Being a ‘Movement of the People’ and a Governing Party: Study of the African National Congress Mass Character

This article offers an organisational analysis of the mass character of the ANC. The ANC claims to be a mass movement and displays several features that undeniably make it a mass party, in political scientific terms. However, its presence on the ground is uneven; numerous local branches are not really active and do not have a strong impact in their communities (see the mushrooming of local social movements, often opposed to ANC-led local authorities). The accession to power in 1994 and the subsequent ‘normalisation’ of politics were turning points. ANC branches have been affected by insufficient party political education and organisational work and the downgrading of mass activity in the ANC management of governance. Moreover, because of the dynamics of the ANC being the ruling party, the ANC's local structures, like the organisation as a whole, struggle to participate actively in the definition of the government's agenda; the party in public office increasingly gains ascendancy. However, the mass character still plays a role. When party officials are divided over policy or leadership issues, membership becomes a trump card for competing factions, through the democratic practices of delegation which empowers intermediary brokers (especially provincial officers). Moreover, the reassertion of the mass character of the movement is a prominent issue in the current crisis in the ANC and the Triple-Alliance over the presidential succession. Some quarters within the movement are pushing for a reaffirmation of the ANC's mass character and of the ANC structures as a whole towards the party in public office. The ANC's National Congress in December 2007 was a very revealing and important moment in these struggles.