210213 Agang and Ramphele – a guest post by Millstein

Mamphela Ramphele has launched her political platform in Johannesburg. What are the implications for South Africa’s democracy?

After a period of speculation, Mamphela Ramphele launched her political platform called Agang  (“let’s build” in Sesotho) on February 18 and took a firm step onto the South African political arena. She invited all South Africans to “re-imagine the country of our dreams and to commit to building it into a reality in the lives of every South African.” It was a powerful message of faded dreams and government failure, but also of inciting new hope and dreams for the future. But Ramphele and her supporters have a long way to go to turn powerful visions and harsh critique of the ANC government into a viable political alternative.

Agang is the first serious initiative since COPE. COPE emerged after the ANC national congress in Polokwane in 2007 when Jacob Zuma ousted Thabo Mbeki, but failed to position itself as a legitimate alternative. Contrary to those who initiated COPE, Ramphele has not been involved in the ANC factional battles and has never been member of a political party. She is highly respected as an anti-apartheid activist, intellectual, and academic in South Africa and internationally. Ramphele has also been a critical voice against the ANC government and the developments under Jacob Zuma, and has advocated human rights and change through civil society activism. This is a good starting point for the political project. But Agang is also an initiative emerging from within the established elites. They face similar challenges to those COPE did in terms of building strong popular support and a sustainable organization that has sufficient legitimacy at the grassroots levels.

Ramphele needs to distinguish the Agang initiative from the governing party, as well as other opposition voices. Commenting on the ANC response, Greg Nicholson of the Daily Maverick writes that the party “…welcomed Mamphela Ramphele’s initiative like one an athlete addressing a rival, relishing the challenge but asserting dominance.”

The ANC criticized Ramphele for her lack of strategies. The ANC’s alliance partner COSATU rejected Agang and Ramphele’s speech as a manifesto for neo-liberalism similar to the Democratic Alliance (DA) – the main opposition party currently in power in Western Cape and Cape Town. Before the launch of Agang, there were speculations that Ramphele would join the DA. The DA has responded to Agang by saying that the values Ramphele emphasized were values that the DA has struggled to restore to South Africa’s political democracy for some time. This does not mean that the political strategies and solutions of Agang will be a blueprint of the DA, but this remains to be seen.

These responses from other political parties are not really surprising, but they raise critical questions: How will Agang position itself in relation to other opposition parties? As ANC pointed out, how exactly will Ramphele lead the country differently than the current government and what are Agang’s solutions to poverty, inequality, unemployment, and corruption? Ramphele insists that a concrete program will emerge through engagements with South African communities. But if they plan to run for the 2014 elections, Ramphele and her supporters might run out of time.

The media has reported that the opposition parties are thinking about challenging the ANC in the next elections under one umbrella. How will Agang position itself if this becomes the scenario? A party political system that reduces voters’ options to a choice to be “with us or against us” is not necessarily a step in the right direction. A political agenda built largely on opposition to the ANC government underestimates the underlying socioeconomic tensions in South African society. It fails to acknowledge that the ideologies and strategies of the main opposition parties are not necessarily representative of or progressive for the urban and rural poor. It reduces complex issues and grievances to a question of opposing those in state power, which will not bring the necessary diversification of the party political system. Ramphele will have trouble establishing a sustainable alternative if her policies boil down to being against the ANC government rather than pushing concrete issues.

The 2014 elections may come too soon for Agang to position itself as a viable alternative to the ANC or the DA. There is a possibility that Agang will tap into the DA’s constituency, in particular among those who vote “anything but the ANC” and has voted for the DA as the only party to provide the ANC with serious competition. But Ramphele and Agang could also make a substantial dent in the ANC’s electoral support and inflict serious damage where it “hurts the most – in the courts, at the feeding troughs, in the service delivery failures, the maladministration, the frauds, the lies and the chronicles of incompetence.” (Mandy de Waal in the Daily Maverick). At the same time it is important not to underestimate the continued legitimacy of the ANC and their capacity to negotiate various identities and issues to build and sustain support.

Agang may be a much-needed addition to South Africa’s party-political landscape, but changes in political allegiances and in the established elite’s actors will not necessarily bring the kind of transformative politics needed to deepen South Africa’s democracy.

Tags: Agang, anc government, politics, south africa