COSATU, the ANC and the Election: Whither the Alliance?
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South Africa Office
Publication for political and socio-economic issues in South Africa FOCUS South Africa Effects of the global financial crisis South Africa in a balancing act between Focus South Africa Focus South the economic crisis and the election campaign After the lengthy growth phase of the South African economy, the country at the Cape now also finds itself afflicted by the turbulences of the global finan- cial and economic crisis. The economic growth has weakened exports, while business and domestic demand have decreased. The interim government of President Kgalema Motlanthe does not plan any hasty interventions during the period running up to the elections in April 2009. The collapsing econo- Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, mies and the election campaigns have forced the parties, however, to position themselves clearly. Notably the African National Congress (ANC) has found itself facing serious competition for the first time. The newly-created party, the Congress of the People (COPE) has already submitted its first concepts. Business federations, trade unions and the media have used the pre-election 2009-01-26 campaign in order to place demands. SOUTH AFRICA OFFICE “The biggest challenge we face is how to ensure greater equality, imroved human development and social justice in South Africa.” Kgalema Motlanthe, Edition 03/09 South African President Effects of the global financial crisis The current situation May platinum reached record prices in the international markets. The governing statistics body in South Africa, After more than nine years of uninterrupted growth Statistics South Africa (SSA) recorded a dissolution of and development a distinctly downward trend in South 32 000 jobs in the mining industry sector in the third Africa’s economic growth has become apparent. -
Liberalism Vs. Marxism-Leninism and the Future of Education in South Africa
ISSN 2039-2117 (online) Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences Vol 4 No 3 ISSN 2039-9340 (print) MCSER Publishing, Rome-Italy September 2013 Liberalism vs. Marxism-Leninism and the Future of Education in South Africa Moeketsi Letseka College of Education, University of South Africa E-mail: [email protected] Doi:10.5901/mjss.2013.v4n3p67 Abstract This paper debates the ideological tension in South Africa between, one the one hand, liberalism, and, on the one hand both the radical Africanist Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) of the 1970s, and the hard-line Marxism-Leninism inclined South African Communist Party (SACP) and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU). The paper’s central argument is, on the one hand, that the BCM’s criticisms of liberalism were specific to South Africa’s white liberals and to specific historical moment on the 1970s. On the other hand the SACP and COSATU’s hard-line Marxism-Leninism is pitted against the African National Congress’s (ANC), which is more community oriented and less attuned to the aspirations of organised labour like its partners. And given that the ANC is in the majority and has more or less hegemonised the alliance the threat to liberalism posed by both the radical Africanist BCM and the hard-line Marxism-Leninism of both the SACP and COSATU has been nullified. It can therefore be reasonably argued that South Africa’s project of a liberal conception of education will be sustained in compliance with the country’s liberal and egalitarian Constitution. Keywords: South Africa, liberalism, Liberal education, Marxism-Leninism, South African Communist Party, Congress of South African Trade Unions, Black Consciousness Movement. -
Speech Delivered by Human Settlements Minister And
SPEECH DELIVERED BY HUMAN SETTLEMENTS MINISTER AND ANC NATIONAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEMBER TOKYO SEXWALE AT THE AFRICAN RENAISSANCE COLLOQIUM UNIVERSITY OF FORT HARE, ALICE 28 SEPTEMBER 2012 Legacies of the Forefathers and the Youth of the African Continent Today 1. It was a deeply disturbing phone call with my elderly father… The Marikana tragedy - a massacre. Like Nelson Mandela he was born in 1918, at the tail end of the First World War. Like many young men of his age in South Africa and across the world, he answered the call in 1939 to defend his country during the World War II against the Nazis in North Africa, who were led by the famous German war officer, Field Marshall Rommel. 2. My father is a man of impeccable principles and unquestionable morality with proven credentials as a patriot. Having risked their lives for the British Empire with other having fallen, he and many other Black soldiers returned home not as heroes but as discarded lepers 1 whilst their fellow white soldiers were showered with distinguished honours. That’s my father. 3. He still lives in our home in Dube, which is named after the founding president of the ANC, John LangalibaleleDube, in Thabo Street, itself named after an old ANC and Communist Party stalwart Thabo Mofutsanyana. That’s the name Govan Mbeki chose for his famous son. Thabo Street also produced five death-row political prisoners. All ANC. Others survived and others died. 4. Again, the troubling Marikana conversation with my father weighed heavily on my shoulders. He had said: “No son of mine should become part of a government that has just killed with riffles its own people in the manner we saw on TV. -
1 the Trade Union Movement and the Tripartite Alliance
The trade union movement and the 112 Tripartite Alliance: a tangled history Sakhela Buhlungu and Stephen Ellis The 2008 COSATU Workers’ Survey was conducted at a time of extraordinary activity in the Tripartite Alliance between COSATU, the African National Congress (ANC) and the South African Communist Party (SACP). The fourth democratic elections were held a mere fifteen months after the ANC’s historic 52nd National Conference, held at Polokwane in December 2007. It was at this conference that Jacob Zuma had been elected as the president of the ANC in preference to the incumbent, Thabo Mbeki. Zuma’s election was, in effect, the culmination of a popular uprising within the ANC and was the prelude to the recall of Thabo Mbeki as State President in October 2008 and Jacob Zuma’s inauguration into the position in May 2009. There is general agreement that the leadership of COSATU was crucial in organising support for Zuma in the months before Polokwane, mobilising the wider Tripartite Alliance on his behalf. Reviewing events at the federation’s 10th Congress, held some four months after Zuma took the helm, the federation’s leadership gloated: We will not speak of the political investment we have made since we stood up against the encroaching dictatorship and Zanufication of the ANC in the late 1990’s and until the triumph of 2007 in Polokwane, where our ideological foes met their Waterloo. When the historians write honestly about the contributions the workers movement made in this period we are certain they will speak in glowing terms about COSATU. (COSATU 2009: 65) The consequences of those momentous events will doubtless be felt for years to come. -
Article COSATU, the ANC and the Election
Article COSATU, the ANC and the Election: Whither the Alliance? Roger Southall and Geoffrey Wood South Africa's 'liberation election' of 1994 registered a triumph for the 'Tripartite Alliance', which brought together the African National Congress with the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) into a formal relationship. Based upon an organic relationship between the dominant and most progressive stream of the trade union movement and the liberation movement (which had its roots far back in history but which during the late-1980s had enjoyed spectacular success in spearheading resistance against apartheid), the Alliance was viewed from within the labour movement as designed to ensure that a working class bias prevailed in the policies and programmes adopted by the ANC once it became the principal party of government. Although it was always realised that as a governing party the ANC would have responsibilities to its wider support base (which extends far beyond the organised working class) and indeed, that in keeping with its character as a non-racial, inclusive party open to all South Africans, it would have to be committed to pursuing the national interest, the Tripartite Alliance was forged to ensure that, henceforth, newly democratic government in South Africa would be labour friendly. In the event, as we all know now, the relationship between COSATU and the ANC-in-government has not been free of tensions. Most particularly, the ANC's effective abandonment of the progressive Reconstruction and Development Plan (RDP) - on which it fought the 1994 election - in favour, in June 1996, of the neo-liberal and fiscally conservative Growth, Employment and Redistribution strategy (GEAR) continues to be a source of major stress, with COSATU being highly critical both of the substance as well as of the lack of consultation which preceded the adoption of the TRANSFORMATION 38 (1999) ISSN 0258-7696 COSATU, the ANC and the Election new programme. -
South Africa: the Next Republic
Briefing Note 0802 October 2008 South Africa: The Next Republic The resignation of former president Thabo Mbeki can be seen as the ending of a “First Republic” in democratic South Africa. The liberal left tradition of the governing African National Congress is fading, and the “Second Republic” will be shaped by more competition for political power both inside and outside the ANC. These notes consider Mbeki’s legacy, the challenges facing President Kgalema Motlanthe, and the prospects for a “Second Republic” under presidential aspirant Jacob Zuma. • ANC deeply divided as Mbeki loyalists contemplate breakaway party. • SA Communist Party and Trades Unions gain influence in ANC structures. • New leadership pledges to maintain market-friendly economic policies. • Cabinet re-shuffle recognises failures in health, education and crime. • Democratic institutions damaged by fall-out from controversial arms deal. • Zuma’s authority rooted in ANC security and intelligence network. The “Zuma Tsunami” On September 20th 2008, the national executive of the African political influence” in the prosecution of Zuma on charges of National Congress agreed to “recall” Mbeki from the national corruption and tax evasion, related to a R50 billion presidency. His resignation follows a turbulent shift in the (£4 billion) government defence contract sanctioned by balance of power within the party leadership – dubbed the Mbeki in the late 1990s. “Zuma Tsunami” by supporters of ANC president Jacob Zuma. Zuma is widely expected to assume the national presidency “The -
The Idea of the ANC
The Idea of the ANC Anthony Butler OHIO UNIVERSITY PRESS ATHENS Contents Acknowledgements.................................vii 1. Introduction ..................................... 1 2. Agency ..........................................16 3. Unity ...........................................58 4. Liberation ......................................92 5. Conclusion . 119 Notes ..............................................131 Index ..............................................135 1 Introduction On 8 January 2012 the African National Congress (ANC) celebrated its centenary in Bloemfontein, the city in which it had been founded. By early morning the streets of the city thronged with ANC supporters. When the gates of Free State Stadium were opened, almost 50,000 citizens quickly filled the stands, ready to enjoy a day of food, speech-making and political theatre. For most of those present, the event was a celebration of a remarkable political movement that had survived a century of repression and exile, and emerged as the natural party of post-apartheid government. ANC leaders in Bloemfontein indulged in more than a moment of self-satisfaction about the capacity of their movement to scale seemingly insuperable obstacles. Three hundred years of white supremacy and segregation culminated, in the second half of the last century, in institutionalised apartheid and the 1 forced relocation of Africans to Bantustans. In the eyes of its champions, the ANC has now begun the long process of remaking this troubled society. It has used its electoral mandate to take unpopular but necessary decisions; it has provided housing, water, sanitation and electricity to millions of citizens; it has created a new system of government out of the disorder of late apartheid; and it has ameliorated the racial and ethnic tensions that are an inevitable consequence of such a tumultuous political history. -
Volume 40 2013 Issue
Review of African Political Economy, 2013 Vol. 40, No. 138, 653–654 BOOK REVIEW The fate of Sudan: the origins and process they eventually came to control. consequences of a flawed peace process, They had their own preconceptions of by John Young, London, Zed Books, what needed to be done and prescriptions 2012, xx + 388 pp., £16.99, ISBN of how to do it. These are prescribed in 9781780323251 the handbooks of peace negotiations as (a) peace-making negotiations aimed to achieve the cessation of hostilities; (b) Peace is more than cessation of military peace-building to create a stable state on hostilities, more than simple political the western liberal democratic model. stability. Peace is the presence of justice, These are seen in a sequential process, and peace-building entails addressing all factors and forces that stand as impedi- and the established procedure is to focus ments to the realization of all human on peace-making first and worry about rights for all human beings. (Bendan˜a state building afterwards. Critics have 2003) dubbed the first as ‘negative peace’ and the second as ‘positive peace’. The fate of This statement, quoted by John Young at Sudan argues that, in this case at least, the beginning of The fate of Sudan (1), afterwards is already too late for state sets out unambiguously the issue the book building along lines of democratic trans- deals with: the ultimate failure of the formation essential to stability, hence the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) flawed peace process in the subtitle. concluded in Sudan in 2005 to set the foun- The flaws in the CPA story are many, dations of sustainable peace. -
Committed to Unity
Committed to Unity: South Africa’s Adherence to Its 1994 Political Settlement Paul Graham IPS Paper 6 Abstract This paper reviews the commitment of the remaining power contenders and other political actors to the settlement which was reached between 1993 and 1996. Based on interviews with three key actors now in opposing political parties represented in the National Assembly, the paper makes the case for a continued commitment to, and consensus on, the ideals and principles of the 1996 Constitution. It provides evidence of schisms in the dominant power contender (the African National Congress) which have not led to a return in political violence post-settlement. The paper makes the point that, while some of this was the result of President Nelson Mandela’s presence, more must be ascribed to the constitutional arrangements and commitments of the primary political actors and the citizens of South Africa. © Berghof Foundation Operations GmbH – CINEP/PPP 2014. All rights reserved. About the Publication This paper is one of four case study reports on South Africa produced in the course of the collaborative research project ‘Avoiding Conflict Relapse through Inclusive Political Settlements and State-building after Intra-State War’, running from February 2013 to February 2015. This project aims to examine the conditions for inclusive political settlements following protracted armed conflicts, with a specific focus on former armed power contenders turned state actors. It also aims to inform national and international practitioners and policy-makers on effective practices for enhancing participation, representation, and responsiveness in post-war state-building and governance. It is carried out in cooperation with the partner institutions CINEP/PPP (Colombia, Project Coordinators), Berghof Foundation (Germany, Project Research Coordinators), FLACSO (El Salvador), In Transformation Initiative (South Africa), Sudd Institute (South Sudan), Aceh Policy Institute (Aceh/Indonesia), and Friends for Peace (Nepal). -
Political Report to the Tenth Cosatu National Congress
Political Report to the Tenth Cosatu National Congress Theme: Consolidating Working Class Power in Defense of Decent Work and for Socialism Table of Contents I. Preamble II. Introduction Part 1: Reflection on the Domestic and Global Balance of Forces 1. Sharpening our Ideology and Theory of Revolution 1.1 Building Marxism for Contemporary Challenges 1.2 Debates on the Nature and Trajectory of the National Democratic Revolution 1.3 The Ndr and the Struggle for Socialism 2. The Global Situation 2.1 Impact on GDP and Jobs 2.2 Impact of the Economic Crisis on the Budget 3. Progress in the National Democratic Revolution 4. The Road to Polokwane and its Outcomes 4.1 The Road to Polokwane 4.2 Strategic Considerations Informing the Federation's Approach to Polokwane 4.4 The Meaning of Polokwane: Assessing the Outcomes of the Conference 5. The Elections and the Outcomes 5.1 The Political Environment under which Elections were held: 5.2 The Media, Conservative Academics and Commentators 5.3 The Jacob Zuma Factor 5.4 The Emergence of Cope 5.5 Understanding the reasons behind the Split 5.6 What is Cope offering the working class? 5.7 The Mythical Investors 5.8 Subjective and Objective weaknesses of the ANC and Alliance 5.8.1 Western Cape 5.8.2 Eastern Cape 5.8.3 Northern Cape 5.8.4 North West 5.8.5 Free State 5.9 Mobilisation 5.10 ANC Elections Manifesto 5.11 Transition to the New Cabinet 5.12 The Green Paper on Strategic Planning: A Big Step Back towards Pre-Polokwane Shenanigans 5.13 The Impact on Cosatu 5.14 The Impact on the Anc 5.15 Impact on SACP 5.16 The Programme of Action of Government 5.17 Summary of the Mandate 6. -
Competition for the ANC WP Dominant Party Losing Youth and Poorer Sections of South African Population
Introduction Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik German Institute for International and Security Affairs Comments Competition for the ANC WP Dominant Party Losing Youth and Poorer Sections of South African Population Melanie Müller S South Africa’s governing party, the African National Congress (ANC), will elect a new president in December 2017. This person will also stand for the office of President of South Africa at the beginning of 2019 when President Jacob Zuma reaches the maximum number of two consecutive terms allowed by the country’s constitution. It is currently unclear whether he can finish his final term. Since the dismissal of finance minister, Pravin Gordhan, resistance against Zuma has reached a new climax. A broad alliance of civil society groups, trade unions and party representatives, even some from within his own party, have called for his resignation. Although these protests are aimed directly at Zuma, the causes of the dissatisfaction lie deeper. The ANC has not been able to success- fully address the country’s social challenges. In addition, corruption and mismanage- ment have shaken confidence. For a long time, the former liberation movement was considered the only party to vote for by the black population. In the past four years, how- ever, the ANC has faced serious competition from the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF). Given the loss of meaning of the ANC, the South African party system is changing. In the 2014 parliamentary elections, the network. However, the ANC did not succeed ANC failed to achieve a two-thirds majority in overcoming social injustice in South – for the first time in the history of demo- Africa, as promised. -
A Spartacist Pamphlet $1
A Spartacist Pamphlet $1 July 1991"~~~~$'X523 Spartacist Publishing Co., Box 1377 GPO, New York, NY 10116 2 Introduction The release of Nelson Mandela from the serving as a summary of the recent period tional Congress and other anti-apartheid or prison hellholes where he had spent 27 of struggle. We follow with "South Africa: ganizations under the underground condi years was greeted by black militants and Razor's Edge," a major article from our tions forced upon them by totalitarian re anti-racist fighters in South Africa and press during the critical 1984-86 years of pression, have now burst forth more openly:' throughout the world as a symbol of the the township revolts. Here we laid out the the effect of the "divestment"/sanctions impending collapse of the brutal rule of the stakes in the anti-apartheid struggle and dis strategy; the refurbished schemes for apartheid system. But even as the masses of cw.. sed some important aspects of the his "power sharing"; the question of the role black South Africans in the urban shanty tory and social structure of South Africa of the working class; the debate over the towns and in the impoverished townships which have shaped the confrontation be notion of "two-stage" revolution; the im were cheering his release and raising anew tween the racist police state and the masses plications for communists worldwide of the their demands for "Amandla," the debates of black working people. deepening collapse of Stalinism in the were raging with renewed intensity among The subsequent articles, reprinted in USSR and Eastern Europe.