Ideological contestation in the ANC

The School for Graduate Studies hosted a lecture by Dr Mcebisi Ndletyana, senior research specialist in the Democracy and Governance research programme of the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) on 29 July 2009 in the Theo van Wijk Building on the Muckleneuk Campus on COPE: The beginning of the resolution of ideological contestation within the African National Congress.

Tracing ideological contestation in the African National Congress (ANC) from 1918, Dr Ndletyana alleged that the party has always encompassed the centre right and the left, both with contesting ideologies. The recent rise of ideological contestation was triggered by the realisation of the significance of the ANC controlling political power and being in charge of the distribution of state resources.
Dr Ndletyana argued that the formation of the Congress of the People (COPE) represents the beginning of the resolution of the ideological contestation within the ANC. “Specifically, COPE represents a concession of defeat by the centre-right tendency within the liberation movement, which had been dominant within both the ruling alliance and government in the last ten years,” he suggested.

Prof Steven Friedman, Director of the Centre for the Study of Democracy, Rhodes University and University of Johannesburg, was the discussant at the lecture. He said that many people regard COPE as those individuals who lost in Polokwane.

The event was chaired by Prof Raymond Suttner of the School for Graduation Studies.