Enter the ANC world

In the 20 years of transitional and confirmed democratic politics in South Africa I traversed two worlds, having been both direct observer and analyst-researcher, and occasional research participant in the processes. First, there is the world of the African National Congress (ANC). When one enters the marquee in Polokwane, the ‘hallowed halls’ of Gallagher Estate, Esselen Park or the Durban Convention Centre for ANC elective conferences, National General Councils (NGCs), policy conferences, or South African Communist Party (SACP) and Congress of South African Trade Union (Cosatu) gatherings, one finds the profound, emotive experience of struggle ethos, movement mobilisation against the forces that restrain and prohibit faster progress, and politico-intellectual engagement to explain and propel the present and the future. There is a sense of representation of the people and the advancement of the national democratic revolution, albeit in the contexts of elections and modern government.

A profound awareness in the movement of the responsibilities that come with being a spoke in the wheel of democratic centralism is omnipresent. Internal debates to advance the project of far-reaching transformation are embraced. The outside environment is often seen as hostile, embodying forces that continuously threaten the mission of the ANC as liberation movement-party. The ANC frequently faults that outside world for disregarding the impact of apartheid-racism and colonialism, and the profound progress that the ANC has recorded since 1994. Protection, consolidation and extension of gains made in the time since the early 1990s are as paramount as the projection of the tasks that remain. It is a central charge for the ANC not just to demonstrate connection with the masses, partly mediated by branch and regional structures, but also to persuade the people that the project of transformation is on track. In ANC parlance, this is the time of the ‘national democratic revolution’ and there is continuous progress.

At times, such as in the aftermath of local government election 2011, there is profound trepidation that this world of the gradual revolution is becoming the subject of voter apprehension and that scrutiny in the electoral inter-party battleground is gradually penetrating the inner sanctum of the ANC's deep relationship with the people.

Role of the authoranalyst and the thread of ‘political power’

The other world is that of critical observation and analysis.