ANC's Decline an Opportunity to Resuscitate Progressive Politics in SA

Dr. Reneva Fourie

The state of politics in South Africa today reflects profound disillusionment. As the next local government elections approach, the prevailing mood is one of fatigue and withdrawal. Voter apathy has deepened due to a growing perception that political participation has failed to yield tangible improvements in the quality of daily life. 

South Africans are not asking for grand transformations or utopian projects. We want running water, reliable electricity, punctual public transportation, clean streets, safe communities, a criminal justice system that is effective and incorruptible, and an economy that favours the poor and marginalised. These are the most fundamental functions of government. Yet, despite the significant increase in access to basic services over the past three decades, efficiency remains elusive in many areas.

Increasingly, the African National Congress, which once embodied the aspirations of liberation, is becoming synonymous with failure in service delivery and persistent corruption. This erosion of trust is causing a vacuum. The Democratic Alliance has marketed itself as a party of competent governance. However, the DA’s history of defending privilege and the persistence of racialised undertones in its discourse and practice continue to alienate a large section of the electorate.

The other political alternatives do not inspire much greater confidence. The Economic Freedom Fighters and other radical economic transformation spin-offs are perceived as erratic and destructive in their approaches to governance.

The MK Party, the Inkatha Freedom Party, the United Democratic Movement, the Freedom Front Plus, and the Patriotic Alliance have largely anchored themselves in ethnic, sectional, or narrow populist platforms, which weaken the possibility of building a united democratic society. Religious parties such as the African Christian Democratic Party and Al Jama-ah primarily speak to specific faith-based constituencies.

It is within this fragmented political landscape that the progressive left finds itself marginalised and disconnected from the very masses whose struggles it claims to represent. Parties like the Pan Africanist Congress, the Azanian People’s Organisation, the Workers and Socialist Party, the Congress of the People, the Bolshevik Party of South Africa, the Socialist Revolutionary Workers Party, and, most recently the South African Communist Party, though rich in history and ideas, have failed to translate their intellectual and ideological heritage into a significant electoral presence. 

Their membership often consists of deeply committed activists and disproportionately well-educated cadres who have produced some of the most profound critiques of neoliberalism and the failures of the post-apartheid order. Yet they have remained peripheral to mainstream politics, unable to mobilise the broader working class and poor in numbers that could shift the balance of power.

The irony is that the conditions in South Africa are fertile for a genuine progressive alternative. Widespread poverty, deepening inequality and unemployment, especially among the youth, create the very circumstances in which a politics of solidarity, redistribution and social justice should flourish. The failure of the progressive left to capture the public imagination is therefore not due to a lack of relevance of its ideas but rather to its fragmentation, insularity, and lack of organisational innovation.

Unity among progressive forces, which should include a renewed ANC, is a moral and strategic imperative in the face of a political terrain increasingly dominated by neoliberal coalitions and ethnic or religious exclusivism. The progressive left must garner the political will to rise above schisms and ideological purism to construct a united force capable of contesting power meaningfully.

A national Conference of the Left could chart a collective path forward. Such a conference must be an inclusive platform that brings together political parties, trade unions, civil society, ecumenical bodies, and intellectuals who share a commitment to building a democratic developmental state grounded in the values of social and economic justice.

The progressive left must learn from both local and international experiences. The failed Moonshot Pact of the centre-right opposition demonstrates the limits of coalition-building without a shared ideological foundation.

By contrast, progressive formations elsewhere, such as Venezuela’s United Socialist Party, Chile’s Frente Amplio, and France’s Front de Gauche, have shown that when diverse leftist groups subordinate narrow organisational egos to the broader historical mission of social transformation, they can consolidate a credible political alternative. These examples should be studied critically and adapted to the South African context.

What must emerge is not just a pact to contest the next election, but a coherent political project that speaks directly to the daily struggles of working people and the poor. It must present a vision of a society where the state is not captured by elites but driven by the needs of the majority, where economic growth is pursued in a manner that respects human dignity and environmental sustainability, and where democracy is deepened through active citizen participation in shaping policies that affect their lives. Failure is to continue watching as public frustration is channelled into electoral abstention, thereby entrenching the status quo and allowing regressive forces to fill the vacuum. 

A united progressive force will not materialise overnight. It requires honest dialogue, principled compromise, and a willingness to confront complex histories. It demands a political culture that values accountability and integrity over patronage and personality cults. Most importantly, it calls for a reorientation of the left away from mere rhetorical denunciations of capitalism towards the practical task of building power among communities, organising workers in both formal and informal sectors, and mobilising the youth whose future is currently mortgaged to unemployment and social instability.

The decline of the ANC presents both a crisis and an opportunity. It is a crisis because the erosion of its legitimacy threatens to weaken the cohesion of the state and the stability of our democracy. Yet it is also an opportunity for the progressive left to step into the breach and offer a new vision of leadership rooted in the liberation ideals that animated the struggle against apartheid but adapted to the challenges of the present era. By uniting for socio-economic justice and administrative efficacy, citizens’ hope can be reignited. History shows that when progressive forces collaborate with courage, they can turn despair into new possibilities.

* Dr Reneva Fourie is a policy analyst specialising in governance, development, and security.

** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL, Independent Media or The African.