A discussion paper about the COPE Elective Congress on policy and leadership
COPE cannot go to its conference and emerge with more of the same leadership and current draft policies if it hopes to be taken seriously. As branches and regions begin to nominate leadership, it is heartening to see that sense is beginning to prevail to prepare the party for a fresh start.
The heated beginning of the political calendar early this year, with the bold move by the COPE youth to call things pretty much by their names when it came to the lethargy of our founding year ignited a much needed debate in COPE about what needs to be done to salvage this important project of building an alternative government . That aside, it is clear every day that passes, COPE needs to treat the upcoming conference as a golden opportunity to reinvent itself both in policy and in the projection of the kind of leadership that will re inspire the South African people.
If COPE emerges with anything that resembles the current CNC it can kiss its political fortunes goodbye. There is a need for conference to make a radical overhaul of that leadership in order to ready COPE to govern this country in the not so distant future starting with the crucial local government elections in 2011.
On the policy front there has been some interesting side discussions in COPE about the ideology that we want to be known by and the new political culture we need to establish especially discussions about establishing ourselves as a modern party. Both of these imperatives are yet to be clearly defined. These stand out and shout for attention because indeed we are battling so far to say whether we are fish or foul in the ideological stakes. One day we wake up with a term progressivism another we have strategists coming up with what can only be found in the das kapital about how economic redistribution must happen.
Even on national questions such as affirmative action we bite our lower lip instead of being unequivocal. This ideological hiatus cripples our ability to enter public discourse meaningfully and the bus of whatever is remaining of public discourse in South African is not waiting for us to get our act together. In my view one thing is clear: that we need to confirm that we are a social democratic party and stop any further confusion with encrypted ideological messaging. The rest frankly the voters couldn’t be bothered. God knows what percent of ANC supporters or even members checked on the encyclopedia what a broad church means before they went out in their millions to vote for the ANC.
I am certain even if you asked their latest recruit honourable Odendaal she will be hard pressed to explain after her wake from self confessed naivety nap, what the ANC really ideologically stands for. Ideology whose dictionary meaning is ‘a set of doctrines or beliefs that form the basis of a political, economic, or other system’ – is really something that parties must do to clarify for themselves how they will package their appeal to voters – but frankly the electorate can’t be bothered by what amounts to slogans. All people need is inspiration and hope.
COPE has to translate the slogans of change and hope into something else that will give our people a sense of a new beginning. So this ideological clarity will tell people what COPE will do about the collapsing education and health systems, what it will do about the industrial policy that is battling to be born – what it will do about jobs and the declining economy. These things are what will make people stand up and take note – not big ideological words and grand schemes of veiled nationalization of mines banks or other SOE’s.
If COPE dabbles into being happy to articulate things that only its members understands and fail to link these to bread and butter issues that the masses of voters can relate with – it may as well exit the political stage on the basis of failure to be relevant. So far the policy drafts have not produced anything fantastically new and time is not on our side as the conference is ticking close.
This matter of inspiration brings me back to the second and crucial question of leadership. COPE has to elect a new leadership core if it is serious about recapturing the hearts and minds of South Africans. Such a leadership has to embrace the fact that COPE cannot and must not seek to emulate the ANC in any shape or form. That leadership must prepare to govern this land differently.
It is encouraging to learn of the fury with which a draft constitution was thrown out by the COPE leadership recently and suspended because ‘it looked like a replica of the ANC constitution’. But it is not enough to reject a piece of paper and then carry into the new organization the habits of the ANC and then act all surprised when the slip shows. We have to be serious about creating a new beginning. Something that people can recognize and see as new.
A culture of a political party that is modern and on the cutting edge must begin with the leadership that we will elect in May. If we don’t elect a leadership that can be in it for the long haul, young and dynamic, visionary and organized, we must not expect the result of such an election to be a modern party. The leadership that COPE must elect must be able to give a sense of confidence through their diverse leadership experience across the society that they are indeed ready to build a new South Africa and ready to embrace all South Africans regardless of their race and creed. They must be competent, full of integrity and must be servant leaders not kings.
While one is not advocating a mass purge – we have to be the change that we profess and give birth to a new beginning. Anything less than a new beginning will spell a disaster for us at the polls.
In a democratic organization we should now start to say who our preferred leaders to tackle these challenges are without being labeled factional. Elections by their very nature are bout choosing one leader over another for the sake of our organization let us embrace their competitive nature and stop the sickening conspiracy theories about having preferences.
I know who I will back to represent a renewal of COPE and that new beginning. Let the debate intensify now so that we do not cry over spilled milk after the May conference when we end up with a leadership that will be seen as new wine into old wine skins. The bible suggests that that would be somewhat undrinkable. It goes on to say in the book of Luke: ”And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the new wine will burst the skins and will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins.” Given the daily incompetence of the ruling party, South Africa is hungry for a fresh and new COPE.
A new beginning has to be found through a dynamic ideology and policy framework as well as a young and vibrant leadership that represents the kind of future we want for our country instead of the nostalgia of the places we have left behind.
Tabane is Political Advisor to COPE Parliamentary Leader. He writes in his personal capacity. This is a paper he released for internal debate in COPE about the upcoming elective conference.
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