27/09/2017
MAQABANE LET US WAKE UP TO:
DIVIDE AND RULE\ CONQUER STRATEGY BY COUNTER- REVOLUTIONARY FORCES (CHAMPIONED BY OPPOSITION PARTIES) AND PRIORITIZE ALLIANCE UNITY TO DEFEAT OUR MAIN ENEMY (Lejwe ANC Article 2: September 2017)
ANC Lejweleputswa Regional Working Committee (RWC), resolved to initiate an engagement between ANC REC Officials and the Alliance Partners, specifically to deliberate on issues relating to Unity and Cohesion. As the ANC celebrates the centenary of the ANC longest serving President, O.R Tambo, it remains relevant to recall with clarity his words during the 60th Anniversary of the South African Communist Party, when he indicated that“ Our alliance is a living organism that has grown out of struggle”.
Meaning that it has been giving comrades strength and confidence in the certainty of dealing with challenges facing the alliance, and therefore the strategic relationship between the ANC and the alliance partners, is not an accident of history, it has been a process of building the unity of all progressive and democratic forces in South Africa through united and unified action, assisted by and supported by the tried and tested leadership of revolutionaries of high stature. To be honest with history, we must concede that there have been difficulties, as well as triumphs along the path, as, traversing many decades, ANC and Alliance Partners have converge towards a shared strategy of the struggle.
For years ANC and Alliance partners have been able to agree on fundamental strategies and tactical positions, whilst remaining separate identities, and history confirms that we are a powerful force because these interdependent organizations are mutually reinforcing and that within our revolutionary alliance each organization has a distinct and vital role to play. There has always been correct understanding of these roles, and respect for their boundaries has ensured the survival and consolidation of our cooperation and unity. Of course, Maqabane, we need to WAKE UP to the fact that it has never suited our enemy that we club all the oppressed and exploited together, and that it is better for the enemy that this vast majority be split to serve their interests and strategy. Comrades the strategy being utilized against us is called “Divide and Rule \ Conquer Strategy”.
This strategy is often applied in the arenas of politics, where one power breaks another power into smaller, more manageable pieces, and then takes control of those pieces one by one.
Fact of the matter is that it generally takes a very strong power to implement this strategy; in order to successfully break up another power or government, the conqueror must have access to strong political, military, and or economic power. Comrades, this is what we are faced with, as we fight to eliminate one another, the real enemy continues advancing! The elements of this technique are identified as follows:
- Creating or encouraging divisions among the comrades to prevent alliances that could successfully push together for Radical Economic Transformation in South Africa.
- Aiding and promoting those who will be willing to cooperate with anti- revolutionaries.
- Fostering distrust and enmity among alliance partners,
- Making it impossible for alliance partners to work together, by causing rivalries (through creation of certain well researched, calculated, believable narratives) and fomenting discord among the people.
- Gaining and maintaining power by breaking up large concentrations of power into pieces that individually have less power than the one implementing the D\R Strategy.
- Cause confusion in the enemy camp, and get them to be at each other’s throats so they pay less attention to fighting you (or striving for RET).
- D|R Strategist do spend time with some young members of the targeted camp and touch on how the ideas of bright young people are being ignored by their superiors / Talk about how one person is more successful than another / offer solutions in terms of how one within a targeted camp will win internal battles / they offer talks that are designed for the targeted listeners, to consolidate belief in their calculated narrative.
The use of this technique is meant to empower anti-revolutionaries to control factions within the targeted force or alliance, who collectively will be able to advance RET. This relates to Art of War, where a captain should ensure with every art to divide the forces of the enemy, either by making Leader\s of targeted camp\s, to be suspicious of each other, provide a calculated cause that they have to separate their forces, and by so doing playing into the hands of D\R Strategist, because after separation they shall have become weaker.
Malcolm once in 1964 described how the D|R Strategy of colonialism was used against black people in America: “The greatest weapon that the colonial powers have used in the past against our people has always been Divide and Conquer…Plays one Negro leader against the other…one Negro organization against the other…makes us think we have different goals. As soon as one Negro says something, she runs to this Negro and asks him… What do you think about what he said?...Why anybody can see through that today ---except some of the Negro Leaders.” This kind of political maneuvering only becomes effective if the leaders of targeted power have inflated egos and delusions of grandeur and these leaders allow themselves to be influenced by the anti-revolutionary powers.
It is a known among political scientists that economic powerful forces seek to gain control of pre-existing social and political institutions so they can usurp their powers. They mainly use their overwhelming influence over their mainstream media outlets and political candidates in very clever ways to divide us.
At times the Economic Elites gain control of organizations or political parties, because they know that hardworking South African people loyally follow these organizations and make them belief that their organizations are working for them, while they have been seized by foreign powers, and greed addicted interests.
The Divide and Conquer Strategy has been widely used throughout history: Both the Roman Empire and the British played small tribes and groups against one another in order to control their lands and territories. It was utilized by Romans when they conquered Britain; when British Empire conquered India and when the Anglo-Normans took Ireland. D\R Strategy was extremely used by foreign countries in many parts of Africa during colonial and post-colonial period: German and Belgium ruled Rwanda and Berundi in a colonial capacity by dividing and placing members of the already dominant Tusti minority in positions of power and the socioeconomic divide between Tutsis and Hutus continued after independence and was a major factor in the Rwandan Genocide. Furthermore during British rule of Nigeria from 1900 to 1960, the conflict between the Igbo and Hausa made it easier for the British to consolidate their power in the region.
As the socially engineered tactic, the D\R strategy continues to have a massive controlling effect on a deceived populace as they argue, never join the dots, and never see the bigger picture, and never realize how they are being played by distraction. Suzy Kassem confirms in her search that when British invaded India, many Indians accepted to work for the British to kill Indians who resisted their occupation, meaning that many Indians were hired to kill other Indians on behalf of the enemy for a paycheck.
Today, we have mercenaries in Africa, corporate armies from the western world, and unemployed men throughout the Middle East killing their own people for a paycheck. Therefore to act without a conscience, but for a paycheck, makes anyone a dangerous animal. The devil will be powerless if he couldn’t entice people to do his work, and Winston Churchill confirmed that “When there is no enemy within, the enemies outside cannot hurt you.” So as long as money continues to seduce the hungry, the hopeless, the broken, the greedy, and the needy, there will always be war between brothers, and therefore it is up to the brothers to deflate their egos and see the bigger picture, and declare their indissoluble unity.
ANC and Alliance partners under trying circumstances should be able concentrate all their energies and resources into consolidating their independence, furthering economic development and promoting social change. Comrades need to remind themselves, that the objective of our struggle in South Africa, as set out in the Freedom Charter, encompasses economic emancipation.
Therefore inconceivable for liberation to have meaning without a return of the wealth of the country to the people as a whole., and As OR puts it “ To allow the existing economic forces to retain their interests is to feed the roots of racial supremacy and exploitation, and does not even the shadow of our liberation.
Therefore a fundamental feature of our Counter Strategy to D \ R tactic, must embrace more than formal political democracy and focus on our drive towards national emancipation, which must include Radical Economic Transformation:
- Returning Land to our people and supporting Land reform.
- Effect Socio-Economic Transformation, reduce inequality, and deracialize the economy.
- Target higher growth rate, combined with structural reforms, leading to reduced unemployment, and promote increased active economic participation by a larger proportion of South Africa Population.
- Dismantling monopoly structures and practices, and emphasizing on black ownership of land and economy.
- Re-industrializing South Africa’s economy
For us to achieve the above mentioned and objectives elaborated in the Freedom Charter, we need to work together and consolidate further our alliance and ensure its maximum effectiveness. OR Tambo confirmed that it is only as a united force that we can move forward, and it is as a united people that we shall be victorious. He further argued that we must recall and acclaim our history, but more importantly, we must use the past to arm ourselves for the future: to learn lessons and to strengthen our resolve and commitment. ANC and Alliance partners must not forget that their strength is in uniting the people of South Africa, and that is consequently a prime target of the enemy.
In realizing and regaining our unity and strength we need to be more creative, but not necessarily adversarial and therefore win-win engagement strategies are meant to uncover and accept all of the interests on the table and design options that will appeal to all of the interests. Meaning that comrades we cannot make an interest common or uncommon, but we can design an option that satisfies the interests, much like a tailor wouldn’t try to adjust the body of his customer, but cut the suit to suit the customer. In suggesting this engagement technique of ANC and Alliance partners, it is with realization that different parties may come to table with different interests that may fall into three categories: of being Common; Different or Conflicting. It is our proposal as ANC that:
(i) We talk less (zero) for now about our conflicting and different interests or understanding or positions and beliefs (these will be ironed out once we shall have maintained our political power in 2019, to continue advance the second phase of the transition from apartheid colonialism to a national democratic society, which should be characterized by decisive action to effect economic transformation and democratic consolidation (as resolved at the ANC’s 53rd NC, in Manguang in 2012.
(ii) Let us leverage the fact that ANC and Alliance partners want the same thing and that we can work out how we can both lay a path to the outcomes we want (Eradicate triple scourge of Unemployment, Poverty and Inequality; Increase State-led Infrastructure Investments; Implement NDP; transform mining sector; Promote youth employment; Developmental State with technical and Political Capacity; Maintain Macroeconomic Policy Framework etc).
Comrades we made trenchant observations around the ideal of a politics of consent and compromise. Therefore we have identified that there are two primary mindsets in politics and that is – The uncompromising mindset and the compromising mindset. Meaning that:
- The uncompromising mindset would refer to comrades who stand firmly on their positions and refuse to recognize that they may have been other undesirable visible or invisible variables that might have led to where we are today (being at loggerheads), hence we say let us WAKE to D \R Strategy . We further note that in these comrades’ conception, the uncompromising mindset has two elements, that are “principled Tenacity” and “Mutual Mistrust”. Principled tenacity rests on assumption that politicians are always supposed to have deep moral principles about things like justice and fairness, and they should fight for them. While mutual mistrust is characterized by the assumption that their perceived opponents are motivated mainly by a desire to defeat them and their principles and this leads to cynicism which puts focus on motives of politicians to require a process of compromise, because compromises are easier to condemn and resist.
- The comprising mindset: refers to the mindset of governing, since reaching solutions in a democracy almost always requires some compromise, and it has also two elements, ie: “Principle Prudence” and “Mutual Respect”. Principled prudence is based on a pragmatic recognition that compromise is usually necessary in a democracy to accomplish anything of significance, and mutual respect is the assumption that even if political opponents may have ulterior motives, they are still capable of negotiating in good faith and for what they think is right and that they are acting on principle.
Comrades we need to be reminded that the period to the 1969 Morogoro Consultative Conference was a period of unhappiness for our Movement. Leadership discussed issues frankly and in a comradely manner and showed great willingness to address and resolve matters, and the result the ANC emerged from the conference much stronger and more united. The order was vivid to our leaders and it was that they should “Close Ranks”, and therefore the success of our revolution depended on showing unity.
Now it is the time that leadership of our movement, like Comrade O R Tambo, must be inspired by the spirit of unity, and that we must realize that we pursue our revolution in conditions that are not of our own making.
The fact of the matter is that these conditions impact on our ability to attain our goals, and therefore we need to conquer motivated forgetting that results in us ignoring the fact that ideological and political clarity is a necessary prerequisite for any revolution to succeed.
It becomes compelling for the ANC and its Alliance Partners to have unity of purpose and display unity in action in advancing the NDR and concentrate on radical economic transformation and ensure that people become more prosperous. We must not loose focus when it comes to our commitment in growing the economy, creating jobs and returning land to our people.
Proposal\s going forward, the ANC and Alliance partners In Lejweleputswa ANC Region, should consider:
- Re-launching their working relations by together developing a Programme of Action (POA), aimed at:
(i) Consolidating Unity between ANC and Alliance partners’ supporters. Creating platforms for diverting the energies of our people and our leadership from constant and complex factional quarrels eating into the vitals of our movement’s unity and stability, to manifestation of and support of organizational unity.
(ii) Intensifying political strategies for implementation of the second phase of the transition from Apartheid colonialism, which is characterized by decisive action to effect Economic Transformation and Democratic consolidation.
(iii) Coming up with Waking Up Programme\s (WUP) to the fact that our disunity has led to many undesirable invasions in our organization that are operating as divisive instruments with one goal only and that is to make us all WEAK.
“LET US DEVELOP A UNITY-PROMOTING PROGRAMME BEHIND WHICH WE SHALL UNITE ANC AND ALLIANCE PARTNERS”
AMANDLA ……..
CDE: SIPHO MANESE
REC Member
