Heroes never die but their good deeds live forever - ANC

VOL 12 NO 15

19 - 26 APR 2012

@hotm

100 YEARS OF SELFLESS STRUGGLE

Heroes never die but their good deeds live forever April is the most important month in the history of our country. It happens to be our Freedom Month, when we celebrate the birth of democracy and freedom in South Africa and also honour heroes who made our freedom possible. During this month we also celebrate, salute and honour the memories of our heroes Oliver Reginald Tambo, Chris Hani and Solomon Mahlangu who all passed away during the month of April. Without their contributions, sacrifices and courage we will not be enjoying the freedom that we have today. We also honour all unsung heroes and heroines of our struggle and millions of ordinary people who through their struggles ensured that we gained our freedom. The ANC took a decision last year to hold memorial lectures on each of its presidents as part of the centenary celebrations. The decision was taken because ANC presidents and the collectives they led represent a particular era or epoch in the history of the movement and the country. We also added, however, that we would also celebrate the ANC centenary through holding lectures on other ANC leaders who were not necessarily presidents or office bearers but who played a distinguished role in the struggle for liberation. President Gumede’s life is a typical depiction of the adage that revolutionaries are not born, but are produced by the struggle. His views, political philosophy and ideological development were shaped by his experiences in the quest for freedom, liberty and justice. He is better known as the ANC President who consciously led the national movement closer to the working class organisations, the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA) and the labour movement during his national presidency from 1927 to 1930. He also decided to actively promote the formation of an alliance between the ANC and the Communist Party before his election into its presidency in 1927. He was a man who was far ahead of his time politically and organisationally. His remarkable contributions to the liberation struggle lasted more than five decades. During that period, he distinguished himself as an outspoken champion of the oppressed and exploited working people of South Africa. President Josiah Gumede was born on 9 October 1867 in Healdtown in Fort Beaufort in the Cape Colony, now known as the Eastern Cape. His father, John Tshangana Gumede was the descendant of Khondlo, the father of Phakathwayo, inkosi yama Qwabe, that was defeated by King Shaka during the latter's early days as King of the Zulus. His forebears had reached the Eastern Cape as a result of the so-called Mfecane wars, and had become converts into Christianity or amakholwa, as a result of which Gumede received education in Healdtown, a Wesleyan Mission. He inherited an entrepreneurial spirit from his father, who had started a transport business in Grahamstown. His outstanding academic achievements earned him scholarships. He studied at the prestigious Mullins Institute, an African wing of the St Andrews College in Grahamstown and at the famous Lovedale College in Healdtown for his teacher training. He was an outstanding teacher and taught in Somerset East in the Eastern Cape and later in Adams College in Natal. He was also a keen and talented musician who led a Zulu choir on a tour of Europe in 1892. The entourage regarded themselves as 'civilized subjects of the Crown’.

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WEEK IN REVIEW Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe on the working visit to Ghana | Deputy President Motlanthe arrived in Accra on a working visit at the invitation of Vice President John Dramani Mahama of Ghana. The visit is in the context of consolidating the African Agenda through the enhancing and deepening of the Political, economic and social relations. Deputy President held bilateral talks with his counterpart, Vice President Dramani Mahama and also paid a courtesy call on President John Evans Atta Mills. He is accompanied by the Minister of Energy, Dipuo Peters, Minister of Public Enterprises, Malusi Gigaba, and, Deputy Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Dr Ebrahim Ebrahim. Rise in SA unsecured lending a worry - Reserve Bank | Unsecured lending in South Africa is growing too fast, Reserve Bank DeputyGovernor, Lesetja Kganyago, said in the latest sign policy makers are worried about rising levels of borrowing by highly indebted households. Recent data has pointed to local banks increasingly giving out loans without security to consumers already struggling to pay their bills. "As a regulator we are concerned about the growth in unsecured lending. It is growing and it is growing too fast," Kganyago told a forum on the impact of the euro zone crisis on Africa. Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan also noted the significant growth in the loans, saying it would be a big worry if it was feeding solely into consumption, as this would fuel inflation.

However, they were disappointed by their exposure to racial and colour prejudices in London, where contemptuous local newspapers referred to the choir as 'togt kaffirs.' This was the beginning of disillusionment that led to Gumede's determination to fight against colonial domination. President Gumede’s travel abroad effectively ended his teaching career. He began to dedicate his time to fighting colonial repression as it affected the Zulu kingdom, as he was also seriously affected by the injustices meted by the settler communities against the Zulu royal family and local communities. The Zulu royal family had been under siege for almost two decades since the invasion of the Zulu kingdom in 1879, and its subsequent destruction from the 1880s onwards. President Gumede began to act as a negotiator and advisor to King Dinizulu against illegal land encroachment by the Boers in their quest for creating a sea port for the Transvaal Boer Republic via St Lucia. Instead of giving any support, the British moved to annex whatever remained of Zululand to bolster their own position. No progress was made. Later, President Gumede went to settle in Bergville where he fought on behalf of the local traditional leaders and their people against an oppressive magistrate system designed by Sir Theophilus Shepstone to divide and rule the native population. Shepstone was called uSomtsewu kaSonzica by the Zulus. Like many Africans at the time, President Gumede believed himself to be a loyal subject of the British crown. In this regard, he joined the British soldiers during the Anglo-Boer war, as a commander of the non-combatant trackers consisting largely of scouts drafted from local Basotho and Zulu convert communities. On retirement, Gumede and the fellow scouts or intelligence officers were disappointed by discrimination displayed against them. The rewards promised by the British Colonial office including the restoration of land for dispossessed communities were not honoured. Family sources insist that it was Gumede, who, as chief of scouts disguised in imvunulo, slipped undetected behind the Boer soldier's lines on foot and was able to alert the British office in Durban of the siege in Ladysmith during the Anglo-Boer War. This resulted in the arrival of reinforcements that relieved the British forces. Despite this, all efforts to seek recognition from British Authorities for their role in that war, came to nought. These are some of the experiences that shaped the life of the young Josiah Gumede, making him to realise never to take the colonialists at their word. The deepening political oppression and economic exploitation of the working people in the immediate aftermath of the mineral revolution in southern Africa convinced President Gumede that he should quit teaching and devote his time to the struggle on a full-time basis. He was a student of history, and he learnt that a different strategy was needed to pursue the fight against colonial oppression, land dispossession and racial prejudice. The centrality of the authority of kings and traditional leadership structures in preserving the sovereignty and defending our people against colonial oppression had been irreversibly and permanently undermined. In 1899 Josiah Gumede, Martin Luthuli, Saul Msane and Harriette Colenso met and discussed the need to form a modern African political organisation. Its primary objective was to be the defence of the Zulu royal family in general and to fight against the denial of human freedom and dignity to the African people in particular. The meeting took place against the background of the trial and conviction of Prince Ndabuko and Prince Shingana kaMpande as well as King Dinizulu kaCetshwayo at Eshowe a decade earlier on 27 April 1889. They were sentenced to serve prison terms at St Helena from 1889 to 1898. This marked the beginning of an attack on the dignity and the position of King Dinizulu, which culminated in his second imprisonment for the Bhambatha Rebellion of 1906, the stripping of his kingship and his banishment to Middleburg where he ultimately died in 1913. The Natal Native National Congress was formed in 1901 to fight for human freedom and justice and the restoration of the dignity of the African people, who were continuously dehumanised in the face of rapidly expanding imperial domination, oppression and exploitation. Josiah Gumede served both as the secretary and deputy-president of the NNNC while Martin Luthuli and Saul Msane, among others, served on its executive committee.

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WEEK IN REVIEW Malema suspension appeal fails | An attempt by Julius Malema to have his temporary suspension set aside was dismissed by the National Disciplinary Committee of Appeal. The NDCA found that the NDC did not breach the ANC constitution, the rules of natural justice and the Constitution of the Republic of SA said the NDCA Chairman, Cyril Ramaphosa. Malema applied to the NDCA on April 5 to set aside the temporary suspension. He based his application on the grounds that the NDC breached the ANC constitution, the rules of natural justice and the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa. Malema submitted five arguments why his suspension should be lifted and the NDCA did not find a single one in his favour. The ANC noted and welcomed the ruling. SA outraged by changes to UN Western Sahara report | South Africa's United Nations envoy voiced outrage at the watering-down of a UN report on the disputed territory of Western Sahara, which the Polisario Front independence movement says the world body changed due to French and Moroccan pressure. "That was very deplorable," South African Ambassador Baso Sangqu told reporters after a closed-door meeting of the UN Security Council. "We have raised it in the council." All three versions of SecretaryGeneral Ban Ki-moon's report on the UN force in Western Sahara, known as MINURSO were changed. "All of it (was) progressively being neutralized," Sangqu said of the three revisions. "We think it's not good for the Secretary-General. Not now, not on this issue, not in the future. And I think most colleagues share this view." In his report, Ban complained that the UN force is "unable to exercise fully its peacekeeping monitoring, observation and reporting functions, or avail of the authority to reverse the erosion" of its ability to function. He also expressed concern about the monitoring of the force by Moroccan authorities, which he said was hampering its ability to function, and suggested Rabat may have been spying on the peacekeepers.

The early generation of African political leaders valued the role of print media. They used the media as a means of communicating their ideas among themselves and of conveying their views to the colonial authorities, who were often not keen to directly engage them in any serious dialogue. Josiah Gumede was a journalist and regular columnist who was persuasive in debate and outstanding orator. As a result of this, President Gumede, like President John Dube, served as the editor of the Ilanga laseNatali and Abatho Batho newspapers. The highly active President Josiah Gumede also played a prominent role in the South African Native Convention which black political leaders formed in 1909, in response to the formation of the ‘whites only’ South African Convention two years earlier in 1907. The whites only convention laid the foundations upon which the South African black majority would be denied citizenship when the Afrikaner and English came together to form the racist Union of South Africa in 1910. Around that time, Pixley ka Isaka Seme made the historic call for all our people to unite and defeat the demon of tribalism. This led to the meeting in Mangaung in 1912 where the South African Native National Congress was formed, with John Langalibalele Dube as the first President. Josiah Gumede was elected into the national executive committee (NEC) of the organisation from its formation in 1912 and served in its structures until 1930. He engaged in numerous campaigns such as the 1913 Native Land Act which had squeezed more than 80% of the black population into about 10 percent of the land.Because of the disastrous failure of the deputation he led to London in 1906 to assist the Basotho kings, President Gumede opposed the decision for another delegation to be sent to Britain in 1914 led by Dr John Dube, to protest against the 1913 Land Act, which was a failure as he predicted. In 1919, together with Sol Plaatjie, Gumede was persuaded by Congress to be part of the ANC delegation to Britain. The purpose was to petition the British king against the Land Act, Native administration Bill, the Native Urban Areas Bill, the disenfranchisement of the Africans and the Pass Laws. During the visit, an extensive network of contacts was built with sympathetic and influential figures including members of the British Labour Party, African intellectuals and nationalist leaders from the West Africa in British and French colonies as well as the African Diaspora. They also attended the International Brotherhood Congress convened to generate support for ideas embodied in the League of Nations. During this trip the delegation managed to hold meetings with the Archbishop of Canterbury and Lloyd George, the British Prime Minister at the time. They hoped to persuade the British to see reason and switch their support from the white minority regime to the broad black majority in South Africa. Again the British failed to treat African grievances with the seriousness they deserved. This turned President Gumede into one of the most radical critics of British imperialism in particular and western imperialism in general by the end of the 1920s. A report was tabled to the disappointed ANC, then led by President Sefako Makgatho. On his return from the London trip, President Gumede made contact with King Solomon kaDinizulu, and helped him with the formation of the Inkatha cultural movement in 1921. Inkatha was reintroduced in the 1970s, and later it became the Inkatha Freedom Party. President Gumede became a vocal and regular critic of the policies of settler Jan Smuts’ regime, debating in the media and ANC platforms, at times differing with some in the ANC leadership on the best strategy to pursue. He was elected President of the ANC in Natal at a conference held in Escourt on 16 April 1924. He held the position until 1927. The collective he led included leaders such as Alexander Maduna who was known for radical ideas and fiery speeches signalling a departure from a reconciliatory approach of the ANC at the time. The new leadership took a conscious decision to market itself as the champions of the common people as opposed to their predecessors who were portrayed as having catered mainly for the interests of the African lower middle classes. One way of expressing this solidarity with the working people was by insisting that all meetings should be conducted in the African languages, for example in isiZulu in Natal. The Natal leadership of the ANC announced shortly after its election that it would work closely with the Industrial and Commercial Workers’ Union (ICU) and with the Inkatha cultural movement of the time. President Gumede invited Clemens Kadalie to open up the Industrial Commercial Union (ICU) in Natal and started working very closely with AWG Champion. He had been influenced by the Labour Party during his travel abroad.

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WEEK IN REVIEW Bashir says Sudan to teach South 'final lesson by force' | Sudan's President Omar Hassan alBashir threatened war against his newly-independent neighbour, vowing to teach South Sudan a "final lesson by force" after it occupied a disputed oil field. "These people don't understand, and we will give them the final lesson by force," Bashir told the rally in ElObeid, North Kordofan's capital. "We will not give them an inch of our country, and whoever extends his hand on Sudan, we will cut it." Last week, South Sudan seized Heglig, a disputed oil field near the border between the two countries, claiming it as its rightful territory and saying it would only withdraw if the United Nations deployed a neutral force there. Bashir vowed to retake the oil field, which he said was part of Sudan's Kordofan province. That alone would not resolve the conflict, he added. "Heglig is not the end, but the beginning." Global powers have voiced alarm at the escalation of violence and urged the two to stop fighting and return to talks.

This era saw increased labour activity in the Gold Reef and protest activities against Hertzog taxation policies and oppressive laws spreading to Natal colony. President Gumede travelled all over the country reporting about his travels and criticizing the oppressive policies and agitated for action in ANC meetings. He had realised as early as the 1920s that mass mobilisation and proper organisation rather than deputations and petitions were the most appropriate path to follow in the course of the struggle for freedom and justice. He was also quick to grasp the importance of the African working class as part of the motive forces in the struggle for freedom, human dignity and justice. It therefore comes as no surprise that he actively participated in encouraging the African mine workers’ strike on the Rand in the early 1920s period. In 1927, the ANC had lost all faith in the British Government when President ZR Mahabane stated in ANC meeting held in Bloemfontein in January 1927, that: 'the significance of the Balfour Declaration is that we can no longer turn to British Parliament with our grievances against the Union Parliament.' The era of delegations and deputations had ended. In his capacity as the Deputy President of the ANC and its Natal President, President Gumede accompanied James A. La Guma, a Cape member of the ANC and member of the Communist Party of South Africa, and D. Colraine of the South African Trade Union Congress (SATUC) to the inaugural congress of the League against Imperialism held in Brussels in Belgium from 10 to 15 February 1927. He was thoroughly impressed by the support that the communist delegates to this congress gave to the colonised peoples in various parts of the world. This convinced him that communists could become valuable allies in the liberation struggle in South Africa. In an address he made in Brussels Gumede said: 'I am happy to say that there are communists in South Africa. I myself am not one, but it is my experience that it is the Communist Party that stands behind us and from which we can expect something. We know there are now two powers at work; imperialism and the workers’ republic in Russia. We hear little about the latter, although we would like to know more about it. But we take interest and will soon find out who we have to ally ourselves with.' President Gumede's experience in struggle had changed his view from his earlier critical statements about communists. Like other conservatives within the ANC he had been sceptical about communists. From Brussels, the South African delegation went to Berlin in Germany where they again addressed many rallies organised by the German Communist Party. They used this platform to generate support for the cause and were emboldened by the support of the international community. On return, President Gumede started encouraging a closer working relationship with the Communist Party of South Africa and agitated for militancy in challenging the oppressive laws, though President Mahabane still advocated for restraint. Before they returned to South Africa in April 1927, the ANC had received an invitation to attend the tenth anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution of October 1917. Josiah Gumede was elected unopposed as the fourth President General of the ANC at its conference in Bloemfontein (Mangaung) in June 1927. His election to the Presidency of the ANC meant that he would lead the ANC delegation to the celebrations in October 1927. However, by the time of his election as President of the ANC, President Gumede and his leadership collective had already unwittingly alienated a significant section of its conservative leaders, particularly the traditional leadership in the ANC. Conservative members did not wish to associate with Communists, while the younger members especially workers called for more militant action to challenge the Union Government. Shortly after his election, he appealed for unity within the ranks of the ANC. He was fully aware of the existence of moderate and conservative wings which could distract the movement from its historic task of rallying and mobilising the masses of all the oppressed people of South Africa behind a clear programme of action to fight for freedom and justice for all. In calling for tolerance of divergence views, President Gumede had fully grasped the political dynamics of a multi-class national liberation movement. He understood the need to submerge the individual interests in deference to greater cause of freedom and justice. The political conditions had changed. During the early twenties the rapid industrialization resulted in the rise of working class militancy.

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THIS WEEK IN HISTORY 20 April 1973: The South African Police Force (SAP) stationed in the Caprivi Strip, bordering Zambia, suffered casualties in clashes with South West African People's Organisation (SWAPO) guerrillas. SWAPO military attacks on the SAP and SADF in 1966, hardly a month after the verdict of the World Court, which South Africa won on a technical point. In 1971, a reconstituted World Court reversed its former decision and ruled that South Africa’s occupation of South West Africa was illegal and that it should discontinue its administration of the territory. SA rejected the verdict and insisted that South West Africa should move to independence in terms of the policy of separate development, which was vehemently opposed by SWAPO. 21 April 1980: The Coloured schools’ boycott began as result of students' dissatisfaction with the South African educational and political systems. Students from about sixty Coloured high schools, teacher training facilities and the University of the Western Cape joined the protest and refused to attend classes. The boycott was joined by pupils at a number of Indian schools in Pretoria and KwaZulu-Natal. The action was widely observed by approximately 100,000 students from seventy schools over the course of three weeks. 22 April 1960: About 1,575 people were detained under South Africa's state of emergency that was declared by the South African government on 30 March 1960. The move by the government to declare the state of emergency came nine days after the Sharpeville massacre where nearly 70 people were killed by security police and scores left injured. During the same month the ANC, PAC and other liberation movements were banned by government under the Unlawful Organisations Act.

President Gumede realised the need for both unity of the whole organisation and the need to infuse militancy in taking the struggle forward. However, political developments of the time and especially the imminent trip to the Soviet Union in October 1927 rendered these appeals for unity of purpose and unity in action impractical for at least the next few years and a decade. The most important turning point for both the ANC and the Communist Party occurred with the meeting of James La Guma with the Communist International (Comintern) including its President Bukharin. Comintern insisted that the Communist Party had to work for the majority rule in South Africa in the first instance, and then aim at the second stage of the socialist revolution. La Guma returned with a draft resolution defining the Union of South Africa as a British Dominion of a colonial type and went on to call for the creation of an independent native South African Republic with full equal rights for all races. The seeds had been sown to begin exploring the idea of an alliance between the Communist Party and the ANC. This was to transform the ANC into a revolutionary nationalist organization, laying the foundation of the National Democratic Revolution, under the leadership of the African National Congress. Needless to say that the debate that followed resulted in divisions in both ANC and the Communist Party of South Africa at the time. The Black Republic Thesis, a new political analysis, also emerged within the ranks of the CPSA in the 1920s, which began to define South Africa as a ‘colonialism of a special-type’. In terms of this thesis, the Communist Party advanced an analysis which maintained that South Africa was a unique form of colonialism in that both the coloniser and the colonised were sharing the same geographical space. This then made it necessary for all progressive forces to engage simultaneously in both the national and class struggles. This was necessary because the vast majority of the people who happened to be black were suffering national oppression as a race and economic or class exploitation as members of the emerging working class. While this analysis made it possible for the Gumede Presidency to forge a close working relationship between the ANC and the Communist Party of South Africa, it further alienated the conservative sections of the ANC leadership, which began to rally its forces against President Gumede. In October 1927, President Gumede attended the tenth anniversary celebrations of the Russian revolution in Moscow. He met the Soviet leader, Joseph Stalin and toured the Soviet Union. He was impressed by the conditions in Georgia, Stalin's birthplace, and how all people worked together for social development and progress. His positive experiences there led him to label the Soviet Union in his famous speech: “I have seen the new Jerusalem.” Up until then, President Gumede had merely expressed support for an alliance between the national movement and the Communist Party but refrained from joining it himself. When the South African communists formed the League of African Rights in 1929, he joined it and he was elected its President. This drew the attention of the South African Police towards him even more than before and further alienated the conservative sections of the ANC leadership. They began to hatch out a plan to oust him from the Presidency at the next national conference. He tried unsuccessfully to salvage the situation by purposely distancing himself from communism during public engagements with government in 1929. However, the tactic backfired. Instead of winning the hearts and minds of the conservative sections of the ANC leadership this approach created more problems for him as it also alienated him from his communist allies. Gumede was outvoted and replaced with Pixley ka Isaka Seme as President General at the next elective conference of the ANC in April 1930. It is clear that the Gumede era was far too early for an alliance with the Communist Party to be accepted within the ranks of the ANC. It would take more than two decades before the birth of a proper alliance under the leadership of Presidents Chief Albert John Luthuli and Oliver Reginald Tambo from 1952. President Gumede remained politically active within the ranks of the ANC between the loss of his Presidency and his death in 1947. He chaired meetings, managed a newspaper and gave public speeches on the struggle for freedom and justice.

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THIS WEEK IN HISTORY 23 April 1997: Eugene TerreBlanche, leader of the Afrikaner Weerstands Beweging (AWB) was convicted on two counts, for attempted murder and assault and was sentenced to six years in jail. This sentence was handed down for the brutal assault of one of his workers, a Mr Paul Motshabi, whom he beat over the head and neck. Mr Motshabi suffered brain damage in this attack. The reason for the attack was that Mr Motshabi was allegedly eating on the job. The second conviction arose from an incident two weeks before the assault on Mr Motshabi, when TerreBlanche set his dog on Mr Mdzima, a petrol attendant. A part of the sentence was that TerreBlanche was denied the right to own a firearm, as his actions had showed him to be an individual prone to violent outbursts. 24 April 1993: Former President of the ANC, OR Tambo African passed away in Johannesburg after a long battle with a stroke. His death came 14 days after the assassination of Chris Hani. Tambo played a vital role in the history of the ANCin exile. He was the President of the ANC from 1967-1991. He dedicated all his life to the struggle for liberation. Unfortunately he did not live long enough to be part of a democratic, non-racial South Africa which became reality nearly a year after his death in April 1994.

25 April 1990: Vlakplaas Commander, Dirk Coetzee, testified before Harms Commission about secret police killings in 1981. The existence of the unit was first revealed publicly in 1988 on the eve of the execution of Almond Nofomela. Before his execution, Nofomela confessed to being part of the Security Police 'hit squad', which was headed by Dirk Coetzee. On strength of this and public pressure, the last apartheid president, F.W. de Klerk, appointed a commission of inquiry, led by Judge Louis Harms, to investigate these allegations, and the operations of the Security Police and the Civil Co-operation Bureau (CCB).

President Gumede left a powerful legacy for the ANC. Although he often angered his adversaries within the ranks of the ANC, he laid the foundations upon which the alliance would later grow from strength to strength throughout the long period of struggle for human freedom and dignity of the vast majority of the South African population. The solid and unique Alliance between the ANC, the South African Communist Party and the Trade Union Movement has its roots in the change in philosophical outlook brought about by President Gumede. He taught us that the cooperation of all progressive class forces is essential if the ANC is to fulfil its historic task of achieving the national democratic revolution in South Africa. He influenced the transformation of the ANC into a mass based, militant and revolutionary organization, which began to win international solidarity. The relationship with the socialist bloc and in particular the Communist Party of South Africa proved critical in the survival of the ANC during its days in exile. He also laid the foundation for deeper political thought, political theory, analysis and engagement within the movement. Josiah Tshangana Gumede also remains one of the foremost pioneers of the ANC’s commitment to mass mobilisation and people-centred programmes. The adoption of a militant Programme of Action, spearheaded by the ANC Youth league led by the likes of Walter Sisulu, Anton Lembede, Oliver Tambo, Nelson Mandela and others, have all their roots in the activism that was pioneered by a revolutionary that was ahead of his time, President Josiah Gumede. In recognition of the unique contributions of the early Presidents, the ANC conference in December 1943 held in Kimberly, bestowed the award of Honorary Life President on Presidents Gumede, Dube, Makgatho and Mahabane. President Gumede was also father to Archibald “Archie” Gumede, who later became a prominent leader of the ANC in the course of our struggle for liberation. He attended the Congress of the People where the Freedom Charter was adopted, and was part of the 1956 Treason Trial. He later served as one of the three Co Presidents of the United Democratic Front. President Gumede died on 16 November 1946 aged 79 years and lies buried in Mountain Rise in Pietermaritzburg where he had lived for most of his life. Gumede reminds us today of the old African saying that goes: 'Heroes never die but their good deeds live forever.' Long live President Josiah Tshangana Gumede! >> This is an edited extract of the ANC Centenary Lecture delivered by President Jacob th Zuma on the 4 President of the ANC, Josiah Tshangana Gumede

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THIS WEEK IN HISTORY 26 April 1994: South Africa's first multiracial elections started four years after the unbanning of the liberation movements and release of political prisoners. The elections resulted in the establishment of the new Government of National Unity (GNU) led by the ANC. Three parties, the ANC (who overwhelmingly won the election), the National Party (NP), and the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) shared the executive power. Nelson Mandela became the first democratically elected president of South Africa. The GNU system of government lasted until the general elections in 1999. Source: South African History Online

READERS FORUM

Purist or Pervert? – Professor Jonathan Jansen on the State of Education in South Africa While I respect the canons of intellectual rigour, one of whose refrains is “play the ball and not the man”, there is a compelling case of diversion when dealing with the caricatures of Professor Jonathan Jansen - not least because the professor’s consistent anti-state posture is blatantly ideological and emotionally jarring for people like myself who graduated as educators under his tutelage. We invested four good years of our formative years in Jansen’s school of education at the University of Durban-Westville and therefore are shocked that he trained us to loiter in doubt and gloom concerning our vocation. Few facts about the good professor’s background might help illuminate the roots of his kismet prophesy. Prof Jansen has New Unity Movement (NUM) leanings. The NUM was a political organisation that never really won the hearts and minds of the masses, despite producing some great minds and political activists. In the 1980s in particular, it had a sect that paraded as ultra-radicals with Trotskyite rhetoric. Instead of working with the United Democratic Front (UDF), it fashioned itself as the “real left” mass organisation. Fact is, it never really was the vanguard of the people and missed seizing its moment in history when it failed to embed its work within the broader Mass Democratic Movement initiatives. True to the tradition of the egoistic sect of the NUM, Professor Jansen offers no concrete alternative in his anti-state tirade especially against our education reforms which he holds in contempt. That is what his kin mastered in the 1980s. Instead of directing their anger at the common enemy, the apartheid regime, it wasted time contesting the UDF. Once we learned from Prof Jansen: “dissent is part of political commitment but it must be accompanied by concrete solutions”. Where are the solutions Professor Jansen? Concrete and scientific interventions that will help South Africa avoid becoming, in your own words, “yet another failed African state ... because the level set is so low”. Schooled in pseudo-radical custom, the professor is “seemingly well-versed in government and the ANC weaknesses”. Students of political theory will do well to remind us that radicals are not necessarily revolutionaries. Purists too can also be radical in their quest to preserve what they perceive to be “truths” and “correct”. The unpublished January 9 Opinion Analysis and the March 15 column in The Times (The Future Looks Bleak) by the professor bear all the hallmarks of “purity”; what he thinks is absolutely wrong with our education system. When purists offer analyses, they do so believing that there is only one possibility or solution – that is what they themselves believe to be correct. Nothing less! Professor Jansen writes in January: “... if I had to make the choice with my own children today, I would consider not sending my child to school in South Africa, for one simple reason: I do not trust a system ... But you would not sense this crisis in the Grade 12 examinations because the major newspapers, with one or two exceptions, have swallowed the lies from the Department of Basic Education ...” In The Times of March 15 the professor enquires: what does the future of education looks like in South Africa. Having offered some biased anecdotal evidence, the article headlines: “the future looks bleak”. Call this line of enquiry cynicism: but are these statements not a perverted idea of transformation dynamics in a society in transition? First, how can a professor of education pass a vote of no confidence in the education system yet parade as a leader in educator development in the country? What message is he sending to the hundreds of students like myself who spent time and scarce resources preparing to join the education profession? Unless, of course, his graduates ought to be an exception to the rule; a rare breed of educators who will go out there and occasion a seismic shift in the system! Perverts are dangerous for they exaggerate their potency. That is where they intersect with purists.

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LATEST STATEMENTS Public announcement on the application by Comrade Julius Malema to set aside his summary suspension imposed by the ANC`s National Disciplinary Committee (NDC), 17 April 2012 http://www.anc.org.za/show.php?id= 9538 NDC Findings, 17 April 2012 http://www.anc.org.za/show.php?id= 9539 The ANC statement on Floyd Shivambu Article, 16 April 2012 http://www.anc.org.za/show.php?id= 9536 Statement on the meeting between Gwede Mantashe and Reuel Khoza, 16 April 2012 http://www.anc.org.za/show.php?id= 9537 ANC statement on the decision of the ANCYL NEC, 15 April 2012 http://www.anc.org.za/show.php?id= 9535

Secondly, he argues in the 9 January Opinion Analysis that “talk to any employer in business and industry and they will tell you the same story: today’s graduates are weak, even incompetent, in the basic skills of reasoning, writing ...” Yet, he confidently presides over an institution of higher learning that churns out thousands of graduates each year. Unless his is a special institution, a contraption that fabricates a special range of products that can float above the muddle our education system has become. In which case then we wonder why he continues to produce “stock” for the employers who don’t trust university graduates and the education sector in particular that he himself suspects. Is Jansen like a fat salesman who overzealously markets a sliming product he has never tested nor came across a person it has worked on? That would be intellectual dishonesty – a misdemeanour parallel, if not heavier, than my violation of the “play the ball not the man” code. Thirdly, my limited memory can’t help but recall Professor Jansen’s three-year ‘shock therapy’ at the University of Durban-Westville. This was a time (1995 – 1997) when the good professor said what seemed merely controversial yet very ideological. Many students were depressed when he publicly bullied them for not knowing the capital cities of Sudan and the Central African Republic and for using a semicolon instead of a comma. I can’t help but recall his statements casting aspersions on black Africans and their ability to manage and lead. Repeatedly, he asked: “What is wrong with Africans? Is there something innately wrong with them that they mismanage their countries? Why is Africa failing to catch up with Europe many years after independence?” Given his mammon of knowledge and analytical adroitness, students would have benefited had the professor explained why Africa is faltering. No analysis of the political economy of post-colonial Africa was given. Let alone the history of nation state formation and its impact on “new” states. Instead, he left us doubtful; contemplating that indeed a possibility exists of an innate incapacity to govern on the continent. Yet, in another opinion piece, totally contemptuous of the milieu and the occasion, he accuses the State President of not advancing a “reasoned debate and factual correction ... if the historical evidence was too much to hold ... the President would perhaps have appealed to common sense”. What “reasoned debate and factual correction” did the professor offer to his students regarding the “historical evidence” of why Africa is struggling to regenerate itself postindependence? He tells the President to respond to Pieter Mulder’s falsehood by citing scholars like Nigel Worden and William Beinart. But, as Jansen’s graduates, we have no recollection of him citing Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja and Bernard Makhosezwe Magubane who have written extensively about the challenges confronting post-colonial Africa. A bombshell came when, in 1996, he told his final-year students that “Mandela chose Sibusiso Bhengu as Education Minister instead of Ihron Rensburg because Mandela was appeasing the Zulus ...” He asserted that – much to his own delight – Rensburg should have become Minister or Director-General of Education but “was overlooked because he is not Nguni”. He explained to us that Professor Rensburg had played a role bigger than that of Professor Bhengu in the National Education Coordinating Council, so he was a deserving candidate to lead the Department of Education. Now that we know history better, we struggle to comprehend why such a preposterous idea was punted to unsuspecting students by this good professor. The most unfortunate thing with this reasoning is that Jansen dragged into his suspect theory the name of a person who had nothing to do with his existential preoccupations of race and ethnic identity. Knowing what we know of former President Nelson Mandela and Professor Rensburg, ethnic considerations are the least of their fixations. Besides, in the period in question, Professor Rensburg was already playing a leading role in the transformation project and there was no record of him entering Jansen’s ethnic and racial amphitheatre. We also remember Jansen’s Cosmopolitan magazine treatise: “10 Reasons why OBE will fail”, later published in various academic journals such as the Cambridge Journal of Education (see Vol. 23, Issue 3, 1998).

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LATEST SPEECHES Address by Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe at the opening of the Ninth International Mining History Congress, 17 April 2012 http://www.anc.org.za/show.php?id= 9540

From everything he said to us at final-year and honours classes, it later became apparent that he detested education reforms more so because he was personally not involved in their formulation. The professor directly and indirectly expressed concern that experts like himself were not core to the construction of the new curriculum in South Africa. As 21-year-olds, we sympathised with him. However, now that we are discerning, we can see through what the professor really meant. The aggregation of these historical facts together with ongoing anti-state tirade combines to occasion emotional trauma in some of us. We struggle to understand why someone would train teachers and thousands of other graduates but suspect their profession, proficiency and confidence. No wonder, many of his graduates continue to walk away from the teaching profession, and employers justify keeping black graduates in training programmes for unreasonable periods. Critical manifestos have an important place in democracy. So do scientific solutions to intractable problems facing our country. Society expects methodical solutions from our intellectuals, not tantrums and sustained perverted narratives of prejudice, racism and failure. Logic should distinguish conscientious intellectuals from “purists” and “perverts”! Our constitutional democracy enjoins us to collectively own challenges of transformation. Equally, society expects all hands on deck, working selflessly to create a better life for all. Leaders like Professor Jansen cannot expect praise when they make such bigoted assertions: “... if I had to make the choice with my own children today, I would consider not sending my child to school in South Africa, for one simple reason: I do not trust a system ...” In the March 15 column (The Times) he concludes: “... what does the future of education look like in South Africa? ...the overall system will remain in a state of stable crisis well into the future. Not a pretty picture.” If the professor expects commendation for “speaking truth to power”, “challenging ruling elites” and “celebrating excellence in other countries”, thanks to the potency of his “crystal ball”, he must equally accept a reciprocal inkling paraphrased by Slavoj Zizek in Living in the End Times. He writes: “Rousseau already understood perfectly the falsity of multiculturalist admires of foreign cultures when, in Emile, he warned of the philosopher who loves Tartars in order to be dispensed from loving his neighbours”. Admires of foreign cultures who prejudicially suspect their neighbours are as good as perverts who claim purity! >> Busani Ngcaweni studied under Professor Jonathan Jansen at the University of DurbanWestville

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SUMMARY OF POLICY DISCUSSION DOCUMENTS

The ANC in a Changing World: A Perspective on International Relations UMRABULO 100 YEARS OF SELFLESS STRUGGLE

SPECIAL EDITION

LET’S TALK POLITICS

Policy Discussion Documents

Introduction The ANC is commitment to the struggle for a humane, just, equitable, democratic, and free world, and Africa. This discussion document covers the nature of the international environment, the changing balance of forces in the world and how these will impact the continent and South Africa. The document discusses the ANC’s strategic role in shaping a better world and in continuing to drive the renaissance of Africa as well as the role of party-to-party, continental and international solidarity and specific campaigns to this end. Balance of Forces

The balance of forces have shifted over the last three decades – from the cold war with two super-powers, to a US-dominated world, and now to a more multi-polar world where the East has become more economically powerful. We have tried to support multi-lateral approaches and to protect the interests of the developing world in our foreign policy. The world economic meltdown has led to new formations like the G20 where global economics are discussed. We believe that the UN and other inclusive structures should be strengthened to build a more just world. The global rush for Africa’s resources has also changed trade on the continent and emerging economic giants like China, India, Russia, South Korea and Brazil are becoming major players. At times our independent policy choices were used to cast us as stooges of China and Russia. Our opposition and elements of the media have used these to attack us. We believe that our progressive internationalist agenda that calls for a better Africa and a better world right from our very inception a 100 years ago, continues to be as relevant today. Remnants of imperialism, colonialism, authoritarianism, racism, poverty, and underdevelopment continue to haunt millions in the world. South Africa’s membership in India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) Forum and the recent expansion of the Brazil-Russia-India-China (BRIC) Forum to include South Africa (now BRICS) have given us an opportunity to work together on the current global economic and development challenges, while pushing for global governance reforms. Africa remains at the centre of both the growing abuse by powerful states for their own agendas as well as exploitative global capitalism.. In the case of Libya, the Western powers used a UN Security Council Resolution supported by African members of the Council, including South Africa, to smuggle in the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), a military alliance between Europe and America, to carry out a regime change in Africa, a region over which NATO has no jurisdiction. The failure of African institutions to drive economic production to add value to African minerals and agricultural products before exporting them, means that Africa remains an exporter of raw materials and an importer of manufactured goods. The challenges are made worse by weak regional institutions, poor or non-existent transport infrastructure between countries; low levels of trade between countries; as well as poorly shared values, and relatively weak leadership. The manner in which the UN Resolution 1973 on Libya, which South Africa voted for, was implemented was a set-back for African solutions. The outcomes of uprisings in Egypt seem to have resulted in the entrenchment of military power rather than democratic civilian rule. These contrasts with the outcomes in Tunisia, a country with a significantly lesser geopolitical role and natural resources than Egypt and Libya, Tunisians have been allowed space to make substantial progress in building democracy. While the actions of the west had a negative impact on this democratic wave, the slow response by the African Union and its inability to get its point across cannot be excused. This will require a strategic response to the task of consolidating our search for a better Africa and a better world including our participation in global solidarity networks, country-to-country relations, party-to-party relations and people-to-people engagement. Below is a brief outline of such a response.

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ANC’s Role in Building a Better Africa African Renaissance As a movement in power, we played a significant role in developing the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) as a developmental vision and programme for Africa in partnership with strategic partners in the world. South Africa played a big role in promoting peaceful and inclusive resolution of Africa’s conflicts in countries like Burundi, Cote d’Ivoire, the DRC, Sudan, South Sudan, Madagascar, Comoros and, Zimbabwe. We have played a meaningful role in the strengthening of the Southern African Development Community (SADC). The ANC and the South African government have deliberately avoided playing a dominating role in African institutions and politics. It is important for us to respond dynamically and with speed in defence of African renaissance. We do not need to dominate and dictate but must acknowledge our responsibilities as the largest economy in Africa, and hold fast our continued belief that our prosperity is directly linked to the prosperity of Africa. A concern is that as long as the links between the AU and its building blocks, the regional economic communities, are weak the agenda of a better Africa cannot be realised. For as long as our African leaders do not embrace shared values or adopt clear action plans with African citizens to improve Africa, then African renaissance will not be achieved. We expect that powerful countries will show neo-colonial tendencies as they try to maintain their domination over global affairs in the face of shifts in global power away from them. Unless, something drastic is done to strengthen the institutions and leadership in Africa, its voice and choices will continue to shrink. Africa has a fast growing economy and population and will remain a magnet for competition between old and new powers over the continent’s rich natural resources. In the current global climate, part of our focus should be on re-energising the African renaissance. This includes re-invigorating efforts to strengthen the AU, NEPAD, African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), and SADC. We need a sharper focus on the implementation of common policies and programmes that the continent has painstakingly developed as an expression of this agenda for change. We need to strengthen capacity of continental and regional institutions like the African Court of Justice and the African Court of Human and People’s Rights, the Pan African Parliament and financial institutions like the African Development Bank (AFDB). Building on the work done to promote adherence to AU principles of good governance and democracy as well as the APRM initiative, the ANC and government should ensure that the governance guidelines and systems are understood, promoted and adhered to. Our position on the need for deeper continental unity and our principled support of the campaign to build a union government for Africa remains. We believe that the road to this is through the strengthening of regional communities, which the African Union considers to be building blocks for African unity. We consider a strong focus on strengthening regional integration as the surest route to a strong continental unity and one that is best placed to respond to development needs of the continent. The principle of allowing citizens of conflict-ridden countries to negotiate and own solutions to their problems, is an important condition for lasting peace, and one that must anchor mediation efforts. The developments that took place in North Africa in early 2011 illustrates the need for the AU organs to respond quickly and appropriately to upheavals. The ANC supports the government’s efforts to ensure that the outcomes of these challenges are inclusive transitional governments. It is in our own interest to promote an improved regional stability through support for peace, conflict resolution, and prosperity. We will actively participate in regional efforts to ensure successful and democratic elections as contained in the “SADC Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections”. Failure will lead the growth in post-election disputes and violence, which in turn will attract military action by external powers. Deeper economic integration initiatives are needed. The establishment of a SADC Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in 2008 was meant to lead towards the establishment of a SADC Customs Union, which has not yet taken place. The ANC supports efforts to implement the FTA, as the basis for greater integration programmes. The regional body must be able to get the region ready for both a customs union, which is now two years behind its scheduled launch, and a common market. The SADC-East African Community (EAC) and Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) initiative should receive support from the ANC and the government. The ANC should contribute to public awareness about these developments.

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ANC’s Strategic Role Towards a Better World The ANC remains committed to building a better world that is humane, just, equitable, democratic, and free. Throughout its long history, the ANC has drawn lessons from human solidarity of world citizens in support of its struggle. This includes state-to-state, party-toparty, people-to-people and civil society efforts. The ANC believes in the right of people to fight against tyranny and oppression. It will continue to work with other progressive forces globally to promote global transformation towards multi-lateralism and against growing unilateralism. Transformation of Global Governance We remain committed to reform of the United Nations and the international finance institutions, especially the World Bank and the IMF, as a matter of necessity. We reject the idea that five permanent members of the UN Security Council should hold sway over global decision-making and that the more democratically constituted General Assembly and its organs be reduced into a mere talk shop. We want to see the UN Security Council transformed to reflect the current balance of power. Whereas developing countries have an increased global responsibility, they do not have increased power. We will campaign for progress in the on-going negotiations on the UN reform and will encourage Africa to work together to achieve this. We need to also focus our attention on transforming the World Bank, IMF and World Trade Organisation and other international organs. Our overarching goal must remain that of strengthening the social, political and economic initiatives that promote the global fight against poverty and underdevelopment. Strengthening South-South Cooperation We are committed to strengthening south-south cooperation by building organisations like the Non-Aligned Movement, the New Asia Africa Strategic Partnership, the G77 plus China and our alliance like India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) and Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa (BRICS). South Africa’s membership of the BRICS, is a major success. BRICS countries constitute more than 8% of world GDP, occupy the 26% of the world's territory and play hosts to 42% of the world population. Parts of its objectives are: 1. The promotion of a new international financial system, including a new currency for international trade and exchange; 2. The struggle for peace, the dissolution of NATO, the closure of all foreign military bases in countries of the world; 3. The elimination of all nuclear weapons; 4. The resolution of political problems and conflicts through non-military means; 5. The promotion of investment in energy and infrastructure to benefit of the people of our countries; and 6. The promotion of food sovereignty and food security. The Movement needs to intensify the engagements in South-South cooperation. Equally ensuring that our membership into BRICS does not reduce our co-operation with Asian countries and the Caribbean and Latin America. Strengthen North-South Dialogue The ANC is commitment to strengthening north-south dialogue on matters of common interests. Government should devise a strategy on this whilst as a movement deepening and enhancing cooperation at a party-to-party level. South Africa should promote the building of stronger bridges for co-operation between Africa and the global north. This should be a key consideration in party-to-party dialogues. The paper also proposes that we find ways to make better use and improve coordination of Parliamentary Diplomacy and Para-diplomacy (Provincial and municipal international relations) It propose that we strengthen party to party relations with allies and our relations with the Southern African former liberation movements, especially in Angola, Mozambique, Namibia, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. We need to consider broadening the former liberation platform to encompass other liberation movements on the continent such as PAIGC, PAIGV, FNL and so forth.

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It is still necessary for us to continue assessing the various political parties on the continent to identify those with political visions that are reconcile with that of the ANC. This would also assist the ANC to strengthen the African progressive movement. In growing the global progressive movement to attain the goal of a better Africa and better world free from hunger disease and underdevelopment we continue to engage various political parties to understand the plight of the ANC and broader Africa. After a thorough debate in the ANC, we decided to become full members of the Socialist International (SI) in the late 90’s. The ANC and MPLA (Angola) from Southern Africa are current Vice-Presidents in the SI Presidium. But the organisation has weaknesses including the dominance of European Socialist parties although there has been growth of membership from the developing world. Our relations in South America have grown. It would be necessary for the ANC to participate in regional South American progressive forums like the Sao Paulo Forum, which can assist us in growing and deepening relations with progressive formations and political parties in the region. Relations with social democratic parties in the global north continue to grow. They are crucial platforms for north-south dialogue in a changing world.

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The paper explains our current relations and policies on Libya, Cote d’Ivoire, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Sudan and South Sudan, DRC, Swaziland, Madagascar, Somalia, Haiti, Palestine, Western Sahara, Cuba, Eritrea-Ethiopia and Sri Lanka. Twitter

Key discussion areas •

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What is the impact of the international positions we take as government on the functioning of the ANC, especially as a ruling party? Could this be considered to have had a demobilising effect on the movement? How do we understand the attacks on our positions by the media and the opposition? What is our assessment of the impact on Africa of new trends, especially ‘recolonisation’, energy security, food security, etc? How do we better promote the strengthening of institutions and bodies in the region and Africa to give them the necessary capacity to deal with these trends? How do the ANC and government dynamically align themselves to ensure that our foreign policy objectives are advocated and implemented? How does the ANC facilitate a better understanding of the country’s foreign policy and the ANC’s international relations policy.

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