MALAIKA MAHLATSI | Was Motlanthe correct that the ANC needs to lose power to renew?

In September 2017, former president Kgalema Motlanthe sat for an interview with the BBC’s HARDtalk and presented a stunning argument.

He stated it would be good for the ANC to lose electoral power. The basis of his argument was that “those elements who are in it for the largesse will quit it and will desert it, and only then would the possibility arise for salvaging whatever is left of it”.

Motlanthe didn’t believe an ANC that still possessed any degree of state power could be genuinely renewed, arguing the organisation’s renewal could only be achieved when it “hit rock bottom”.

Naturally, his argument was met with a lot of criticism by many within the party, with some calling him a populist. Motlanthe is many things; none of those is a populist. His record in the Congress Movement is also unblemished.

Motlanthe joined uMkhonto weSizwe right out of high school, and by 1977 he was imprisoned on Robben Island, where he would spend a decade. On his release, he joined the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), a trade union that played an instrumental role in the fight against apartheid both in and outside the mines.

He would go on to serve as its general secretary for six years between 1992 and 1998, a critical period that shaped the democratic project of our country. During this time, he remained active in the ANC and was elected as its secretary-general in 1997 and, a decade later, as its deputy president.

He led a caretaker administration through a turbulent period following the resignation of president Thabo Mbeki and has served both the ANC and the government of South Africa in various capacities.

He currently serves as chairperson of the ANC electoral committee, which acts as an objective referee to enforce internal party rules, maintain integrity and ensure the party fields ethical and qualified candidates. The committee also supervises community-based selection practices.

When a man with such a record argued the ANC needed to lose power to facilitate renewal, it demanded deeper reflection and analysis than what occurred at the time.

Emotions were high — the party had recently emerged from bruising local government elections where it had lost majority support in most metros and was governing through coalitions in municipalities where it historically had outright support. But now, almost a decade later, that argument needs to be revisited, especially in light of the ANC’s decision to not name its mayoral candidates.

On the surface, this decision seems reasonable. After all, the ANC has historically run local government campaigns strictly on the strength of the ANC brand, under the face of the party president, only naming mayors after election day.

But the party had communicated a deviation from this strategy, stating it would name its mayoral candidates before elections, something all other parties do. Some of the reasons for this about-turn are reasonable.

It makes sense for the party to prioritise and to not rush a rigorous screening and background check process.