Individuals often look to the ANC’s alliance partners for a sign of hope in terms of leadership, focus and decisiveness within the ruling elite of South Africa. This seems valid, as when compared to the ANC, these organisations generally speak with one voice and seem to draw logical conclusions when analysing specific events through their own ideological perspectives.
The above statements about the SACP and COSATU may be true, but ultimately mean nothing, as these organisations have very little say in the actual running of the country. They affect government policy not by adding to it, but by frustrating the few good ideas that come from the executive. The involvement of the alliance partners in the ANC merely stalls the formulation and promulgation of government policy. Government often chooses to ignore problems, as solutions to said problems are likely to contradict the policies of either or both alliance partners. A youth wage subsidy type scheme could serve as a good example here. The government would for the moment much rather ignore youth unemployment than upset COSATU, thus no real or new plan is made to deal with the issue and the status quo remains.
The truth of the matter is that none of the three organisations can make a decisive policy move without contradicting another. Real policies that would improve the lives of ordinary South Africans can never be agreed upon as a result of core ideological differences between the groups, therefore the groups feign parity by busying themselves with pointless and often abstract endeavours such as the renaming of cities and streets, vague statements regarding white power, and of course, the latest gimmick, editing the national anthem. These ideas do not add to the quality of life of the country’s citizens.
This innate incompatibility between the groups in so far as working together in an alliance eventually leads all of the groups to be stuck in the same doldrums of inaction, maintaining the status quo of endemic corruption, increasing unemployment and growing discontent among its followers which would eventually lead the opposition to power. Vavi’s glorious words are ultimately impotent as he cannot put them into action, he seems like a good leader, but ultimately he leads nothing, as he still has to abide by the ANC’s rule. He talks tough on corruption, but he can never put these words into action, as this would probably lead to him imprisoning some of his comrades from the ruling elite. His words are essentially hollow. If he were a good leader fighting for workers’ rights he would support innovative policies from opposition parties too.
The SACP and COSATU ultimately serve to pacify the workers and the radical elements respectively; they make their members believe that they have influence on South African governmental policy, when in fact, they have none, other than to frustrate it and slow it down. The three alliance members ultimately castrate each other by taking away from each other what makes them strong as individual organisations; the result is a weak and timid collective. The tripartite alliance is a pre-election publicity exercise on a good day and another downgrade by a ratings agency on a bad day.
Charl Linde