Preliminary Response to the issues raised by COPE Youth Movement – Phillip Dexter

1. The manner in which the document was leaked to the media (see here) has been very unfortunate and the conduct of the leadership of the Youth Movement is very damaging for the party. Why the document could not be given to us as the leadership of the party shows the level of ill-discipline and disrespect the supporters of this document have for the leadership and for the party.

2. Having said that, the many good points that the paper makes, (incidentally, none of them are new issues), are undermined by the clearly factionalist and sectarian character of the document and its facile and unscientific analysis of the weaknesses of the party.

3. To claim that bringing some officials to work full-time at the HQ selectively criticises the officials, leaving out the fact that others also serve as MPs and MPLs, not least of the interim leader of the YM herself. If the criticism applies to some officials, it applies to all. In any case, there are not enough resources to implement this proposal and that has been the only reason for it not being implemented.

4. No analysis of the performance of the officials and staff currently at HQ has been made. There are two full-time officials and at least 6 staff employed there. Each department surely needs to be assessed.

5. The paper does not take in to account that a key base for the party should be where there are resources – Parliament. The weaknesses of the party in Parliament need to be analysed, from the slowness in recruiting and appointing staff, to the completely unworkable and inefficient deployment of MPs, to the performance of some of the MPs. Instead, the paper creates the impression that all the weaknesses in the party are concentrated in the top leadership of the party.

6. The weaknesses of the YM and its leadership are not even given mention in the document, let alone serious consideration. Since its formation the YM has been racked with problems, many of the relating to the behaviour and conduct of the interim leadership. Almost all criticisms and suggestions to remedy these problems have been met with arrogance, petulance and immaturity, rather than constructive engagement. The resignations of so many youth leaders and members is surely testament to the problems the structure has. The lack of self-criticism of the drafters of the document is breathtaking. That those who are part of the illness afflicting the party seek to suggest that they are the cure is quite ludicrous.

7. The argument that the current leadership of COPE, the only leadership elected by a conference, should stand down and be replaced by an unelected group of individuals is tantamount to dissolving the party. One cannot even begin to understand the logic or the motive for this suggestion, unless dissolution is the objective.

8. If this is the suggestion to resolve COPE’s issues, surely this applies more so to the YM itself.

9. The tone of the document and the statement made to the media, accusing the leadership of the party for being agents of imperialism is one that cannot be left unchallenged. This serious charge must be proven or withdrawn with a public apology.

10. In summary, this document is populist and the serious suggestions to deal with the challenges the party faces are lost in the rhetoric. While all COPE members are entitled to their views, these views must be subjected to vigorous criticism. To substitute anarchy for the current weaknesses in the party will only increase divisions, make the party weaker and will play in to the hands of our opponents.

Phillip Dexter, MP, is COPE’s Head of Communications

In recent weeks there has been heightened interest and debate on whether COPE should cooperate with, and possibly even merge with other opposition parties. The arguments for and against these possibilities have either been couched in terms of a re-alignment of the South African political terrain, or in some cases, in anachronistic positions that really relate to the pre-COPE era of politics.

If it is to grow and to successfully challenge for power, COPE must co-operate with other parties, but it must do so on the basis of shared values, principles and policies.

There is no doubt that the launch of COPE changed the political terrain in our country. The formation of a progressive, left of centre party that could challenge the ANC, has inspired a new political enthusiasm in our country.

The demoralization of many people due to the dramatic debasement of the once proud liberation movement and its increasingly bad track record in terms of governance, was turned around by the emergence of COPE. COPE’s new agenda for hope and for change was successful in that respect.

The performance of COPE in the general election, while not enough to dislodge the ruling party, helped to ensure that the 2/3′s majority the ANC sought was not gained. But it is only combined with other parties that COPE can exercise this power. Cooperation is therefore a necessity.

It is true that parties such as the DA, the ACDP, the FF, the IFP and the UCDP have a history of policy positions that COPE would not have supported. But it became clear during the election that the manifestos of the DA, UDM and the ID had a lot in common with COPE. Among these were;

Defense of the constitution
Eradicating poverty
Rooting out corruption
Ensuring good service delivery in; health,
education, policing, local government and other
areas
Creating work and economic opportunities for all
people
Redressing past injustices perpetrated under
apartheid and colonialism

Some of the potential differences between these parties on how to achieve these common objectives revolve around views on the role of the state. There is also a perceived difference on BEE and Affirmative Action. In discussions between these parties it has become clear that these differences are not of a strategic nature.

COPE is committed to solving the problems that the people of our country face. It does not therefore stick to rigid policy positions such as nationalisation, but would consider the role of the state on a case by case basis. On broad-based black economic empowerment and affirmative action all these parties recognise the need for these measures but are clear that the ruling party has not implemented them properly, instead creating possibilities for corruption, nepotism and a culture of entitlement and mediocrity.

It is worth noting that realignment has happened before, leading to the formation of the DA, in the ANC leading to the formation of the UDM, the ID and recently COPE itself. The ANC cooperates with the FF+ and has with Azapo before today.

There is no impediment to cooperating with any parties if they share most of COPE’s vision, values and principles and there are no strategic or principled differences between COPE and them. Among the most important of these values and principles stated in COPE’s manifesto are that it will;

fearlessly defend the constitution and uphold the rule of law;
systematically eradicate poverty, grow the economy, create decent work and substantially reduce unemployment;
protect the environment and our natural resources for future generations
equip and educate our children to be globally competitive and ready to function in the knowledge economy and provide our people with opportunities to acquire the necessary skills to realise their full potential;
significantly improve the quality of health care and increase health literacy;
fight and reduce crime and provide better safety and security for all;
enhance the gains made in the empowerment of women to achieve gender equality;
empower and develop the youth to realise their full potential and play their rightful role in society;
strengthen families, family life and communities;
unite the nation to act together to build a truly non-racial South Africa; and, contribute to the development of Africa, strengthen South-South cooperation and build a more just world.

Discussions with other political parties have revealed that whatever differences there may have been in terms of their past policies, they have also shifted. In terms of values, there is a commitment to a shared vision, shared values and a shared agenda. It is therefore incumbent on COPE to enter into discussions with these parties to see where cooperation is possible. Not to do so would be to miss the historic opportunity that presents itself.

There is a danger that COPE members can be “left behind” in this debate and because of this, not support the process. This discussion must include the membership of COPE. It is important that such discussions are not premised on an “anti” agenda, but are rather based on the desire to forge a common vision based on shared values and principles. The process that COPE should follow is to;

Set out the discussions held to date and identify areas where agreement and disagreement are found,

Prepare a discussion document to take to all COPE members and structures to debate,

Once the debate has taken place and COPE structures and members have given their input to the party leadership a further meeting with the political parties it seeks to cooperate with and finalise a common platform or agenda should take place.

There is no doubt that this process will invigorate political debate and attract large numbers of people to once again participate in politics as active citizens. The fact that parties will have abandoned their historical positions will present the electorate with an opportunity to vote for a platform of policies and not have to vote defensively on racial grounds.

If this platform can be agreed upon, a formidable effort can be made to win local government elections in key districts, towns and cities. Such victories will lay the foundation for winning the national elections in 2014. A victory in the national election will be of huge significance to our country, the African continent and will have an impact globally.

COPE can be in power in 2014. We have proved that we could set up a party in record time and fight an election to win an important share of the vote. Winning power through growing our share of the vote is the key objective of the party. If cooperation with other parties assists in achieving this objective, then we must explore that option.

It is important to realise that COPE does not have to dissolve itself or merge with other parties to co-operate. For the immediate future, cooperation and a common platform are what is required. This is not to rule out the possibility of the formation of a united, alternative and progressive party. But this should develop out of the talks, joint action and a debate in our own ranks and the ranks of the other parties who wish to cooperate with COPE.

The electorate is crying out for change, if the protests at poor service delivery, the continuing strikes, the high emigration figures and other similar indicators are anything to go by. COPE was not formed to fail in its historic task. We should not be shy to say we can do it better with the help of other parties that share our vision, values and principles.

Phillip Dexter MP is the Head of Communications for the Congress of the People

Phillip Dexter talks about the ANC’s assault on our common national consciousness

The Caster Semenya homecoming hijacking by the ANC was much more than an impromptu attempt at hogging the limelight. It was an attempt to steal a march on appropriating our common national consciousness, to take success and wrap it in ANC colours.

This is worrying, because our common national consciousness belongs to none of us and all of us simultaneously. It is the fabric of our identity as a nation and is forged by national icons and ordinary people alike over the period of many years. And the ANC now want to annex it.

Since the 1992 Cricket World Cup in Australia, sport has united South Africans. When rain washed away our hopes of beating England in our first attempt at a semi-final, leaving us 22 runs to get off 1 ball, it was very hard to not feel the injustice as a nation, and the pride of seeing the world commiserate with us as our players took a lap of honour.

Even before we had a new national flag, our national identity was being forged at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. We celebrated with Elana Meyer and our men’s tennis doubles team of Wayne Ferreira and Pietie Norval as they claimed silver medals.

But sport really started to unite us in the 1995 Rugby World Cup, and we all remember the moment; seeing Madiba don a number 6 shirt. This image inspired a sense of nationhood in a new South Africa and our subsequent successes have flowed from that very special moment.

This did not go unnoticed by the world. As you read this, a major Hollywood film about this subject, directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon, is currently in post-production, having been shot in South Africa.

So what’s changed since our glory days of World and African championship success?

The answer is simple; where sport (and national public holidays, for that matter) used to unite us, it is now being used to divide the people of South Africa, and a divided South Africa will always be controlled by the now increasingly chauvinistic ANC.

Julius Malema’s neat, but simplistic separation of the people of South Africa into parochial stereotypes is typical of a strategy of “divide and conquer”. You’re either an athletics fan (black) or a rugby fan (white). You are either with us (black), or against us (white). What Julius Malema conveniently chose to ignore is the fact that all South Africans, regardless of race or political affiliation, supported Caster Semanya. It is the one issue on which all South Africans united. This was an all too rare moment of post Polokwane unity among all South Africans. But for the revisionist sleight of hand by Julius Malema, it proved to be a missed opportunity to come together as a nation.

Malema’s playbook is not new. It is well worth noting that his rhetoric has alarming echoes of Joseph Goebbels circa 1936. His paranoia of “the white media” is reminiscent of the Nazi propaganda minister whipping the German nation up into a frenzy of anti-Semitism.

“The Big Lie”, the theory that the people will believe a lie if audacious enough, and if repeated often enough, was first cynically practised by the Nazis. Julius Malema is the latest in a long line of populist leaders to use this tool. His insistence on the looming threat of white people destabilising the revolution taps into the fears of black South Africans. Remember George Orwell’s “Animal Farm”? Remember how the caveat to all of Squealer’s speeches would always tap into the animals fear of the farmer returning? This is exactly the methodology behind Julius Malema’s public utterances.

It is of grave concern that the ANC have not disciplined Julius Malema for his hate speech. By logical extension, this means that the top leadership of the ruling party grant him their tacit approval to stoke the fires of division.

Julius Malema is the only person in South Africa who is allowed to engage in borderline hate speech because it serves the ruling party. Imagine if a white politician welcomed a triumphant South African rugby team home from their successful Tri-Nations campaign and asked “where are all the black people? If it were a soccer team coming home, there would be more black people here”. Charges of hate speech would be filed so fast that it would make even Usain Bolt say “wow, that was quick”.

As long as South Africans continue to vote along tribal and racial lines, the ANC will continue to hold sway over the electorate. Instead of speaking to the fears of the electorate, the Congress of the People have chosen to speak to their hope and aspirations. We hope to build a South Africa in which all her people have a common destiny.

While we may have come from a divided past, we have seen the power of a united South Africa. After all, is there really anything more inspiring than 60 000 people singing our new National Anthem in unison, the stadium awash with thousands of flags? It is only by uniting that we can defeat the challenges of poverty, unemployment, disease and crime. Perhaps the ruling party pays lip service to this, all the while keeping the masses in poverty and ignorance for the foreseeable future, while holding history to account and not taking any responsibility for the present. It would seem so, given the failure to hold Malema to account.

Phillip Dexter MP is the Head of Communications for the Congress of the People. This article first appeared in Afrikaans in Rapport newspaper.

1. Introduction

Recent media articles speculating on the state of the Congress of the People have been a source of much interest to the public and members of the party. Most of these have exaggerated the challenges the party faces, particularly the internal issues that have been highlighted by so-called unnamed sources, such as alleged leadership battles, the supposed demoralization of membership and perceived factionalism. These views are obviously leaked to the press by people with an agenda to hurt or damage COPE. Nevertheless, others are on the record comments about real challenges that warrant consideration by the leadership of the party.

The recent resignations of 2 senior leaders of the party have added fuel to this situation. At the very least the party must respond to these issues, even those that are simply perceptions. In so doing, we must be open about the challenges without exaggerating these, but also not simply complain or throw our hands in the air, lamenting and painting doomsday scenarios. We must offer a way forward on how to address the challenges and take advantage of the opportunities, because despite what our critics and detractors may say, COPE is here to stay.

The Convention of November 2008 and the launch of Cope on December 16th thereafter altered the political landscape of South Africa. COPE answered a very real need in our society for a political party that will be able to rise to the challenges of our post-colonial, post-apartheid reality. COPE’s challenge is to define a political program and agenda that will secure the success of the national democratic project in our country.

This project faces a very real threat from forces that are either too focused on personal material gain to be loyal to that project, or have gotten lost in the mire of residual ideological positions that may seem at face value to represent a radical project for transformation, but in the end serve only to justify the very same accumulation regime they claim to want to transform.

2. The performance and state of the party since launching on 16 December 2008

At the Special Congress National Committee of 6-8 June 2009, the President of COPE, Mr. M.G.P Lekota, presented a frank critique of the party, highlighting its strengths and weaknesses and its performance. He pointed out that much had been achieved in the past 9 months and certainly in the 6 months since COPE’s launch:

The national convention was held and a successful campaign to defend the constitution was launched

The party was named, launched, branded and its presence established on the political landscape

By-elections at local government were contested and won
National elections were contested and seats have been won in all Provincial Legislatures and in the Parliament giving COPE elected representatives across the nation. In 5 provinces COPE is the official opposition

All of these achievements, in just 6 months, have reshaped the political landscape of the country. The ANC, to defend its share of the vote, launched an expensive campaign of unprecedented proportions to ensure it retained its level of electoral support. Estimates of what it spent range from anywhere between R250m to almost R1bn. The ruling party clearly panicked and went in to overdrive and even excessive demonstrations of its popularity and support. It also resorted to intimidation, violence, bribery and trickery to try to maintain its hegemony. The national official opposition to the ANC, the DA, similarly pulled out all the stops to ensure it retained its status. If nothing else, COPE made elected politicians reconnect with their constituencies.

The President also highlighted areas where COPE could have performed better. Among these were:

Fundraising from members of the party and supporters

Campaigns around problems the people of our country face, such as poor service, political intimidation, crime and other important issues
Policy coherence on certain policy issues, such as BEE and Affirmative Action

The timing of choosing our presidential candidate-it was left very late

The resultant vote of 7,4%-all feel we could have done better

The recent airing of views on issues such as the profile of the leadership of the party, alleged leadership battles within the party, the list process that has been challenged by some COPE members as having irregularities, the state of morale of the party and other similar issues, has been approached mostly from a negative standpoint. While there have been teething problems in establishing the party, these issues were all aired and addressed by the CNC strategic meeting of June this year.

For anyone to suggest post this meeting that these challenges will sink the party, is simply defeatist. This will only happen if we surrender and do not ensure a vibrant, democratic political life and culture in the party. This means that all members should be critical, debate issues and suggest solutions to challenges, but those that continually paint COPE as teetering on the brink of the abyss are not doing the organisation any good. Such talk demoralises the membership and distracts the organisation from its more important tasks.

3. The historical circumstances COPE was born under

In his analysis, the President highlighted the material conditions that had led to the formation of COPE. Among these, the most significant were:

The surprisingly quick deterioration of the national liberation movement after winning political power into a vehicle for personal accumulation, patronage and corruption that is even capable of deploying violence to ensure its grip on power is not loosened

The turn towards the manipulation of branches and conferences to elect leaders in the liberation movement, denuding it of a once strong democratic culture and making it an organisation controlled by a small, powerful but shadowy elite, who caucus in the kitchens of mansions to decide who will rule our country and pay for it with money donated by corporate South Africa

The failure of the liberation movement to transform itself into a modern. political party, making it an anachronistic organisation that seeks to apply outdated ideas and policies to a complex, challenging reality
The failure of the liberation movement to adequately address the basic problems the people face, whether in terms of poverty, unemployment, housing, basic services, and especially in terms of complex issues such as industrial strategy, trade policy and the like

The failure of opposition parties to fundamentally challenge the ANC and offer an alternative vision to the people of South Africa
Some of these factors played a part in creating a circumstance in which the then President of the Republic, Thabo Mbeki was removed in a putsch. The prelude to this was the rigged conference of the liberation movement that brought about a wholesale change in leadership, delivering the final death blows to a tradition and a culture of unifying the people of the country and promoting a new, foreign one of dividing them instead.

These objective conditions were also influenced by the fact that the mood in the country was one where a change was being looked forward to by many of its citizens. Before COPE, there has been a complete failure of any opposition party to offer a viable alternative to the ruling party. This meant that many South Africans felt it was time for a real change and a new, radical agenda to inspire our people to seek to change their own lives and not live waiting for the state to do it for them.

COPE was then formed in these circumstances and in record time was able to fight a general election. This start up period for COPE has been and still is a challenging one. Apart from the fact that all our structures have been interim, we have also had to defend the party against destructive forces intent on destroying our young party. For this reason we have to maintain maximum unity and ensure we mobilise our members and supporters behind our plan of action.

We have also worked within severe resource constraints, exacerbated by pressure from the ruling party discouraging people from supporting COPE through the threat of loss of business, jobs, livelihood and even social ostracisation. If there is one factor that has characterized COPE members and structures post the 2009 general election, it has been fatigue. Many of our members are physically, emotionally and financially exhausted.

Despite this, COPE continues to grow. How we address this fatigue, by acting in solidarity with one another, rather than competing for positions, in focusing on what we can do for the organisation, rather than what it can do for us, for example, is critical. It will determine the chances of, and degrees of, success or failure.

4. Vision and leadership are required

What we have to frank about is that, while in establishing COPE we have created a platform for hope and for change to inspire South Africans to demand better for and to do better themselves, there a number of critical challenges COPE must address. Among these are;

4.1 Consolidating the party organisationally and financially.

This is the primary task that the CNC identified, but we are currently being distracted from it by forces who are attempting to get COPE members to focus on mistakes and failures of the past that arose primarily from the circumstances within which COPE was formed. There is no doubt that some individuals have behaved opportunistically and badly during the formation period of COPE and this must be dealt with. But if the party focuses primarily on settling these grievances at the expense of moving forward, it will limit the potential of the organisation.

Already, a more coherent leadership has begun to emerge at national level and in the provinces, with a few exceptions. The challenge is to ensure this from branches upwards.

4.2 Consolidating the party ideologically.

This issue is important because there are important debates about whether COPE is a left, centre-left or centrist party. If COPE is to offer a clear alternative to the electorate, it must clarify this stance and clearly spell out the policies it proposes and popularise these. It must also ensure that it leads campaigns on these issues. For instance, there have been no campaigns around the issue of the independence of the SABC, the judiciary and similar issues. Now that Eskom has been given the green light to fleece consumers, what is COPE’s response, other than objecting to it? Will COPE allow the collapse of the health services nationally and local government in many areas to go unchallenged? These are critical issues that members must address. Clarifying this ideological position will go a long way towards ensuring the messages COPE communicates are coherent. This does not mean adopting a socialist or a capitalist ideology, but is more about orientating the party clearly towards the weak, the poor, the vulnerable and the marginalized in our society.

4.3 Attracting all like-minded people to its ranks.

Many of these currently sit in the ruling party, the official opposition and in a range of smaller political parties. The reality is that COPE did not attract all of it’s natural base from these parties when it was formed. Many of them are trapped by the politics of the past; race-based constituencies, patronage and even fear and cannot leave the parties they are currently members of because of the electoral system. Many cannot leave because they will lose seats or jobs and incomes that go with these. They have been reduced to being people who whisper to us in corridors and say things like, ‘we are with you comrades’, but they do not join. We have to create an environment in which these people can freely join COPE.

4.4 Break the dominance of the ruling party over the state and sections of civil society.

This is important because the base of the ruling party, the hegemonic bloc that it leads, is fractured and very fragile. But COPE has not yet created a movement to take advantage of this. The ruling party is trapped in the logic of its own tangled, ideological incoherence. On the one hand it poses as a national liberation movement, claiming to represent the aspirations of the formerly oppressed and currently exploited Black majority, regardless of their class stratification. It simultaneously claims to privilege the interests of the poor, the working class, women, youth and people living with disabilities within this general orientation, but proposes both a racial or narrow nationalist perspective to resolve this, while allowing a stunted and even fake socialist perspective to exist alongside this. This dual strategy allows self-proclaimed socialist bloc and a trade union organisation to exist in a privileged relationship within the national liberation movement, despite it not implementing any socialist policies or programs. Indeed, its policies and its practice have resulted in the continued and even increased profit of monopoly and finance capital, much of which is now located off-shore. These policies have also resulted in widening inequality, continued high levels of structural unemployment, inflation that continually pressures households, along with high interest rates. The manufacturing base of the economy and its agricultural capacity have been systematically eroded, making the economy import dependent for both manufactured goods and food.

In short, the political economy of the apartheid era remains intact, save for three groups of beneficiaries of 15 years of ANC rule. One is a small, privileged group of Black business people, some of whom function as oligarchs in a comprador relationship between the ruling party and the state on the one hand and White controlled capital on the other. Ironically these White owned businesses, such as asset managers, control the pensions and savings of millions of Black workers. Despite this, the trade union movement does nothing about transforming this reality. The other is the Black managerial and professional class of people who have benefitted from employment opportunities in government and the private sector that has allowed them to enter the middle class strata of our society. The third group is the former ruling elite, partly the bourgeoisie and partly those who preserved its position, who continue to benefit alongside the new, emerging elite. This situation, exacerbated by the conditions of capitalist globalization, and now the current recession, is a toxic mix the ruling party has not even begun to offer a way out of. The challenge COPE has is to think out of the box and propose radical policies that will ensure a historical break with the current development trajectory of our country that perpetuates systematic underdevelopment and endemic poverty to finance a life of privilege for the few and super-profits for corporations.

4.5 Re-aligning the opposition.

This debate has started but has been couched in terms of a competition between the DA and COPE. Such a race would be disastrous for the opposition. In any case, it is clear that there are some ideological differences between these two parties. The DA, like the ANC, is very much a creation of the pre-apartheid era. It is a mixture of liberals, conservatives, modernist and even some right-wing social democrats. As such, its challenge to the ruling party is defensive. While it has fared well in elections and has increased its vote in every election, it has not yet offered a credible vision to the broader South African population and so cannot transcend the racial support base it has of mainly White voters, with some limited Coloured and Indian support.

Similarly, the UDM and the ID have successfully challenged the ANC and won seats in councils and parliament, these have remained regional parties, as have the IFP, the UCDP and others. The remnants of other liberation movements; the PAC and Azapo have continued to limp along without making any serious dent in the ANC support base, despite its manifest failures. This is a fertile ground for re-alignment, but it requires leadership and vision. Most importantly, the debate should be about values and outcomes to avoid returning to sterile debates on race and privatization, for example.

5. What is to be done?

The CNC of June adopted a plan of action that gives hope for the future to all South Africans and the possibility of change for the better. It entails, among other things;

a) Giving a full report on the electoral list candidate selection process to put this matter to bed once and for all
b) Launching our branches by the end of 2009, regions by mid 2010 and provinces by the end of 2010
c) Preparing for a policy conference in early 2010 and a national elective congress early in 2011. The focus on launching Voting District Branches cannot be over-emphasised, as this will be the basic unit that secures COPE a future electoral victory
d) Taking up issues where the ruling party is abusing its power and undermining the constitution and our laws-examples include the mismanagement of the SABC, Eskom and attempts to end its independence and the attempts to interfere with the judiciary, among others
e) Focusing on the areas where policy failures of the ruling party have exacerbated the problems South Africans face-the economic crisis, health services, education, the public service and local government, electricity pricing, the price of food and crime, among others
f) Further developing our policies in all these priority areas to ensure our interventions are problem solving ones. This requires quality research and analysis as well as sophisticated communications
g) Not allowing the party and its membership to be distracted from its program by those critics of the party,, or by those who seek to associate COPE with members of the ruling party
h) Using the platform in parliament and the provincial legislatures to define our role as a patriotic but vibrant opposition
i) Beginning contesting the 2011 and 2014 elections now
In other words, COPE needs to build a movement around itself. This movement must have the rural and urban poor, workers, youth women, people living with disabilities at its core, but also ensure that it is a party that attracts patriotic professionals and entrepreneurs to its ranks. COPE must build on its current non-racial profile and ensure racial minority groups are accommodated within the party in an organic manner.

These objectives will be achieved, not by whining about the election result, the challenges in the party or the difficult road ahead. They will also not be resolved by removing individual leaders from positions, as some commentators would have us believe. They will be the result of loyalty to the party and ensuring a culture of debate, discipline and democracy, as well as one of a collective leadership. Most importantly, COPE must clearly project the social democratic alternative to the current ruling party program. This consists of;

A partnership between the people and government for transformation
Placing an emphasis on poverty eradication through employment creation

Focusing on enterprise development in the manufacturing, agricultural and services sector of the economy

Bringing governance back in to the hands of the people, particularly at local level

Consistently fight cronyism, corruption and patronage

COPE has at least a year till the next elections for local government, where it must register a growth in support and 5 years till the next general election, where it must be able to convincingly contest for power. Whether it can or not depends on the membership of the party who must remain loyal to it and the leadership they choose to guide the organisation at branch, regional, provincial and ultimately national level. This leadership must remain rooted in the people, all the people of our nation.

Phillip Dexter is an MP and Congress of the People’s national spokesperson

Paul Trewhela in his interesting piece on the ANC and the nationalisation of the mines “debate“, puts his finger on the truth when he identifies the dominant characteristic of the new look ANC as populist. Unfortunately, he is still busy chasing Stalinist and Maoist ghosts though, and this detracts from his otherwise razor-sharp analysis.

The real issue is, as he identifies, the paucity of analysis of the current post-colonial, post-apartheid and now the post-global economic crisis situation. Trewhela’s description of the exclusion of certain groups within the ANC post-Polokwane and the subsequent formation of COPE does not adequately address the full scope or the entire support base of this new organization.

Not even a half-way adequate Marxist analysis is provided by the “Left’ in the ANC. Neither is there any sense of direction from even social-democratic forces in the ANC. Even the once powerful national democratic discourse that led the drive for change in South Africa no longer comes from the ANC.

Whatever the latter’s radical limitations, this project was able to hold together a real united front against the apartheid regime. The crisis of this project has been its failure to coherently offer direction after the democratic breakthrough of 1994. Trewhela hints at this reality, but does not follow through.

The ghosts of socialist Christmases past; Stalin, Mao and the one he does not mention, Trotsky, unfortunately make Trewhela’s contribution guilty of the very thing he charges others with; it is stuck in a past paradigm. Claims that “Stalinists” wrote the Freedom Charter or controlled the Congress of Democrats, or that Mao influenced or did not influence South African political leaders does not give answers to what has happened to the revolution in South African post 1994.
The fact the someone with the same surname as Ben Turok, maybe even a relative, suffered at the hands of Stalin’s murderous regime adds nothing to the debate. The reality is that at the time the Freedom Charter was drafted, nationalisation was a policy held in high regard all over the world, in developed and developing countries, in the north, south, east and west. The state had a legitimate role to play in running enterprises in all countries, even the USA, though they would never call it by its name then or even now as banks have been taken over by the central government to mitigate against the effects of the global financial crisis.

The question is: what is the relevance of a policy of nationalisation today and can it advance the interests of the majority of poor, unemployed South Africans? It is quite clear that such a debate is sterile. The issue is not whether to nationalise or not, but what role the public sector can and must play in providing essential goods and services where the market fails. But before addressing that, some of the useful insights that Trewhela does bring to this debate need consideration.

Firstly, he is right in his assertion that Polokwane was a watershed. It dispatched a whole section of the ANC, closer to 50%, into the political wilderness. Many of these did not join COPE, precisely because COPE was not formed by the Mbeki “faction” of the ANC.

A number of forces were there at the foundation of COPE; some disillusioned ANC members, both from the right and the left, some people who had never been in the ANC or even a political party and even some opportunists. Let’s face it, every party has them.

What was significant about the post-Polokwane moment was that people stood up to resist what Trewhela rightly calls the reduction of the ANC to a “no nuthin” party and, importantly, the fact there had been no other party with any unifying, popular, non-racial vision for the future.

Trewhela is right when he states that the ANC is now entirely populist, devoid of any substance. This is partly because of the similar collapse of the SACP and COSATU from being organisations who offered, however limited, some vision to South Africans to being simple appendages of the new populist ANC. This phenomenon is not dissimilar to the Peronist movement in Argentina; populism that has captured the imagination of the working class.

Trewhela’s point about the ANC not being a real parliamentary party and the parliamentary system not being truly democratic is crucial. The arrangement post 1994 was fine for one election, but the failure to create a proper constituency based system has robbed the electorate of the country of any real influence, other than to elect a head of state, who as we have seen, can then be removed by his colleagues if they don’t like him!

This is why many people, including those in COPE, have been arguing so strongly for electoral reform. Trewhela and others may well not like the outcome of a constituency based system, for there is no guarantee it would produce a better parliament in terms of the general quality of members. But if the constituency system elects fools to serve the nation, they would at least be fools that were democratically chosen as opposed to those selected by other fools in a smoke filled room.
As for the “Chinafication” of the ANC, it is clear there are those who would relish this. There have been moves to centralize power, create a super-cabinet; a self-selected inner cabinet of Zuma’s most loyal supporters, his kitchen cabinet. Such moves have been defeated, partly because of the sociology of the new ANC – it is about personal ambition and accumulation, not collective leadership – and partly because the loose conglomeration of forces that produced the Polokwane result, do not trust each other.

There may be some variant of a type of socialist among them, but real socialists are an endangered species in the ANC. They have all been forced to accept the market, global financial and trade rules and practices and a relationship of subservience to capital. The oligarchs of the ANC who mediate between capital and the poor masses are extremely powerful. They fund the ANC, COSATU and the SACP, so we now see a COSATU that is disciplining workers to accept salary negotiation offers they do not want. The SACP, previously inciting the kinds of protests seen recently in municipalities and in supermarkets, now calls such activities counter-revolutionary.

In reality, the post-Polokwane period has seen a new deal between sections of capital, the leadership of organized labour and the political leadership of the ANC and SACP. It is one premised on a fundamental disbelief in the possibility of socialist or even social democratic transformation of our society. The SACP, after Joe Slovo’s famous critique of the failures of “really existing socialism” in Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa and the Caribbean, adopted the view that socialism could only come about through the thoroughgoing democratization of our society.

It is clear that it has abandoned this view and now that there is an accord between the leadership of the ANC, SACP and COSATU on the post-Polokwane project. The Communist Party has mortgaged the working class and the poor to this project for the sake of a few cabinet posts.

The new deal from the tri-party alliance is simple; massive expansion of government expenditure on political appointments, the continued injection of funds in to inefficient state-owned enterprises and agencies, bloated local and provincial government who in turn employ private consultants to run these and the continued super-profits of monopoly finance capital, who have weathered the global crisis better than all of us due to the protection given by the remnants of apartheid trade and industrial policies and legislation.

This capital in turn, protects itself by pulling the new oligarchs around it, who pretend they are entrepreneurs but in practice are simply rent-seekers, paid to do nothing but sit on boards, lobby for government tenders and play the occasional round of golf with their old-new masters. One way in which this scenario resembles China is the huge cost of this project for our society.

Rent seekers never produce, they simply appropriate. The working class, the poor, the middle class and professionals in South Africa are being taxed twice, just as the Chinese people are by their government and the CPC. We pay taxes to the government and taxes to the ruling political elite. In both cases it is squandered.

The difference is that in China the scale is so massive, what the political elite takes as tribute is miniscule. In South Africa this looting is blatant, hence the protests in municipalities, strikes by workers in the public and private sector and rumblings among those sections of capital not included in the post-Polokwane deal.

The only way this project can be defeated is to mobilise all South Africans to:
• Understand and defend the constitutional dispensation won by the people of South Africa after a protracted struggle. This includes completing the democratisation of the country, including constituency based elections for parliament.
• Fight corruption, maladministration and wastage of resources in all its forms and ensure decent services are delivered to all.
• Open up the economy so that all people have the opportunity to set up enterprises or look for work.

That this has to be done under a new flag and in a new organization has been clear for a while. The old one has been captured, not by Stalinists, Maoists or any other left wing bogeyman, but by right wing, anti-democratic populists who are there to apply the lubrication for the continued exploitation of the poor, the working class, the men, women and children of our country who have been betrayed by the greed of a political elite that has ceased to serve the people and now only serves itself. In this scenario, public enterprises could never be run efficiently, since what determines their success or failure is the clean, efficient and effective management.

Phillip Dexter, MP, is the Congress of the People’s national spokesperson