ZIWAPHI • VOL 4 NO 11 • 21 - 27 May 2010
The African National Congress could not have chosen an ideal location for the launch its Imvuselelo Campaign than Mpumalanga Province.
The origins of Imvuselelo Campaign can be traced back to the organisation’s 2005 National General Council resolution to rebuild and revive the branches of the organisation and its subsidiaries, the ANC Youth League and the ANC Women’s League by cultivating leadership qualities and ideological depth and improve basic organisational skills of branch activists so that they can sustain the political vibrancy, values and political culture of the organisation.
The ANC in Mpumalanga Province and elsewhere has in recent times been bedeviled by internecine power struggle that has, more than ever before, threatened the unity of this oldest liberation movement on the African continent.
Held under the theme, Building and Consolidating the Unity of the Movement towards 2012, the launch was addressed by the organisation’s President, Jacob Zuma and attended by members of the organisation’s National Executive Committee (NEC), including Secretary General Gwede Mantashe as well as ANCYL President, Julius Malema.
Conspicuous by their absence were the national leadership of the South African Communist Party and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and the Young Communist League of South Africa (YCLSA).
Before the 2009 General elections, the South African Communist Party held a massive rally in support of the ANC at the same venue, while the YCLSA also held various activities in support of the ANC’s election campaign.
COSATU, through its Secretary General, Zwelinzima Vavi, was recently the only formation of the Tripartite Alliance that has criticised the Zuma administration for its silence on the developments in Mpumalanga Province, when he addressed the Central Committee of the National Union of Mineworkers in Boksburg recently.
“The government, which on Sunday celebrated its 1st anniversary in office, has not inspired confidence in the battle against crass materialism and corruption. Some Ministers themselves are driving around with cars worth over R1million, allowed by the handbook they are moving too slowly to change.”
“Regrettably soon those who are now six feet underground for attempted whistle blowing will not join us in the fight against corruption and greed. Those who read these reports may be intimidated into silence. And those who have seen how those who have raised alarm bells about corruption have been hounded and slandered in the media will think twice before supporting a call for lifestyle audits,” Vavi said.
Zuma told the thousands of crowds who gathered at KaMhlushwa Stadium in Nkomazi Municipality that the orgaisation aims to recruit more than one million members by 2012, when the ANC celebrates its 100 years of existence.
“The ANC is different from other organisations. There is no organisation as representative as the ANC. When it was formed in 1912, there were leaders from all parts of our country representing people who had lost their land and rights to govern their own country.”
“Among those who were part of the establishment of this powerful organisation were kings, religious leaders and the African intelligentsia,” Zuma said.
Presenting his speech in IsiZulu and English, Zuma clearly demonstrated once more his ability to connect with the ordinary masses. He clarified in simple IsiZulu, the ANC’s Strategy and Tactics, the organisation’s roadmap in waging its struggles.
The organisation’s most decisive Strategy and Tactics was adopted in Morogoro in Tanzania in 1969. Among others, that strategy and tactics opened the membership and leadership of the ANC to other races.
The campaign is likely going to be the organisation’s biggest operation since its unbanning, leading up to its Centenary celebrations in 2012.
The only obstacle to the organisation achieving its target would be the Regional Executive Committees and offices whose continued existence is dependent on weak structures and members who lack political education.
The most puzzling statement on the day was made by Malema when he openly declared his support for Zuma’s second term as the President at the 2012 National Conference.
Malema’s antics will, undoubtedly be a serious poser for the ANC, given that his conduct constitutes misconduct in terms of the organisation’s guidelines on lobbying.
Malema has recently been found guilty of putting the organisation into disrepute and fined R10 000, and it is unlikely that the organisation wil haul him before the Disciplinary Committee any time soon.
This statement caught almost everyone by surprise, particularly because he did not say anything about other leaders of the organisation.
Malema’s announcement was a slap in the face of Gwede Mantashe who is also Chairperson of the SACP. Mantashe was reportedly the person who initiated the charges against Malema, and has become a target of the youth leader’s wrath.
Both national and provincial spokespeople of the ANC were not available for comment.
The ANCYL and Julius Malema in particular, have recently swung the league’s ideological orientation towards anti-communism, after delegates to the SACP’s 2nd Special Congress booed him (Malema) for disrespecting the party’s leadership
Ever since, the youth league has been lobbying for FIkile Mbalula vowed not to re-elect Mantashe at the organisation’s 2012 Conference, but instead would support its former President, Fikile Mbalula to become the next Secretary General of the ANC.
Notwithstanding the political side-shows, the occasion was undoubtedly a big success, judging by the thousands of people that filled the stadium’s grand stand and pitch to capacity.
The winners, however, were the new members who joined the ANC because they were exposed to the first-hand ABC of the ANC politics.
One activist described the occasion as the biggest political school. He was, however, concerned if the province will also have the ability and the will to take the project forward, or it will return to its politics of rumour - mongering, character assassination and vote-buying.
Jacob Zuma turns rally into a “biggest political school”