The ANC national general council (NGC) held this week in Boksburg, east of Gauteng, was a major turning point in how the ANC can hold qualitative national gatherings without quantity.
The event, attended by approximately 1, 800 delegates, was a departure from years of gatherings of a similar significance which would be comprised of no less than 4, 000 delegates.
The previous events with large numbers had proved to be festivals of car side drinking escapades, especially during the time to engage on substantive issues during commissions.
Gone are the days of scandals of delegates going missing from attending parties and being left behind by buses.
Fewer delegates in attendance
There was no single bus in sight because the delegates consciously and out of love for the movement, transported themselves from various parts of the country — another sign of willingness to participate in shaping the future of a former liberation movement under siege.
This time around, the environment was different with the numbers. Because seeing intoxicated delegates, not to mention those roaming around aimlessly while commissions are in session, was as rare as seeing a cow walking the streets of Sandton.
The Secretary-General of the ANC, Fikile Mbalula, must be commended for whatever formula he used to arrive at the controlled numbers of who must come to the NGC.
Admittedly, he came under siege from members of the fourth estate on suspicion that the dramatic drop in numbers was an attempt to manage the outcome and abet a rebellion against the NEC. Mbalula is vindicated, because qualitative conversations epitomised the entire NGC, thanks to the numbers he curtailed the event to.
In his typical no-nonsense military-style leadership, Mbalula left little room for degenerates who might have wished to turn the occasion into a chaotic affair about leadership preference squabbles. As Ama2K would say, Mr Fear Fokol locked it.
Even the aura of qualitative conversations was in the air all over the Birchwood Hotel and Conference Centre precinct.
Quality over quantity bears fruit
The matter of numbers not translating to quality has been a political hot potato for the longest time in the ANC.
What former ANC President Thabo Mbeki suggested long ago — that the ANC must prioritise quality over quantity, fewer but better — finally came to be.
He has always been its most famous protagonist in recent history. He stretched it to the actual membership numbers of the ANC, arguing that majority of so-called ANC cadres in fact had no clue what the organisation is all about.
It was the growth of the gravy train — sins of incumbency owing to the ANC outright control of state power since 1994 to 2024 national and provincial elections.
With the advent of the GNU, the power sharing arrangement between the ANC and the other parties in the coalition, it appears that the staff riders have made for the hills. And genuine and real congressmen remain in place.
Display of discipline in the procedures
The high discipline of this NGC was even in the mannerism and general non-political conduct of the delegates.
There was less singing, but more robust debate and push and pull and trade-offs on the most matured manner ever seen in ANC national mass events in recent history.
Even unavoidable time delays were those that are normal and not extreme. But bringing the bells to go back to commissions would clear the open areas within 10 minutes.
It spoke to dedication, will and seriousness of the occasion and the fortitude of the participating delegates in the entirety.
The matter under discussion were weighty. But no delegate seemed unwilling or unable to comprehend with some comrades moving from one commission to the next within minutes.
Even known rabble rousers were properly humbled, for substance was the order of the day’s arguments.
Sanity prevailed in crucial decisions
A case in point would be the outcome of the emotionally charged debate on what to do with the SACP leaders who are also ANC leaders.
Going into the NGC, the general attitude, which was an emotional one lacking in political clarity and ideological discipline, was that SACP must be shown the door from the ANC-led alliance.
However, the final resolution stating that SACP comrades in ANC structures must recuse themselves from election strategy meetings while further engagements with SACP top brass on way forward was a stroke of a genius.
Inside the commissions, arguments were heated, and majority was for the aggressive approach of sending the SACP packing.
But the intellectual qualitative nature of the delegation, people were willing to be convinced otherwise by superior logic. And in the SACP question, superior logic emerged victorious.
Obviously, not all will be happy with the outcomes of the NGC in terms of the views they came to the gathering espousing.
Blueprint for revival
The NGC also happened under a broke ANC. But the strategy to choose delegates that mostly serve in the state and enabled to provide for themselves saved beleaguered treasurer-general Gwen Ramokgopa.
The event’s organising team, led by Mbalula, must be lauded for developing a blueprint of how to “make ANC great again” in keeping with the renewal agenda to take the party back to its glory day that would make its founding fathers smile from the graves.
Hopefully, in 2027 where new leaders and binding decisions will be taken, the same approach and formula can be followed.
Fewer, but better. The days of 5000-member delegates national conferences must be left in the old dark days.
Even ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa could help but praise the “high quality of debate” that characterised this NGC during his closing remarks.
