Watching Gwede Mantashe or SG for those who know him personally or by affiliation, announcing the Premier nominees I could not help but realise that the ANC is going to govern. No, I don't mean that I doubted that the ANC had won the recent elections. It is just that over the last fifteen years, the ANC was not quite in the your face, you know. You had the benevolent saintly Nelson and he spoke to the change and the future and the manifesto and so on. After him was the napoleonic T-man. Never before did you hear or se the SG.
I could not help but think of those South Africans who did not vote for the ANC in the recent elections. How do they feel now that they will be governed by the ANC? Well, that’s democracy for you. It is not like these folks can pull a Terror Lekota and go establish their own country. But then again, we already have Orania – better not give people ideas. Back to governing:
The Premiers of each of the 8 provinces that the ANC won are hand-picked by the National Executive Committee of the ANC. They are hand-picked from a list of 3 names submitted by the branches to the NEC. The submission we are told, is in one or other order of priority but in the end the movement, the NEC makes the decision. It makes the decision as to who shall be the individuals that the President of the republic shall appoint as Premiers of the relevant provinces.“That is how it works in the ANC” – SG told us that much. Each one of these Premiers is a comrade, a cadre, a leader of the ANC in their respective rights. That much SG assures us.
Can you imagine how this whole talk of comrades and cadres is received in those homes that are neither ANC nor communist? But then again, that is democracy for you, our brand of group based democracy, that is.
So now that the Premiers have been nominated by the ANC SG tells us that, the president of the ANC and President-elect of the Republic will approve them by appointing them as he is empowered to do so by the constitution of the Republic. And from that point on, each one of the eight Premiers must be sure to serve the will of the people - of the ANC. Let us recall that the Premiers were chosen by the branches and sent up all the way to the NEC which then chooses one of the three names presented to it by the grassroots structures. Their terms and conditions of service are clear and come from Luthuli House. If these coincide with the interests of the citizenry of this here republic, then bingo. If not, such is the nature of our brand of democracy, the best we have I might add. Whichever way you look at it this brand of democracy is far better than the one presided over by De Klerk. But then again, that story is old and tired.
The function, duty and responsibility of the Premiers will be to carry out the policies of the ANC and its program of action as outlined in the manifesto of the ANC as stressed by the SG. These however will be for the people, all the people of the Republic. The people of this country, regardless of who they are, regardless of who they voted for, will benefit from the leadership of the Premiers. This of course does not apply to the people of the Western Cape; they will have to make do with the policies of the Democratic Alliance. And that too is the nature of our brand of democracy.
The Premiers must be sure not to cross the will of the people - of the ANC. They will be recalled if they do. They must remember that they are there to serve the movement first and the country second. Service to the country happens only through the movement. There are no individual decisions; decisions are made by the collective for the collective good. The individual Premiers will therefore serve at the convenience of the collective people - of the ANC.
This, SG tells us, is how it works in the ANC and the ANC shall govern.
I could not help but think of those South Africans who did not vote for the ANC in the recent elections. How do they feel now that they will be governed by the ANC? Well, that’s democracy for you. It is not like these folks can pull a Terror Lekota and go establish their own country. But then again, we already have Orania – better not give people ideas. Back to governing:
The Premiers of each of the 8 provinces that the ANC won are hand-picked by the National Executive Committee of the ANC. They are hand-picked from a list of 3 names submitted by the branches to the NEC. The submission we are told, is in one or other order of priority but in the end the movement, the NEC makes the decision. It makes the decision as to who shall be the individuals that the President of the republic shall appoint as Premiers of the relevant provinces.“That is how it works in the ANC” – SG told us that much. Each one of these Premiers is a comrade, a cadre, a leader of the ANC in their respective rights. That much SG assures us.
Can you imagine how this whole talk of comrades and cadres is received in those homes that are neither ANC nor communist? But then again, that is democracy for you, our brand of group based democracy, that is.
So now that the Premiers have been nominated by the ANC SG tells us that, the president of the ANC and President-elect of the Republic will approve them by appointing them as he is empowered to do so by the constitution of the Republic. And from that point on, each one of the eight Premiers must be sure to serve the will of the people - of the ANC. Let us recall that the Premiers were chosen by the branches and sent up all the way to the NEC which then chooses one of the three names presented to it by the grassroots structures. Their terms and conditions of service are clear and come from Luthuli House. If these coincide with the interests of the citizenry of this here republic, then bingo. If not, such is the nature of our brand of democracy, the best we have I might add. Whichever way you look at it this brand of democracy is far better than the one presided over by De Klerk. But then again, that story is old and tired.
The function, duty and responsibility of the Premiers will be to carry out the policies of the ANC and its program of action as outlined in the manifesto of the ANC as stressed by the SG. These however will be for the people, all the people of the Republic. The people of this country, regardless of who they are, regardless of who they voted for, will benefit from the leadership of the Premiers. This of course does not apply to the people of the Western Cape; they will have to make do with the policies of the Democratic Alliance. And that too is the nature of our brand of democracy.
The Premiers must be sure not to cross the will of the people - of the ANC. They will be recalled if they do. They must remember that they are there to serve the movement first and the country second. Service to the country happens only through the movement. There are no individual decisions; decisions are made by the collective for the collective good. The individual Premiers will therefore serve at the convenience of the collective people - of the ANC.
This, SG tells us, is how it works in the ANC and the ANC shall govern.
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Hi
ReplyDeleteA serious question, and not tongue-in-cheek like your article.
Do you really believe that ANC top brass (and any other political top brass) serve the organisation first, and then the country? And is this necessarily bad? This has been sitting, unresolved, in the back of my mind for years.
Cheers
Tony
"serve the movement first and the country second"
ReplyDeleteI used to think this was just how democracy worked until I read a really eye opening Thoughtleader blog entry by Steven Friedman. Where he said something to the effect of:
In a democracy, the government does the will of the people. *Not* just the will of people elected to lead, and not just the will of it's own organisation. So our government should be led by the collective will of the people of our nation. Now that is impractical, because you can't have a national vote on every possible decision government makes. So we vote once for parties and then the parties represent certain viewpoints. BUT ultimately government, in a democracy, must submit to th will of the people. Even if the will of the people is contrary to the will of the party or government high ups. Voting for a party is just one means of the electorate expressing their will to government.
Or something like that... (I am a physicist, not politico, after all). I will try find the actual blog entry...
Ah here it is:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.thoughtleader.co.za/stevenfriedman/2008/02/14/the-people-shall-govern-perish-the-thought/
What he said makes a million times more sense than what I said above!
Tony thanks for visiting. The short answer to your question is yes, the politico top brass must and do serve the organisation first. It is the way to ensure their re-election to the top brass in the first place. With good reasons our politics are group politics as a result of our history. We do need to get past this though if our democracy is to survive long term. It is not possible to have groups come together for mutual benefit when the political structure requires that the groups must be maintained - the only way the current system survives is when there is an us and a them. This is just my view which may be wrong.
ReplyDeleteLaura, thanks for the link, I will get onto it.
ReplyDeleteWell,quite interestingly, we have political party led goverment. I would not imagine the goverment fuctioning without an influence from the party that this very goverment derives its existence. You can only tell that this party would want to advance its interest at the level of goverment. I dont think is a bad thing at all for its deployees to advance their course or carry their responsibilities in consultation.
ReplyDeletemelford