Africa-Press – South-Africa. ANC MPs have been compelled to undermine the very Parliament in which they have a comfortable majority, rubbish the findings of an independent panel appointed by a speaker, and ignore the rules established by these very MPs to deal with cases such as Phala Phala,writes David Africa.
German philosopher Friedrich Hegel is famously said to have stated that “all great historical events and personages repeat themselves”, to which Karl Marx added, “first as tragedy, then as farce”. Some of the responses to the recent open letter by president Thabo Mbeki, in which he deals with the role of the ANC in defending the Constitution, now place us squarely in the tragedy-followed-by-farce territory.
The slander, historical revisionism and intolerance of criticism that characterised many of the replies to Mbeki’s letter is a disconcerting and growing phenomenon from members of an organisation that repeat the mantra of renewal and institution-building ad idfinitum.
It appears self-contradictory while simultaneously refusing to confront the serious and more strategic issues raised in the letter. Here specifically, one thinks of the necessity for the ANC, its leaders and MPs to defend the institutions upon which our democratic order is constructed.
Loss of trust
This assault on constitutional institutions such as Parliament represents a deviation from a long history of constitutionalism and collective accountability that is deeply embedded in the ANC and the traditions of the African people. The former president is right when he claims that the nett effect of this is a loss of people’s trust in the ANC and a boost to what he calls the counter-revolution.
The ANC’s parliamentarians and leadership face a political and ethical dilemma: on the one hand, we have the fact that a panel of esteemed legal scholars and practitioners, acting on behalf of the People’s Parliament, determined that the president has a case to answer in respect of the theft of money from his farm, in what has now become known as Phala Phala-gate.
On the other hand, we have a decision taken by the ANC NEC in December 2022 that flies in the face both of the ANC’s constitutionalist tradition and the constitutional imperative so elegantly articulated in the Constitutional Court’s 2016 judgment in “Economic Freedom Fighters vs Speaker of the National Assembly and Others”.
By instructing its MPs to vote down Phala Phala investigations in December 2022 and March 2023, the ANC essentially abdicated its constitutional responsibility to hold the executive to account. This decision, now clothed in pseudo-radical language that claims the Constitution is outdated and merely transitional, represents an assault on the Constitution and its institutions. It also represents a repeat of the Nkandla disaster and a fundamental departure from the traditions and politics of the ANC.
In effect, what ANC MPs have been compelled to do is undermine the very Parliament in which they have a comfortable majority, rubbish the findings of an independent panel appointed by a speaker who is a seasoned leader of the ANC, and ignore the rules established by these very MPs to deal with cases such as Phala Phala.
The rewriting of rules to suit particular factional or individual political interests is a defining characteristic of fascism and totalitarianism, ideological orientations that are inimical to the ANC and an affront to its history. In effect, there are no rules except those decided by the powerful or as we have come to know it “those with the numbers”. This simplistic majoritarianism has now become the fashion and a substitute to both rational discourse and authentically radical politics.
On the shoulders of a long line of constitutionalists
Any assault on the Constitution and the democratic processes of the People’s Parliament cannot hide under cover of ANC legitimisation. It cannot do so because the ANC comes from a tradition of constitutionalism that is rich, radical and designed to serve not individuals or factions, but the South African people as a whole. The Constitution that MPs are now asked, in fact, instructed, to undermine in the service of an individual or a faction comes from the people themselves.
As Mbeki said in his address to the Constitutional Assembly upon the adoption of the Constitution, “Our sense of elevation at this moment also derives from the fact that this magnificent product is the unique creation of African hands and African minds.”
When making this statement, Mbeki stood on the shoulders of a long line of constitutionalists among African leaders and specifically leaders of the ANC. He stood on the shoulders of the giants who drafted ‘The African Claims’ document in 1943. Among them was one Dr. A.B. Xuma who stated that:
To the African people the declaration is a challenge to organise and unite themselves under the mass liberation movement, the African National Congress. The struggle is on right now and it must be persistent and insistent. In a mass liberation movement, there is no room for divisions or for personal ambitions. The goal is one, namely, freedom for all. It should be the central and only aim for the objective of all true African nationals. Divisions and gratification of personal ambitions under the circumstances will be a betrayal of this great cause.It serves to repeat, “divisions and gratification of personal ambitions under the circumstances will be a betrayal of this great cause.”
Mbeki was also following in the footsteps of perhaps the most significant and impactful ANC leader Oliver Tambo, who, at the height of People’s War and the apartheid regime’s violent repression of our people, had the wisdom and foresight to establish the ANC’s Constitution Committee on the same day, 8 January, on which he declared 1986 The Year of Umkhonto we Sizwe. One would be hard-pressed to find a clearer reflection of the inherently radical nature of the ANC’s constitutionalism.
That initiative by OR Tambo reflected the ANC’s deeply held commitment to a constitutional order that reflects fairness and equality before the law, as well as a determination to ensure that any future Constitution is crafted by the people, led by the ANC. This ultimately resulted in the drafting of the ANC’s constitutional principles of 1991, and the adoption of the venerable 1996 Constitution all of South Africa’s people have come to call their own.
A rational call
Mbeki’s call for accountability – not the presumption of guilt but simple accountability – in respect of the Phala Phala scandal is a rational call for an ANC leader embedded in the twin pillars of ANC constitutionalism and African traditions of accountability. The ANC did not arise out of nothing, but its principles, modes of existence and forms of internal engagement were strongly influenced by our various African cultures. We know that, in African societies, there are well-established, fair and effective processes to deal with allegations against an individual or even a leader.
In our societies, when a complaint is laid against you, you are asked to present yourself at the chief’s place to be informed of the complaint against you and be asked for your side of the story. When this happens, AmaZulu and AmaXhosa will say ‘ubizelwe koMkhulu’, Basotho will say ‘o bitseditswe Moreneng’.
Once the chief’s advisors have heard your side of the story, they will then decide if there is any merit to the complaint against you, or not. If they find the complaint against you to be without merit, that will be end if the matter.
If they find that the complaint has merit, you will be summoned to appear before the village tribunal.
AmaZulu will say ‘ubizelwe eSigcawini’. AmaXhosa will say ‘ubizelwe eNkundleni’.
Basotho will say ‘o bitseditswe leKgotleng’.
The ideas of parliaments, consultative forums and accountability mechanisms are as old as African society itself. It is not an alien imposition against which we must now instinctively and irrationally rebel.
Reducing Parliament to a rubber stamp
The choice now is simple: to follow in the footsteps of Dr Xuma and OR Tambo, or to continue trampling upon what Mbeki called the ‘magnificent product that is the unique creation of African hands and African minds’.
It appears to this observer that the choice is an easy one. ANC leaders and MPs should neither disrespect the legacy of the great traditions and the leaders who came before them nor defile the Constitution and the People’s Parliament, which constitutes the most pre-eminent living embodiment of its principles.
When Parliament is reduced to a rubber stamp, the Constitution diminished and treated as a cheap piece of paper, what remains? An ANC that serves its leader? A cult of the personality that abandons the long tradition of constructive criticism and the wisdom of the collective? An ANC that makes the rules on the go, to suit its leaders as long as ‘we have the numbers’?
Such an ANC will be so untethered from its own history and mission as well as the people, that it will be an empty shell, serving only its leader and whatever interest might be prepared to pay off such a leadership. Mbeki’s timely intervention on the dangers of such a reckless withdrawal into a laager and a rejection of the ANC’s own proud history of constitutionalism and accountable leadership provides the party with an opportunity for serious reflection as it faces the existential risk of losing confidence of a majority of voters in the next general election.
– David Africa is a member of the ANC and political commentator.
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