BAYANDA MZONELI

I invite ANC deputy presidency hopefuls to a public debate

Within the ANC it is regarded as uncouth for candidates to openly declare their availability and to campaign for election. After all, it is ANC branches that, after careful consideration of draft resolutions, nominate the fitting leadership to implement the adopted resolutions.

But times are changing. In the 2011 local government elections the ANC for the first time introduced a process in which candidates nominated by a branch could present themselves to their wards so the community could participate in their selection — not just members of the branch. This was a response to the rejection by the community of candidates put forward by the ANC, while some of those rejected by the ANC were chosen by the community and won wards after standing as independent candidates.

In the run-up to the 1994 elections, two debates between FW de Klerk and Nelson Mandela were the first and last public debates between presidential candidates in democratic elections in SA.

There are many good reasons why the ANC made it a tradition to prohibit candidates from declaring their availability and campaigning for themselves. Much of this was because the organisation operated as an underground movement during the struggle. But it is also related to promoting candidates with desirable leadership traits. Desirable leaders are humble, do not feel entitled, are not populist, and are nominated by party members.

However, only a stubborn few would deny that the gap between the ANC’s tradition and the actual practice of nominating leaders widened after

2007, at all levels.

Leaders do campaign for themselves covertly and, lately, even overtly, through events organised by their supporters.

The much quoted but rarely followed ANC document on leadership, “Through the Eye of the Needle”, made interesting observations more than 20 years ago: “Media focus on government and the ANC as a ruling party also means that individuals appointed into various positions are able to acquire a public profile in the course of their work. As such, over time, they become the visible members who would get nominated for leadership positions. This is a natural expression of confidence and helps to widen the base from which leaders are elected. However, where such practice becomes the main and only criterion, hard-working individuals who do not enjoy such profile get overlooked [emphasis added].”

It further observed that: “Related to the above is the danger arising out of the fact that executive positions in government are by appointment. This can have the effect of stifling frank, honest and self-critical debate within the ranks of the movement. This is because some individuals may convince themselves that, by pretending to be what they are not, and being seen to agree with those in authority all the time, they would then be rewarded with appointment into senior government positions.”

There is a consensus that SA is at a crossroads. Despite progress made since 1994, the country faces the challenges of poverty, unemployment and inequality. A visionary and decisive leadership is required to stop these from getting worse, while also addressing them with medium- and longterm interventions.

The past 15 years have provided sufficient evidence that slogans such as “Thuma Mina”, “radical economic transformation”, “Abantu Bathi” and “renewal” do not translate into good governance. The argument that leadership is elected to implement conference resolutions no longer holds. Evidence shows that leaders tend to prioritise the implementation of resolutions in different ways. It does not help that some resolutions lack specificity and can’t effectively be implemented.

Some campaigns rely heavily on vilification with no workable solutions, aside from slogans. SA’s racialised inequality is well known but no leader in the ANC, or the opposition, has proposed a workable solution for deracialisation and reducing inequality.

Because leaders never make explicit commitments, they claim any progress during their term as proof of their record of delivery, and blame failures or lack of progress on external factors, in this way escaping accountability.

Credentials and track records will remain important elements in choosing leaders. So too with formal qualifications, as first introduced into ANC practice with the selection of candidate mayors for local government. Another element that is becoming increasingly important is vision, given that the election of leaders is about the future rather than the past.

In this regard, I would like to invite candidates who wish to avail themselves for the position of ANC deputy president to a public debate before the nomination process officially opening in August 2022, so that when it opens, members can nominate candidates in an informed manner. Branches need not rely only on factionalists, paid lobbyists or prospective beneficiaries of patronage to know which leader to nominate for any position.

The public debate could be structured to focus on specific themes, be timed and hosted by Dr JJ Tabane, Sakina Kamwendo, or other knowledgeable news anchors. It could be hosted on any media platform, though the SABC would be preferred because of its reach. Depending on the number of candidates who come forward, the debate need not be longer than 90 minutes.

Such a debate is not prohibited in the ANC but is regarded as uncouth. It is thus unlikely to be regarded as misconduct, except by those who try to construe it as such. There is no rational reason for those who may be available to be the ANC deputy president to shy away from such a debate, unless they are afraid of publicly making commitments they would be held accountable for once elected.

The proposal of a public debate is self-serving in my case. With little to no public profile to leverage, no power patronage to promise and zero budget, it is unlikely that I as a prospective candidate would make it to the 55th national conference ballot paper without some ingenuity.

The alternative to open campaigning and public debate is the retention of what the 54th national conference observed in its resolutions, that: “The current distortion of our election process through factional practices like slates, vote-buying, patronage, intimidation and exclusion deny us the best possible collectives of leaders.”

Slates and factions play a pivotal role in shielding visionless leaders from expressing their intentions to make themselves available for election to leadership.

There is no rational reason for those who may be available to be the ANC deputy president to shy away from such a debate