The ANC held a special national executive committee meeting this week to discuss how the party intends to reform and turn around its electoral fortunes. The aftermath of the meeting brought with it a sense of déjà vu.
The party declared that it would begin focusing on developing its members, branches and leaders through introducing a foundational political course which every member would have to take. New members would be “screened”, through writing a motivational letter explaining their reasons for wanting to become a member. It also wants every branch of the ANC to take up the struggles and challenges of the communities in which they live.
All of this was familiar. It was exactly 12 years ago that the ANC declared the “decade of the cadre” — in itself a throwback to 1985, which then party president Oliver Tambo declared the “year of the cadre”.
The decade of the cadre was adopted at the ANC’s Mangaung conference in 2012 when former president Jacob Zuma was elected to lead the party and the country for a second term. It was meant to be a period of renewal of the organisation, through developing each individual “member” of the ANC into a “cadre”.
Then secretary-general Gwede Mantashe explained that there was a difference — the cadre was “competent, committed, conscientious and disciplined, one who also got involved with the struggles of their communities”.
The ANC effectively repackaged a decade-old policy in a bid to reform the organisation, which failed between 2012 and 2022. If its 17 percentage point decline in electoral support does not force it to make it work this time around, nothing will.
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