Part 6: If You Feel the NDC Ruling Was UNFAIR

In the penultimate part of my open letter to members of the ANCYL, I look at the options open to Youth League members who have come to the conclusion that the ANC Disciplinary Committee’s ruling on ANCYL leaders was unfair. (To comment on the letter, please go to its first part.)

Supporters of Julius Malema at the World Festival of Youth and Students in Johannesburg last year.

You’ve looked at the facts, considered the different opinions on the issue and you’ve come to the conclusion that it’s possible for a political party and one of its sub-sections to operate independently of each other, and to publicly pursue conflicting goals.

You’re satisfied that it’s OK for the YL to unilaterally change the parts of its constitution which determine its relationship with the mother body (you know, the body that calls the shots and holds the purse strings?) and that the mother body will accept those changes at some point before hell freezes over.

Finally, you feel that it makes sense to develop far-reaching economic policy, like a blueprint for nationalisation, without the input of… er… economists.

Now all that remains to be done is to look at the options for ridding yourself of the “harmful” label that the ANC NDC has bestowed on you through the rubbishing of your leaders.

Here they are again:

1. Terminate your membership of the ANC.
2. Prove that the ANC made a mistake in labelling as harmful the leadership you’ve mandated to lead the YL.
3. Redeem yourself by dissociating yourself publicly from everything which that label represents.

It means that for the moment you can relax: the YL NEC is pursuing option 2 on your behalf so they – and you – are in the process of disputing the negative label.  You don’t accept being called names by the ANC NDC – you’re appealing.

Chances of success

As you probably know, the chances are close to zero that the ANC’s Appeals Committee will overturn the ruling – the ANC simply can’t afford to have sustained “friendly fire” from the YL aimed at the home base.  In the light of the combative stance taken by the YL NEC after the ruling, there may in fact not even be a token lightening of the sentences.

That leaves an intervention by the ANC NEC as the last resort for getting the NDC ruling overturned until the National Conference (the supreme authority in the ANC, as you will know) in Mangaung in December next year.  And I believe that if you expect help for the YL’s top leadership from the majority of the ANC NEC, you’re sorely mistaken.

Most NEC members can’t be happy with the local and international loss of prestige of the ANC (and by extension their own prestige) in the wake of the YL leadership’s antics.  One or two of the main supporters of the sanctioned members may speak out in their favour, but at this stage even they may be eager to put a bit of distance between themselves and the YL (at least those who have not burnt their bridges yet).

In terms of public relations, support for individual politicians from the discredited League can’t be too welcome right at the moment – when YL NEC members sing “Motlanthe pray for us”, for example, he’s more likely to be doing the opposite.  So there’s little incentive to help bail out the discredited YL leaders, simple as that.

After the appeal process

As we’ve seen, Messrs. Malema and Shivambu will in all likelihood find themselves outside the ANC after the ruling by the Appeals Committee, while the rest of the top leadership will have suspended sentences hanging over their heads.

That’s a very different situation from the one in which President Zuma performed his Lazarus manoeuvre after his sacking as deputy president of the country in 2005.

Think about it for a moment: Is there any way in which you can bring yourself to the conclusion that Mr. Malema will be able to effectively lobby for power in the ANC from outside the ANC ahead of Mangaung?

And can you imagine a situation like the one described in Mr. Shivambu’s ‘We’re leaders of ANCYL until 2014’?  Do you think the ANC can afford to allow something like that?  And can the YL survive for a day if the ANC withdraws recognition from the body, should push really come to shove?

The ANC holds all the aces and the YL NEC’s protestations increasingly sound like desperate bleating.

Your situation after the appeal

You will find yourself in an awkward position: the leaders that you’ve elected and supported and who were mandated to speak on your behalf would in all likelihood have either been suspended from the ANC or would have suspended sentences hanging over their heads for serious transgressions against the party, a ruling with which you don’t agree.  And you won’t be rid of the “harmful to the ANC and SA” label with which the ruling branded you as a YL member.  Bummer.

Your only honourable option will be to terminate your membership of the ANC – what kind of a clown would want to cling to a party that has unfairly branded her/him as harmful to the interests of the party and country?

Next, the final part

In the final part of my open letter, I look at the last option for getting rid of the “harmful” label: Redeeming yourself by dissociating yourself publicly from everything which that label represents.