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Anatomy of the ANC in Power - Insights from Port Elizabeth, 1194-2019 (Paperback)
Loot Price: R351
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Anatomy of the ANC in Power - Insights from Port Elizabeth, 1194-2019 (Paperback)
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List price R450
Loot Price R351
Discovery Miles 3 510
You Save R99 (22%)
Expected to ship within 5 - 10 working days
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Endorsement In this study on the evolution of the ANC in Nelson
Mandela Bay (centred around the city of Port Elizabeth), Mcebisi
Ndletyana presents a cogent analysis of how a liberation movement
is impacted upon by transition into political office. The reader is
taken into the interplay among issues such as pedestrian efforts to
meet popular aspirations, organisational inertia and the impact of
personalities. Beyond 'the what' and 'the how', this book uniquely
delves into the reasons behind the ignominious decline of the ANC
in a region historically endowed with an excellent corps of cadres.
If 'sins of incumbency' may sound cliched, this book brings it to
life through an analysis of the greed of a political leadership
without scruples and the rapacious impact of procurement-based
capitalist class formation. The rot originates in ANC structures -
akin to suicidal conduct, even after electoral defeat. Ndletyana's
canvass may be local; but the lessons are universal. The book is as
much about the past as it is about future. -Joel Netshitenzhe,
Executive Director and Board Vice-Chairperson of the Mapungubwe
Institute for Strategic Reflection (MISTRA) South Africa's
governing party, the African National Congress (ANC), has undergone
dramatic changes over the last thirty years. Historically a hotbed
of political activism, Port Elizabeth is an illuminating site. In
2016, observers greeted with shock the ANC's loss of the city, one
of its crown jewels and a party stronghold. Yet, as this book shows
through its analysis of power and politics in Port Elizabeth, the
party's political decline was authored by its own hand. This book
studies the ANC at a local level over a 28-year period and informs
what is now playing out at a national level. The book traces four
stages that characterise the party's post-1990 life in Port
Elizabeth: rebuilding; ascension to political office; political
decline; and adaptation to new contexts where its power was lost or
is under threat. Ironically, the efforts to rebuild the ANC
post-unbanning lie at the root of the decline, because they were
misdirected. Buoyed to office by their party's heroic stature, the
book shows how some party leaders in Port Elizabeth abused power
for financial gain. A generally weak regulatory environment allowed
abuse to become endemic. Service delivery failed, and corrosion of
moral leadership set in. As the party failed to stem the morass,
internal democracy gave way to a strongman syndrome and the party
deteriorated into an instrument that provided access to, and
dispensed, patronage. Stunningly, electoral loss did not trigger
reforms. As the ANC battled to re-make itself outside of
government, some leaders even recruited the underworld to settle
contests and secure access to patronage. Port Elizabeth did not see
a 'new dawn'. This evidence-based book is an enthralling account of
how the ANC rebuilt itself into a governing organisation, but
failed to cohere into an institution of democracy, becoming instead
an amalgam of competing factions for patronage. Readers will judge
how much Port Elizabeth is a microcosm of the entire ANC.
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