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ALL SHAPES AND SIZES: ANC supporters during the Siyanqoba rally at FNB Stadium near Nasrec, Johannesburg. The writer says the movement has always embraced generational mix. Photo. Mohau Mofokeng

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THE debate about the future leadership of the ANC rages on.

This despite repeated indications by the current leadership that such debate should be deferred until a few weeks before the next congress in Mangaung.

Various leaders of the ANC have used several platforms to argue the merits and demerits of what has been termed "generational mix" as a principle of approaching leadership in the ANC.

Others have used these platforms to rubbish the principle, insinuating that engaging in such debate is political opportunism.

Others are brave to flatly deny that the ANC's leadership has been based on this principle over the years.

The reality is that even the comrades who deny the validity of the principle of generational mix are themselves beneficiaries of it.

They are agitated because those who have raised this debate have at the same time mentioned their preferred candidates.

A mature response to the debate about generational mix should be one that sets aside the names that have been presented and looks at the merit of this approach as a genuine attempt to use principles for electing leaders at the next congress. We should not devour principle because of political expediency!

The ANC has embraced the need for integration of leaders of various generations at each epoch of the revolution.

In other instances, those of previous generations have even stepped aside and given the helm to younger generations, once they proved themselves to be worthy of leading the movement.

A few examples in recent history are comrade Thabo Mbeki, who took leadership ahead of some elders because most people were happy with his performance.

Comrade Cyril Ramaphosa led the ANC alongside the generation of Nelson Mandela after contesting Alfred Nzo, the longest-serving secretary general of the ANC.

Thus generational mix should not be understood merely on the basis of age but also the role a person has played over the years, which makes both older and younger generations comfortable with him/her taking over a leadership role in the ANC.

And when the leadership of each generation takes over, it should be based on having achieved high levels of political maturity and intellectual zest arising from long years of service in the various structures of the movement.

Over and above this, the issue of leadership should be approached from the point of view of the challenges facing the ANC in the current period.

Denying South Africans this opportunity would result in the media hijacking the agenda for debating leadership in the ANC and would influence the discussion at convenient platforms.

If the media are left to deal with this matter on their own, journalists will inevitably find creative ways to set comrades against each other.

It does not take a highly learned professor to observe that the prevailing conditions are those of high levels of poverty, unemployment, a weak public education system and an ageing health infrastructure.

And this is the observation in the January 8 statement.

To address these challenges the ANC needs a leadership that can respond equally to the task.

Some have opted to refer to this as the need for a generational mix. The point has been made that the world is fast affirming younger leaders at the helm, who have the requisite energy and drive to fast-track development.

In the context of South Africa, the point has been made that to deal with these challenges the ANC should adopt a radical economic transformation programme.

What is important is to reflect on these positions rather than dismiss them.

In my view, the period between 1994 and now can be interpreted as the healing years of our democracy, when South Africa was attempting to formulate a non-racial society, moving away from being a polarised nation.

Leaders of various formations adopted a pact at Codesa that was meant to guide this task of rebuilding a divided country.

From the ANC we chose our best leaders and placed them in the front line of this new stage in our revolution.

While the ANC largely adhered to the commitments in the Codesa pact, others did not come along and deviated so much from it that the result has been the continued widening of the gap between rich and poor, still along racial lines.

White people remain largely in charge of the economy, with little impact having been generated by Black Economic Empowerment This is still felt by the majority of black people.

In an attempt to dissuade the ANC from getting tough with those who frustrate integration, some within the white community engineered a brain-drain phenomenon and encouraged the exodus of white professionals to foreign lands.

This was done in protest against attempts by the ANC to empower blacks to bring about equality and redress the imbalances of the past.

Fortunately, these experiments have failed and most of these professionals who were misled are coming back home in large numbers.

So we are at a point in our struggle where both black and white South Africans now fully understand that there is no other way of creating a new nation other than to cooperate and build bridges rather than continue to fool one another into believing that all is well.

We have to give praise to the ANC elders who helped us through this difficult healing period.

In many instances they have had to justify to an impatient black community why they were not pushing hard enough for change and transformation.

But now that the healing period should be considered to have been given its chance, one can argue that we have to open a chapter in the new century of the ANC that the period will be defined by radical transformation.

Economic emancipation of the previously and currently disadvantaged should be at the centre of this new part of our struggle.

Leadership is dynamic and should not be debated only based on congresses. What the ANC should discuss is how to reposition itself to be able to guide its leadership into looking far into the future and not merely look to a congress in a few months time.

The question has to be asked whether in their current form the structures of the ANC allow for smooth changes in leadership.

The fact that some positions have been traditionally associated with succession may not be healthy for the organisation.

Should it always follow that because you are a deputy president you automatically qualify as a candidate for president?

How do we deal with expectations of this nature that have been raised by the manner in which we have interpreted these positions ourselves?

Should the organisation not be smart enough and act in ways that remove these obvious expectations?

As Gauteng has begun the discussion, should not we create more positions of deputy secretary along specific responsibilities such as deputy secretary of organising, deputy secretary of political education, deputy secretary of organisation and mobilisation, and so on?

Isn't this a better way of creating a larger pool from which to draw a new secretary general than the current structure?

Shouldn't provincial chairpersons be considered to form part of the National Working Committee (NWC) so that the provinces can play a role in the intervening periods between NECs and thereby bring balance to the NWC?

These are discussion points about the leadership of the ANC that have no connotation to names of individual comrades but have the potential to affect the future leadership of the organisation in a positive way.

It does not help to deny the assertion that a younger leadership should exist alongside some elders because this is already happening in our organisation at the lower structures such as provinces and regions.

Soon this will become a non-issue and we will have missed the opportunity to give political and intellectual content to the kind of programmes and agendas this new leadership ought to define itself by.

I hope this input will not be mischievously interpreted to mean opening the leadership debate related merely to Mangaung, but will be dealt with from the broader context of leadership challenges as they pertain to those that confront the movement as it enters a new phase of struggle.

Generational mix is a principle of the ANC. It has guided the ANC, including in deploying cadres to various positions such as to Cabinet and other front lines.

To deny it is conveniently untruthful.

• Mbalula is a national executive committee member of the ANC. He writes in his personal capacity.

Comments

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Sat May 25 21:07:33 SAST 2013 ::

Feb 23, 2012

Dinamanama

Watch out Mbalula,they might suspend you for speaking the truth,this is the new ANC(afrcan national corruption)
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Feb 23, 2012

XHINOPHOBIA

VIVA ANC VIVA,NO ONE IS ABOVE U PERIOD.
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Feb 23, 2012

Papage

I think South Africa need a referandum, we need to call elections now before is too late, I see chaos coming our way if we dont change the government now. I so wanted to Give Msholozi another ten years to see his goals achieved, but I feel the ANC is no longer interested to rule the people. Where is the ANC of yesterday?
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Feb 23, 2012

GrRRRpha

A breath of fresh air. Viva Com Mbalula. The elders should pension and let the youth take precision. The elders as they are called can they project the future or they think about the now. How come the 60 year retirement work in parliament
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Feb 23, 2012

Charley4sure

The next General Secretary speaks.
Viva...... Mbalula........Viva.
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Feb 23, 2012

Nincompoop

ANC is not a detaing party, they r always shy to be embarassed by leaders who went to school from other parties. How do you debate Woodwork and Shower song, heh?
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Feb 23, 2012

ComradeChe

With the kind of dictatorial leadership we have led by Zuma and Gwede, Mbalula's political future is now in the balance. They will not bother reading your views. The mere fact that you have mentioned leadership, you will be castrated. These guys are afraid, but who can blame them? They dont deserve to be President and SG and they know it, people know it, so they will do anything to protect themselves. But we will prevail. We always have.

The ANC has been Stalinized. Blade is the architect.
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Feb 23, 2012

SeshegoGuY

Hmmmmm..... Is this the Calibre of our Leaders today???

Lets see: After the Budget Speech, Shouldn't we be discussing how we can be able to "Manage" our Country??

Why is he silent on the Limpopo issue?

He never mentioned anything about Corruption??

Why is the so much obsession with Power in the ANC??
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Feb 23, 2012

Toivo

To a greater extent I think this comrade makes a whole lot of sense. The reality is that his name hasbeen mentioned a couple of times for the next SG of the ANC after Mangaung 2012. So this says it will always be difficult to accept his article as being objective on this matter. True leadership is displayed on ow ou overcome such perceptions or manage them. It is utter nonsense to tell people that leadership should not be discussed now, yet you get people like Ace Magashule showering JZ with praises for his leadership and telling those who advocate generational mix to go fly.
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Feb 23, 2012

Jalinho

interesting read Mr Mbalula and yes every orgnisation including pirvate and public companies need generational mix, not just political parties
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