve of the National Congress and her interest thereof.
The performance of the ANC leadership elected in Nasrec must be evaluated collectively rather than individually. This is because the ANC truly believes in collective leadership and collective decision-making. Outside of the leadership collective to which they are elected, no single ANC member has the policies or the wisdom to bring the ANC and the country together.
Similarly, the African National Congress is a democratic organization; it believes in all aspects of democracy, as stated in its constitution. Thus, contesting each other has been a historical arras of the ANC, with its origins in the recognition that the ANC is a broad church whose class character remains a contested terrain even though its minimum political programme is or should be led by a working class. (Whether that working class is conscious or not of its obligations and responsibilities towards the very revolution they are expected to lead, is a political debate for another day)
An organization like this has no room to suppress a democratic process in which people identify those among themselves who they believe can lead their political agenda forward. Consequently, it would be extremely wrong for any ANC member, especially at the highest levels of the ANC’s structures, to hold such a class-blind and unscientific view of the ANC’s leadership.
This remains unscientific because contradictions are unavoidable in any organization. It is therefore unscientific to want to suppress such contradictions in an organization that has revealed its process of resolving contradictions as debate, consensus-seeking, and an open democratic process of voting, whether for a decision or for individuals, where possible.
Lenin himself argued that “Dialectics in the proper sense is the study of contradiction in the very essence of objects”. To simplify this, like a math equation, he meant that just as there is a right and a left side to an equation, there is also a contradiction or two opposing sides to every object. Simplify it further with human legs and progression. The ANC is like a human body. Different cells within the body constantly come into conflict with each other, but this conflict is necessary for the body to function properly. If there were no conflict or struggle within the ANC as Cde Nkhensani was, it would cease to exist.
So, the ANC is not immune to this, and pretending that this scientific understanding of contradictions does not exist in the ANC is naive. ANC is like a seesaw, there is a constant movement of opposites from beginning to end. If anything, we need to deepen the contradiction in the ANC for the ship to move forward. Perhaps one day we will have an indebt discussion about the universality and particularity of contradictions in the ANC – Again, a scientific debate for another day.
There is nothing wrong with individual ANC members making their preferred choices; however, we should not try to sound relevant by wishing to undermine historical ANC democratic values and culture. As conscious members of the ANC, we have learned over the years about the dangers of departing from its democratic values and elevating one person above the collective. These dangers were written all over the Nkandla debacle, which I will not dwell on and the actions of those who defended it – A value-based debate for another day.
As a result, I dare to say that factionalism in the ANC is nothing new because Ramaphosa exists and will not disappear simply because he is unopposed. The viewpoint expressed in this article, purportedly by comrade Nkhensani, appears to expose a weakness of her scientific depth on the root cause of factionalism and its evolution in the ANC and the movement. This is a similar weakness that was exposed during a video doing rounds of Comrade Zweli Mkhize.
Stanley Kubrick once argued that “Among a great many other things that chess teaches you is to control the initial excitement you feel when you see something that looks good. It trains you to think before grabbing and to think just as objectively when you’re in trouble.” This is critical for all ANC candidates in the top six.
The ANC’s leadership is collectively responsible for the country’s and the ANC’s problems. Membership in the ANC entrusted them with the responsibility of building the ANC, rallying around a strategic minimum programme, and working to unite the country around a common vision.
Instead, they have made their primary differences a strategic programme of the organization. None of them, including Nkhensani, Ramaphosa, and Zweli can tell us how far we have progressed toward establishing a National Democratic Society.
As Hikaru Nakamura reflected after a serious game of chess that “Critical thinking is the most important factor with chess. As it is in life, you need to think before you make decisions.”
As a result, no one should be granted special treatment during the upcoming national congress. The branches’ wishes must be heard, and the best comrade must win the congress.
*Lubabalo Thabang Molefe is a member of the ANC, and a former ANCYL NEC, he writes in his personal capacity,
No need to spoil an illuminating read with reference to the constructed Nkandla non-issue.