One of Britain’s most prominent black public figures Trevor Phillips noted how the British Labour Party battled to keep its ‘broad church’ character intact.
“One of the problems for the Labour’s broad church is that every now and again, a section of the congregation will leap to its feet and shout for a place at the altar,” he wrote in a journal called Marxist Today in 1984.

Over the years the ANC has been a ‘broad church’. It managed to bring people of all walks of life together and has always been a secular party that encompasses a broad range of ideologies, beliefs and opinions.
Each of the different strands of ideologies within the tripartite alliance had a place in the ANC’s life.
The ruling party had proved adept at providing a sufficiently broad church to incorporate a wide range of ideological positions, including embodying inclusive attitudes even towards the dissident social movements.
Then, Cosatu and the SACP had accepted that the ANC is the leader of the alliance.

The leftists who were bruised and aggrieved by what they see as the party’s indifference to them and their needs under the leadership of former president Thabo Mbeki have flooded that ANC, guaranteeing themselves a voice at all levels of the party, and possibly government.
The current leadership of the ANC under Jacob Zuma, unfortunately, has allowed the extreme leftist forces in the alliance to pervade the political discourse of the ANC.
Over time, centrist and moderate influences within the ANC will die down and the centre will no longer hold.
Hence there is a great need to form a new secular party that can win a sizeable vote in next year’s general elections. The new alternative party will have to re-assert the ANC’s ‘broad church’ tradition.

The formation of the new party has opened up a platform for sober young people to form a progressive youth movement that must challenge the ANC Youth League head-on on issues facing the youth generally.
These sober young minds don’t cherish predictable and self-serving howls like Julius Malema, who hurl insults at other people with a different view, boisterously cussing out them, and even drawing on weapons in the process. Sober young people don’t like leaders who make utterances such as “kill for Zuma” because they understand that dangerous utterances are a threat to peace and democracy. These utterances only provide the kind of drama that is exciting to the media. The youth of this country have larger interests than providing titillation to the media.

Young people are interested in politics if they are allowed to take up responsibility to serve the poor and reach out to the deserving. Unlike the ANC Youth League leadership, these young people would infuse a lot of positive energy into the body polity.

The mother body must empower the youth by providing them with representation across the political spectrum spanning local bodies, assembly and Parliament. The new party could be a platform that provides a space for both senior political horses and the youth to co-exist and benefit from each other.

Self-proclaimed intellectual and political analyst Xolela Mangcu does not believe that a leader like Mosiuoa Lekota is the right person to swing voters against the ANC. He believes that comrade Lekota is highly compromised.
That is debatable. However, the new party will need a leader who can read the electorate and strike the popular mood. This party leader is not and will not be a populist, but is charming leader who possess a set of core beliefs.

In order to succeed, the new party must not brand itself as an opposition to the ANC. It must be an alternative voice of reason. One of the biggest disadvantages of being an opposition is the constant temptation to take a quick and easy populist approaches to politics.

The challenge for the party is coming up with clear and precise ideological orientation.

The split within the ruling party is long overdue. The ANC cannot remain merely a symbol of liberation.

The new party must seriously challenge the ANC for power in the next general election and demystify the notion that the ANC embodies the aspirations of the entire population. It must prove that the ANC cannot rule until Jesus Christ comes (aka Jacob Zuma).

We need a party that will protect our Constitution and other democratic gains since 1994. The ANC split will provide an opportunity to form a fully-fledged political party that distinguishes the dynamics of the government and that of the party.

Announcing his resignation from the ANC, former Gauteng premier Mbazima Shilowa, said the new party will support the direct election of a president and would call for a constituency-based system where people instead of the party bosses directly elect Members of Partilament (MPs). He said the party’s values would centre on the protection of the constitution, the judiciary and the rule of law.

In the 10 years, the new party must become the majority of opinion of tomorrow, by engaging in informed debate and persuading people. In 2012, it should have canvassed enough support to challenge the ANC for power.

For now, the new party must piggyback on the growing public dissatisfaction with the current leadership of the ANC and its youth wing. It must actively canvass the support of the disillusioned middle class.

The divisive politics that the new leadership of the ANC has perfected has played a major part in the erosion of our democratic values and practices. The ANC will never be the same again.
The next year’s general elections will provide any opportunity for the so-called “dissidents” to shatter the last semblance of unity in the ANC leading up to the 2009 general elections.

Brief profile:
Mbuyisi Mgibisa is a former journalist. Glass beer in one hand, he still writes with the other in his spare time at the comfort of his place in Bramley, Johannesburg.