By Gugu Ndima
It’s quite intriguing that the stature of former president Nelson Mandela has been questioned. His integrity and commitment to his people is being cross-examined. Insinuations have been propagated that the former president sold out for self-centred motives and instantaneous fulfilment.
As a member of the ANC, and disciplined member of the ANCYL, the task I’m bestowed with — mammoth as it is — is to bring certain things into context regarding recent comments by Azapo Youth League leader Amukelani Ngobeni that the former president betrayed black people. This is tantamount to saying the ANC as an organisation sold out, placing the national democratic revolution on the altar of imperialists and apartheid abattoirs.
I wish to start with a quote from the iconic leader, Comrade Madiba: “During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.” A profound quote indeed, shedding light on the values and principles Madiba espoused.
We have a dire problem in society today, an obsession with urban legends and fire camp stories, which at times sacrifice truth. The Azapo Youth League has unfortunately fallen for this phenomenon. I wish to make the following points in order to share the little information I have on our history and that of Mandela.
Mandela was a disciplined member of the NEC collective when he was president and therefore any decision taken would have been that of the collective. As president he was naturally expected to act as the political chief representative and communicator of such decisions
The ANC has consistently followed its strategy and tactics. Strategy being our overall objectives and tactics being the modus operandi, which are of course informed of material conditions and balance of forces as we progress towards realising the national democratic revolution. It was only tactical to force the then apartheid government to come to the table.
Apartheid as a system was a Goliath not only for the ANC but for the majority of our people. It presented horrendous challenges for all South Africans. In its dismantlement, it required leaders with sophistication, strategy, but more importantly perseverance. The generation of Mandela have proven they indeed had the aforementioned qualities.
Azapo youth dismally fail to comprehend the intricate and multifarious nature of transitions. They unfortunately required tactical recoils and transitory diversions in order to secure a peaceful transition, which led to the government of national unity. It’s quiet evident that the generation of Madiba understood this reality and the contradictions of that time and were guided by foresight and not abrupt emotion in order to minimise bloodshed and build towards a functional government and economy.
I have no doubt that through times of negotiations the former president and his leadership collective had to make serious decisions and concessions, some unfavourable. However this is the essence of any negotiation, especially one where parties were on extreme opposite ends of the negotiation table.
We should also clarify that the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (Codesa) under the chairmanship of Judges Michael Corbett, Petrus Shabort and Ismail Mahomed, was not a “tea party session between FW de Klerk and Mandela at Oppeinheimer’s golf estate” as urban legends have it. It was an intense, political process at times disrupted by agent provocateurs causing violent upheavals. A classic example which comes to mind is the AWB’s theatrical storming of the venue while negotiations were taking place.
Codesa consisted of various stakeholders and organisations such as the DP, IFP, SACP, SA Indian Congress, Coloured Labour Party, even Bantustans were represented.
Lest we also forget the violence in the late 80s and early 90s. The Boipatong Massacre, the Bisho Massacre, which happened the same year, and the cold assassination of Chris Hani the following year in April 1993. One can’t begin to imagine the turmoil, mistrust and harsh political climate in which these negotiations took place. At a time when Mandela and his leadership could have ordered masses to take to the streets and retaliate against the government. They went back to the negotiating table, showing leadership, astuteness and foresight
Young people wither away in poverty, unemployment and yes it’s rife. We have glaring socio-economic conditions which you and I must take responsibility for. In times where young people are quick to burn down councillor’s houses and destroy much-needed infrastructure in service-delivery protests, we must lead and give political direction.
In closing I wish to quote Madiba again: “In my youth in the Transkei, I listened to the elders of my tribe telling stories of the old days. Amongst the tales they related to me were those of wars fought by our ancestors in defence of the fatherland. The names of Dingane, Bambata, Hintsa, Makana, Dalisile, Moshoeshoe and Sekhukhune were praised as the glory of the entire African nation. I hoped then that life might offer me the opportunity to serve my people and make my own humble contribution to their struggle.”
As I say this to the Azapo youth, ours is not to blame our predecessors, but to take the baton and advance the struggle of our people. Let’s allow the generation of Madiba to rest and enjoy their twilight years. We need to realise economic freedom in our lifetime, as they recognised political freedom in theirs.
Amandla!
Gugu Ndima is the media and communications officer of the ANC caucus in the Gauteng legislature.
“………ours is not to blame our predecessors, but to take the baton and advance the struggle of our people………..”
How about building a prosperous nation instead of keeping on with this struggle stuff????
It is an oversimplification that the ANC “sold out”, certainly. However, those of us who accepted the compromises which had to be made in order to bring about the first democratic election expected that after the election, the ANC would do what it could, once in power, to erase the evils of apartheid — particularly the horrendously unequal wealth distribution which apartheid created.
It did not do this. And, as time wore on, the ANC began to use the compromises which it had made, as excuses for its failure to take action. (Consider the way in which the national constitution is used as an excuse for failure to effectually redistribute land or regulate big business.) By doing this, the ANC gave ammunition to its critics on this issue.
But, of course, the big issue was, and is, failure to erase the evils of apartheid, rather than the compromises at the negotiations. There is not much point in determining Mandela’s personal complicity on either score at this stage; as Ms. Ndima points out, Mandela was acting on the instructions of the NEC rather than being a dictator. On the other hand, it is important to challenge the absurd personality cult which has been constructed around Mandela, and Azapo’s observations are at least useful in this respect.
The basic problem as seen by some ANC people is that they feel that Mandela did not deliver the entire country on a platter to the back man. Mandela knows that South Africa would not have been what it was without white people or with black people. To take from those who have given their all to build the country and give it away to those who claim that they deserve it, is a recipe for disaster. Retain skills and experience and learn from those who have it but the ‘New ANC’ think that skills come with loyalty to the party and that anyone can be a doctor if they have a stethoscope.
Imagine the discussions before 1994 if Mandela demanded that the whites become slaves and that the blacks took over lock stock and barrel. There is nothing, absolutely nothing that prevents anyone from achieving the very highest in business or academics but to expect it to be given, will not happen. Don’t demand, beat the business people at their own game but burning down productive businesses is stupidity of the highest order!! Education is everything but that is something the ANC thinks can be overcome by giving ‘pass’ marks to illiterate people. A second rate education is the worst possible qualification you can get.
Well said!!!
Gugu – that’s a nice article. A little fanciful, considering that Madiba was a real firebrand within the party as the leader of the youth league, but nice all the same. However, I don’t know if you wrote the headline, because that’s just plain wrong.
Madiba was president during the years when HIV/AIDS was increasing at its most rapid rate. I know for a fact that he was told about it on several occasions, and also that a few words from him could save millions of lives. It was perfectly clear that he thought this was an urban myth being promoted by people who had their own agendas. At the time (as an AIDS activist) we used to say that our president spent more time meeting with the Spice Girls than speaking about the country’s biggest health challenge. Unfortunately Thabo Mbeki turned apathy into active obstruction, greatly compounding the catastrophe.
Today we have around six million people living with HIV – the highest number of any country in the world – and there’s not a shadow of doubt that a significant contributory factor is the intransigence of our first two presidents. To his credit, I believe Tata came to understand this mistake, and indeed apologised for it, particularly when his son died of AIDS related causes.
I love the man, but you do him no credit by suggesting he is perfect. Only by understanding past leaders’ failures, and admitting to them, can we hope to measure the performance of our present leaders, and demand better from those in the…
How we underestimate the sacrifices that were made to carve our niche in world history that is still revered internationally when compared to the violent changes in government so common in other countries. We have a lot to be thankful for and must show our respect and gratitude to the foresight of the likes of Mr Mandela. It is regrettable that his tenure in office was so short.
However in his absence the “baton” you mentioned Azapo must carried forward was in the case of the ANC handed over to people who rapidly dispensed themselves of these noble ideologies in favour of applying methodologies of governance that can only be described as appalling.
Today South Africans embrace an ANC leadership with its alliance partners whose primary focus of attention has diverted from the upliftment of its people to self-enrichment, and the gaining of more power to further enrich themselves.
The ANC leadership has totally lost touch with its own charter (and reality) and consequently the very people it struggled so hard to emancipate.
I suggest that the people of the ANC should take a good hard look at themselves and purge the party of this element that has infiltrated its ranks. Or is it too late?
Nice article. I particularly like your references to Codesa and the monster task that was undertaken there. To think that some tried to derail that process (admittedly, by a bunch of laughable ignoramuses, but lest we forget their intent was real).
Fast forward 18 years and I think we all forget to pat ourselves on the back for a job well done. But in my view, that’s only 20% of the job. The real work is in front of us (and it doesn’t matter who is leading the country, the task is enormous).
Mandela knew perfectly well that AIDS existed. He refrained from talking about AIDS because it was a political hot potato. In fairness, his Health Minister, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, pressed quite hard for prevention — but of course back then therapy was impossible, because it was too expensive, and meanwhile the media demonised Dlamini-Zuma (thus proving what a hot potato AIDS was).
Mbeki was the first President to talk about AIDS in a serious way, and to try to organise buying generic antiretrovirals from Brazil. What happened to Mbeki — he would probably have been deposed if Bush hadn’t been elected — makes it pretty clear that Mandela knew what he was doing. Frankly, in the first few years of the ANC government, things were probably too unstable to take on the CIA, the US government and Big Pharma all at once.
A very sensible Thought. For me and on balance, Mandela stands above all SA’s leaders since Smuts and then after Mandela. His main achievement (with de Klerk) was moving SA to democracy without serious conflict and loss of life.
Sure, he missed the ball on AIDS (and health), crime, Eskom, education, the Arms Deal and a few more but these could have been tidied up by a competent successor. Unfortunately Mbeki was the start of the real ANC rot that has now set into the very foundations of South Africa. Had Mandela somehow ordained a Ramaphosa, maybe Manuel, Moeletsi Mbeki or Ramphele to take over from him, SA could be a very different and substantially better place to day.
The Creator
You are on the money. You really understand these things. I take off my hat for you. The ordinary South African is being taken for a ride by being fed hogwash from the main stream media. One day truth will be told in its totality.
Well said Gugu! Mandela allowed us the space to talk as fellow South Africans when it would have been easier to scream, shout and brutalise each other. That we did not have the wisdom to utilise this space can definitely not be blamed on him. Pre 1994 with its brutal apartheid system also gave us a legacy of reasonable infrastructure, a comparatively highly educated white population and tragically a miserably poverty stricken and lowly educated black population. What have we done to educate this black population en masse and allow them to exploit the economic opportunities available? What have we done to negotiate a more materially equitable South Africa? Have we thrown up our arms in despair proclaiming that “these whites are too intelligent and selfish for us” and hence the next best thing is to take this economy through stealth (looting through fraud, nepotism, comradely deployments and corruption)? What should we read into the current strategic and tactical decisions and actions of your organisation Gugu? What is to happen to the vast majority of South Africans who have to compete in a global economy without requisite skills and necessary levels of education? Is the ANC the bearer of all wisdom in our country? Do you perceive previously advantaged white South Africans an asset to be harnessed or a stubborn boulder which has to be crushed?
If we rightly can not blame Mandela for our lethargy then surely we should not blame apartheid for our current failures!
My comment was deleted!
How could Mandela have been fighting against “black domination” when the ANC was black only membership at the time of that speech?
Only after the Nkomati Accord was signed, and the black-on-black township war started in 1985, did the ANC allow other races to be members.
And Mandela was isolated in prison in 1985 anyhow. Even family visits were monitored and the conversations openly listened to.
Actually Mandela is not a god but a mere mortal and he did sell out the economy to the very people that created Apartheid in the first place.
Apartheid was an extension of the British policy in getting indigenous Africans off their land and into the mines. People did not want to leave the land and work 5kms underground so they were disenfranchised, stripped of land, forced into townships. They now had no way of feeding themselves so they had to work. Google it.
Once the labour intensive requirements of mining were replaced by mechanisation, Apartheid slave labour was no longer required. These super wealthy elites then pressurised the Apartheid government in handing over the keys to the next group to corrupt. Remember South Africa has produced more than 40% of all gold ever mined. This does not included the diamonds(4th largest producer in the world), coal and other resources that are been currently raped in South Africa.
Lets take 1 Gold company:
Gold Fields Limited is a South African gold mining firm
Revenue R31.56 billion (FY 2010)[1]
Net income R7.73 billion (FY 2010)
So where do the Billions go that the country makes?
Why do we still have so many poor in such a wealthy country?
Ask Mandela.
I agree with most of The Creator’s astute observations.
The use of the Third Force by the apartheid regime to foment black-on-black violence during our liberation negotiations, infuriated Mandela. These forced compromises during the negotiations are the root cause of much of the ills we face today. These days, legal shenanigans by NGO’s and certain “civil rights” organizations are abusing our judiciary to prevent the passage of essential bills to speed up transformation in media reform, land reform, overhauling education, affirmative action, information security etc. The beneficiaries of apartheid hope to prolong the status quo for as long as possible while to cling to the spoils of apartheid for as long as possible.
Kevin
There were no black slaves in SA, but Black Chiefs would not allow their people to be educated out of “their culture” and lose their power over them so how else could Black men earn money?
It was also the only way Black men from the former SA Homelands, Lesotho and Swaziland, could earn money.
@Harris: “abusing our judiciary to prevent the passage of essential bills to speed up… information security etc.”
Oh dear Harris, why so scared of the judiciary dealing with the Secrecy Bill? Hm? It is quite apparent which side does not want that Bill before the Constitutional Court, because it is quite apparent which side is wrong.
“The beneficiaries of apartheid hope to prolong the status quo for as long as possible while to cling to the spoils of apartheid for as long as possible.”
Funny, I recall you not being happy about a court order compelling the provision of textbooks. Textbooks that were six months late.
Mandela and others were party to bequeathing us a much better socio-political structure than existed under Apartheid. Have those, who have managed to use the opportunities to lead their fellow citizens into an improved future, that were opened up for them in 1994 in fact done so? I am afraid not. They have squandered them in their pursuit of self-enrichment at any cost, even the destruction of the gains of 1994.
@Una, the media is not feeding you hogwash, you and others are in denial of what the situation was in 1985 in SA. The ANC was very weak military in 1985 and wasn’t strong enough to put demands on the apartheid government, like many of you are suggesting, Mandela should have done. The apartheid government was well armed and had WMD to use on the anti-apartheid force if, it had became necessary. However, Mandela had the backing of the world that rejected the apartheid government policies and this enable Mandela to walk away a winner for SA. All of you young people are talking big talk now but, the situation in SA was not like you are thinking it was during that period. The media is not telling you about the black on black killing that went on during that period.
@Beddy, a lot of things that went on during that period in SA during the 80s, the media don’t want to talk about them because they might open old wounds. I wrote something about that period in SA and the MG wouldn’t let it be published. In the US and Brazil many schools didn’t want to teach about slavery for a long time.
Sterling
Politicians froma ll countries create these myths – they are very dangerous and the cause of most wars. I sincerely hope the Internet will make the truth more available.
@Beddy, many people posting comments on this page about Mandela don’t have a clue what the situation was like during the 80s in SA. Many of these people don’t understand how many blacks in SA were collaborating with the apartheid government for personal gains. In Europe during WW2 many people collaborated with the NAZIS for personal gains. There were a large number of Jews that collaborated with the NAZIS in Germany to send the Jews to the death camps. The same people running around in SA talking about how they were in the struggle are doing nothing but telling lies. Many blacks claimed that they fought the apartheid government by going into exile in Europe and the US. The question you asked should the Internet allow these stories to be told at this time about what went on in the 80s in SA?
@Beddy, does the truth hurts? Why in the US many schools would not teach about slavery? In Brazil the role of blacks in Brazil are now being written in the history books. Many people were afraid it would cause racial tension if the people were told the truth about slavery in that country.
Sterling
Blacks did not “collaborate with whites for personal gain” – they were the educated Middle Class Christian Democratic blacks who were opposed to Communism and the ANC, and supported the IFP.
Which is the TRUTH that was hidden at the TRC, and why Reconciliation was NOT the objection of that media circus. Between 1985 and 1999 about 20,000 of those democratic blacks were killed.
It is a very similar story to Franco’s war in Spain, where the truth was also hidden for 60 years; to France where the collaboration of the Vichy French with the Nazis was hidden for half a century; to Belgium where it was still being taught in the schools that “Leoplod civilised the Congo” a century later.
Hopefully the Internet will make these political lies less possible in the future and the truth will not take historians half a century to uncover, which has been the norm to date!
@Beddy, the point I am making about those people that are writing all kinds of bad things about Mandela, this man went to the bargaining table without a Stalingrad, Gettysburg, and Tet offensive. The ANC didn’t have General Giap directing their military offensive to bring the apartheid government to the bargaining table. Mandela had a weak hand when he went to the table and came back a winner for SA. One must keep in mind, that many blacks in SA and other groups wanted to breakup SA when Mandela was at the bargaining table. So, I say to this writer that he is guilty of not telling his readers the whole truth.
The beneficiaries of apartheid (BOA vipers) hope to prolong the status quo for as long as possible while they cling to the spoils of apartheid for as long as possible. LOL. Just like in the Apartheid days.
Lyndall Beddy # are you ignorant to history.
Firstly I did not mention slavery but since you bought it up, slavery exists in many forms. One does not need to be in a pen with currency to be a slave. You can in fact be free but still be enslaved.
The worlds rich enslave the human race for their profits, this had been going on since before Christ. We are only given enough education to serve them but not enough to serve ourselves
Search Google to find out how the colonisers were able to destroy cultures and land to get the manual labour required for the rail roads and mines. Why did the colonisers bring in Indian slaves?
You might be a slave and you probably too ignorant to realise it
@Kevin, I have to agree with Beddy the slaves that the Africans traded off to the European traders were the property of their masters. The children of these slaves were taken and sold off like you do with livestock never to be seen again. These people were worked from sun rise to sun set and were not paid for their labor. In Africa the people were worked for cheap wages but, they were not the property of their masters. The Indians that were brought to SA were well paid and they were not owned by slave masters. The Indians were free to go and do as they please and their families were not broken up and sold off like the people were in the new world. The Indians that came to Africa did so seeking a better life in Africa that they didn’t have in India.
Speaking of education, in the US, it was illegal to teach a slave how to read and write. The punishment for this crime in some states were death by hanging however, some master children taught their slaves how to read. Some slaves like friedrich Douglas taught himself how to read and write. The people in the colonies were blessed because in the US the slave were not allowed to learn how to read and write. This was also true in Brazil were the slave weren’t taught how to read and write.
I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself the king of infinite space, were the M&G ever to implement a proper bloody forum for their comments section, so that I could ignore list the Dave Harrises and Lyndall Beddys of this world. Praise whatever gods may be for the Creator, whose blog more people should read.
As regards Nelson Mandela: at this point, he is to the ANC what Mickey Mouse is to Disney, a marketing figure that triggers the nostalgia reflex in the target demographic. I have a great deal of respect for anyone who can spend 27 years in prison and not come out burning for revenge, and the initial deal struck at Codesa was probably the best that could have been arrived at at the time. Decolonisation is an ongoing process, and turning one man into a Christ-like figure who is expected to ride in on a white horse and fix all the world’s ills with one wave of his magic wand is…deeply unrealistic, to put it charitably. Saint or shitbag? As with all people, the truth is probably in between somewhere.
Sterling and Kevin
Not only was it legal to teach slave children to read and write in SA, it was compulsory, as was allowing freedom of religion EXCEPT that Christian slave children could not be sold to other masters, which was why there was no resistance if they wanted to convert to Islam! This applies to the small numbaer of slaves that there were from the original Malays imported by Van Riebeeck.
One of my ancestors started the first school for slave children in Cape Town, which became so respected that the citizens insisted that white children also be allowed to attend.
@Liermann, very good comment about Mandela, he had a weak hand and was able to come out a winner at that time. When one writes about Mandela, one has to look at SA during the 80s and one will see the ANC was very weak with no highly trained military to fight the apartheid government. This is the same situation Lincoln found himself in during the US civil war, the Rebel forces had won every battle so Lincoln thought he would have to bargain with the Rebels however, after Gettysburg, he began to call for unconditional surrender by the rebel forces. The big powers lean on the apartheid government and brought them to the bargaining table so they could dictated the settlement.
Sterling
Do stop wishful thinking about the influence of “big powers” especially America, which was the country the least involved and the most supportive of the Anti-Communist fight of the White Afrikaners!
The biggest influence from overseas was from the European Western Democracies , especially Scandinavia, Britain and Holland, whose intelligence about the democratic/communist nature of the ANC seems to have been considerably less than America”s.
If you really want details of who was the most involved read the book “White Lies: Cannon Collins and the Secret War against Apartheid” by Dennis Herbstein.
So many people have written their memoirs that the history of that period will never be hidden or “propagandaed” for long!
@Beddy, Mandela has admitted that he was talking to the US officials long before he came out of prison. The talk didn’t go any place until the Democrats took over congress and started to pass bills that the speaker of the house Eric Grey were pushing through congress. As a matter of facts, the Reagan’s administration was trying to sell the apartheid government a ten billion dollar military package that would have include advance fighters planes and laser weapons. Congress passed a law stopping this sale and Reagan vetoed this bill. Congress was able to override Reagan’s veto in both houses and the bill became law. The SA government sent the head of the IFP party to the US to campaign against the US involvement in the domestic affairs of SA. He traveled across the US telling all of these right wing people how the blacks were suffering because of this bill. The apartheid government was not ready to go to the bargaining table until the US lean on them.
The US then used their influence to dictate the terms of the agreement. One of the things that the US demanded and got that all nuclear weapons would be dismantled before a change in the government. The head of the IFP party was trying to block the bargaining talk because he wanted the US to install him as the president of SA. The apartheid government called the blacks in the US the third force fighting them.
@Beddy, this article that the author wrote is not complete because of his failure to do better research of what went on at that time in SA during the bargaining. Beddy, with your knowledge of history, I am shocked that you will make a statement that the US wasn’t involved in the bargaining talk in SA.
Sterling
Almost all of American history is myth, not reality, ably assisted by Hollywood fantasy movies. The worst colonisers of the 19th and 20th Centuries were the Americans, the Russians and the Chinese: Ask the Native Americans and Samoans and Hawaiians; and the Poles and Scandinavians; and the Tibetans and and Burmese and Mongols!
Black America became a mirror image of White America – as racist and as capitalist! The biggest cause of the collapse of Black Africa was the fantasies and myths of Black America.
As Garg reminded us “The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions”
And as I have pointed out, many times, History is all about “Unintended Consequences”.
Sterling
I should clarify my previous point – White America had little influence on White South Africa; but Black America had a lot of influence on both Black South Africa and also on all the rest of the Black Liberated African States.
White Afrikaans South Africans mainly descend from peoples who were Protestant Christians who fled to SA from persecution by the Roman Catholic Church in Europe, and are very wary of the strong Roman Catholic influence in the USA (i.e “Die Roomse Gevaar”, The Roman Danger, was one of the threats to their culture).