ABSTRACT

This paper provides a critical review of Mcebisi Ndletyana’s book The Anatomy of the ANC in Power: Insights from Port Elizabeth, 1990–2019 which was published in 2020 by the Human Sciences Research Council. The review ranges from a discussion of the methodology and concept to a discussion of the major themes. With respect to the concept and methodology, it is argued that a study pithed on an aspect of the polity at a subnational level contributes significantly to the advancement of knowledge in the discipline of politics about the nature of particularly the party system in South Africa. The first of the major themes the review focuses on is the impact of the legacy of the various liberation traditions on the ANC and the implications this had on the emerging political culture of the party in the democratic period. The paper argues that Ndletyana’s account demonstrates that some of the bad character traits of the ANC labelled by its leaders as ‘new tendencies’ were in fact evident right at the formative stage of the party. The second theme adopted here is party-state relations and decay in which the reviewer concurs with the author’s central argument that factions had a negative bearing on governance and negatively affected the electoral prospects of the ANC.

摘要

本文对 Mcebisi Ndletyana 的著作《权力的非国大剖析：伊丽莎白港的见解，1990-2019》进行了批判性评论由人类科学研究委员会于 2020 年出版。审查范围从对方法和概念的讨论到对主要主题的讨论。关于概念和方法，有人认为，一项以国家以下各级政体方面为基础的研究，对提高政治学科知识，特别是南非政党制度的性质，做出了重大贡献。评论关注的第一个主要主题是各种解放传统的遗产对非国大的影响，以及这对民主时期政党新兴政治文化的影响。该论文认为，恩德勒蒂亚娜的叙述表明，被其领导人标记为“新趋势”的非国大的一些不良性格特征实际上在党的形成阶段就已经很明显了。这里采用的第二个主题是党国关系和衰败，其中评论者同意作者的中心论点，即派系对治理有负面影响，并对非国大的选举前景产生负面影响。