How the ANC Youth League lost its soul to the White Monopoly Capital: Can the ANC still be saved after losing its spine to the White Monopoly Capital?
[Side Note: In 1949 the ANC was yanked from the belly of the White Monopoly Capital by its Youth League through the Program of Action (POA), conceptualised by the likes of Anton Lembede (who died before its implementation two years earlier in 1947), Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Oliver Tambo and Robert Sobukwe. The same year, the Indian-Zulu war broke out in Durban; Anton Lembede's birth place. The Program of Action machinery was now grinding...
This Youth League, founded in 1944, would repeat the same feat in 1955 when it boycotted for four years and rejected the resolutions of the proverbial 1955 National Conference, which had adopted the Freedom Charter as the ANC blueprint, until it defected from the ANC through the leadership of Sobukwe to form the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania in 1959.
These young radicals’ main grievance was one: “Some of the resolutions adopted in the 1955 congress of the people were not adopted by the Branches, nor were they endorsed by ANC President at the time Albert Luthuli, but had been pushed through the window, through some sleight of hand by Jewish agents of White Capital infiltrated inside the Communist Party for this purpose.”
Luthuli would go on and make a statement in the media denying his involvement in the adoption of the Freedom Charter as ANC blueprint. He also claimed he was not fully aware of what transpired during the Congress because he arrived at the last minute, thus he wouldn’t endorse something he knew very little about. Today every apartheid spy in the ANC who wants to defend White Monopoly Capital and stifle radical economic transformation of the economy sings the stipulations of the Freedom Charter.
The straw that broke the camel’s back between the radical youth and the mother body is the one that says: “South Africa belongs to everyone who lives in it.” Sobukwe and his young radicals argued that there is no country in the world that belongs to everyone who lives in it.
The following year in 1960, this radical Youth League, now known as the PAC, would lead a historical Mass Action against the apartheid regime, a huge March against Pass Laws which resulted in what is known today as a Sharpeville Massacre. The PAC was banned from the country the same year.
So the analysis below, by the astute and incisive political analyst Hadebe Hadebe, will look into how the enemy activated certain political chess players in its ranks, like Brett Kebble, to use capital to capture the ANC Youth League leaders of the Mbeki era...]
By Hadebe Hadebe
One of the least spoken about phenomenon in the recent history of the ANC is the legacy created by the late mining magnate Brett Kebble. Whether by design or coincidence, the ANC leadership folded its arms when its youth wing fell prey to a power hungry, irrepressible businessman and miner Kebble. The years of the ANC’s unbanning saw its cubs and the ANCYL, among others, conquered by the insalubrious Kebble empire until his death in 2005...
[Side Note: Is Kebble really dead or he was recycled…like Gavin Watson?]
To the ANCYL and its leaders, Kebble was what Harry Oppenheimer (chairman of Anglo-American) and Clive Menell (vice chairman of the rival Anglo-Vaal mining group) were to certain senior leaders of the organisation. The liberation movement was corrupted from the top to the bottom, and from the ground up. White Monopoly Capital targeted its diaphragm.
Wits University’s Roger Southall explains that in the early days of democracy “individuals at the top of the corporate ladder struck up relationships with the incoming ANC leadership.” Former President Nelson Mandela’s close relationship with both the Oppenheimers and the Menells is an open secret. But the role Kebble played in ensuring that ANC youths are corrupted at infancy is not yet a topic of scholars and analysts alike.
White colonisers must also thank this Black hand, Cyril Ramaphosa, for the castration of the ANC Youth League
This article argues that the ANCYL, much like its mother body, also became target of capitalists who believed that the future leaders would be vital in securing its interests.
Introducing Brett Kebble and his influence in ANC politics
To set the scene for the discussion, it is necessary to look at who Kebble was and what informed his penetration of the ANCYL. The emergence of Kebble in the SA political landscape was based on the Nguni saying "ligotshwa lisemanzi" (loosely translated: “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks"). White capital understood that its early capture of the young lions would be important to sustain and protect its vast interests in South Africa, from mines and industries to land and banks.
Kebble became the friend of the youth. He was given an assignment to shape ideas on what would be ideal leadership which will never develop any political ambition to disrupt and or even topple the exploitative and discriminatory economic order.
He created parasites of economic rents that would develop expensive tastes and 'soft life'. It is for this reason that elites would do everything in their power to silence anyone who is critical of the role capital plays in frustrating economic emancipation of the Black majority. Capital is central in the vicious ‘deep state’ consisting of large companies, politicians, NGOs, foundations and the mainstream media.
The deep state holds SA hostage and perpetually intimidates dissenters and opponents. It also rewards those who hold no grudges against its dominance. The bounty comes in the form of executive positions in both public and private sectors, undeserved senior positions in academia and other important social institutions, and of course politics.
Without placing the ‘right’ people in politics and other spheres of society, all the efforts of the deep state would be futile and a waste of time. So, the interconnection between politics, capital and social sectors is given priority over everything. It is not a coincidence that this space is also targeted by external hawks, and the global dogs of war.
When Kebble died under a hail of bullets in Johannesburg, the ANCYL eulogised, “SA has lost a true patriot whose selflessness and dedication to the emancipation of our people will remain a beacon and a legacy for generations to come.” It went on to praise his contribution to the advancement of black economic empowerment (BEE), which it saw as “an example that SA big business should emulate.”
Truly, Kebble had left an indelible mark not only in the minds of those who benefited from the economic windfalls, but also his legacy would be perched in the future of the democratic SA through what would become a dominant feature in the ANC for many years to come.
Modus operandi never changes: White man steals, drags Black people into corruption, turns a state witness, walks free or mysteriously 'dies' and leave Black scapegoats behind bars. Then the apartheid spies in the ANC will, right on cue, echo a white racist's song that 'The ANC is corrupt' - it's targeted leaders must step aside, even before their cases/allegations are tested in a court of law. These apartheid spies have gone as far as amending the original ANC Constitution on a step aside rule from voluntarily step down to step down
The cubs would grow to assume leadership positions in the ANC one day. For as long as the ANC stays in power, the Kebble’s direct or indirect influence would serve as a DNA of the organisation and its young leaders.
In his book ‘The Kebble Collusion – 10 Fateful Days in a R26 Billion Fraud’, the late journalist Barry Sergeant suggests that the magnate was right in the innermost circle of the corrupt capital comprising “Investec, Allan Gray, Gold Fields, KPMG, T-Sec and individuals in expensive suits.” It is easier to imagine how Kebble thrusted himself inside the ANCYL.
He not only had money but his cunning character enabled him to win against all odds. “Brett Kebble’s warped brilliance attracted all kinds of opportunists,” argues Sergeant. Sergeant adds that Kebble was the one who “laid the foundations for the conspicuous consumption of ANCYL leaders...” His approach of the ANC was therefore planned and deliberate to collapse the party from within.
His direct impact and influence are unmatched in terms of reach and lasting legacy. In a very short period, Kebble managed to single-handedly change the proud history of the ANCYL - its leaders moved from the great tradition of Young Turks to potent vultures.
Reversing the important strides that were made by the likes of Muziwakhe Anton Lembede, AP Mda, Nelson Mandela, Robert Sobukwe, et.al., the Kebble legacy in the current political landscape and the future of South Africa remains a great mystery. Therefore, this article seeks to contextualise the role Kebble played in developing a rent-seeking, consumerist young leadership in the ANC, and by extension other political parties including the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) which is a direct offshoot of the youth league.
Thus, it is important to locate the present governance failures and elitism in the ANC ranks as significant milestones and achievements of Kebble’s influence many years after his death. The collapse of municipalities and other institutions, for example, can be traced directly to the destructive ANC’s proximity to capital in modern-day SA.
As Latin Americans would say ‘tiene que haber sido cosa de dos’ (or it takes two to tango). Also, corruption is not about individuals but a planned phenomenon that was carefully designed to destroy political ideals of Africans from the word go. Elites and those who are close to strong financial interests have become useful tools all over Africa in oppressing their people, and thus creating massive poverty, starvation and despair.
ANC and its close proximity to white monopoly capital
According to many analysts, the takeover of the ANC by white interests began with the adoption of Freedom Charter in 1955. Decades of wars against European take over by various kings turned into “South Africa belongs to all who live in it” without returning a single grain of land to its rightful owners. This political buffoonery led to the departure by the ANC’s leaders, also called the Young Turks, to form the PAC in 1959. The end result was a protracted journey that led to the banning of political organisations and imprisonment of leaders, but some went to exile.
The unbanning of liberation movements in 1990 marked yet another point in the history of Black political struggle in South Africa to fight the oppressive system of apartheid and economic exploitation. However, it is in this era that the ANC once again retraced its path from 1995, but much more openly at this time. In a 30-page leaked document on land and the national question, titled What Then About Land Expropriation Without Compensation, Thabo Mbeki in 2018 emphasised the ANC commitment to non-racialism. And this explains the unshameful cooptation of ANC leadership by powerful and wealthy white elites.
In his article titled: The co-optation of the African National Congress: South Africa’s original ‘State Capture’, the late University of Stellenbosch academic and economist Sampie Terblanche provides a graphic illustration of how the ANC abandoned its historical mission as a vehicle of liberation fighting for a more socially just society to becoming a machinery for accumulation.
Terblanche explains, “From 1990 Nelson Mandela and Harry Oppenheimer met regularly for lunch or dinner and the main corporations of the Minerals Energy Complex (MEC) met regularly with a leadership core of the ANC at Little Brenthurst, Oppenheimer’s estate.” He therefore argues that these secret negotiations “were mainly responsible for the party’s ideological somersault.” The ANC today bats and fields for capital interests while the Black majority waits and hopes for “second independence”.
Southall suggests that the ANC was confronted by two realities. First, it needed funding in this heavily financialised political democratic dispensation it helped to create via the infamous negotiated settlement. Second, it wanted to promote its rather contentious National Democratic Revolution (NDR), otherwise manifesting as Black Economic Empowerment (BEE). As a result, the ANC “presented itself as a partner with which large scale capital could play.” What this implies is that the ANC was assimilated into the economic order it dismally failed to dismantle.
Lacking capital and expertise to function in a capitalist set up, Blacks were quickly absorbed as junior partners in an economic system that was always hostile to the Black majority. Unfortunately, the triple challenge of poverty, inequality and unemployment is a function of this paradox within the ANC, and, to some extent, also a byproduct of centuries-old extractive production in South African state. The timely intervention of capital in absorbing the ANC leadership to support continued exploitation of the country’s resources and population was a master stroke of a genius.
Not even the infamous Gupta family came close to the influence that white elites have over South African politics, not just inside the ANC but outside it as well. Consequently, it is almost impossible for the ANC to imagine a radically different economic system that could deliver justice to the African majority. Even the famed resolutions from its 2017 elective conference are still very far from the true appreciation of the economic mire the Black majority lives in SA. Hence, neither side of its factional divide is capable to convince that it has a plan to change the status quo.
Macroeconomic policy and the entire economy rest in the powerful hands of white capital, and without an ugly divorce there is no hope that the poverty stricken black majority will ever enjoy the fruits of freedom. Voting and minuscule social spending on distributive polices such as social grants and free housing veil the depth of the extent of exclusion of Blacks in SA. The involuntary distributive economics witnessed in KZN and Gauteng appears to be a preferred model for the downtrodden.
The dichotomy of generational mix and its contents
Having outlined the broad parameters of the overlap between politics and capital in the post-apartheid period, it is now feasible to discuss how the present-day shenanigans in the ANC, especially factionalism, crass materialism and parasitism; could be reversed.
The legacy of Brett Kebble and largese set the tone for heightened infighting and scramble for resources that do not only put the very existence of ANC, but also the future of the country and its people looks quite bleak under vulturism whose purpose is no longer fulfilling the goals of the historic mission of the political struggles. Liberation of masses from shackles created by the legacy of apartheid doesn’t feature in the current generation who see politics as the only gateway to riches and stardom.
Kebble left a large number of his beneficiaries to dominate today’s ANC. Ex-youth leaders and those who were close to them occupy important positions in not just the ANC but also in the private and public sectors. Many of these individuals have extremely developed insatiable appetite for money after Kebble introduced the culture of big money among the youth. The ANC must get rid of these rotten apples.
And this condition means two things. First, they are sharp ends of the co-option project who are more susceptible to being bought in exchange for their political support. Secondly, they see the public purse in the same hawkish eye as Zairean dictator Mobutu Sese-Seko viewed his country’s public funds. The outcome of the existence of this gene in society means that South Africa is destined to become one of the notable capitals of corruption, unless something changes, particularly the economy.
In recent years, concepts such as ‘generational mix’ have found their way into the SA political lexicography - this notion advocates for the inclusion of young people in leadership positions both in the ANC and the state. This self-serving strategy deepens the crisis as Kebblites seek to dominate the state. The consequences of what appears as an honest call for youth empowerment are huge for the country. Little thugs preside over the national purse and loot with impunity with the assistance of their friends in Sandton, Umhlanga and London.
The products of the Kebble factory (also supported by equally disruptive ex-student leaders) will eventually take over the ANC, and some are already in the key strategic posts. This milestone is therefore a huge achievement for capital. And by implication, the status quo will remain intact. Disastrous outcomes of this unsavoury investment are already being felt in all areas they are deployed. In terms of the latter point, the problems faced by Newcastle a few years ago when citizens almost lived in darkness due to non-payment of a hefty R200m bill owed to Eskom represent the kind of leadership that the country inherited from the Kebble antics.
Many municipalities face real prospects of collapse countrywide. Public services are in a shambolic state. The Kebble creations have great appetite for money that is not theirs. Across board such tendencies can be seen in state institutions, organisations and municipalities that have been and or are led by the Young Tigers. The focus of the Zondo Commission is therefore misplaced - the ANC and South Africa needs to be cured of its Kebble virus to get things right.
[Side Note: But Bhungane, the other side of this story that we tend to be blindsided about as analysts, is the involvement of the Private sector in the collapse of municipalities by not paying rates so that these municipalities end up in the wrong hands of the Democratic Alliance through administrators. This is how the opposition is today stealing municipalities from the ANC without a vote from the people. Remember the BHP Billiton Eskom scandal, something like paying 1 cent per kilowatt during Mbeki’s tenure.
Our investigations have found that the real debtors to the local municipalities is local business, yet when auditors look into these municipality books, in their final reports they only stick to irregularities like wasteful expenditures and corruption, thus ignoring the biggest criminals in this equation, the White Monopoly Capital.
Most of these Municipal Managers working in the municipalities hold university degrees like MBA and such nonsense. But today we know most university graduates are a miseducated bunch, that’s why their qualifications, most often than not, are collapsing municipalities instead of sustaining them. When a white racists says hire a qualified individual for a certain position, you should know they mean the so called Clever Blacks; these empty heads they miseducated in their own universities.
No wonder most of the stupid things you hear on TV and radio, even in politics, are said by university graduates. Bhungane, we wouldn’t have gone to our BRICS partners looking for real academics like the Guptas if there were educated Black people in South Africa. How many Black originally conceptualised and bred companies listed on JSE can you show in South Africa?
White Western racists would never give a properly educated Black person a chance in their fiefdom. That’s why they always say hire a university graduate because they know what they did to the brains of these people won’t bring us any solutions. A White Western racists' comfort in South Africa is guaranteed by our problems, so how do we expect such people to produce solutions to our problems?]
Unfortunately, this disease is not only in politics, it runs very deep in all spheres of South African life, that is in academia, corporate, media and other areas of social endeavour. It is a moral duty of each member of the Black community to embark on a difficult of journey of self-introspection and reflection. Is this the country Dingane, Sekhukhune, Langalibalele, Bhambatha, Chief Jantjie and Fort Calata died for? Where do we want to go because our degrees and English twang aren’t leading us to the Promised Land?
Kebblism remains unchecked?
Like the saying goes ‘ukhamba lufuze imbiza’ (like father, like son), the deadly reality of new (political) power without money remains unchecked or encouraged. Within and outside the ANC, it is possible that Klebblism is tolerated as part of the ANCYL’s culture which doesn’t necessarily bring the organisation to disrepute. Many people seem to be oblivious to the nature and extent of the lasting damage and devastation these young people create.
In 2018, political analyst Rebone Tau, for example, once wrote “The current ANCYL NEC has failed young people in the congress movement, not only those who are members, but also young people in SA.” She added, “Revolutionaries are needed to lead the ANCYL.” It is this misplaced confidence in Kebble’s children that is going to collapse the political dream. Young people are tainted in corruption and serve as tools of destruction. They have no clear view besides to also become savages and hyenas. Kebble planted the seed of destruction and insolence.
Finance minister Tito Mboweni in 2017 proposed a number of these young leaders for the future ANC presidency. He tweeted on 19 May 2020, “When the older ANC political generation has been unable to pass on the huge political experience to the new generation, there is bound to be dislocations. But this is fixable in political education and baton passing.” One could be tempted to think that this “political education” would yield something different - the Kebble/Oppenheimer DNA runs deep in both older and younger generations.
And of course, the youth body ended up being an appendix to the mother body which ended up suspending it. To this day no one knows what is becoming of the ANCYL which continues to be in a chaotic state. Attempts to revive the structure has been marred with problems, including violence which led to a shooting incident that left a youth dead in Hammanskraal at the end of 2019. The level of violence in the ANCYL and the ANC is heightened by poverty of ideas and desperation to eat.
That is sufficient proof that the ANCYL isn’t just any other structure within the ANC. It is a fiercely contested terrain which sets individuals in a path of accumulation. While the ANCYL remains in doldrums, the Young Lions swell ranks from branch to national levels. With the youth unemployment rate at distinction levels (75%), young people are desperate and many have elected an easy career path in inane politics of the stomach. Young Cosas and Sasco leaders will soon be overseeing budgets worth billions of rands as ministers, MPs, mayors, councillors, etc.
The question is: Where are they now? Chinua Achebe in his poem ‘Vultures’ appears to know: the Young Lions are somewhere in our midst and are like “a vulture perching high on bones of a dead tree...”
Siya yi banga le economy!
