AFRICAN National Congress (ANC) was a force to reckon with in the liberation politics of South Africa since it was formed in 1912 in the struggle against apartheid system and capitalism; whereby the minority whites ruled over the majority blacks for centuries.
ANC rose to power with high hopes of changing for better the misfortune of the working people. Unfortunately, the party fell from grace to grass after thirty years of the first election in post-apartheid South Africa in 1994. Subsequently, it recorded votes ranging from 62.6% (1994), 66.4% (1999), 69% (2004), 65.9% (2009), 62.2% (2014).
ANC, combined with other radical forces such as the South Africa Communist Party (SACP) and later, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), to ultimately achieve black majority rule in 1994.
Nelson Mandela, who spent a lifetime in prison, became a towering figure in leading the party to success in the elections and became the first president of an independent and democratic South Africa.
The transition programme that brought in the new government was not without compromise. This led to the constitutional arrangement of having a Government of National Unity. It is unfortunate that the ANC failed to learn from the mistakes of the other African countries before it with very useful lessons.
The economy remains in the hands of the few whites as owners of capital even after independence. The mines, banks, and land are predominantly held by a few rich while the blacks in the majority are hoarded in very limited land space.
The economic reconstruction programme introduced by the government was one based on neo-liberal principles to serve the interest of the few rich, including the blacks in government. This is the very reason the ANC-led governments have not been able to provide what they promised the people during elections such as housing, mass and free education, and primary and secondary health care for all.
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The pro-poor policy of nationalising the mines and redistribution of the land in the constitution of ANC was never accomplished. The appalling working conditions of the working class are left out of consideration. Unemployment level continues to rise amongst the black, even with improved educational qualification, while many others have no access to education; and crime increases at an alarming rate.
ANC rose to power with high hopes of changing for better the misfortune of the working people. Unfortunately, the party fell from grace to grass after thirty years of the first election in post-apartheid South Africa in 1994. Subsequently, it recorded votes ranging from 62.6% (1994), 66.4% (1999), 69% (2004), 65.9% (2009), 62.2% (2014).
ANC managed to record 57.5% votes in 2019 and formed government alone. This dropped to 40.2% in this year’s election held on May 29, 2024. As a result of this it could not form government alone for the first time since 1994 because the constitution stipulates that the party without clear majority votes of 50% or above could only form government by having a coalition with other political parties.
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The other major political parties that participated in the election include: Democratic Alliance, uMkhonto weSizwe (MK), Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), Inkatha Freedom Party with recorded votes of 21.81%, 14.85%, 9.52% and about 3.85%, respectively.
The only grace for the future of South Africa, for the freedom and emancipation of its down-trodden could be found outside electoral politics and by the forces of the rank and file working class on the streets of Johannesburg and Cape Town raising their voice and taking action in the coming period to defeat neoliberal regimes and capitalism as a whole.
The other small political parties, combined, had about 10%. Only MK party, led by former President Jacob Zuma could be said to have made a substantial gain in the national election being a new political party. Others failed to make any gain over the election in 2019 but much better at the provincial elections level; apart from ANC that made tremendous loss at the national election; but remain a force to be reckoned with at the provincial election.
Since MK and EFF parties are breakaways from the ANC that claimed to represent the original economic programme of ANC, one would have expected all the breakaway factions of ANC to mend fences to resolve their differences on principle rather than allowing the party to move rightward and die subsequently. This was a source of serious discussion inside ANC and outside it, too.
SACP had to issue a threat of pulling out of ANC if the party agreed to share power with DA, the most right-wing political party out to serve the interest of the few whites and owners of capital.
ANC agreed to form a government of national unity with the right-wing political parties, including DA, Inkatha Freedom Party (founded by Buthelezi), and other right-wing small parties. This, to say the least, that this way of GNU led by Cyril Ramaphosa amounts to betrayal of the cause that ANC originally stood for. This is against the background of ANC as a liberation movement. This seems to be the end of the road to its hitherto radical posturing.
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The only grace for the future of South Africa, for the freedom and emancipation of its down-trodden could be found outside electoral politics and by the forces of the rank and file working class on the streets of Johannesburg and Cape Town raising their voice and taking action in the coming period to defeat neoliberal regimes and capitalism as a whole.
Comrade Olamosu is National Secretary, Socialist Labour
