Back in the struggle days, delineations were political. The regime stood for racism; the white opposition for deracialised capitalism. There were the black consciousness people, the non-racial ANC, the workerists in the unions, and the commies who believed in delaying socialist revolution for a national democratic one. Politics was easy to explain.
But it’s been hard in the past three years to discern any such ideological trends behind the shenanigans around the succession contest.
Yes, it’s not insignificant that the unions don’t like the Mbeki-Manuel-Mboweni economic policies. Likewise, the communists.
They do fancy Jacob Zuma — but this is a person who has given not a single indication that he stands for anything different to the MMM axis. And within the “left”, there’s also an unseemly tiff over the whereabouts of dubious donations. Money, it seems, is stealing a march on historical materialism. Which makes one wonder: Does their position have anything to do with ideological principles?
The ANC Youth League also likes JZ — but this is a formation whose only problem with the government’s economic policy is that its generation wants in on the capitalist spoils hitherto concentrated among the usual suspects in the BEE elite. It’s not like its position is based on any different ideology to Mbeki’s.
What this suggests is that the existing political camps have little to do with principle and ideological perspective. Instead, they have everything to do with aspirations and grievances far narrower than different underlying class or race interests. But if current groupings are then based on opportunistic allegiance, such shifting sands could see relatively easy realignment.
Further, if present politics is effectively detached from ideological differences, then we’re reduced to a less than glamorous spectacle of a squabble among self-interested “pragmatic” elites. It means we can’t look to Marxist analysis to explain today’s politicos — it’s more like Michels’s Iron Law of Oligarchy. Ouch.
A prince with dignity and determination
Prince Ngarambe’s goals are to become Rwanda’s first transgender model and to uplift the country’s youth
The EFF’s principles are unshakeable
Unlike the ANC, the core values of the freedom fighters do not change with each leader it elects
