By Alex Mashilo | Aug 16, 2016
I completely agree with the preliminary assessment by the SACP's political bureau on the outcome of the local government elections.
Principally concerned about the ANC's decline, the political bureau was straightforward:
The core lesson that the ANC in particular, and its alliance partners in general, need to take to heart is that our core constituencies, our historical support base, have sent a powerful message.
Also read: ANC has heard the message of the people - Mantashe
The message is quite clear, don't take us for granted, don't assume that your struggle credentials will forever act as an excuse for arrogance and predatory behaviour in the present.
Don't marginalise us while being preoccupied with your own internal factional battles, your list processes, your personality and money-driven rivalries. Don't impose unpopular and discredited candidates on us, based on factional calculations about the next ANC elective conference.
This is the key message that needs to be taken to heart.
The ANC-led alliance needs to demonstrate in both word and especially in deed that it has heard the message, loud and clear.
There is no doubt, nevertheless, that in one sense the ANC has not lost the elections. The 54% of the overall vote won by the ANC, more than double that of the nearest opposition party, is a level of support most progressive political parties can only dream of in elections conducted on the terrain of a monopoly capitalist-dominated society.
But as the political bureau said, unless serious soul-searching and decisive corrective action are undertaken, the decline will continue, likely accelerate and eventually negate the ANC's hegemony with far-reaching consequences.
The issue is whether such serious soul-searching involving decisive self-introspection and corrective action will be undertaken, and whether it will be comprehensive.
As the political bureau urged, the issue is, especially, whether the assessment will be conducted in a sober, unifying and nonsectarian manner, whether the entire leadership will shoulder collective responsibility rather than point fingers at each other, or at this or that province, while the decline cuts across all provinces, metropolitan, district and local municipalities.
Already there are some positive indicators emerging from the last ANC national executive committee, at least in word - the real proof lies in actions.
It cannot be that some fellows, acting with impunity, discard the membership forms of those they disagree with and make their names disappear from or manipulate membership records.
They buy membership for their supporters as well as votes, lock out those they disagree with from internal public representative or leadership elections, at times through bouncers, private security companies, guns and so on.
They even remove candidates elected by branches from the list of candidates submitted to the Independent Electoral Commission if they disagree, replacing them with unelected candidates. In the end, some leaders dispense patronage to their supporters, at times using public resources.
Yet, after all these and other actions that distort internal democracy, they expect all members and supporters to back the outcome at the ballot.
The causes and drivers of the unhappiness behind the declining voter turnout reducing the ANC's electoral performance, starting in its own strong support bases, must be examined with complete honesty. It is important to start from within, in internal contradictions.
But the harmful politics eroding the ANC's electoral support is a direct product of deeper structural processes, particularly economic realities.
The elections took place in the context of persisting high levels of class inequality, unemployment, poverty, widespread corruption allegations and decision-making errors.
A decisive self-correction must cover all of these areas.
Mashilo is the SACP national spokesman.
http://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/2016/08/16/lessons-from-anc-decline---harmful-politics-cut-support