SOUTH AFRICA: ANC List Good for Party Unity, but not for Women and the Poor

THE strategic nous of African National Congress (ANC) president Jacob Zuma is evident when one unpacks the party's top 100 list of candidates to be deployed to the government. That is, if the means test is confined to what is in the immediate short-term interest of a governing party reeling from internal strife and a constant haemorrhage of leaders to the breakaway Congress of the People (COPE).

Three of former president Thabo Mbeki's premiers — Mpumalanga's Thabang Makwetla, North West's Edna Molewa and Northern Cape's Dipuo Peters — made it back. The markets have been placated with Finance Minister Trevor Manuel sitting pretty at number four. The inclusion of president of the Congress of Traditional Leaders of SA Phathekile Holomisa and other Eastern Cape heavyweights such as ANC national executive committee member Enoch Godongwana indicates that Zuma has grasped the importance of the Xhosa factor and put paid to suggestions that COPE has “become the Xhosa thing to do” as fellow columnists have suggested. The inclusion of another Mbeki-era power couple, Charles and Nosiviwe Nqakula, demonstrates that Zuma does not hold grudges.

Nothing signals the similarity of the ANC (read: reward loyalty to the party) under Zuma and Mbeki more acutely than the inclusion of former health minister Manto Tshabalala- Msimang who has been resurrected from the political graveyard, making it into the top 50. The inclusion of senior leftists and new young guns also shows that Zuma is aware of who went to war on his behalf to oust his nemesis in Polokwane. So full marks to Zuma for displaying political cunning during a testy time.

But candidate lists are not only supposed to address the concerns of a ruling party in crisis. The ANC cannot ignore the concerns of the masses. Hence the list is also supposed to inspire hope for the millions who the ANC use as voting fodder every time the party needs to renew its mandate. On that score, the list is at best a display in mediocrity, at worst a betrayal of the ideals for which the movement once stood.

Even if one is to discount the legal issues around ANC matriarch Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, why is the ANC sending her back when she was fined for non-attendance during her time in Parliament? ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe's explanation — that Madikizela-Mandela has grassroots appeal — does not wash. Surely one does not have to be in Parliament to be among the people?

The ANC's puny explanations on some of these less-than-great politicians is similar the disingenuous explanations given by COPE, who put disgraced former cleric Allan Boesak as its premier candidate while trying to point fingers at Zuma's shortcomings. Even when divorced from the ANC, the Polokwane losers show fealty to their ANC DNA when it comes to speaking through both sides of their mouths.

But back to the ANC's list. While the party punted its commitment to gender parity by claiming the list passed muster on the gender principle, let us examine if this claim is true. If one equates head counting with gender parity, the box is certainly ticked. Unfortunately this mechanical approach does not take the majority of women very far. In SA the face of AIDS and poverty is decidedly female, yet, as experience shows, the inclusion of 12 women cabinet ministers under Mbeki did not make AIDS denialism go away. In Eastern Cape, for example, babies died from poor sanitation and health facilities in hospitals under the nose of a female premier and a female health minister.

So their inclusion meant that, as individuals, select women managed to get into the top echelons of power, but it was cold comfort for rural working class women in places such as Eastern Cape, which remains a key part of the ANC's constituency.

There are many on the ANC list who have done sterling work in Parliament and government departments. But the inclusion of the likes of Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour and other known incompetents such as former Cape Town mayor Nomaindia Mfeketo suggest that Zuma will soon have to put his money where his mouth is. He will have to fire those under-performers who managed to make it back, lest he too goes the way of Mbeki.