Zille banks on ANC verligtes

2008-07-23 08:39

Michael Hamlyn

Cape Town - Helen Zille, the leader of the Democratic Alliance and mayor of Cape Town, said on Tuesday the African National Congress was divided - as the National Party once was - between the verligtes and the verkramptes (liberals and ultra conservatives).

At times, the National Party "seemed monolithic and invincible, destined to continue its oppressive rule into perpetuity", said Zille in a lecture at Witwatersrand University Law School.

"Towards the end, it tried to pretend it was a united party, but, in fact, it was deeply divided between the verligtes, who wanted to reform apartheid and possibly even to end it, and the verkramptes who wanted to continue its cruel farce.

Broedertwis (internal fighting) divided their ranks.

"The ANC, after only 14 years, is showing the same schism. It also is divided between its verligtes, who support constitutional rule, and its verkramptes, who want to subordinate the constitution to the pursuit of power.

Broedertwis has been replaced with Comrade-twis."

Zille told her audience that this was a time of peril, and she asked: "Did we in South Africa make the transition to constitutionalism too quickly to understand its significance?

Fundamental disdain

Will it therefore decline as quickly as it evolved? The signs are not encouraging."

She drew attention again to remarks of ANC president Jacob Zuma which pointed to a fundamental disdain for the Constitution.

"He has said openly the ANC is more important than the Constitution and that 'once you begin to feel you are above the ANC, you are in trouble'," she said.

She added: "If Zuma is found guilty of corruption and given a sentence of more than 12 months, it will prevent his becoming the next president.

"His supporters are determined to remove this obstacle, by whatever means it takes, because for them the ends justify the means."

Understanding power

Zille pointed out that almost every liberation movement had gone the same way after attaining power.

"The simple reason is this," she said. "Liberation struggles are about attaining power. Constitutional democracy is about limiting power.

"Very few activists who have engaged in liberation struggles understand this distinction, and they, therefore, cannot make the transition to the next stage of development.

"They equate their own power with the revolution. Anyone who limits their power is therefore counter-revolutionary. Of course, the opposite is, in fact, true.

"As soon as most struggle heroes attain power, they tend to betray the values that motivated their liberation struggle in the first place, because they cannot come to terms with limiting their own power - a precondition for constitutionalism."

She said that she was painting a gloomy picture, and did believe there were serious threats to our constitutional rule.

Fundamental re-alignment

"But I am not gloomy," she insisted. "In the very schisms and tumults of our politics, there is great hope."

Zille said that politics in South Africa was already going through a fundamental re-alignment, largely unseen, and this cut right through the middle of the ANC.

She added that she knows there are many constitutionalists in the ANC who have more in common with the DA than they do with the anti- constitutionalists in their own party.

Politics are re-defining themselves around the constitution.

The fundamental divide in the ANC is about whether you support the constitution (even if you do not believe it is perfect) or whether you are prepared to push it aside if it obstructs your path to power and personal advantage.

"Professor Kader Asmal of the ANC has recently published a declaration in defence of the constitution and invited South Africans to sign it. I have done so. So have Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Ronnie Kasrils, Mosiuoa Lekota and Ben Turok", she said.

Democrats in ANC the biggest obstacles

"We have to bring party formations in line with the new reality, the real political divisions of our time.

"The biggest barrier to this process is the democrats in the ANC who believe their party is redeemable. It is not.

Zille claimed that among the turbulence and clamour in the ANC now, amid the purging of provincial premiers and the thinly veiled menaces to the judiciary and the growling of unscrupulous men hungry for power, there was unprecedented opportunity to re-shape the politics of South Africa for the better.

"There is a chance to break up the present, rather-sterile party alignments," she said, "and replace them with parties that represent issues and ideas rather than races or traditions".

- I-Net Bridge (News24)