ANC targets those with real power in civil society

By Anthony Butler

IF THE Democratic Alliance (DA) performs poorly in next week’s national and provincial elections, we are likely to hear a familiar litany of complaints. State resources, we will be told, were abused to smooth the African National Congress’s (ANC’s) path to victory. ANC-aligned businesses channelled financial resources to the party. Government departments distributed clothing, food parcels and blankets at ANC rallies. State agencies launched pro-government campaigns. And the state broadcaster blocked opposition advertising.

These (broadly accurate) accusations will inevitably culminate in a lament about African voters: "they" just do not seem to know when they are being taken for a ride by corrupt ANC leaders.

A discomforting alternative explanation for poor DA performance will be less enthusiastically entertained: that its middle-class strategists understand the psycho-babble of US political consultancy but have little idea how to campaign in their own country.

In the intellectual universe of the DA, "civil society partners" are usually envisaged as Swedish-funded nongovernmental organisations, windy Anglican archbishops and feisty legal activists seeking constitutional solutions to political problems.

The ANC, by contrast, knows where real power lies in civil society: among traditional leaders, happy to exchange their influence for land and money; among public-sector trade union leaders, keen to trade their organisational muscle for political patronage; among black business people, resentful at the slow pace of empowerment; and among conservative pastors, whose black Mercedes-Benzes shuttle between aircraft-hangar churches and suburban mansions.

The liberation movement connects its own foot soldiers to these partners in order to turn voting-age citizens into ANC voters.

The ANC campaign, which started as early as May last year, has had four long phases titled Laying the Foundations, Back to the People, Mayihlome ("prepare for battle"), and Siyanqoba ("we are winning"). In the earlier stages, the movement focused on getting identity documents to potential voters — especially to farm workers, domestic workers, and young people. "The ANC", one election manual explained, "must work with Home Affairs to organise that mobile units come to communities".

Branches were told to link up with school principals in order to bring registration vans into school grounds, to encourage election debates, and to host "voter education" drives. Activists asked shopkeepers to put up posters in their shops. Staff at clinics, pay points, and police stations, were enjoined to encourage their clients to get identity documents and to register. The ANC identified key points for outreach, even in "formerly white areas", such as parks, garages and churches. Stokvels and burial societies distributed pamphlets. And some branches persuaded taxi drivers to play ANC tapes in their vehicles.

Activists and senior leaders alike were tasked with talking to church congregations. On Easter Sunday, while President Jacob Zuma was praying devoutly with the Universal Church at Ellis Park Stadium, his pious deputy, Cyril Ramaphosa, was in spiritual communion with the Tamil Community and Tirano Church in De Deur. God-fearing ANC national chairwoman Baleka Mbete was twice immersed in spiritual waters, at the Change Bible Church in Katlehong and the Bantu Church of Christ in Port Elizabeth.

ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe, for his part, aptly attended the Jerusalem Church of Repentance in Midvaal. He told journalists in March that all ANC activists must attend church services as part of their political duties. He also observed that the will of God explains why the ANC is in government. This is a claim fact checkers will find hard to refute.

The ANC’s emphasis, this time as in previous elections, has been on synergistic partnerships with civil society, face-to-face interactions, the targeting of reluctant supporters, and a huge election-day door-knocking drive. The DA, by contrast, has relied on mass and social media communication. We will learn by the end of next week if the ANC’s approach continues to be more successful.