This article first appeared on Creamer Media’s polity.org.za

I am not in a position to assess the legality of the CR17 campaign funding released in media leaks and arising from the Public Protector’s report into the Bosasa donation, that became much wider, revealing a broad range of contributors of large sums of money. It may be that other internal ANC campaigns, by others who became top leaders, raise similar issues.

Many people, who are not conversant with what is going on in the ANC during elections, were shocked to hear of the enormous amounts spent in the Ramaphosa campaign, and the likelihood that the Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma campaign entailed similar costs, if not more.

This is what happens in campaigning in the United States, with anyone seeking not simply to be president, but to win her party’s nomination, needing to raise considerable sums of money. If that party nomination is secured, even more funding is required to win the presidency, especially with disparities between the popular vote and the final result in the US, due to the system of indirect voting through electoral colleges that led Donald Trump to be elected with significantly fewer votes than Hillary Clinton.

For some time, there have been allegations of vote-buying and branch-buying in the ANC, i.e. illegal ways of securing votes and winning elections on slates of candidates for positions. This is a time of large-scale poverty on the one hand and widespread corruption, state capture and patronage on the other. Ensuring election through the ANC at a variety of levels is very important for the economic wellbeing of people, including sheer survival through a relatively small councillor’s salary. At higher levels it may mean access to tenders or power to decide on these in favour of allies, making certain that procurement and other state contracts benefit some in great measure, rather than others.

The stakes have become very high and, we know, that this is linked to the large numbers of candidates and sitting councillors who have been assassinated or fear assassination, especially in KwaZulu-Natal.

There was an investigation into alleged vote-buying at the ANC Nasrec conference at the end of 2017, but it has not been alleged, thus far, to bear any relation to the Ramaphosa campaign or that Ramaphosa instigated such actions.

Nevertheless, even if such large amounts were spent on previous, relatively recent internal ANC elections, it was not publicly known. It may well be that all of this money was needed for running a campaign to rid the ANC and the country of the Jacob Zuma presidency and to avoid electing a person who was supported by those who wanted to continue the rule of Zuma by other means.

Such a campaign may have entailed considerable logistical costs. Even organising a meeting sometimes requires a lot of funding to bring together those who do not have the means to travel distances to gather with others, far from their home, or to be accommodated, if it is for more than one day, and to provide food and other expenses.

To secure the support of delegates in areas where Zuma had a base was especially difficult insofar as that support was linked to patronage and sometimes illegal benefits. To combat this, without alternative illicit rewards, may have required intense organisational work, long discussions and careful persuasion. One does not know if this was done, but if it were, it must have cost a great deal given the number of areas and difficult conditions that needed to be covered.

It is consequently not possible for one to say, without a breakdown of how the funding was spent, whether or not there was anything illegal in disbursements that were made.

ANC’s transition

But that there were such large sums involved raises another issue, which relates to the character of the ANC and the resistance on the part of some of us to the ANC converting itself from a liberation movement to a political party. In the early 1990s, when the ANC and other organisations were unbanned, the organisation was flooded with advice. Many of these self-appointed, and ANC-solicited, advisers exhorted the organisation to “modernise” or “normalise” itself, which meant to become a conventional political party on the model of Western European and United States parties.

Many criticise the ANC today for failing to make an adequate transition from a liberation movement to a political party that can lead the government of the day. Those of us who resisted this transition may not have taken adequate account of what was required for government, but we feared losing the popular character of the organisation and turning it into an electoral machine. For all practical purposes, the ANC has become a political party and, indeed, lost this popular character. Whatever defects it has, its life and existence relate primarily to elections.

For some time in the US, inner-party life has been zero in both the Democratic and Republican Parties and they have tended to exist purely for elections. That is obviously and generally still the case, with the focus on presidential elections some time before the event, and vast sums need to be raised for a campaign. These parties are not strong political organisations driving definite programmes that are widely debated.

The same has been the case for the UK, including in the Labour Party, especially under Tony Blair. This was not always so, in Labour and other social democratic parties, most of whose early history had a popular, participatory character. But, gradually, most fell into “electoralism”.

Recent developments in the UK Labour Party, with the election of Jeremy Corbyn to leadership, has seen a return to grassroots involvement in politics. There is resistance to this, with many wishing to continue with a relatively depoliticised party life and those in Westminster making decisions without extensive involvement of party members. But it was the membership which became decisive in Corbyn’s win and the consolidation of his leadership, against challenges.

In the US, there were certainly differences between the Democrats and Republicans, but this did not derive from strong organisations with thriving debates about the approach for the present and the future. There too, change is in motion, with the Bernie Sanders campaign and, notably, the rise of young congresswomen advancing progressive ideas relating to migration, foreign policy and a range of other burning issues, locating themselves as social democrats or on the left. They also have strong and non-sectarian interactions with a range of social movements.

ANC takes the opposite trajectory

At the same time as these progressive, popular trends, not only in the US and UK, but – albeit with some setbacks – in other places, the ANC is set on a path where considerable money is required to become a top leader.

Some giants of the past, like Chief Albert Luthuli, Albertina and Walter Sisulu, Moses Kotane, Oliver Tambo, Nelson Mandela, Lillian Ngoyi, Yusuf Dadoo, Chris Hani and Thabo Mbeki, amongst others, would not have passed the financial barriers and become ANC leaders today.

We are in a different time and a totally different politics. It is not just money that has become a key feature, but, unlike some of the developments in the UK/US just described, it is a politics without vision. It is true that one grouping is determined to steal state money and some within the Ramaphosa camp are set on restoring legality and recovering funds that have been pilfered. But no one campaigns on the basis of a substantial vision for the future. No candidate tries to move supporters by advancing emancipatory ideas. Twenty to 30 years ago, ideas were at the centre of the ANC and it mattered what different people represented, the ideology they advanced, and how these compared with those of others.

South African freedom needs to excite people, entail ideas about a future for which young people can dream and love their country. For that to happen, we need to look beyond party politics and find ways of joining with others who are not prepared to settle for a depoliticised and choiceless democracy. Joining together, and building mutual solidarity, is needed if our democracy is to be rekindled and rebuilt. DM

Raymond Suttner is a visiting professor in the Faculty of Humanities, University of Johannesburg, a senior research associate at the Centre for Change and emeritus professor at Unisa. He served lengthy periods in prison and house arrest for underground and public anti-apartheid activities. His writings cover contemporary politics, history, and social questions, especially issues relating to identities, gender and sexualities. He blogs at raymondsuttner.com and his twitter handle is @raymondsuttner