Much has been said about the importance of unity in the ANC and the end of factionalism, which will lower our blood pressure.
But it is becoming increasingly clear that this is a fairly trivial search. And not because of the uniqueness of the ANC, but because of the nature of politics, especially in this age of social media. It’s crazy out there; there are too many soap boxes and fountains galore for those with a conspiracy mindset.
Since the formation of the People’s Congress before the 2009 general election, the second (after Bantu Holomisa’s departure from the ANC to form the United Democratic Movement in 1997) and the largest split in the party as members most loyal to ousted Thabo Mbeki. left to form Cope, unity and the end of factionalism has been the promise of his successors. It is a foolish pursuit, because factionalism is a reality in all modern democracies on the planet.
Suppose the key to managing it, especially when one party is in power, is to ensure that the state functions optimally despite competing forces for ideology, power and, cynically in my case, Louis Vuitton bags. .
The domestic politics of the UK Conservative Party is plagued by factionalism, something that was kept in check until the country’s former Prime Minister, David Cameron, decided to hold a referendum on the country’s permanence in Europe in 2016. Divisions on the The UK’s role in Europe will probably go back hundreds of years.
In the 19th century, Britain’s foreign policy towards Europe was simply “splendid isolation.” It would be one of the key themes during Margaret Thatcher’s years at Number 10: fueling her eventual expulsion.
But Cameron was so strong in the party, or so he thought, and in the state that he believed the electorate would follow his lead and vote to stay in the EU and solidify his power by defeating a long-standing faction of the party. had been skeptical about Europe.
O arrogance. Had he not fallen prey to him believing it would weaken the faction against him and his former partner in George Osbourne, Cameron would not have considered a divisive referendum. He would rather have dealt harder – or sought to appear to be negotiating harder – with the EU and safeguarded the future of the British economy.
Today the UK is outside of Europe and in the span of six years, once a stable democracy has seen four prime ministers. It’s starting to look like Italy. Across the Atlantic, factionalism is rife in the United States. It caused Hillary Clinton to lose to Donald Trump because her Democratic Party couldn’t unite behind her. Struck with a similar affliction, the Republican Party as I grew up knowing it, that of Reagan and Bush, is simply no more.
This is factionalism.
The reason it differs from the South African story is that their states somehow still work, albeit not optimally, but the wheels are still greased. Splits in the ANC over the past 16 odd years have cut off oil supplies to some of our big state companies like Eskom.
A critical lesson from nearly 30 years of ANC rule is that we must find political measures to protect the state and its functioning from the turbulence that breathes factionalism. It is something that the ANC and its national executive committee have failed miserably to do.
What Ramaphosa needs to understand as he delivers his State of the Union address is that his critics cannot be silenced no matter which path he chooses, and it would be folly to try to get everyone on board, especially now. He has to lead, even though the factions are hot on his heels. It’s just the beast of modern politics: worrying about factions has led us down the path of indecision, the worst possible outcome in this rapidly changing world. This obsession with building unity, thina ayisizizi ngalutho.
