\n \t\t\t \t\t\t
![\"NM](\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/plugins\/rss-poster\/cache\/58c1c_3476887796.jpg\")
<\/p>\n \t
\n \t\t\t \t\t\t <\/p>\n
INLSA<\/p>\n
As the ANC celebrates its centenary, questions have been raised over what part of history belongs to the ANC and what belongs to the country as a whole.<\/p>\n
\n
\t\t \t\t \t\t\t\t\t \t\t \t\t <\/p>\n
Jabulani Sikhakhane <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The Collins English dictionary defines selfless as having little concern for one\u2019s own interests. So, the ANC\u2019s use of the word in its slogan, Celebrating 100 years of Selfless Struggle, is betrayed by its conduct over its centenary celebration. <\/p>\n
Many commentators, including Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, have complained about how the ANC had airbrushed the non-ANC contributions to the Struggle for liberation in its historical record. In that sense, the ANC\u2019s conduct has been self-centred. <\/p>\n
Joel Netshitenzhe, a long-standing member of the ANC\u2019s national executive committee, highlighted this issue in a speech in September last year, \u201cA Continuing Search for Identity: Carrying the Burden of History\u201d. He said that the challenge of how to celebrate the centenary brought out in bold relief the current posture of the ANC in relation to its history and how that history related to the ANC as a ruling party. <\/p>\n
The ANC had over the years projected itself as a parliament of the African people, then as the legitimate representative of all South Africans, and later as the primary agent of change and the central protagonist in the processes aimed at resolving the antagonisms in our society. These formulations have since been confirmed by the ANC\u2019s 1994 and subsequent electoral victories. <\/p>\n
\u201cAs such, it can be asserted that the history of the ANC is in essence about the Struggle of the South African people for self-determination to achieve a united, democratic, non-racial, non-sexist and prosperous society \u2013 ideals that are now codified in the country\u2019s constitution and are part of South African society\u2019s DNA. <\/p>\n
\u201cYet, in assuming the status of an equal participant in elections and of the leading force in government \u2013 and proceeding from the perspective that, under democracy, all the other parties reflect legitimate opinion within the bounds of the constitution \u2013 the ANC somewhat also diminishes its status to become just \u2018another party\u2019 in a democratic dispensation,\u201d Netshitenzhe said in a speech to SA History Online conference on the 100 years of the ANC. <\/p>\n
He then highlighted two challenges facing the ANC. The first was that most events of national importance in the country\u2019s history were associated with the ANC\u2019s own history. <\/p>\n
The ANC sought to attach its current \u201cbrand\u201d to these historical moments, a move which tended to confound the relationship between the movement, the party and the state. <\/p>\n
\u201cQuite often its electoral opponents shun some national commemorative events for fear of promoting an adversary, or adopt some of the ANC\u2019s historical symbols and personalities in a manner that the ANC deems opportunistic and offensive, as reflected quite intensely in the discourse around Cope in the 2009 general election and the DA during the 2011 local government polls.\u201d <\/p>\n
The second challenge had its roots in the first, and related to the ambivalence regarding the development of history curricula. <\/p>\n
\u201cStudiously, an attempt is made to avoid definitive moral judgements especially about the liberation movement as a whole; and we resort to sophistry to evade issues about the critical role that the ANC \u2013 now the \u2018ruling party\u2019 \u2013 has played in the evolution of the SA nation. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a tension that requires continuing reflection \u2013 both in terms of professional management of the teaching of history, and in relation to the ANC\u2019s own psychology about whether it should cede to all of society a part of itself in order to win \u2018non-partisan\u2019 allegiance to its long-term ideals.\u201d <\/p>\n
In other words, are the ANC\u2019s pre-1994 historical milestones and their celebration a property of \u2018the ruling party\u2019 or of the nation as a whole? <\/p>\n
Raymond Suttner, another ANC stalwart, also brought to light the dangers associated with the projection of the ANC as representing the nation. <\/p>\n
Encapsulated in the national liberation model is the notion of the ANC, for example, as the nation or a nation in the process of becoming. <\/p>\n
Like other liberation movements, the ANC had earlier sought, and various international organisations accorded it, the status of the sole and authentic representative of the people of SA. Some though did accord the same status to the PAC as well. <\/p>\n
Suttner cautioned that the ANC\u2019s overwhelming electoral support since 1994 brought into sharper focus the dangers associated with a national liberation model. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe ANC, and for that matter no political party or organisation, can ever be equated with the nation, no matter how popular it may be or what electoral success it attains,\u201d wrote Suttner in \u201cTransformation of Political Parties in Africa Today\u201d, an article published in the Transformation journal. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere are interests within the nation that require representation outside of the national liberation movement model. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe consolidation of democracy in South Africa is not the task of the ANC as majority party\/organisation alone,\u201d Suttner wrote. <\/p>\n
As the ANC\u2019s conduct over its centenary celebrations have shown, the ruling party has no intention of donating to SA any of the milestones in the Struggle against apartheid that are associated with it. <\/p>\n
Nor does its current psychology permit it to open up space for other formations, whether they be civil society groupings or political entities, to contribute to the deepening of South African democracy. <\/p>\n
The reason is the ANC believes that its associations with the historical milestones in the Struggle for liberation benefit it at the hustings. Indeed, the ANC has benefited there. <\/p>\n
But that is not selflessness as is commonly understood. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
INLSA As the ANC celebrates its centenary, questions have been raised over what part of history belongs to the ANC and what belongs to the country as a whole. Jabulani Sikhakhane The Collins English dictionary defines selfless as having little concern for one\u2019s own interests. So, the ANC\u2019s use of the word in its slogan, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[8275,953,2143],"class_list":{"0":"post-6979","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-durban","8":"tag-newspaper","9":"tag-the-mercury","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6979\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}