Being a 'movement of the people' and a governing party: Study of the African National Congress Mass Character

Journal of Southern African Studies

Volumn 34, Issue 2, 2008, Pages 429-449

  Darracq, Vincent ^a  

^a Institut d'Études Politiques de Bordeaux   (France)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EDUCATION; GOVERNANCE APPROACH; PARTY POLITICS; POLITICAL CONFLICT; SOCIAL MOVEMENT;

EID: 46649096201     PISSN: 03057070     EISSN: 14653893     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/03057070802038090     Document Type: Article

References (122)

1. Journal of Southern African Studies, 31, 4 (2005).
2. Especially about economic policies and the HIV/AIDS issue. See for instance D. Lazar, 'Competing Economic Ideologies in South Africa's Economic Debates', The British Journal of Sociology, 47, 4 (December 1996), pp. 599-626
3. and N. Nattrass, Ethics, Economics and Aids Policy in South Africa CSSR Working Paper, 1 (2001).
4. See K. Lanegran, 'South Africa's Civic Association Movement: ANC's Ally or Society 'Watchdog'? Shifting Social Movements - Party Relations', African Studies Review, 38, 2 (September 1995), pp. 101-26
5. or E. Zuern, 'Fighting for Democracy: Popular Organizations and Post-Apartheid Government in South Africa', African Studies Review 45, 1 (April 2002), pp. 77-102.
6. T. Lodge, 'The ANC and the Development of Party Politics in Modern South Africa', Journal of Modern African Studies, 42, 2 (2004), pp. 189-219
7. and 'Policy Processes within the African National Congress and the Tripartite Alliance', Politikon, 26, 1 (1999), pp. 5-32.
8. H. Giliomee, 'South Africa's Emerging Dominant-Party Regime', Journal of Democracy, 9 (4 October 1998), pp. 128-42.
9. T. Lodge, 'The Future of South Africa's Party System', Journal of Democracy, 17, 3 (July 2006), pp. 152-66
10. T. Reddy, 'The Congress Party Model: South Africa's African National Congress (ANC) and India's National Congress (INC) as Dominant Parties', African and Asian Studies, 4, 3 (2005), pp. 271-300.
11. See M. Offerlé, Les Partis politiques (Paris, PUF, 2006),
12. A. Panebianco, Political Organization and Power (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1983),
13. S. Scarrow, Parties and their Members - Organizing for Victory in Britain and Germany (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1996).
14. ANC National Policy Conference, Midrand, 27-30 June 2007
15. ANC Branch meetings in Kliptown and Eldorado Park, Soweto, February-July 2006.
16. M. Duverger, Political Parties, their Organization and Activity in the Modern State (London, Methuen, 1964).
17. See A. Ware, 'Introduction - Parties under Electoral Competition', in A. Ware (ed.), Political Parties: Electoral Change and Structural Response (Oxford, Basil Blackwell, 1987), pp. 1-23
18. and S. Wolinetz, 'Beyond the Catch-all Party: Approaches to the Study of Parties and Party Organization in Contemporary Democracies', in R. Gunther, J. Montero and J. Linz (eds), Political Parties - Old Concepts and New Challenges (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2002), pp. 137-65.
19. These numbers must be carefully addressed. Political scientists use different measures of membership: In terms of raw numbers (M), standardised in terms of each party's vote (M/V), or of the overall electorate (M/E). See S. Scarrow, 'Parties without Members? Party Organization in a Changing Electoral Environment', in R. Dalton and M. Wattenberg (eds), Parties without Partisans - Political Change in Advanced Industrial Democracies (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2000), pp. 79-101. In terms of raw numbers, ANC membership is highly impressive. In terms of the ratio of members to voters, it is less convincing and testifies of difficulties to be an organisational shelter for supporters.
20. Most importantly, the ANC's audit criteria for 'good standing' are: having more than a hundred members, having held an Annual General Meeting (AGM), holding regular branch meetings.
21. Organizational Report, National General Council, 2005.
22. Interviews with Zwelinzima Sizani, Secretary for Political Education and Training in ANC Gauteng Provincial Office, 15 November 2006, and Vanessa Hood, Chairperson of the ANC branch in Woodstock, Cape Town, 15 October 2006.
23. Interview with Joel Netshitenzhe, Head of the National Executive Committee's (NEC) Political Education sub-committee, 12 December 2006.
24. Interviews with Lechesa Tsenoli, ANC MP and former SANCO President, Cape Town, 18 October 2006; Dumiswani Zimu, Political Adviser in Chief Whip's Office, Cape Town, 6 October 2006
25. Ncumisa Kondlo, ANC MP and South African Communist Party (SACP) Deputy Chairperson, Cape Town, 4 September 2007
26. Mandla Nkomfe, Member of the National Executive Committee (NEC) subcommittee of Political education, Johannesburg, 2 February 2007.
27. Interview with Aubrey Matle, chairperson of the ANC Zone 3 (Eldorado Park-Pimville) of Johannesburg region, 15 December 2006. This feeling is really pervasive at the ANC local level: Observation of ANC branch meetings (Ward 17 and 18 of Johannesburg region) and zone meetings (zone 3 of Johannesburg region, Eldorado Park - Pimville). In order to deal with this issue, the June 2007 ANC Policy Conference resolved that members must have been members of the ANC for at least two years to be eligible for the Branch Executive Committee.
28. In Seyd and Whiteley's typology of selective incentives (process, ideological and outcome), this relates to process incentives: 'Process incentives refer to motives for participating which derive from the process of participation itself and have two aspects; one is related to enjoying politics for its own sake and the other depends on interacting with like-minded people within the party organization', in P. Seyd and P. Whiteley, New Labour's Grassroots - The Transformation of the Labour Party Membership (Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, 2002), p. 91.
29. Interview with Mandla Nkomfe.
30. ANC Gauteng Membership Survey 2006, available at http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/misc/2006/gauteng_survey.pdf. Accessed on 1 February 2007.
31. Interview in Cape Town with Vanessa Hood, Chairperson of the ANC branch in Woodstock, 15 October 2006.
32. To coin the phrase used by M. Neocosmos, 'From People's Politics to State Politics: Aspects of National Liberation of South Africa', in A. Olukoshi (eds), The Politics of Opposition in Contemporary Africa (Uppsala, Nordic Africa Institute, 1998).
33. Jeremy Cronin's second interview with Helena Sheehan, available on http://www.comms.dcu.ie/sheehanh/za/cronin02.htm.
34. Interview with Phillip Dexter, ANC NEC member and SACP Treasurer, 23 October 2006.
35. Ibid.
36. Ibid.
37. M. Ottaway, South Africa: The Struggle for a New Order (Washington DC, Brookings Institution, 1993).
38. J. Cronin, 'The boat, the tap and the Leipzig way', The African Communist, 130 (1992). See also his second interview with Helena Sheehan.
39. J. Rantete, The African National Congress and the Negotiated Settlement in South Africa (Pretoria, Van Schaick, 1988), p. 196.
40. P. Mair, 'Party Organizations: From Civil Society to the State', in R. Katz and P. Mair (eds), How Parties Organize (London, Sage, 1994), pp. 1-22.
41. R. Katz and P. Mair, 'The Ascendancy of the Party in Public Office - Party Organizational Change in Twentieth-Century Democracies', in R. Gunther, J. Montero and J. Linz (eds), Political Parties - Old Concepts and New Challenges (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2002), pp. 113-35.
42. J. May, 'Opinion Structure of Political Parties: The Special Law of Curvilinear Disparity', Political Studies, 21, 2 (1973), pp. 135-51.
43. Katz and Mair, 'The Ascendancy of the Party in Public Office', p. 121.
44. Lodge, 'The ANC and the Development of Party Politics in Modern South Africa', pp. 189-219, p. 210.
45. Interview with Yunus Carrim, ANC MP, Cape Town, 17 October 2006.
46. Interview with Vanessa Hood.
47. Interview with Matthew Parks, Deputy-Secretary of the ANC Cape Town Region, Cape Town, 8 November 2006.
48. Interview with Vanessa Hood.
49. Interview with an ANC cadre from Parliament, Cape Town, 2 November 2006. However, see also the Postscript to this article.
50. Interview with Phillip Dexter. The 1955 Freedom Charter, the ANC principles milestone, is a good example: Today, different ideological groupings within the movement try to 'enrol' it in an internal struggle around ANC economic policy positions. Leftists argue that the Freedom Charter legitimises nationalisation, whereas liberals will focus on its clause defending private property (interview with Jeremy Cronin).
51. Personal observation, ANC Policy Conference, Gallagher Estate, Midrand, 27-30 June 2007.
52. Interview with Matthew Parks.
53. Lodge, 'The ANC and the Development of Party Politics', p. 208.
54. 'Towards the Centenary of the ANC - A Strategic Agenda for Organisational Renewal - Discussion Document on the Organisational Review', Discussion document for the ANC Policy Conference (2007).
55. Jeremy Cronin's second interview with Helena Sheehan.
56. See Tom Lodge's article, 'Policy Processes within the African National Congress and the Tripartite Alliance', Politikon, 26, 1 (1999), pp. 5-32.
57. Interview with Nath Manana, Secretary for Political Education and Training in Secretary General's Office, Johannesburg, 30 November 2006.
58. For instance, there are sub-committees about Economic transformation, Social transformation, Peace and security, Legislature and governance.
59. Interview with Jeremy Cronin.
60. Twenty-nine NEC members out of 65 are in Cabinet or in Presidency. Indeed, Cabinet members get a lot of visibility as ministers, in terms of media exposure for instance. They develop 'a high profile', come to be known by militants, who will more easily nominate for NEC somebody whose name and face they know. As a consequence, a position in Cabinet is frequently followed by a position in the ANC NEC. This reinforces the position of the President in the NEC, as he himself appoints his Cabinet. This leads to a situation where some NEC members are afraid to talk in NEC meetings against those to whom they owe their position, according to Secretary General Kgalema Motlanthe, 'No ambitions for highest office', Sunday Times (8 October 2006).
61. For details, see Raymond Suttner's paper, African National Congress as a Dominant Organization: Impact of the Attainment of Power and Phases of Post Liberation Development and Crisis, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Project (unpublished paper, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Project 2006).
62. However, this has changed recently: In order to deal with the Zuma affair, the NEC meets in its narrow formation, without ex-officio members (some of them coming from floor-crossing, are not meant to discuss vital issues): There are fewer ministers and deputy-ministers sitting in NEC meetings, which changes the dynamics and makes it easier for NEC members who are not part of Cabinet to defend their views (interview with Jeremy Cronin).
63. Interview with an ANC cadre from the National Office, 15 November 2006.
64. Interview with Jeremy Cronin.
65. Ibid.
66. Ibid.
67. Interview with an ANC cadre from the National Office, 15 November 2006.
68. Discussion document for the Commission on ANC Policy Process, 1997 National Conference, available at http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/history/ conf/conference50/discomms3.html#Discuss%20policy%20process.
69. On the GEAR production process, see Lodge's article, 'Policy Processes within the African National Congress and the Tripartite Alliance'.
70. On this internal debate, see The Character of the ANC, discussion document for 1997 Mafikeng National Conference, available at http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/discussion/character.html.
71. Interview with Kader Asmal, National Executive Committee member, Cape Town, 11 October 2006.
72. Jeremy Cronin, The People Shall Govern! Class Struggles and the Post-1994 State in South Africa, (SACP Discussion Document, 2005).
73. Interview with Jeremy Cronin.
74. '"The Organisational Design of the ANC: "A Case for Internal Renewal"', (NGC discussion document, 2005) available at http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/ngcouncils/2005/org_design.html.
75. Interview with Rob Davies, ANC Deputy-Minister of Trade and Industry, Cape Town, 22 August 2007.
76. Interview with Jeremy Cronin.
77. Interview with Phillip Dexter.
78. See S. Scarrow, 'Parties without Members? Party Organization in a Changing Electoral Environment', in R. Dalton and M. Wattenberg (eds), Parties without Partisans - Political Change in Advanced Industrial Democracies (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2000), pp. 79-101, p. 100.
79. Interview with Jeremy Cronin.
80. Ibid.
81. Interview with Zweli Sizani, 13 December 2006.
82. Interview with Matthew Parks, Deputy-Secretary of the ANC Cape Town Region, Cape Town, 3 September 2007.
83. Interview with Jeremy Cronin.
84. Organizational Report, National General Council, 2005.
85. For detailed comments of this report, see IDASA, 'Counting the ANC's Challenges: Reflections on the ANC's 2005 Organizational Report', ePoliticsSA, 4 (2005).
86. Kgalema Motlanthe at a Gauteng ANC meeting, May 2006.
87. Statement of the National Executive Committee of the African National Congress on the Occasion of the 95th Anniversary of the ANC (8 January 2007).
88. K. Motlanthe, 'To Complete the Revolution', Mail & Guardian (25 March 2007).
89. Towards the Centenary of the ANC - A Strategic Agenda for Organisational Renewal - Discussion Document on the Organisational Review, (Discussion document for the ANC Policy Conference, 2007).
90. Statement of the ANC National Executive Committee Lekgotla (22 January 2007).
91. See SG Report, COSATU Congress, 2006.
92. Interview with Dumezweni Zimu.
93. See, for example, J. Seekings, The UDF - a History of the United Democratic Front in South Africa 1983-1991 (Cape Town, David Philip, 2000).
94. See the columns by Chris Nissen and Ebrahim Rasool in the Cape Argus (22 February 2007). Both of them are former chairpersons of the Western Cape ANC.
95. Interview with Max Ozinsky, Deputy-Secretary of the Western Cape ANC, Cape Town, 10 October 2006.
96. An SACP leader quoted in Rapule Tabane's article for Mail & Guardian 'ANC broad front "not new", but welcome' (26 January 2007).
97. Interview with Neil Coleman, Head of COSATU Parliamentary Office, Cape Town, 26 September 2007.
98. The term 'dictatorship' is one ascribed to Zweli Vavi in, 'ANC backs Mbeki's Leadership Style', Mail & Guardian online, 29 May 2006.
99. Interview with Ben Turok, ANC MP, Cape Town, 28 September 2006.
100. In line with Deborah Posel's work on the politicisation of sexuality, some analysts have postulated that Zuma's type of mobilisation reuses a militaristic and anti-gender myth of warrior and masculinity well-entrenched in some elements of ANC political culture. See R. Suttner, 'Access to Women's Bodies and the Warrior Tradition', Sunday Times (Johannesburg, 12 August 2007).
101. Interview with Molefi Sefularo, ANC MP, Cape Town, 14 August 2006.
102. In public gatherings in support of Zuma, some people wear '100% Zulu boy' T-shirts. For electoral reasons, in post-1990 KwaZulu-Natal, Zuma had to place greater emphasis on his Zulu profile for the ANC to make some inroads against Inkata in rural KZN. For instance, he attended traditional Zulu gatherings, dressed with traditional leopard-skin Zulu clothing. That there is an ethnic component to his support appears to be an unexpected consequence of electoral tactics.
103. All ANC public meetings end with the slogans 'Amandla Awethu!' ('Power to the people!'), 'Viva ANC, viva!', 'A luta continua!'.
104. French political scientists Michel Offerl_eac and Philippe Braud develop this kind of analysis about political parties. See M. Offerlé, Les Partis politiques (Paris, PUF, 2006).
105. Jeremy Cronin, The People Shall Govern! Class Struggles and the Post-1994 State in South Africa, (SACP discussion document, 2005).
106. B. Nzimande, 'ANC National General Council? An Important Turning Point', Umsebenzi, 5, 38 (2005).
107. For this kind of argument, see, for instance, the COSATU end-of-the-year report (December 2006).
108. Zwelinzima Vavi's interview in the Mail & Guardian, 'Vavi: We'll Take Over the ANC' (9 March 2007). Furthermore, COSATU is determined to use the ANC mass character 'to recapture the ANC': COSATU will flood ANC ranks in preparation of the ANC National Conference taking place at the end of the year; it will then be able to push for a reaffirmation of the ANC structures, especially the mass base, in the policy-making process. Paradoxically, the use of this tactic means, in a way, that ANC procedures and practices still provide influence over the party's agenda on membership.
109. Interview with Dumiswani Zimu. See also M. Monare, 'Motlanthe Urges Government to Heed ANC Policy', The Star (Johannesburg, 2 October 2006).
110. Katz and Mair, 'The Ascendancy of the Party in Public Office', p. 122.
111. Interview with an ANC cadre from Luthuli House.
112. 'Towards the Centenary of the ANC - A Strategic Agenda for Organisational Renewal - Discussion Document on the Organisational Review', discussion document for the ANC Policy Conference (2007).
113. Interview with Jeremy Cronin, Cape Town, 30 August 2007.
114. M. Salih, 'Introduction: The Evolution of African Political Parties', in M. Salih, African Political Parties: Evolution, Institutionalisation and Governance (London, Pluto Press, 2003), p. 19.
115. Katz and Mair, 'The Ascendancy of the Party in Public', p. 127.
116. S. Friedman, 'No Easy Stroll to Dominance: Party Dominance, Opposition and Civil Society in South Africa', in H. Giliomee and C. Simkins (eds), The Awkward Embrace - One Party Domination and Democracy (Amsterdam, Harwood Academic Publishers, 1999), pp. 97-126.
117. Lodge, 'The ANC and the Development of Party Politics', p. 216.
118. A. Butler, 'South Africa's Political Futures', Government and Opposition, 38, 1 (January 2003), pp. 93-112, p. 101.
119. President: Jacob Zuma. Deputy-President: Kgalema Motlanthe. Secretary General: Gwede Mantashe. Deputy- Secretary General: Thandi Modise. Chairperson: Baleka Mbete. Treasurer: Mathews Phosa.
120. C. Terreblanche, 'Jordan Suggests Third Way in ANC Presidency', Sunday Argus (Johannesburg, 4 November 2006).
121. For instance, Zuma won by 2,329 votes against 1,505 for Mbeki
122. for the Deputy-Presidency, Kgalema Motlanthe won by 2,346 votes against 1,444, and so forth.