The ANC Looks Beyond Tumult of First Years at Helm

After settling into the unfamiliar role of running the country, the African National Congress issued a candid self-assessment of how things were going.

The Rev. Makhenkesi Stofile, the ANC chief whip in Parliament and later a provincial premier, acknowledged what a jolt coming into power had been for the former underground movement.

Not only were most members of Parliament unable to find their way around government offices, he said, but they also didn’t know how to act toward their staff. At times, scheduling was so confused that members were booked into two meetings at the same time.

“We were, as it were, thrown into the ocean without a radar; our only tools were the politics of the ANC and our resolve to have the lives of our people improved,” Stofile said. “Most of us had come from exile, prison or some other form of the apartheid setup. All of a sudden, we were confronted with having to run two or even three homes. There were no counseling services.”

As the ANC readies for another five years in government, the personal and institutional tumult of the first five are viewed as the inevitable birthing pains of a new democracy born from a mass movement of outlaws-turned-rulers.

Political analysts describe the period as a learning curve for the country’s first black-majority government. ANC leaders, campaigning for June 2 elections, are pointing to the difficult transition as grounds for some dashed hopes and unmet promises.

“A lot of mistakes were made during the first two years, and some things were learned and some things not,” said political scientist Tom Lodge, author of a new book about the ANC’s years in power. “That said, they haven’t done that badly. They’ve succeeded in keeping a broad group of people relatively happy.”

Yet even with the freshman jitters gone, at least one significant question remains unanswered from the ANC’s first go at governing. Can the organization remain indefinitely as a liberation movement and also succeed as a ruling party? In other words, can it continue to reach out to almost everyone, which it has long endeavored to do, and still effectively administer the competing priorities of a country of 40 million people?

Its catchall personality has given the ANC its overarching appeal and allowed the party to transcend the suffocating exclusivity of other African liberation movements. But that personality is also blamed for some of the ANC’s most vexing problems in government, from its strained alliance with the Communists and trade unionists to the potentially debilitating perception that the organization tolerates corruption.

At its most recent national convention, members of the ANC’s Youth League asked what happens when a member has torn loyalties, such as allegiance to both the ANC and the South African Communist Party, which have clashed fiercely over economic policy.

The perplexing answer: “In such instances, it must be clear when speaking in public and on internal platforms on which mandate the comrade is speaking.”

It is a difficult balancing act for the many ANC members who wear multiple hats. Even after five years in office, it is not uncommon to find party officials joining protests against unpopular government policies as a show of solidarity with the faithful.

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, the head of the ANC Women’s League, is a master of such double roles; there are also ANC mayors, town council members and other lesser-known officials who protest everything from utility rate hikes to poor police service.

“The transition period is still quite fresh, and people in the ANC are torn,” Lodge said. “They are very reluctant to lose the appeal of a very broad nationalist movement; they feel unity and massive support are indispensable. They really want the scenario where they get 80% of the popular vote in elections.”

Increasingly, the party has come under scrutiny, from both within and without, for allowing its judgment to be blurred by the need to be loved.

When Allan Boesak, renowned clergyman and hero of the anti-apartheid struggle, was convicted in March of stealing international donations to his nonprofit foundation, top ANC officials blasted the six-year prison sentence as too severe and suggested that his “struggle credentials” should have carried greater weight with the court.

In February, when the government named a convicted thief as consul general to India, an ANC official justified the appointment on the grounds that the man had paid back the stolen money and deserved a second chance. The felon, disbarred lawyer Ramesh Vassen, happened to be a former law partner of the justice minister.

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad suggested that officials may not have been aware of Vassen’s background. In any event, Pahad said, many whites appointed in the past also had tainted records. “South Africa is a sick society; corruption is endemic,” Pahad said.

Vassen quit before he was to take up the post. The move was welcomed by President Nelson Mandela, who said in a question-and-answer session with foreign journalists last year that learning about corruption within the ANC was among the “saddest moments” of his presidency.

“We came to government determined that we would clean out corruption; we wanted a clean government,” Mandela said. “Little did we know that our own people, who sacrificed and took part in the liberation struggle, would, when they were given the opportunity, become as corrupt as the apartheid regime.”

Some analysts suggest that the ANC has become a victim of its own success. With many of its longtime members moving into government and private business, the party has been left with a vacuum of talent. The door is always open to newcomers, and opportunists have come knocking.

“We must make this one of our central tasks, to remove from our ranks these rotten eggs which our society lays every day,” the ANC executive committee said in January.

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South Africa: Then and Now

Although falling short of its own hopes, the black-majority government has made substantial advances in improving the quality of life for many South Africans since it came to power five years ago.

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DELIVERY OF SERVICES

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% of Households With: 1994 1998-99 Electricity 31% 63% Water 30% 44% Telephones 25% 35% TV reception (a) 70% 85%

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DEMOGRAPHICS

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1994 1998-99 Population, in millions 38.6 40.6 (b) Life expectancy, in years 62.7 (c) 65.0 (b) Infant mortality, 40.2 (d) 36.0 (b) per 1,000 live births Unemployment rate 29.2% 37.6% (e) Murder rate, 69.3 58.5 per 100,000 people GDP per capita, $3,076 $2,695 in U.S. dollars

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Notes: (a) Based on total population, not households; (b) Based on 1996 census; (c) Based on 1991 data; (d) Based on 1990 data; (e) Based on 1997 data.

Sources: Government Communication & Information System; Statistics South Africa; South African Police Service; South African Revenue Service; Department of Health and Welfare

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About This Series

In this three-part series, The Times examines a changed South Africa as it prepares for its second free, multiracial elections.

* Today: Life is better since Nelson Mandela came to power five years ago, people say. But it is not nearly good enough.

* Thursday: The historic black-white schism endures as one of the country’s most sensitive and intractable problems.

* Friday: A tale of two cities: one a “town of hate,” the other a place where blacks and whites are working hand in hand.

The series is available on the Web at https://www.latimes.com/safrica.