The message has always been attractive to African people, who had for more than 300 years suffered social, economic and political marginalisation and injustice under colonialism and apartheid.
(Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)
Throughout the years, and more pronouncedly in the 1980s and early 1990s, the ANC has, with much gusto, packaged its message of “a better life for all” as if the words were a magic wand to bring about nirvana for those who support its cause.
The party’s political messaging in the past sought to win over the masses to be part of the political machinery geared to unseating the unjust, oppressive political system put in place by the National Party in 1948 when it ascended to power and years of colonialism that began in 1652 when Jan van Riebeeck landed at the Cape.
Yet, three decades after a splendid landslide victory in the first democratic national election of 27 April 1994, the 29 May 2024 national and provincial polls were unkind to the ANC, stripping the party of its majority, and turning it into a weakened 40% political entity.
How, then, should we understand its decline, and loss of its majority status, even as the party remains number one in the country’s political pecking order? Do the masses no longer believe in its “a better life for all” slogan and, if so, what could be the reasons for their scepticism?
Political revolution can either be an outcome of violent insurrection — change of political power through the barrel of the gun — or it can happen smoothly, through democratic processes and the will of the electorate at the polling stations.
German political theorist and philosopher Hannah Arendt argued that the “true aim of a revolution is to establish a free public realm where freedom is guaranteed for all, requiring liberation from oppression and the creation of space for freedom realisation”.
Could this have been the ideal the ANC sought when negotiations began with the apartheid enemy camp after president FW de Klerk announced the unbanning of all political parties, setting the ball rolling for the historic 1994 democratic elections?
Could it be that the ANC jumped on the bandwagon of the English Glorious Revolution of the 17th century and the American Revolution of the 18th century, where change happened, not on the battlefield, but due to political dialogue, precipitated by roundtable negotiations?
The ANC continues to project itself as a political entity with noble social, economic and political values, with ambitious ideals of egalitarianism, which will lead all the people of this country — black and white — to live fulfilled lives in the fullness of time.
In a recent interview with writer Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh, ANC secretary general Fikile Mbalula alluded to the fact that his party was not socialist inclined, espousing socialist ideals, but a free market-oriented party.
He said the ANC had accepted the electoral outcomes, with grace and magnanimity, without quibbling or seeking a rerun, which showed its commitment to democracy and constitutionalism.
So, the “glorious movement”, whose leader, Nelson Mandela became the people’s modern-day Moses, is today committed to renewing itself and resuming the journey to lead all South Africans to the promised land of plenty, of honey and milk, akin to the biblical exodus experience, by continuing to strengthen itself to allow it to play a pivotal role in the democratic and constitutionalism project.
An exodus experience can be described as a liberating and freedom-oriented event or journey, often a mass departure, inspired by the analogical biblical narrative of the ancient Israelites leaving slavery in Egypt and undertaking a 40-year journey towards an unknown promised future and land of plenty.
Think of the Freedom Charter and the ideals it espouses: “We, the People of South Africa, declare for all our country and the world to know that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white, and that no government can justly claim authority unless it is based on the will of all the people; that our people have been robbed of their birthright to land, liberty and peace by a form of government founded on injustice and inequality; that our country will never be prosperous or free until all our people live in brotherhood, enjoying equal rights and opportunities.”
Madiba who, during his incarceration for 27 years in apartheid jails, had a mysticism accrue to his name, was legendary. He assumed cult status and so earned among the people a larger-than-life personality of messianic proportions.
Mandela’s ideal of a “a better life for all” is still part of the ANC programme, and in the words of Mbalula, the weakened ANC is working night and day to regenerate itself to pursue Madiba’s messianic ideal of liberating the country from poverty and the scourges of injustice.
Black and white must work together to create a new world where everyone enjoys and upholds the altruistic values expressed by Madiba, so that all may lead the fulfilled lives derived from a democratic state.
Renewal of the ANC must be done with the understanding that the organisation is too big to fail and that, if this were to happen, it would amount to a “grave sin” which would have the struggle icons turning in their graves.
“Let my people go,” is the biblical expression attributed to Moses, signifying God’s call for freedom from oppression and bondage and passage to a promised land of new possibilities of justice and happiness.
The messaging of a “better life for all” — which serves as a clarion call to end injustice — coincides with ancient Moses’s call for “letting my people go”, which is all about ethos of freedom and justice.
The idea is rooted in an organisation many of whose leaders were also leaders of the church or played a significant role in them. Former ANC president Chief Albert Luthuli, a school teacher by training, was also a preacher, a devout Christian, whose political life was imbued with the values of justice inspired by the biblical writing of the Exodus narrative of freedom and liberation and justice.
The message has always been attractive to African people, who had for more than 300 years suffered social, economic and political marginalisation and injustice under colonialism and apartheid.
At the launching of the Freedom Charter in 1955, a document intended to chart the path to freedom and liberation, the ANC promised its presence on the political scene would be the new dawn the African people had been waiting for since the formation of the ANC on 8 January 1912.
The Bloemfontein conference on 8 January 1912 promised that a protracted struggle would be waged for “a better life for all”, perhaps not in so many words, yet the political thrust to better the lives of the African masses was implied in the deliberations on that day.
Whether the dreams of ANC struggle icons such as Luthuli, Mandela and Oliver Tambo will be fully realised, must remain an open question, now that the party has encountered, in the words of Mbalula, “a trust deficit”.
In addition, the Polokwane implosion of 2008 precipitated huge cracks in the ANC, with former president Jacob Zuma’s presidency quickening the demise of the glorious movement of the people. Under President Cyril Ramaphosa, the ANC was already weakened, having to deal with a myriad of issues inherited from the corrupt Zuma administration.
But hope springs eternal. Instructive words came from former president Kgalema Motlanthe in a television interview a while ago when he referred to Zuma’s departure from the ANC as “a blessing in disguise”, a move Motlanthe said would help the ANC to renew itself without having to look over its shoulder.
Jo-Mangaliso Mdhlela is an independent journalist and former editor of several publications.
