A quick fix for ANC faction fights: Let’s talk about succession plans

The emergence of factions and jostling for leadership – especially in the run-up to national elective conferences – are nothing new in the mass democratic movement.

Following its unbanning in the ’90s – and in preparation for the ANC’s first national elective conference in South Africa in 1991 – former President Thabo Mbeki faced a challenge from former SA Communist Party general secretary Chris Hani.

In a battle for becoming Nelson Mandela’s deputy, both Mbeki and Hani had very strong credentials.

But it was Mandela’s anointment of Mbeki as his successor – following a consensus reached with the ANC High Command and other structures like the ANC Youth League – that the leadership path was clear for Mbeki.

If this was not a succession plan, then what is it in a political sense?

After the Mbeki presidency, the ANC has been frothed with factional battles in the runup to elective conferences, sometimes turning chaotic, as we have seen with the ANC Mpumalanga elective conference.

Attending last week’s three-day National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) 17th national congress brought the issue of a succession plan to the fore, with veteran trade unionist and former NUM general secretary Archie Pilane advocating for succession planning as the answer to the jostling for power in the 40-year-old union.

Throwing the cat among the pigeons in an interview on the sidelines of the congress that saw almost all leadership positions contested, Pilane came out against what he called “a congress of slates” that, according to him, should be avoided.

Said Pilane: “While you may find this happening in the NUM and in any other unions, what is missing in the mass democratic movement is the need to transit from the struggle days to a democratic dispensation.

“We need to be talking about succession plans.

“The succession plan is the one that is going to alleviate this contestation every now and then – averting a situation where people come up with this slate, others with that slate.

“It becomes a congress of slates – no longer a congress of a particular programme of action in line with the mission and the vision of the union.”

Intellectuals Victor Mkhabela and Walter Mahlomola Segage – both ANC members in Mpumalanga – long made their views clear on succession to avert a bruising battle and disunity.

In tracing the history of succession planning in the ANC as far back as the organisation’s 1953 national conference held in Queenstown, Mkhabela and Segage had gone back to when Oliver Tambo was elected secretary to cover for Walter Sisulu, who was then banned from political activity.

“Succession planning became visible after the 1958 Durban conference when, in anticipation of possible arrests of the leadership, Tambo was elected deputy president-general and also mandated to secretly go into exile and establish the ANC’s international diplomatic mission.

“This decision was then reaffirmed and codified during the Lubatse consultative conference in 1962.

“From these conferences, it can be seen that the movement had already eyed Tambo and several others for bigger responsibilities and began preparing them as such.

“Tambo himself began preparing and nurturing a new cohort of future leaders, for both the movement and a liberated South Africa immediately after Morogoro consultative conference.

“This pattern continued into the late ’70s.”

Are we seeing the bucking of the trend?

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