Dysfunctional system abused by leaders
BY MANY accounts, Julius Malema is, to state the obvious, the most powerful young politician in South Africa.
Why, many people correctly ask, has Malema become so powerful and so imposing a figure in our political landscape? So much so that it is hard to have a political conversation with a stranger either in a taxi or on a flight without Malema being mentioned.
Those of us known as political journalists are often asked a simple, and yet loaded question: "So, what do you think of Julius Malema."
Prior to the ANC's Polokwane conference, the question used to be: "So, what do you think of Jacob Zuma." Soon after Polokwane, it became: "So, what do you think of Zuma's rich children."
Then there was this one: "So, what do you think of Sonono Khoza?" Very recently a question was posed: "So, what do you think of the Guptas?" The list goes on.
But even as some of these questions gained prominence in national conversations at different times, the one on Malema is as consistent as it is ubiquitous.
So, how has it happened that Malema matters so much in our political lives that we can't help it but discuss him.
Let's first dispense with the analysis that we have been fed, purportedly explaining the genesis of Malema's influence.
It is not because Thabo Mbeki, who during his weakest moment and in trying to prevent the ANC from falling into Zuma's hands, gave Malema a platform to unseat him.
It is not because Malema was the first prophet to announce Mbeki would be prematurely ousted from office. (Oh, he was not charged for making such a statement!)
It is not because Zuma gave Malema his indirect blessings to call political opponents cockroaches, baboons and other unknown omnivorous inhabitants of Kruger National Park.
Needless to say, the more Malema became daring in his rhetoric, the more he got his angel's wings from the top.
Well, that was when all was hunky-dory between him and Zuma. Until, of course, Malema began re-directing his hitherto soothing rhetoric to Zuma.
But, still his audacity to stand up to Zuma and to speak out - though mostly indirectly - against the president's sexual conduct and his family's business dealings, does not explain Malema's source of power.
Malema's power is also not derived from his part-time career as political merchant. (We discussed this concept last week). He does not derive power by surrounding himself with filthy rich friends and sipping the most expensive and finest Scottish waters.
Nor is he politically powerful because he, like his predecessor in the ANC Youth League, Fikile Mbalula, has a perceived penchant for models.
And it is not because he wants mines to be owned by the state.
All of these do not explain the genesis of Malema's power - the power that matters as much to many South Africans as it does to foreign investors and the Botswana government.
What then explains Malema's unquestionable influence within the ANC and the country?
Malema's source of power lies in the "political decay" that has afflicted the ANC and the country.
By "political decay" I don't mean the worsening levels of corruption within the state. These have become a norm.
In his book The Origins of Political Order: From Prehuman Times to the French Revolution, Francis Fukuyama, the American philosopher, observes that societies that are conservative with regard to rules, suffer from "political decay".
Political decay occurs when "rules or institutions created in response to one set of environmental circumstances become dysfunctional under later conditions, but they cannot be changed due to people's heavy emotional investment in them".
For years, long before apartheid, the basic political unit in the ANC has been the branch. The primacy of the branch continues to be emphasised by ruling party leaders. Branches of the ANC could, through delegates to national conferences, elect the party's leaders. The process has applied to local, regional, provincial and national levels.
Post-1994, when elected ANC leaders had prospects of assuming leadership positions in state institutions, the branch system was not changed to take into account the bigger responsibility it had to the country, not just the party.
The failure to change the system to keep up with the new democratic dispensation constituted political decay. The branch was originally established not with a view of electing the country's president. Yet this is what it effectively does.
Having realised that the branch was now more powerful than before - it could effectively decide the future of many political leaders - many aspirant party leaders began to work systematically to improperly influence it.
Some began to corrupt it by way of sponsoring membership fees.
Failure to establish new rules and a system for leadership election meant a branch system established under entirely different circumstances has had to continue to be enforced.
The branch is therefore the vehicle through which any leader - be it Malema or Zuma - could campaign to be the president of the country. If you are assured of your skill or resources to influence branch decisions, you are as good as a self-made leader.
The average South African who is not a member of the ANC and therefore does not participate in branch activities has no choice on who becomes his or her president. These include ANC supporters.
The branch is a buffer between party democracy and popular democracy. The branch system and proportional electoral representation system are actually working against the "one man, one vote" principle that informed the liberation struggle.
A system that does not allow citizens to elect their leaders directly gives the likes of Malema immense political power, via the branch.
Talk now is that Mangaung, just like Polokwane - and by extension Mahlamba Ndlopfu - will be captured on the basis of numbers.
When South Africans go to the polls, they are subjected to an electoral outcome that's already half-way resolved by the ANC's branch. In the general elections, you cannot, for example, vote for the ANC and vote against the party's preferred leader in the same ballot, even if you honestly believe the two are different.
This is the outcome of political decay that gives Malema power.
- Mkhabela is editor of Sowetan
Malema's power: ANC decay
Dysfunctional system abused by leaders
BY MANY accounts, Julius Malema is, to state the obvious, the most powerful young politician in South Africa.
Why, many people correctly ask, has Malema become so powerful and so imposing a figure in our political landscape? So much so that it is hard to have a political conversation with a stranger either in a taxi or on a flight without Malema being mentioned.
Those of us known as political journalists are often asked a simple, and yet loaded question: "So, what do you think of Julius Malema."
Prior to the ANC's Polokwane conference, the question used to be: "So, what do you think of Jacob Zuma." Soon after Polokwane, it became: "So, what do you think of Zuma's rich children."
Then there was this one: "So, what do you think of Sonono Khoza?" Very recently a question was posed: "So, what do you think of the Guptas?" The list goes on.
But even as some of these questions gained prominence in national conversations at different times, the one on Malema is as consistent as it is ubiquitous.
So, how has it happened that Malema matters so much in our political lives that we can't help it but discuss him.
Let's first dispense with the analysis that we have been fed, purportedly explaining the genesis of Malema's influence.
It is not because Thabo Mbeki, who during his weakest moment and in trying to prevent the ANC from falling into Zuma's hands, gave Malema a platform to unseat him.
It is not because Malema was the first prophet to announce Mbeki would be prematurely ousted from office. (Oh, he was not charged for making such a statement!)
It is not because Zuma gave Malema his indirect blessings to call political opponents cockroaches, baboons and other unknown omnivorous inhabitants of Kruger National Park.
Needless to say, the more Malema became daring in his rhetoric, the more he got his angel's wings from the top.
Well, that was when all was hunky-dory between him and Zuma. Until, of course, Malema began re-directing his hitherto soothing rhetoric to Zuma.
But, still his audacity to stand up to Zuma and to speak out - though mostly indirectly - against the president's sexual conduct and his family's business dealings, does not explain Malema's source of power.
Malema's power is also not derived from his part-time career as political merchant. (We discussed this concept last week). He does not derive power by surrounding himself with filthy rich friends and sipping the most expensive and finest Scottish waters.
Nor is he politically powerful because he, like his predecessor in the ANC Youth League, Fikile Mbalula, has a perceived penchant for models.
And it is not because he wants mines to be owned by the state.
All of these do not explain the genesis of Malema's power - the power that matters as much to many South Africans as it does to foreign investors and the Botswana government.
What then explains Malema's unquestionable influence within the ANC and the country?
Malema's source of power lies in the "political decay" that has afflicted the ANC and the country.
By "political decay" I don't mean the worsening levels of corruption within the state. These have become a norm.
In his book The Origins of Political Order: From Prehuman Times to the French Revolution, Francis Fukuyama, the American philosopher, observes that societies that are conservative with regard to rules, suffer from "political decay".
Political decay occurs when "rules or institutions created in response to one set of environmental circumstances become dysfunctional under later conditions, but they cannot be changed due to people's heavy emotional investment in them".
For years, long before apartheid, the basic political unit in the ANC has been the branch. The primacy of the branch continues to be emphasised by ruling party leaders. Branches of the ANC could, through delegates to national conferences, elect the party's leaders. The process has applied to local, regional, provincial and national levels.
Post-1994, when elected ANC leaders had prospects of assuming leadership positions in state institutions, the branch system was not changed to take into account the bigger responsibility it had to the country, not just the party.
The failure to change the system to keep up with the new democratic dispensation constituted political decay. The branch was originally established not with a view of electing the country's president. Yet this is what it effectively does.
Having realised that the branch was now more powerful than before - it could effectively decide the future of many political leaders - many aspirant party leaders began to work systematically to improperly influence it.
Some began to corrupt it by way of sponsoring membership fees.
Failure to establish new rules and a system for leadership election meant a branch system established under entirely different circumstances has had to continue to be enforced.
The branch is therefore the vehicle through which any leader - be it Malema or Zuma - could campaign to be the president of the country. If you are assured of your skill or resources to influence branch decisions, you are as good as a self-made leader.
The average South African who is not a member of the ANC and therefore does not participate in branch activities has no choice on who becomes his or her president. These include ANC supporters.
The branch is a buffer between party democracy and popular democracy. The branch system and proportional electoral representation system are actually working against the "one man, one vote" principle that informed the liberation struggle.
A system that does not allow citizens to elect their leaders directly gives the likes of Malema immense political power, via the branch.
Talk now is that Mangaung, just like Polokwane - and by extension Mahlamba Ndlopfu - will be captured on the basis of numbers.
When South Africans go to the polls, they are subjected to an electoral outcome that's already half-way resolved by the ANC's branch. In the general elections, you cannot, for example, vote for the ANC and vote against the party's preferred leader in the same ballot, even if you honestly believe the two are different.
This is the outcome of political decay that gives Malema power.
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