A Tentative Understanding - Demise of the ANC

In 1990, at the time of its unbanning, the ANC had unique prestige not because of the stature of Mandela alone, though that was an important factor, but because of its record in the struggle. There was powerful evidence of its willingness to throw everything into the struggle on a range of fronts, the sense people had that the organisation was theirs because its leaders truly championed their cause, engaged the enemy in battle to advance their interests and went to jail, were tortured or died while driven by those goals. The ANC may or may not have shifted ideologically. But more important is that the ANC no longer cares about the poor. It no longer cares about those who are more or less the same people as their own mothers and fathers from whose shoulders they previously pledged to lift the yoke of apartheid oppression and exploitation.

“The opposite of good is not evil, it is indifference.”
– Abraham Joshua Heschel

There is a growing sense that the ANC may be in the process of disintegration. Some assessments are based on electoral considerations, relating to the recent ANC setbacks. These do not spell out the causes and the wider social, political and even emotional meanings and consequences of the collapse of a movement that lived in the hearts and minds and homes of very many people. What are the reasons for thinking that the ANC may be collapsing or disintegrating?

It is important to understand what the ANC and the SACP to a significant extent represented to very many South Africans for at least 40 years, between 1950 and 1990. I specify these years because the ANC was not the hegemonic force within African nationalism that it later became for most of its first four decades, when it was overshadowed by the Garveyites and the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU). 

By the time the ANC became a hegemonic force in African nationalism and, increasingly for most anti-apartheid forces, it bound people on the basis of a range of factors. These included the exemplary leaders who inspired many people with a will to be free, and who trusted this leadership of the organisations – people like Chief Albert Luthuli, Dr Yusuf Dadoo, Walter and Albertina Sisulu, Lillian Ngoyi, Nelson Mandela, Bram Fischer, Ruth First, Chris Hani, Joe Slovo and many others.

People had a sense that the organisation grew over time. It faced adversity, but generally overcame its difficulties through evaluation of what had gone wrong and charted a course of action that made sense to many people. It learnt hard lessons and it changed and developed over time.

In the period to which I refer, the ANC was relatively self-reflective about its problems and tried to correct weaknesses it displayed. The most famous example of self-examination and reformulation of approaches may have been the 1969 consultative conference, held in Morogoro, Tanzania, whose strategy and tactics document is still quoted today.

This was at a time when the organisation confronted deep demoralisation among its members, notably MK soldiers who felt they were languishing in camps after the Wankie and Sipolilo campaigns. There was also a sense of despair in the face of the apparent invincibility of the apartheid regime.

The conference charted a path forward, after soberly indicating points of vulnerability of the apartheid regime and strengths of the liberation forces that had received insufficient attention. This fresh evaluation inspired its cadres and also drew in many new people who believed that it was a viable way of launching a fresh assault against the apartheid regime.

In 1990, at the time of its unbanning, the ANC had unique prestige not because of the stature of Mandela alone, though that was an important factor, but because of its record in the struggle. There was powerful evidence of its willingness to throw everything into the struggle on a range of fronts, the sense that people had that the organisation was theirs because its leaders truly championed their cause, engaged the enemy in battle to advance their interests and went to jail, were tortured or died while driven by those goals.

The SACP was also held in high esteem at the time: people sang praise songs about the organisation and its leaders. Unlike most communist parties in the world, many of which changed their names because they considered the words “Communist Party” to be discredited at that time, the SACP enjoyed great prestige. Because of its standing among the oppressed the SACP did not need to consider changing its name, because it was then associated with heroism and sacrifice. The SACP tied much of its political action to that of the ANC, a long-standing alliance. But it came to include linking its fortunes to the rise of and support for Jacob Zuma.

The ANC is in disarray and its future in doubt not simply by virtue of electoral setbacks but because it no longer commands respect as a bearer of values that people can respect. The factors that combine to pose a threat to the very existence of the organisation, at least as one that inspires people with values that promise to benefit its core constituency, include:

Killing an organisation by killing a dream

In the potential demise of the ANC one is not seeing wounds inflicted by the DA or the EFF in the main, but self-inflicted wounds. These wounds amount to killing what the ANC represented in the minds of many, becoming something very different from that which had previously drawn people to the organisation. It has become a “fat cat” organisation, as well as one that can no longer be trusted to be what it had previously meant for the oppressed. Indeed, it has come to be seen as one where its leaders look out for themselves at the expense of its core constituency, including at the cost of the lives of the most oppressed, as in Marikana.

Killing an organisation by rupturing the connection with its constituency

The organisation is no longer connected; it no longer has tight bonds with its core constituency, the poorest of the poor. This cannot simply be explained by Marxist categories like the embourgeoisement of the ANC or its succumbing to neoliberalism or accommodation with capital or representing the comprador bourgeoisie or similar Marxist or pseudo Marxist formulations. There may be such inclinations but we are talking about what Marxism cannot explain. People had been drawn into struggle often through seeing their parents humiliated under apartheid. The ANC and SACP took up their plight as their own and embodied their desire to be free as the very reason for their organisational existence. Today, in some instances, the ANC is party to humiliation of or is silent in the face of state violence against the people.

What we now have to explain is the rupturing of bonds of responsibility, solidarity, connection, care and many similar words that are not found or found in the same way in the language of Marxism. One can find assistance in feminist theology, feminism in general and various social scientists that care about the people they wish to help. One can also benefit from interrogating the emphasis that Rabbi Abraham Heschel, quoted at the beginning of this article, (who was a close comrade of Martin Luther King Jr), places on indifference to the wrongs done to others or their humiliation.

The ANC may or may not have shifted ideologically. But more important is that the ANC no longer cares about the poor. It no longer cares about those who are more or less the same people as their own mothers and fathers from whose shoulders they previously pledged to lift the yoke of apartheid oppression and exploitation.

It is no longer moved by their plight. It is no longer affected by whether they sink or swim. They must now bear their pain without ANC support. Their pain is no longer that of the organisation, whose empathy and compassion had previously bound them together

Killing an organisation by killing compassion for the poor and oppressed

The words empathy, compassion and passion go beyond understanding theories of Marx, Lenin and Engels, though Marx does write with passion of his pain and outrage at the crushing of the Paris Commune, among other works . But Marxist teachings, per se, do not interrogate this subjective factor, which leads Marx, Engels and Lenin to care and feel for the poor and others not to do so. In fact, many contemporary Marxists, who may be very learned, may not see this as imposing any responsibility on themselves to act to remedy these wrongs. They may not see the need to join their fate with that of the oppressed. That requires a sense of connectedness, solidarity and responsibility in relation to the people who are still often landless or unemployed or harassed and evicted and arrested for no good cause.

Killing an organisation by stealing from the poor to further enrich the already rich

At an objective level, and flowing from no longer caring about the poor, the ANC has done worse. It has stolen from the poor to further enrich those who have recently become rich or others who have always been or have now become privileged. The level of betrayal that this comprises is another of the blows that it has inflicted on its constituency.

Killing an organisation by rupturing the trust that bound it to communities

People loved the ANC. It was their one great love that competed with no other love and the great leaders clearly loved the people whom they served: yes, served not in the discredited clichéd sense of “public service”, which really means personal benefit and enrichment.

Killing an organisation by making common cause with previous apartheid operatives

In order to settle scores with those opposing the current looting and violence, the present leadership of the ANC has not hesitated to make common cause with former apartheid operatives, like General Mthandazo Berning Ntlemeza, head of the Hawks, and suspended head of Crime Intelligence, General Richard Mdluli.

The ANC may not die. The Congress of India continues to exist, but is a shadow of its former self, lacking integrity and vision. That may be the fate of the ANC. It is said by some that this is the fate of all liberation movements after 20 years in power. But nothing is inevitable in politics and this need not have happened. It is possible, though unlikely, that the ANC will recover its previous standing. My belief is that it has gone too far along a route that is anti-people and tramples on the gains that the organisation itself inaugurated.

The democratic project now needs to be driven by forces beyond (but not necessarily identified as antagonistic to) the ANC. That requires building new organisations or reviving the role of those that already exist. It means building alliances, sometimes between those who have never previously been bound together. It requires a broad vision that can bring such a coalition of forces together and capture widespread support, in order to rescue and revive our democratic and emancipatory promise.

A Tentative Understanding - Demise of the ANC

In 1990, at the time of its unbanning, the ANC had unique prestige not because of the stature of Mandela alone, though that was an important factor, but because of its record in the struggle. There was powerful evidence of its willingness to throw everything into the struggle on a range of fronts, the sense people had that the organisation was theirs because its leaders truly championed their cause, engaged the enemy in battle to advance their interests and went to jail, were tortured or died while driven by those goals. The ANC may or may not have shifted ideologically. But more important is that the ANC no longer cares about the poor. It no longer cares about those who are more or less the same people as their own mothers and fathers from whose shoulders they previously pledged to lift the yoke of apartheid oppression and exploitation.

This article first appeared on Creamer Media’s website: polity.org.za



“The opposite of good is not evil, it is indifference.”


– Abraham Joshua Heschel


There is a growing sense that the ANC may be in the process of disintegration. Some assessments are based on electoral considerations, relating to the recent ANC setbacks. These do not spell out the causes and the wider social, political and even emotional meanings and consequences of the collapse of a movement that lived in the hearts and minds and homes of very many people. What are the reasons for thinking that the ANC may be collapsing or disintegrating?


It is important to understand what the ANC and the SACP to a significant extent represented to very many South Africans for at least 40 years, between 1950 and 1990. I specify these years because the ANC was not the hegemonic force within African nationalism that it later became for most of its first four decades, when it was overshadowed by the Garveyites and the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU). (See Raymond Suttner “African Nationalism” in P Vale, L Hamilton and E H Prinsloo, Intellectual Traditions in South Africa, 2014).


By the time the ANC became a hegemonic force in African nationalism and, increasingly for most anti-apartheid forces, it bound people on the basis of a range of factors. These included the exemplary leaders who inspired many people with a will to be free, and who trusted this leadership of the organisations – people like Chief Albert Luthuli, Dr Yusuf Dadoo, Walter and Albertina Sisulu, Lillian Ngoyi, Nelson Mandela, Bram Fischer, Ruth First, Chris Hani, Joe Slovo and many others.


People had a sense that the organisation grew over time. It faced adversity, but generally overcame its difficulties through evaluation of what had gone wrong and charted a course of action that made sense to many people. It learnt hard lessons and it changed and developed over time.


In the period to which I refer, the ANC was relatively self-reflective about its problems and tried to correct weaknesses it displayed. The most famous example of self-examination and reformulation of approaches may have been the 1969 consultative conference, held in Morogoro, Tanzania, whose strategy and tactics document is still quoted today.


This was at a time when the organisation confronted deep demoralisation among its members, notably MK soldiers who felt they were languishing in camps after the Wankie and Sipolilo campaigns. There was also a sense of despair in the face of the apparent invincibility of the apartheid regime.


The conference charted a path forward, after soberly indicating points of vulnerability of the apartheid regime and strengths of the liberation forces that had received insufficient attention. This fresh evaluation inspired its cadres and also drew in many new people who believed that it was a viable way of launching a fresh assault against the apartheid regime.


In 1990, at the time of its unbanning, the ANC had unique prestige not because of the stature of Mandela alone, though that was an important factor, but because of its record in the struggle. There was powerful evidence of its willingness to throw everything into the struggle on a range of fronts, the sense that people had that the organisation was theirs because its leaders truly championed their cause, engaged the enemy in battle to advance their interests and went to jail, were tortured or died while driven by those goals.


The SACP was also held in high esteem at the time: people sang praise songs about the organisation and its leaders. Unlike most communist parties in the world, many of which changed their names because they considered the words “Communist Party” to be discredited at that time, the SACP enjoyed great prestige. Because of its standing among the oppressed the SACP did not need to consider changing its name, because it was then associated with heroism and sacrifice. The SACP tied much of its political action to that of the ANC, a long-standing alliance. But it came to include linking its fortunes to the rise of and support for Jacob Zuma.


The ANC is in disarray and its future in doubt not simply by virtue of electoral setbacks but because it no longer commands respect as a bearer of values that people can respect. The factors that combine to pose a threat to the very existence of the organisation, at least as one that inspires people with values that promise to benefit its core constituency, include:


Killing an organisation by killing a dream


In the potential demise of the ANC one is not seeing wounds inflicted by the DA or the EFF in the main, but self-inflicted wounds. These wounds amount to killing what the ANC represented in the minds of many, becoming something very different from that which had previously drawn people to the organisation. It has become a “fat cat” organisation, as well as one that can no longer be trusted to be what it had previously meant for the oppressed. Indeed, it has come to be seen as one where its leaders look out for themselves at the expense of its core constituency, including at the cost of the lives of the most oppressed, as in Marikana.


Killing an organisation by rupturing the connection with its constituency


The organisation is no longer connected; it no longer has tight bonds with its core constituency, the poorest of the poor. This cannot simply be explained by Marxist categories like the embourgeoisement of the ANC or its succumbing to neoliberalism or accommodation with capital or representing the comprador bourgeoisie or similar Marxist or pseudo Marxist formulations. There may be such inclinations but we are talking about what Marxism cannot explain. People had been drawn into struggle often through seeing their parents humiliated under apartheid. The ANC and SACP took up their plight as their own and embodied their desire to be free as the very reason for their organisational existence. Today, in some instances, the ANC is party to humiliation of or is silent in the face of state violence against the people.


What we now have to explain is the rupturing of bonds of responsibility, solidarity, connection, care and many similar words that are not found or found in the same way in the language of Marxism. One can find assistance in feminist theology, feminism in general and various social scientists that care about the people they wish to help. One can also benefit from interrogating the emphasis that Rabbi Abraham Heschel, quoted at the beginning of this article, (who was a close comrade of Martin Luther King Jr), places on indifference to the wrongs done to others or their humiliation.


The ANC may or may not have shifted ideologically. But more important is that the ANC no longer cares about the poor. It no longer cares about those who are more or less the same people as their own mothers and fathers from whose shoulders they previously pledged to lift the yoke of apartheid oppression and exploitation.


It is no longer moved by their plight. It is no longer affected by whether they sink or swim. They must now bear their pain without ANC support. Their pain is no longer that of the organisation, whose empathy and compassion had previously bound them together


Killing an organisation by killing compassion for the poor and oppressed


The words empathy, compassion and passion go beyond understanding theories of Marx, Lenin and Engels, though Marx does write with passion of his pain and outrage at the crushing of the Paris Commune, among other works (See the conclusion to +The Civil War in France). But Marxist teachings, per se, do not interrogate this subjective factor, which leads Marx, Engels and Lenin to care and feel for the poor and others not to do so. In fact, many contemporary Marxists, who may be very learned, may not see this as imposing any responsibility on themselves to act to remedy these wrongs. They may not see the need to join their fate with that of the oppressed. That requires a sense of connectedness, solidarity and responsibility in relation to the people who are still often landless or unemployed or harassed and evicted and arrested for no good cause.


Killing an organisation by stealing from the poor to further enrich the already rich


At an objective level, and flowing from no longer caring about the poor, the ANC has done worse. It has stolen from the poor to further enrich those who have recently become rich or others who have always been or have now become privileged. The level of betrayal that this comprises is another of the blows that it has inflicted on its constituency.


Killing an organisation by rupturing the trust that bound it to communities


People loved the ANC. It was their one great love that competed with no other love and the great leaders clearly loved the people whom they served: yes, served not in the discredited clichéd sense of “public service”, which really means personal benefit and enrichment.


Killing an organisation by making common cause with previous apartheid operatives


In order to settle scores with those opposing the current looting and violence, the present leadership of the ANC has not hesitated to make common cause with former apartheid operatives, like General Mthandazo Berning Ntlemeza, head of the Hawks, and suspended head of Crime Intelligence, General Richard Mdluli.


The ANC may not die. The Congress of India continues to exist, but is a shadow of its former self, lacking integrity and vision. That may be the fate of the ANC. It is said by some that this is the fate of all liberation movements after 20 years in power. But nothing is inevitable in politics and this need not have happened. It is possible, though unlikely, that the ANC will recover its previous standing. My belief is that it has gone too far along a route that is anti-people and tramples on the gains that the organisation itself inaugurated.


The democratic project now needs to be driven by forces beyond (but not necessarily identified as antagonistic to) the ANC. That requires building new organisations or reviving the role of those that already exist. It means building alliances, sometimes between those who have never previously been bound together. It requires a broad vision that can bring such a coalition of forces together and capture widespread support, in order to rescue and revive our democratic and emancipatory promise.


Photo of Raymond Suttner by Ivor Markman.


Raymond Suttner is a scholar and political analyst. He is a former political prisoner for activities in the ANC-led liberation struggle. Currently he is a Part-time Professor attached to Rhodes University and an Emeritus Professor at Unisa. His most recent book is Recovering Democracy in South Africa (Jacana and Lynne Rienner, 2015). He blogs at raymondsuttner.com and his twitter handle is @raymondsuttner

Former President Kgalema Motlanthe to ANC Get Your House in Order or Die

Former president Kgalema Motlanthe has warned the ANC that if it did not get its house in order, it faced being irrelevant and would eventually die.

Motlanthe was speaking during a two-day regional consultative conference of the ANC at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth yesterday, where he addressed about 300 delegates on factionalism and renewal.

“Renewal cannot be just tampering with the structures. It means we must think very deeply about what the challenges are that our people face today. The ANC exists for one purpose only, and that is to address the problems of our people.

"If it [the ANC] is no longer addressing the problems of our people, we might as well begin writing the obituary of the ANC,” Motlanthe said.


He said it would not be the first time a glorious liberation movement lost its hegemony with the people, as this was what happened to other African countries’ liberation parties after they had been in power for 20 years.

Motlanthe said like empires and all living organisms, organisations also “rise and fall” because the rule of nature was that everything was in motion.

“Nothing is static. Nothing is permanent. That is why, when you are elected, you must understand that the platform of leadership that you have is not permanent.

"You serve in that capacity because members say so. Renewal must therefore be a function of understanding where we are, where we are heading to and what the challenges are,” he said.

For the 104-year-old ANC to continue to survive, it needed to adapt and have a long-term view to the future, as reliance on its struggle credentials was not enough for it to renew itself, said the former president.

“The minute we fail to adapt to the concrete conditions and the challenges of today, the organisation becomes irrelevant. And people realise they can continue with their lives and have progress without the ANC.

“That would be the end of [the ANC].”

As a governing party, the ANC was in a position to influence lucrative contracts that should go to the deserving people in the country.

But this was not the case, because some leaders managed to arrange that these contracts were being given to people with proxies from them as leaders in government, said Motlanthe.

“Once you do that, even if you get away with it, the reality is that this country will stagnate. And whatever we inherited, whether it’s infrastructure or whatever, will diminish,” he said.

His advice to the Nelson Mandela Bay region was for them to focus on rebuilding their branches and to ensure that they were properly constituted before they went to a regional elective conference.

In a what could be viewed a veiled attack at President Jacob Zuma, who enjoys singing during party gatherings, Motlanthe said it was only when the organisation was united, healthy and allowed thorough debates on what the challenges were – instead of singing – that it would find solutions.

“If we come together like this and we spend 80% of our time singing and glorifying the past, we will emerge with nothing.

“We will emerge from here not with any clarity, but with more confusion. There is no substitute to identifying the real problems,” Motlanthe said to loud laughter.

Deputy Finance Minister Mcebisi Jonas, who shared the stage with Motlanthe, had earlier weighed in on the singing issue.

“Politics are being suffocated by song. For the few years, we have been singing, but we have not addressed some of the core challenges we are facing,” Jonas said.

He said the recent election results confirmed what everybody already knew – that the movement was in trouble.

Former President Kgalema Motlanthe to ANC Get Your House in Order or Die

Former president Kgalema Motlanthe has warned the ANC that if it did not get its house in order, it faced being irrelevant and would eventually die.

Motlanthe was speaking during a two-day regional consultative conference of the ANC at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth yesterday, where he addressed about 300 delegates on factionalism and renewal.

“Renewal cannot be just tampering with the structures. It means we must think very deeply about what the challenges are that our people face today. The ANC exists for one purpose only, and that is to address the problems of our people.

"If it [the ANC] is no longer addressing the problems of our people, we might as well begin writing the obituary of the ANC,” Motlanthe said.


He said it would not be the first time a glorious liberation movement lost its hegemony with the people, as this was what happened to other African countries’ liberation parties after they had been in power for 20 years.

Motlanthe said like empires and all living organisms, organisations also “rise and fall” because the rule of nature was that everything was in motion.

“Nothing is static. Nothing is permanent. That is why, when you are elected, you must understand that the platform of leadership that you have is not permanent.

"You serve in that capacity because members say so. Renewal must therefore be a function of understanding where we are, where we are heading to and what the challenges are,” he said.

For the 104-year-old ANC to continue to survive, it needed to adapt and have a long-term view to the future, as reliance on its struggle credentials was not enough for it to renew itself, said the former president.

“The minute we fail to adapt to the concrete conditions and the challenges of today, the organisation becomes irrelevant. And people realise they can continue with their lives and have progress without the ANC.

“That would be the end of [the ANC].”

As a governing party, the ANC was in a position to influence lucrative contracts that should go to the deserving people in the country.

But this was not the case, because some leaders managed to arrange that these contracts were being given to people with proxies from them as leaders in government, said Motlanthe.

“Once you do that, even if you get away with it, the reality is that this country will stagnate. And whatever we inherited, whether it’s infrastructure or whatever, will diminish,” he said.

His advice to the Nelson Mandela Bay region was for them to focus on rebuilding their branches and to ensure that they were properly constituted before they went to a regional elective conference.

In a what could be viewed a veiled attack at President Jacob Zuma, who enjoys singing during party gatherings, Motlanthe said it was only when the organisation was united, healthy and allowed thorough debates on what the challenges were – instead of singing – that it would find solutions.

“If we come together like this and we spend 80% of our time singing and glorifying the past, we will emerge with nothing.

“We will emerge from here not with any clarity, but with more confusion. There is no substitute to identifying the real problems,” Motlanthe said to loud laughter.

Deputy Finance Minister Mcebisi Jonas, who shared the stage with Motlanthe, had earlier weighed in on the singing issue.

“Politics are being suffocated by song. For the few years, we have been singing, but we have not addressed some of the core challenges we are facing,” Jonas said.

He said the recent election results confirmed what everybody already knew – that the movement was in trouble.

Former president Kgalema Motlanthe has warned the ANC that if it did not get its house in order, it faced being irrelevant and would eventually die

Former president Kgalema Motlanthe has warned the ANC that if it did not get its house in order, it faced being irrelevant and would eventually die.

Motlanthe was speaking during a two-day regional consultative conference of the ANC at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth yesterday, where he addressed about 300 delegates on factionalism and renewal.

“Renewal cannot be just tampering with the structures. It means we must think very deeply about what the challenges are that our people face today. The ANC exists for one purpose only, and that is to address the problems of our people.

"If it [the ANC] is no longer addressing the problems of our people, we might as well begin writing the obituary of the ANC,” Motlanthe said.


He said it would not be the first time a glorious liberation movement lost its hegemony with the people, as this was what happened to other African countries’ liberation parties after they had been in power for 20 years.

Motlanthe said like empires and all living organisms, organisations also “rise and fall” because the rule of nature was that everything was in motion.

“Nothing is static. Nothing is permanent. That is why, when you are elected, you must understand that the platform of leadership that you have is not permanent.

"You serve in that capacity because members say so. Renewal must therefore be a function of understanding where we are, where we are heading to and what the challenges are,” he said.

For the 104-year-old ANC to continue to survive, it needed to adapt and have a long-term view to the future, as reliance on its struggle credentials was not enough for it to renew itself, said the former president.

“The minute we fail to adapt to the concrete conditions and the challenges of today, the organisation becomes irrelevant. And people realise they can continue with their lives and have progress without the ANC.

“That would be the end of [the ANC].”

As a governing party, the ANC was in a position to influence lucrative contracts that should go to the deserving people in the country.

But this was not the case, because some leaders managed to arrange that these contracts were being given to people with proxies from them as leaders in government, said Motlanthe.

“Once you do that, even if you get away with it, the reality is that this country will stagnate. And whatever we inherited, whether it’s infrastructure or whatever, will diminish,” he said.

His advice to the Nelson Mandela Bay region was for them to focus on rebuilding their branches and to ensure that they were properly constituted before they went to a regional elective conference.

In a what could be viewed a veiled attack at President Jacob Zuma, who enjoys singing during party gatherings, Motlanthe said it was only when the organisation was united, healthy and allowed thorough debates on what the challenges were – instead of singing – that it would find solutions.

“If we come together like this and we spend 80% of our time singing and glorifying the past, we will emerge with nothing.

“We will emerge from here not with any clarity, but with more confusion. There is no substitute to identifying the real problems,” Motlanthe said to loud laughter.

Deputy Finance Minister Mcebisi Jonas, who shared the stage with Motlanthe, had earlier weighed in on the singing issue.

“Politics are being suffocated by song. For the few years, we have been singing, but we have not addressed some of the core challenges we are facing,” Jonas said.

He said the recent election results confirmed what everybody already knew – that the movement was in trouble.

Global Apartheid

The political cartoon displays 4 men. One who stands by himself next to a board that says apartheid and shows a map of South Africa. The other three men call him an “AMATEUR” while standing next to a globe that says “GLOBAL APARTHEID”.

The political cartoon describes the “big picture” around apartheid which as shown in the picture spread from South Africa to the world. The man by himself represents the Europeans that controlled apartheid in South Africa. The other men represent the rest of the world that started to use apartheid in their society

ACTIVIST AT HEART: A CONVERSATION WITH SOUTH AFRICAN CARTOONIST ZAPIRO

ACTIVIST AT HEART: A CONVERSATION WITH SOUTH AFRICAN CARTOONIST ZAPIRO

• 
  

Zapiro is South Africa’s most celebrated cartoonist. His penetrating cartoons hold the country’s power brokers to account, lampooning everyone from former president Nelson Mandela to the late cricket star Hansie Cronje. His work has been featured in the BBC and The New York Times and he has won numerous awards. Zapiro’s cartoons have also come with a cost. He has received multiple death threats and he has been sued for over R20 million (roughly $3 million) for his scathing comics about President Jacob Zuma’s alleged involvement in an arms scandal and his rape trial. Despite these travails, he has remained a passionate champion of freedom of expression and an active member of South African PEN. We spoke with Zapiro about cartooning in South Africa, freedom of expression, his influences, and the vibrant new cartooning scene. For more Zapiro cartoons visit: www.zapiro.com

FREEDOM TO WRITE: What are some of the trends affecting cartoonists in South Africa?

ZAPIRO: This is not a happy question for me to answer. During apartheid, I lived in America for two years and it struck me that South African activists had strong direction, but we lacked diversity. We didn’t know that apartheid was in the process of ending because negotiationsbetween the African National Congress (ANC) and the government were held in secret, activists were marching in the same direction—against the government. I myself lost focus during the transition from apartheid. Then in 1993, as we moved towards a democratic South Africa, I again felt tremendous direction. There was the sense that as a cartoonist you could be critical. Mandela became the head of government and he understood that the country needed satirists. He gave cartoonists that space—he actually encouraged me personally, which was very exciting. There was a tolerance for criticism in the new South Africa, but that shifted under Mandela’s successorThabo Mbeki. Mbeki’s aloofness meant that critics were treated as enemies, and I began to feel myself painted as an enemy. Then there was a further shift away from tolerance when Mbekiand President Jacob Zuma started to go at each other’s throats for leadership of the ANC. Now there is this great onslaught against the media and its roots are in that period.FTW: You’ve been very involved with activism related to the Secrecy Bill and other legislation that impacts freedom of expression. 

ZAPIRO: I drew a cartoon(above) which appeared inThe Times, a daily paper. It’s a strong, simple protest cartoon against the Secrecy Bill. In the piece, Zuma represents the government and the ANC, and he’s painting out “DEMOCRACY” with a big roller and he has a little can of black paint that reads “SECRECY.” The cartoon flew around the social networks. Other cartoonists spun off it, publishing black or almost black cartoons. My next cartoon was almost totally black because everyone was so outraged by the bill. But I didn’t want to publish a completely blacked-out cartoon; I wanted to leave the sense of something else happening in the image.

FTW: And hopefully save some toner at the printers.

ZAPIRO: (laughs) There’s that, and there’s always that strange feeling when drawing a cartoon like this that it’s a cop-out and you’re getting out of work. I once did another black cartoon when South Africa suffered from energy blackouts, which basically said, “Fuck Eskom,” the power company. You can only do that sort of thing once.

FTW: You’ve been the target of costly libel suits filed by President Jacob Zuma. Do you see a connection between the repressive climate you described and these suits?

ZAPIRO: As paranoid as Thabo Mbeki was, he had the good sense not to sue satirists. He filed a couple of suits related to HIV/AIDS, because that was the particular bee in his bonnet around AIDS denialism. The Sunday Times, for example, was sued around the publication of the medical records of former health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, which had revealed her alcohol binge while recovering in a hospital. Zuma took it to a new level. In 2006, when his rape trial ended and he was acquitted, he sued seven or eight entities, including myself, for a total R63 million (roughly $9 million in 2006), and I was sued for R15 million (roughly $2.15 million) of that amount. 

FTW: This was for your Rape of Lady Justice cartoon?

ZAPIRO: No, it was for three other cartoons and represented double the amount that any cartoonist had ever been sued for at the time. That lawsuit has gradually faded—Zuma hasn’trescinded the suit—but in 2008 Zuma sued me a second time for R7 million for the Lady Justice cartoon. This was a much more highly charged suit because the cartoon was a top story in newspapers and television. It shows Zuma about to rape Lady Justice who is being held down by four of his key allies. It’s about how they were bullying and coercing the judiciary to drop corruption charges against Zuma so he could become president. Zuma’s libel suit against me for this cartoon is set to go to court on August 28, 2012.

FTW: What is your involvement with South African PEN?

ZAPIRO: I certainly support PEN but I’m not involved in a central way. I’m a member because I’m an activist at heart. I gave a talk on behalf of PEN about Chinese writer Liu Xiaobo at theGrahamstown National Arts Festival in July 2011.

FTW: Some of your cartoons are especially critical about Israel’s treatment of Palestinians and have been considered anti-Israel. Yet you yourself are Jewish.

ZAPIRO: These cartoons can be viewed as anti-Israel, but they are really anti-oppression. Many groups of people oppressed Jews over the centuries. I feel that Jews, as a people who are no longer oppressed, must take a long hard look at ourselves and ask, “Are we doing what other people once did to us?” I learned to ask that question from my mother, who was a refugee. Iwouldn’t call her a holocaust survivor because her family managed to leave Nazi Germany in the beginning of 1938 and had the resources to get out. Growing up, the message we received was that “never again” means never again for anyone, not just Jews. By this, I am not making a direct comparison between Palestine and the holocaust but I am speaking of oppression and the neo-fascist approach by Israel towards governing Palestinians. I think those comparisons are justified. Also, growing up South African, my siblings and I would make connections between the Jews in Egypt, blacks in South Africa, and Palestinians in Israel, which didn’talways go over well with my extended family. 

FTW: You studied at the School of Visual Arts in New York under Art Spiegelman, the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of the holocaust graphic novel Maus. How did this experience shape you?

ZAPIRO: When reading Maus, I was blown away by Spiegelman’s humanity and his ability to tap into the story of his family and tell it in graphic form. It was absolute genius. Marjane Satrapi, the author of Persepolis, has also managed to create some wonderful work in this way. I spent a semester of independent study with Spiegelman, but I wasn’t influenced by his political views so much as his ability to create graphic storytelling. At the time I was interested in portraying the history of South Africa. He taught me, I think successfully, that you can’t just show history, you must make people care for the characters to help them understand the broader narrative.

FTW: Your editorial cartoons tend to be one panel, but there seems to be a narrative being told from day to day or week to week. Yet you don’t use the long-form sequential narrative approach of Spiegelman’s Maus. Have you considered creating a project like that?

ZAPIRO: I work as an editorial cartoonist, but I did have a period during the transition from apartheid when I did some long-form work—three educational comic books. They were on AIDS, child abuse prevention, and democracy. So I was able to use the sequential drawing skills I’d learned in New York.

FTW: Are there other emerging cartoonists in South Africa that should be watched right now?

ZAPIRO: There certainly are. The whole face of cartooning in South Africa has changed enormously in the last decade. We have a fantastic comic strip that has been running in South Africa since the early ’90s called Madam & Eve, by Stephen Francis and Rico. They are still consistently drawing very strong, very interesting, and very funny work. During apartheid, there were few opportunities for black cartoonists to work. There were a few people who tried but they didn’t get much support from the media or from publishers. Editors occasionally tried to feature black cartoonists, but didn’t publish them to any great extent. During the last few years,Andy Mason has mentored a number of young cartoonists and two exciting new cartoonists have come out of his studio. One is SifisoYalo at the Sowetan and the other is Themba Siwela inThe Citizen. They’re both strong young cartoonists. Brandan Reynolds at Business Day is already well-established. There are a number of others. Wilson Mgobhozi in the Independent group, Bethuel Mangena in the Sowetan Sunday World, and Jeremy Nell in Cape Town. As you’ll hear from some of the names, the majority of the young up-and-coming cartoonists are black.  

Inside the murky world of the Zama Zamas.. Jacob Zuma is the definition of Corruption

OSCE to help prevent the massive FALSIFICATION of presidential elections

Source: jurnal.md

Photo: jurnal.md

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14.07.2016 14:27

The party "Demnitate şi Adevăr" (Dignity and Truth - n.red) is asking the OSCE Moldova to take measures in order to prevent the falsification of the presidential elections this fall.

The PPDA leader, Andrei Năstase, along with other representatives of the party, has met with the representatives of the international organizations and warned OSCE about the Government plans to fraud the elections.

According to DA Platform, the latest local and parliamentary elections have revealed extremely worrying issues referring to the Moldovan electoral system.

"We can't say these are some separate minor cases, which won't affect the elections' result, but on the contrary, it is a well-organized system in order to massively defraud the elections on a large-scale. We address your excellencies as representatives of OSCE to make every effort and action to stop the massive falsification of the next Moldovan elections by the Plahotniuc criminal regime", said the representatives of DA Platform.

They reviewed several illegal actions of the government, including through the state institutions that have been politically shared since 2009.

According to PPDA, the Democratic Party and the oligarch Vladimir Plahotniuc is benefiting from a monopolized audiovisual at a rate of 85%, ie 10 declared broadcasters and other media institutions, including electronic, through which they are exterminating the political opponents, especially the party "Demnitate şi Adevăr". This way, PD is defrauding the elections before they even started, as it happened in 2014 when they broadcasted for days live concerts of top Russian artists, said DA Platform leaders.

Also, they defraud the elections by manipulating the opinion polls. "The last poll organized by a Fund of public opinion nonexistent on the profile market, held by the oligarch Plahotniuc, demonstrates, once again, that PD wants to get rid of the Platform "Demnitate şi Adevăr" at any cost, recognized by all viable polls as the first pro-European and democratic force in the country", said PPDA representatives.

"The data of the State Enterprise Registru, politically controlled by PD, are falsified. If at the elections in 2005 there were recorded 2,5 million voters, their number increased to 2,9 million people in 2014, given that daily more than a hundred citizens are emigrating from Moldova", continued the DA Platform leaders.

Also, the party informed the OSCE Mission about other dirty measures used by the power parties, especially PD and PL, during the pre-election and election period.

We mention that the former deputy chairman of the Central Electoral Commission, Ştefan Urâtu, has revealed that the parliamentary elections in 2014 were defrauded at a 15% rate while the local ones in 2015 - between 5 and 20%, depending on the locality. After these statements, and after Ştefan Urâtu has joined the protests in the Great National Assembly Square and said that the Republic of Moldova is controlled by an oligarchic octopus, he has been removed from the post of deputy chairman of CEC.