It’s a roller-coaster and balance and brakes are only occasionally evident. This is the ANC’s unfolding game of lining up the foot soldiers for door-to-door persuasion for Election 2014. Much is at stake, at a time when the lure of ANC liberation credentials dims. There is much that is not in order in the house of the ANC electoral mobilisation. Stalwarts in chinked armour are fighting about how much self-criticism the ANC can be permitted. The intermediaries, the ANC volunteer brigades, are proclaimed to be the guarantors of the ANC’s electoral fate. Campaign parades come as the ANC announces Amos Masondo as its campaign head, confirms Jacob Zuma as the face of the campaign and prepares to research what categories of voters need what information. The ANC will need battalions of dedicated feet to show the party as committed, qualified, caring and in control of corruption. The stalwarts expected to deliver the desired over-60 percent are the Tripartite Alliance partners and, in particular, Cosatu’s constituent unions – the youth and women’s leagues. Election bosses say the ANC’s 1.4 million members are essential. Several of these pillars, however, are busy with bust-ups and contests for control, enforcement of unity and post-Mangaung clean-outs. They are in turmoil. Differences often centre on the right to publicly criticise leaders. Enter the volunteer brigades, an “important additional structure in the ANC”, in Zuma’s words. They claim to be disciplined, no-stipend, campaign implementation forces activated at voting district level and subject to branch executives. The volunteers are armed with lists of likely voter queries and the appropriate replies. They have to pick up the slack left by the fact that Cosatu and its affiliates are fighting battles reflecting the state of the ANC as organisation and Cosatu as tripartite alliance pillar. Cosatu is riven by factions embodying either blind loyalty to the ANC or criticism of government policy. The pro-Zumaists have declared their support for the 2014 campaign. The Vavi-ists use their bargaining power to pursue concessions on, for example, labour brokering, the youth wage subsidy and e-tolls. Vavi’s association with Corruption Watch makes his opponents see red. The new Youth Task Team will have a difficult time activating the 4 million born-free voters. The team claims to have to construct the Youth League from scratch. Nothing that could possibly remind Luthuli House of Julius Malema will be allowed. In comparison, in 2008, Cosatu was in full force in its Zuma campaign. The Youth Task Team is reconstructing a youth league in the aftermath of the implosion of the Malema-controlled league. In 2008 and for Election 2009, the ANCYL was out in the field to consolidate the JZ campaign: to escape prosecution and lead South Africa. The SACP in 2008 was on a high of promoting the ascending Zuma order. The SACP is now a launch pad for political careers. The ANC Women’s League was canvassing loyalty to the new leader. Now it is loyal to the not-so-new leader and campaigns for the retention of cabinet positions come May. With Cosatu and the ANCYL weakened, can the ANC volunteers deliver the voters? Volunteers played a substantial role in previous elections, specifically also in 2009, but their 2013 profiling is distinct. The brigades get a higher status and are baptised in the names of luminaries of the armed Struggle era. Gauteng’s 6 000-strong Moses Kotane Brigade was launched in Joburg earlier this month. The Western Cape boasts the Chris Hani Detachment 5 000 Volunteers Campaign. Volunteers are well-integrated into KwaZulu-Natal ANC politics, in the form of the Volunteer Corp Movement – “a re-aunch of the 1952 Volunteers of Inkosi Albert Luthuli”. The province’s exponential rise in ANC membership has been credited to the work of the volunteers… while the other provinces were sleeping. ANC success in a recent Northern Cape municipal by-election was said to be due to the work of the volunteers. The ANC envisages the brigades playing a critical role in its bid to win a two-thirds majority. “Each time we go for elections, we must increase the votes... This is the main duty of the volunteers,” Zuma said. There was no reference to the fact that the ANC slipped in elections 2009 and 2011, both under his watch. The ANC volunteers’ responsibility, says Zuma, is to find out what people think of the government: “The volunteers must help to… know what people are thinking about their government, about the successes and the shortcomings.” Zuma could not explain what happened to the feedback received from comparable initiatives and identical questions five years ago. Much of what we know of the operation of the volunteers comes from the pen of ANC KwaZulu-Natal provincial secretary, Sihle Zikalala. The ANC volunteer units of this province have no organisational or political decision-making powers. Foot soldiers indeed. They are not expected to have opinions beyond those of a loyal, disciplined cadre. Marius Fransman’s Western Cape version also emphasises community work. Zuma adds implementation of government programmes. Community service gloss notwithstanding, the reason for the volunteers’ existence is to get the voters to close ranks behind the ANC, condemn the impostor opposition parties and celebrate 20 years of democracy. There has already been volunteer controversy. ANC adversaries are asking about non-remunerated forces that will help the ruling class further enrich themselves. Others note the volunteers’ key motivation would be to join the employed or the privileged. Revolutionary designations are decorations. Many ANC election eggs are in this volunteer basket. - Booysen is a professor at the Graduate School of Public & Development Management, Wits University and author of The ANC and the Regeneration of Political Power.
Posted on: Sun, 09 Jun 2013 13:32:12 +0000
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