Bumpy road as ANC holds centenary fete

By Lillian Aluanga

South Africa: Africa’s oldest liberation movement marks 100 years today with grand celebrations and reflections on a journey that began in what was once a black township in Free State Province.

It was at the Wesleyan church in Bloemfontein where the African National Congress was born in 1912. At the time, it was known as the South African Native National Congress, but was renamed in 1923.

That journey observes a milestone with the party’s centennial celebrations at an event that will be graced by more than 40 heads of state, representatives from anti-apartheid movements, civil society, religious and traditional leaders. Among those who have confirmed attendance are Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni, Nigeria’s Goodluck Jonathan, former Ghanaian President Jerry Rawlings, and Mozambique’s Joaqim Chissano. Others are former Zambian leader Kenneth Kaunda and Namibia’s Sam Nujoma.

Killing of innocents

Amid the celebrations, icons of the anti-apartheid struggle like Nelson Mandela, Oliver Thambo, Walter Sisulu, Pixley Seme, John Dube and Albert Luthuli, will be remembered. Voices that were silenced during the Sharpeville massacre and Soweto uprising shall be reawakened.

Many will also recall an era when the ANC’s armed wing or Umkhonto we Sizwe, rattled by the slaughter of innocents, mounted a spirited guerilla war to oust a repressive regime.

In telling the story of ANC’s foundations, memories of days gone by when Africans, under a repressive 1913 Land Act, were not allowed to buy, rent or use land except in the reserves, will be revived. As government laws became more racist, the clamor for change grew louder, catapulting the ANC into a mass movement in the 1950s. 

With unemployment rates at more than 30 per cent, scandals involving individuals within the party, high crime rates, and a perception that the party is losing touch with its supporters, the dawn of a new century also brings several challenges for an outfit once described by the West as a ‘terrorist organisation’.  From putting out fires started by outspoken youth leader Julius Malema, presiding over the ouster of former President Thabo Mbeki, to fighting graft within its ranks, the Jacob Zuma-led party is set for tough times ahead.

Zuma’s climb to the presidency in 2007 came after a protracted war in the corridors of justice where rape and corruption charges levelled against him were dropped.

A figure popular with the country’s poor, Zuma’s tenure has, however, not been spared allegations of cronyism and what some see as an attempt to draw back on provisions of one of the continent’s most democratic constitutions, given the recent introduction of a controversial Protection of State Information Bill.

If passed, any government agency will be allowed to apply for classification of information that is ‘valuable’ to the state, a move seen by critics as an impediment to the fight against corruption.

The start of a new century for the 100-year-old movement, however, comes with preparations for its policy conference mid this year and the much-awaited national general congress in December when new leaders will be elected.

Smooth sailing

That the ANC, an alliance between the South African communist party (SACP), and Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), has weathered many storms in its time is not in doubt.

In excerpts of Winnie Mandela’s book, Part of my soul went with him, Mandela’s ex-wife alludes to the fact that it hasn’t always been smooth sailing for the continent’s oldest movement. “Of course, we also have conflicts within our movement. The South African situation is so complex that ideological differences cannot be avoided.”

That said however, she maintains that the ANC has always been committed to non-racialism, adding “We never look at people as black or white; it is the enemy who compels us to use those terms”. Banned in 1960 by the Apartheid regime, a defiant ANC went on to wage an armed struggle that would see dozens of its leaders jailed and others sent into exile.

In that same year at least 69 people were mowed down by police bullets during a peaceful protest against ‘Pass laws’, which restricted movement of Africans in areas, occupied by Europeans. This would later be known as the Sharpeville massacre.

Armed wing

In Part of My Soul went with him, Mandela, during the 1960s Rivonia trial defended formation of ANC’s armed wing. “Umkhonto  we Sizwe’ (spear of the nation), which he said had been founded because ‘we believed that as a result of government policy, violence by the African people had become inevitable.”

Others within ANC’s ranks who were tried and banished to Robben Island together with Mandela were Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki. Ahmed Kathrada, Raymond Mhlaba, Elias Motsoaledi and Andrew Mlangeni.

That relentless push to end a discriminative system would culminate in the release of Mandela after 27 years behind bars.

In his speech to an elated crowd after he was declared president in 1994, Mandela spoke of a new Constitutional order for the rainbow nation based on ‘justice for all’. As he punched his fist in the air to ANC’s rallying call of ‘Amandla  ngawethu’ or power to the people, there was no denying that the movement had delivered on the aspirations of millions both within and outside the continent.

But the post-Mandela years have seen growing concern that the ingredients that once gelled the movement, are being lost, for an outfit struggling to strike a balance between its ideological foundations in a dynamic political environment.

While Mandela was hailed for managing a transition phase, Mbeki’s leanings towards liberal economic policies would eventually lead to his downfall in 2007, shortly before the end of his term.