Nape Mokobodi

THE ANC MUST NEVER FEAR ROBUST DEBATE AND ENGAGEMENTS! I remain firmly of the view that my ANC made a serious political mistake by refusing to participate in this gathering which is coined as the Conference of the Left. It was and is a short-sighted decision, inconsistent with the historic character of the ANC as a liberation movement rooted in mass democratic politics and ideological engagement. The African National Congress was never built as a narrow sect that only speaks to those it agrees with. Throughout the struggle years, particularly under the leadership traditions shaped by Luthuli, Oliver Tambo, Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Joe Slovo, Charlotte Maxeke, Gertrude Shope, Ruth First, Florence Mophosho, Winnie Mandela, Chris Hani and many others, the movement understood itself as a broad political home of the oppressed. It engaged trade unions, civic formations, churches, students, communists, African nationalists, Black Consciousness activists and even critics within the democratic movement itself. That openness was not weakness. It was political maturity, sober leadership and ideological clear thinking. A liberation movement does not isolate itself from political or class contradictions within society. It confronts them directly. Politics cannot be reduced into emotional reactions, factional defensiveness or the comfort of speaking only among loyalists. Once a movement begins to treat every critical platform as an “anti-ANC cabal”, it abandons political analysis in favour of political insecurity. What makes this position even more contradictory is that the ANC today shares governance comfortably with openly neoliberal, right-wing and conservative elements, yet suddenly finds engagement with left formations that by the way some are a breakaway from the ANC itself as so intolerable because they are critical of the current leadership or there's political animosities between individuals for their own political shenanigans and fallouts. Truly i must emphasise this point; some of these organisations themselves emerged from the historical traditions of the ANC and the broader liberation movement, this are congress children; i dare say congressmen and congresswomen, irrespective of their political flaws. One cannot speak endlessly about unity of progressive forces while retreating from spaces where progressive forces gather. Lenin warned that politics without concrete analysis of concrete conditions degenerates into empty slogans. The concrete reality before us is that the ANC has lost significant moral, organisational and political authority amongst sections of the black working class and the poor. That decline cannot be resolved through avoidance. Refusing engagement does not rebuild trust. It deepens the distance between the movement and the people it once organically led. 1/2