“If the misery of our poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin”- Gould, S.J., The Mismeasure of Man. New York: W.W. Norton & Co. 1981.

1.Introduction

The above quotation borrowed from Darwin, which appears in Gould’s book says it all particularly in the area of scientific racism .Scientists have over a long period tried to justify racism on the basis of attaching some laws of nature to its origins .Guild looks at how scientists in the 18th and 19th century had used preconceived beliefs of racism to justify their findings about the imagined inferiority of other race groups. These scientists which are being vigorously challenged by Guild in his work, fixed the data of their research either by not including all their results or by using an unequal number of subjects of each race involved in that particular study to ensure that the findings will justify the preconceived belief that other race groups are inferior .Racism is based on pseudo scientific theories. This mental psychosis penetrated a great number of people across the world and was internalized by some as being true and regrettably it is still shared by many even though it has been proven on countless occasions that it is a fallacy. It therefore comes as no surprise that there is a lot of euphoria around the ability of South Africa and hence Africa to host a Fifa World Cup in 2010.This is despite the fact that other sporting events have hosted world cups in South Africa without any kind of this euphoria. South Africa is to host a Fifa Soccer World Cup in 2010.This is the first time that this prestigious event is going to be hosted in Africa. The exclusion of Africa and Africans from many matters of international significance be it on political, social and economic issues is a matter of public record. This development therefore represents a shift of a particular paradigm. This article therefore looks at the historicity of this exclusion. It critically explores the inter- connectivity between scientific racism ,slavery and institutional racism and examines how these have informed the various political approaches to the ability and/or inability of blacks to engage in various sporting activities in various parts of the world .It navigates the battlefields in the contested terrain of racism that is in South Africa today between those who are for and those who are against it .It looks at the processes that have so far been put in place by the democratic government in shifting back the frontiers that characterize racism in South African economic and social life .It dissects the concepts and processes of affirmative action and black economic empowerment in the context of the secondary contradictions that are posed by the conflicting narrow consumerism needs of the individual who is a beneficiary of these ,against the broader social needs of society and how these contradictions are bringing about unintended negative consequences .It looks at the mirroring of counter revolutionary tendencies by narrow consumerism individualistic tendencies and how these have a propensity of defeating the prosecution of the national democratic revolution . It recommends how these contradictions can be managed by individuals themselves through revolutionary consciousness, morality and discipline. The synthesis of this article is premised on the obvious fact that the ANC is constituted by the people as individuals, who in their collective make up the organization and that ,for it to be able to maintain a well oiled fighting machinery for the battles and challenges that lie ahead like racism , the individuals who constitute it should be devoted through word and deed to its norms , traditions and values.

2. Slavery and apartheid – connected by an umbilical cord

For quite a long time now , across the globe the issue of racism has always been on the agenda .At this age and time the European Union and indeed many other organized political blocs in the global family are still engaged in practical programmes to eradicate racism in their jurisdictions .It is therefore not only surprising , but also shocking that some in our country want us to believe that racism is a thing of the past in South Africa,which is notably the greatest paradise ever to have had a prolonged racist dynasty in the history of mankind. Whilst denialists always try their best to portray racism as a two- way dimensional phemenoma , that is , blacks can be racist in the same way as whites can be racist , the historicity of the concept of racism points to the direction that racism in its purest form was architected to oppress a black person , not the other way round .This concept was coined out of what is commonly known as scientific racism.Scientific racism refers to scientific theories of the 19th century, which drew several disciplines in order to provide a typology of different human races, based on a biological conception of the race. Such theories have provided ideological justifications to racism, slavery and colonialism during the new imperialism period in the second half of the 19th century. These scholarly theories sometimes worked in conjunction with racism, for example in the case of the human zoos, during which various human beings were presented in cages during exhibitions. Our own Saartjie Baartman, called the “Hottentot Venus”, was displayed in London in the early 19th century as a pawn in a human zoo .It was only after the democratic government had intervened that her body was brought back to her motherland .Along with eugenics, invented by Francis Galton and popularized at the turn of the 20th century, such theories, which often postulated a master race, were a main influence of the Nazi racial policies and their program of eugenics.
”Both historians of slavery and those of racism have also naturally had a good deal to say about the correlation of one ideology with the other”.

We have heard in recent times of the strong campaign to have the book “TINTIN in the Congo”removed from bookshelves because of its racist stereotyping of black people. Campaigning for its banning, the Commission for Racial Equality in the United Kingdom said the book contained “words of hideous racial prejudice, where the ’savage natives’ look like monkeys and talk like imbeciles. For centuries now, the demon of racism has lived and thrived in the world in different forms and guises .Over this period, it assumed several unique and chilling traits, first with the slavery trade, mainly of Africans, secondly and concurrently with the slaughter of Jews in the context of the holocaust and the oppression of blacks in Africa and the diaspora and most particularly in South Africa.
That having been the reason our people, here in South Africa have for decades been asking the question, Senzeni Na? (What have we done?), and getting no response from the world, they have responded to themselves that, Isono sethu bubumnyama (our sin is being black).Our people did not only mourn about their woes .And knowing the reason for their oppression, they decided to fight on and directed their energy in the fight against racism .They could see racism wherever they went, at work, in sport, at schools and many other areas which were deemed sacred to be used by the primitive savage person.
3. Who is on the side of our people?

“There is no neutral ground on which to stand, no vantage point from which a broader view may be grasped .One is on the side of the powerful or the powerless, part of the problem or part of the solution.”

Black people have been stigmatized for a long period now in the ideological drive to blame them for their own predicament. Several interventions were made by South Africans themselves to challenge the racist demon and all its manifestations. The most notable one being the formation of the African National Congress .From its inception, the ANC had made it clear that its mission is to unite our people behind the banner of fighting against oppression and to eradicate racism and all its manifestations.
During the struggle of course , and correctly so ,the ANC attracted some sympathizers who for reasons best known to themselves thought of the mission of the democratic movement as premised upon minimizing apartheid , and not to eradicate it . As Little puts it,
“members of the public who had known the black man in his servile days looked back to them with sentiment and affection, but it is doubtful if they could bring themselves to recognize and to relish to him in terms of equality.”
When the democratic breakthrough was registered in 1994, some of these sympathizers, having been politely awakened to the real character of the national democratic revolution, went back to their shells to defend the legacy of apartheid .The irony of it is that , they took over the baton from the very same die hard fanatics of apartheid that they had been campaigning against for decades ,and who were now on the retreat in their fanaticism of defending and entrenching apartheid. They saw what was left as minimal residues of apartheid worth being defended for their own and exclusive utilization. In an article from the New York Times in the 1980’s, entitled “Reforming apartheid does not end slavery”, the then Director of the Department of Information and Publicity of the African National Congress and current president of the ANC and our country, President Thabo Mbeki is quoted as having said ,
”The fact that a slave becomes a gang leader what the master calls a “supervisor” of other slaves-and consequently receives larger food rations, changes neither the slave’s social position nor that of the gang. They all remain slaves. Even when a slave becomes the master’s or mistress’s lover, the master-slave relationship is unchanged, despite their intimacy”.

The synthesis of President Mbeki’s argument is as relevant today as it has been yesteryear .It seeks to raise the consciousness of our people against the loud mouths who pretend to be on the side of our people when it suits them, whilst their real agenda is the perpetuation of racism in hidden forms.

“It is argued first of all that race is a common element , a concept which forms together the various elements of the presentation of the crisis facing society as a crisis caused by its victims.”

These are the loudest voices that we hear in the euphoria against affirmative action, against the introduction of quotas in sport, against broad based black economic empowerment, against us hosting the World Cup and indeed against everything that is on the transformation agenda. They will do everything that can be imagined or possible to derail transformation. Who are these people? Where do they derive their weird tendencies from? Many works have been produced to analyze the context from which this racism derives its mandate .Albert Speer , the architect to Adolf Hitler who later became an Armaments Minister during World War 2 is said to have been very close to the Fuhrer.As an art fanatic, Hitler spent much of his private time with Speer and with him he sometimes shared his weird views about the world and how according to him it was supposed to look like .During the Olympic games in Berlin in 1936 shortly after the uncontested remilitarization of the Rhineliland Hitler was in his element, as Albert Speer pens it;

”a few months after the uncontested remilitarization of the Rhineland, Hitler exulted over the harmonious atmosphere that prevailed during the Olympic Games. International animosity toward National Socialist Germany was plainly a thing of the past, he thought. He gave orders that everything should be done to convey the impression of a peace minded Germany into the many prominent foreign guests .He himself followed the athletic contests with great excitement .Each of the German victories made him happy, but he was highly annoyed by the series of triumphs by the marvelous colored American runner , Jesse Owens .People whose antecedents came from the jungle were primitive , Hitler said with a shrug ;their physiques were stronger than those of civilized whites, they represented unfair competition and hence must be excluded from future games.”

Sixty two years after his death, the Fuhrer still has people who share his views about how the world should look like, whilst others, who are as racist as he was, differ on his conception of what the primitiveness of black people throws up. A microscopic analysis of Hitler’s statement will surely reveal that, he was concerned and worried most by the ability of the black runners than with their inability. This is more so of today’s racism, it aspires to cast aspersions about the ability of the black person to do certain things, whilst deep in the racist mind they are aware that the ability is in abundance. And to validate their theory they will raise all sorts of excuses and imagined inabilities and would go in so far as to sabotage anything that seeks to disprove their validation efforts.
To Hitler, blacks were primitive savages from the jungle and who were so animalistic that their ability far outweighed that of civilized whites and as such, they could not compete with civilized whites as that could have led to unfair competition.
To the racist of today, blacks are primitive savages from the jungle and who are so animalistic that their ability is far outweighed by that of civilized whites and as such they cannot be allowed to compete with civilized whites as that will lead to the lowering of standards in sport.
Hitler’s reason for excluding blacks was that they were very capable of playing sport, meaning that if they were not he would not have been concerned about their exclusion.
The racist of today’s hidden reason for excluding blacks is that they are capable of playing sport meaning that if they were incapable they would not be concerned about their inclusion because the whole world would bear testimony to their beliefs and thus validate the reasons for their exclusion .They would rather keep them outside.
Of course both these idiotic hypotheses are wrong .For starters , Hitler’s hypothesis is based purely on his indoctrination that blacks are savages from the jungle with a particular unique physique that borders on being animals .There is no scientific proof to say blacks and whites are physiologically different , Hitler’s idiosyncrasies was therefore baseless.
Secondly , the modern racist bases his reason for exclusion , not very different from Adolph Hitler’s socialization , that blacks are savages with a particular physique of an animal and hence very able in sport .They are however not as brave as the fuehrer , who admitted this ability , they would rather have this ability hidden somewhere .
Hitler and his luminaries of today at least do agree on the savageness and primitiveness of this species, and agree, albeit without admitting it on its ability.
Because they are in denial about this species’ ability, they will always seek to exclude this species lest their theory be disproved.
These are the contradictions that always characterize racism; it is based on an invalid scientific thesis. Gould deconstruction of this scientific mythology is as follows;

“The popular impression that disproof represents a negative side of science arises from a common, but erroneous, view of his¬tory. The idea of unilinear progress not only lies behind the racial rankings that I have criticized as social prejudice throughout this book; it also suggests a false concept of how science develops.”

It is therefore not surprising that, whilst in public, the modern racist spits fire against most of the demonic deeds of Adolf Hitler, in private they still share a great deal of his philosophies .Indeed Hitler should be turning in his grave that “these people from the jungle” are to host a Fifa Soccer World Cup in South Africa in 2010.

4. Institutional racism

“Habits nurtured for generations are not easily set aside .The elements of racism in our laws have created both a psychosis and a state of ambivalence for the white populace .The psychosis experienced and acted upon by this nation has festered a split personality .This pathology has been addressed by the usage of white fratricide and attempted genocide.”

The racist of today is not the redneck of yesterday, but a kind of sophisticated operator. This is captured by Sir McPherson in his definition of institutional racism, from the Stephen Lawrence inquiry in the United Kingdom,

“a collective failure of an organization to provide an appropriate and professional service to people because of their color , culture or ethnic origin .It can be seen or detected in processes , attitudes and behavior which amount to discrimination through unwitting prejudices , ignorance, thoughtlessness and racist stereotyping .”

This is what is called subliminal racism .In his work on “The Burden of Proving Discrimination “, Ross explains that,

“racial discrimination is unlikely to be announced as such, not that is does not exist, but that it is carried out covertly or that assumptions on which it is based are so ingrained that they are unrecognized even by the person who holds them.”

Kan Freund summarizes it nicely by saying,

“we leave in a society that carries the structures of racism in its bones. “

Wedderburn analyses the demon of unconscious racism and submits that,

“a crucial factor in the process that produces unconscious racism is the tacitly transmitted cultural stereotype .If an individual has never known a black doctor or lawyer or is exposed to blacks only through a mass media where they are portrayed in a stereotype roles of comedian , criminal or musician .He is likely to deduce that blacks as a group are naturally inclined toward certain behavior and are unfit for certain roles.”

Culture has often been used as a catalyst to justify scientific racism .Hudson disagrees though,
“culture is dialectical , inasmuch as we are shaped by it through our ideas and actions , we also shape it .Culture is not some atrophied monolith which dictates our deeds .Yet too often in the race and crime debate culture is invoked as if it were a timeless and inexorable determinant of behavior.”

The duty therefore of our cadres, wherever they are deployed is to deepen the fight against racism and all its manifestations. Whilst it is true that slavery is now a thing of the past, the holocaust is a thing of the past, racism and racist ideology in South Africa and elsewhere in the world is alive .The mechanisms that the democratic government is putting in place to fight this scourge are many and they vary .We have affirmative action, we have broad based economic empowerment, cadres are deployed in several capacities to safeguard and drive the process of democratic transformation. On these processes our people, deep in the rural areas have put their only last hope and trust that their dreams of a free society will be realized. It is through affirmative action that we have to correct the imbalances of the past .In the words of Lester,

“if law can play a repressive role by sanctioning racial segregation and discrimination as it has done in Nazi Germany, the American South, Rhodesia and South Africa, it can operate with equal force in the opposite direction.”

This of course seems to be a hotly contested terrain for obvious reasons .Those from the meritocracy school of thought are arguing that there should be an equal participation of individuals in South Africa as if the playing fields are leveled., McCrudden is adamant that ,
“fair participation will be present when under representation is eliminated”.

The verbiage that we always hear from critics of affirmative action is based on the deliberate lies that are expanded to provide a mythical perspective of how South Africa should be .There has been no perceptional change in the mind that produced scientific racism during slavery, during Hitler’s fascist lunacy, during apartheid South Africa and after apartheid was outlawed in South Africa.
All these processes that have been put in place by the people’s government are aimed at correcting the ills of the past and distribute resources proportionally to all South Africans. Aristotle had coined this puzzle a long time ago , he had noted that the relativity of corrective justice is arithmetic .Which simple means that in correcting the ills of apartheid one has to subtract what was added to a certain group or that what was subtracted from a certain group has got to be added.Aristotles thesis is that the relativity of distributive justice is geometric , which means that people have to be considered in terms of their division in terms of which the issue of proportionality in the distribution of opportunities has to be the guiding principle.
It is crucial that we should deduce from Aristotle’s synthesis that, the question of group outweighs the question of the individual .Progressive policies like the affirmative action policy and the BEE are not designed to put the interests of individuals over those of society. Policies like affirmative action and BEE will not advance the national democratic revolution if we fail to nip the culture of individualism in the bud.

5. Concept of group outweighs individualism

“As a revolutionary organization, the ANC needs revolutionary cadres and leaders. It should put in place leadership collectives that satisfy the character of the ANC defined above: a revolutionary democratic movement, a non-racial and non-sexist national movement, a broad national democratic movement, a mass movement and a leader of the democratic forces.”-Through the eye of the needle -African National Congress

Aristotle is by many standards one of the greatest thinkers of all time in that the relevance of his thesis is as valid as it was yesteryear in so far as it relates to corrective and distributive justice. What this means is simply that, that which has been acquired in the process of corrective justice has to be distributed evenly amongst the inhabitants who were previously disadvantaged .Those who hold positions of influence through progressive policies like affirmative action and broad based black economic empowerment should not loot resources that are meant for our people, the majority of who are poor. It is expected of these cadres who are the drivers of social, economic and political transformation should lead from the front as change agents whose main pre occupation should be to engineer a radical social and economic transformation that would ultimately lead to the betterment of the lives of all our people, particularly the poorest of the poor. The phemenoma that is now emerging and slowly turning itself into a sub culture , is that some of our own cadres , by commission or omission are failing to discharge their historical and revolutionary responsibility to uplift our people from the scourge of poverty .We are witnessing that in a number of municipalities and elsewhere in public life , comrades are at each others throat, fighting petty wars that border primarily on greed and materialism .They seem to have forgotten that they are the servants of our people who have been so deployed to eradicate the legacy of the likes of Hitler and others of his ilk. We are witnessing in the private and public sectors an alarming rate of greed and individualism. It so shocking to find that in some areas a BEE company worth its salt, trapped in the counter revolutionary tendency of individualism, having been paid millions by the peoples government to build affordable houses for our people, instead of doing so, builds substandard houses that collapse within a short space of time, and pockets the millions as if nothing wrong had happened. The mogul concerned is not ashamed that he lives in a castle in an upmarket area, built out of millions that have been paid to him out of the belief that he has built decent houses for our people. A BEE company tasked to construct a road in a rural area, does not finish the work, bribes the roads inspectors and pockets the millions from a peoples government .In the end, our people living in these areas cannot access health care facilities, schools and all other amenities because some greedy BEE company has siphoned off all what was meant to construct a road to these amenities, the list goes on. As President Mandela had once emphasized,

“I have often said that the most profound challenges to South Africa’s development and democracy can be found in its rural hinterlands. These areas, systematically and intentionally deprived of the most basic resources under apartheid, continue to lag behind the rest of the country in the post-apartheid era”.

There is a need to revive revolutionary consciousness and morality in its very basic form. I remember when I joined the University of Transkei as a student from a rural area of Transkei.During school orientation , SRC and SANSCO comrades took us around a tour of Umtata, the then capital of the Transkei homeland republic .Of course as new students mainly from rural areas , we thought of seeing the best places in that capital town .I remember two places where they took us to .One was Ikhwezi Lokusa for the physically challenged .The other one was a place called Etiphini , a municipal dump site in Umtata,where people are competing to get the best out of rubbish .There ,the comrades showed us around and reminded us that , we are privileged that we are at a University, having nice rooms , nice ala carte three meals a days , proper medical attention and so forth. They reminded us that because of that privilege, our people look up to us to find solutions to their endemic problems, like those who were scrambling for rubbish. They emphasized that when we graduate we should not look only of our futures as economists, doctors, scientists etc, we should look at ourselves as liberators of our people. This was a very basic revolutionary principle which penetrated us in a very short space of time and which we patriotically embraced .When one looks back and comparatively at the present, there are two intriguing factors that keep on coming to ones mind .For starters, these SRC comrades never emphasized recreational and materialistic field trips, their emphasis was that of inculcating and deepening our revolutionary consciousness. Secondly , their age , these comrades were in their late teens and all they could think of was our people .They seemed less interested in materialism which could be expected of a young person of that age , the majority of them came from terrible economic and social conditions themselves. I have often wondered whether this rich tradition has filtered through to the next generation of youth leaders in its finest form.

“A leader should lead by example. He should be above reproach in his political and social conduct - as defined by our revolutionary morality. Through force of example, he should act as a role model to ANC members and non-members alike. Leading a life that reflects commitment to the strategic goals of the NDR includes not only being free of corrupt practices; it also means actively fighting against corruption.” Through the eye of the needle, African National Congress

In his electrifying address at the Great Hall of the then University of Transkei (now Walter Sisulu Univeristy) and probably his first public address in South Africa shortly after returning home in the 90’s, the late Comrade Chris Hani warned us at the University of Transkei again against individualism , he told us that the University was thought of , by some who had built it , as a vehicle of producing docile intellectuals, whose main pre occupation will be to pass lofty judgments on ivory towers. He warned us to defeat the system and not see ourselves as a layer that is separate from our people. He emphasized that the fact that we are educated we should assist to uplift our people from the scourge of poverty.
Indeed, if all of our cadres in their different deployments would internalize the reality that individualism has got no room in the national democratic revolution, we will witness less problems and much progress.

6. Individualism breeds greed

When Karl Marx said , “From each according to his ability and to each according to his need”, he was trying to put to rest the element of greed which is borne out of individualism and that people should consume from society something that is proportional to what they really need .Whilst there is nothing wrong in a free market economy for a person to acquire assets as long as he works hard for them , it is criminal for comrades to loot the resources meant for our people .It is not an exaggeration that some comrades earning thousands of rands per month , and because of greed continue to loot the resources meant to build clinics , crèches , hospitals , roads , etc , because they are greedy .Comrades should not assume that because one is now secure socially and economically then the need to fight for our people has diminished , as if to subscribe from the philosophy of the racists that the fight was not to eradicate apartheid but to minimize it, and that because” one is now a supervisor , slavery has ended”. Petty struggles, particularly at municipal level have a direct influence on the political lifeline and direction of ANC branches as branches no longer perform their political roles instead they are used as economic engine rooms for certain individuals at the expense of the broader society and the general citizentry.It is so weird that in some areas , it is difficult for comrades to engage in principled political debates during meetings and mature politically in the discourse of robust political engagement , sometimes the pre-occupation is who is to be appointed where and who is to be excluded or removed , and who will benefit from this or that tender and who is to be excluded .

“The struggle for social transformation is a complex undertaking in which at times, personal interests will conflict with the organizational interest. From time to time, conflict will manifest itself between and among members and leaders. The ultimate test of leadership includes, striving for convergence between personal interests - material, status and otherwise - and the collective interest.” Through the eye of the needle, African National Congress

The revered political traditions which all of us who are members of the ANC grew up and were nurtured from are evaporating like dew in the hot sands of the Kalahari. The traditions, norms and values that make some of us so proud to be associated with this giant revolutionary movement are being tramped at without any remorse by some who wear our hats as they scramble for resources and material gains , sometimes in places where there are no resources at all .Some of these elements were spectators when we were engaging the system and to them the broader picture as to why there is a need for revolutionary discipline and consciousness , cannot be seen with the naked eye , a magnifying microscope could perhaps assist .Some of these spectators enjoyed high life during the struggle and openly disassociated themselves with the struggles of our people. When we marched and were arrested, and assaulted by police, they looked at us from the comfort of their houses, when we boycotted schools, they wrote exams .They did everything that was anti the struggle and as they still do. Tried and tested cadres are nowhere to be seen as municipalities and branches of the movement are turned into playgrounds by these erstwhile spectators .Tested cadres of the revolution stay aside, arms akimbo and watch with horror as they watch known counter revolutionaries running their movement and dispensing patronage through tenders and dubious appointments. What this is tantamount to is the slow poisoning of the movement of the people and it is already bleeding, albeit slowly .Even more horrifying is to see a tested cadre, trapped in the alien standards of showing off ones wealth to the world. This has unfortunately become a new sub culture for some of our public representatives as they compete to show off their materialist gains at the expense of our people .That the difference between tested cadres and opportunists is narrowing by the day is a cause for serious concern .To cushion themselves from scrutiny, individualistic comrades have had a tendency to embrace factionalism and tribalism.
7. Materialism and selling out: is it time bound?
The history of the struggle as told by some is not a correct version .During the struggle which some of us had a privilege of participating fully into , materialism was shunned and despised .Those who showed the best leadership qualities shunned it as well .The reasons were many and vary ,for instance , it was not proper to embrace materialism and wealth accumulation when the temptations were that the enemy could use the bait of money and other material benefits to lure our cadres into selling out the revolution. The question that lingers is ; didn’t they sell out then , is this materialism a new phemenoma .Many a pundit have even asked the question , as to whether are we not expecting too much from the TRC to have unearthed the murderers of thousands of our comrades during the liberation struggle when indications are that our own cadres have not been so much loyal to the revolution but their loyalty has been over the years to instant wealth accumulation , tribes, factions and cliques, unearthed by the material conditions of a free society .Can it be that cadres who are evidently so materialist today would have been able to endure so much pain and suffering, living on ‘umphando’ over the years only to start materialism when they cross the Limpopo River ?With the state of factionalism and tribalism being so evident in some quarters of our movement these days , do we really have to look so distant for those who sold out our own comrades .Answers to these questions will be provided by the actions of ANC members as their actions will provide us with answers to the myths and puzzles of yesteryear .The last book of the bible is called ‘Revelations’, most is likely to be revealed by the present actions of our cadres which will direct us to their past actions. It is their actions as they sprint like rodents for material wealth and instant fame that we will be able to get answers to ages old difficult and extremely painful questions ;we will be able to get answers to the questions of whether ;if a comrade worth his salt can hire thugs to kill another comrade because of some tender somewhere – what could have stopped that comrade from selling out his comrades to the enemy for money during the liberation struggle .

8. Factionalism and tribalism: Is it the beginning of the end of the road for the African National Congress?

“African political leaders, experiencing it as destructive to their ideals of national unity, denounce it passionately. Commentators on the Left, recognizing it as a block to the growth of appropriate class awareness, inveigh against it as a case of ‘false consciousness’. Apologists for South African apartheid, welcoming it as an ally of continued white dominance, encourage it. Development theorists, perceiving it as a check to economic growth, deplore it. Journalists, judging it an adequate explanation for a myriad of otherwise puzzling events, deploy it mercilessly. Political scientists, intrigued by its continuing power, probe at it endlessly. If one disapproves of the phenomenon, ‘it’ is ‘tribalism’; if one is less judgmental, ‘it’ is ‘ethnicity’…despite a quarter century of “nation building,” most African states are still driven by ethnic particularism—commonly known as “tribalism.”
Because the ANC was able to lead a struggle for the liberation of our people for decades without any serious threat of factionalism and tribalism , it can safely be said that, the rapid escalation of factionalism and tribalism have got much more to do with the changed conditions of our struggle , particularly individual wealth accumulation , than with the politics of identity or otherwise .The greatest danger that is facing the African National Congress today is not an outside enemy but itself .Accusations from pessimists have been that over the years , the leadership has been able to paper over the cracks any forms of factionalism and tribalism. The reality is that factionalism and tribalism were never a great challenge to the movement in the past as they are today .The reason has been that , its cadres were highly politicized and had a high degree of political clarity, they knew where we come from and where we wanted to go, they were prepared to serve , suffer and sacrifice for the people .As this generation of leaders is getting older and retiring, the material conditions that prevail in a free society have been less enabling in terms of ideological consciousness and political education in general.Political clarity is diminishing by the day .Whilst in the past leaders were produced by the revolution in the context of active revolutionary struggle , in these days of tenders , promotions and lobbying , it is not a UFO sight to see comrades buying membership cards for faceless delegates to promote themselves into leadership positions during conferences .It is not unusual to see supposedly respected leaders openly canvassing support using their tribal or domicile background as a rallying point. Leaders of the movement are not an instant soup that you mix with hot water and drink instantly. Leaders grow up and are tested in the battle over time, they prove themselves in the trenches and do not appoint themselves, they are a by-product of a gradual and fine milling system of the revolution .Whilst in traditional systems leadership is hereditary, this is not so in a revolution, leaders in a revolution are shaped by the battles of the people. This alien tendency of pushing through leadership positions individuals because they are related to some or another leader or some hereditary lineage is wrong, they should earn the positions that they get. The revolution should produce them, they should not produce themselves for the revolution .The revolution does not produce paper tigers, television screen tigers, it produces blood tigers .The “Through the eye of the needle document” has correctly stated that;
“Leaders evolve out of battles for social transformation. In these battles, cadres will stumble and some will fall.”
The likelihood therefore is that, those who produce themselves are likely not to be real leaders but pushers of tenders and other sordid patronage tendencies. The resultant situation is that as these fake leaders climb the ladder, as they surely will , the old leaders are replaced by fong kongs , the cream of the crop is not replaced by the same quality and the quality of leadership will suffer a mutational meltdown .As the fong kongs take the centre stage, the ANC loses its character, its direction and its identity .It might sound naïve as to what is it that can disable our cadres from accessing political education literature which is freely available in the libraries and which can be read without fear of being arrested .It might sound naïve as to what is it that can disable our cadres from grasping political clarity when the doors of learning have been opened and when we have so many of our fraternal organizations organizing freely in our country . The reality is that, people want to be rich quick, they cannot see themselves having to work their way through branches, and everyone wants to be a leader in order to get recognition and instant access to state resources .This is what leads to factions which manifest themselves in terms of either areas of domicile, tribes or race .The worst casualty of these tendencies will be our tested cadres as the fong kongs cannot stand in front of our tested cadres with their heads high , they are likely to undermine them or overlook them .In their true revolutionary tradition , our tested cadres are likely not to challenge the status quo , fearing to cause instability and unnecessary attention , whilst the rot will continue unabated.
Dialectic materialism as expounded by many Marxist Leninists differ with the idea that individualist consciousness should be supreme against the primacy of social relations as it is obviously a form of ideological mystification.Thus they say ‘it is not men’s consciousness that determines their existence,but on the contrary, their social existence that determines their consciousness.’Therefore , because of the mass and omnibus nature of our organization, and the changed conditions of our struggle, the movement is most likely to attract into its ranks, individuals who in the past have been trapped into bigoted ,racist , factionalist and tribalist orientations for decades .These individuals were indoctrinated for years on their individual consciousness which was used to propel them into social groups along tribe or race backgrounds .The debriefing of these individuals will be critical to ensure that their historical orientation does not germinate in the movement .The founding conference of the ANC in 1912 did a brilliant work in detaching individualist consciousness as a precursor to social existence and put forward social existence as a precursor to individualist consciousness , hence the saying, you are South African first before you are Sotho , Zulu ,Pedi, Xhosa or Tsonga .
Factionalism and tribalism become extremely active whenever racism has been neutralized .The story of factionalism and tribalism is a very sad story particularly in post liberation countries .The reality is that, during the struggle, people forget about their differences, their different languages, tribes, cultures and domiciles. Their concentration is always on the ball , their liberation .Whilst practical conditions of the liberation struggle point to the direction that people should be survivalist in their business and hence defend and associate with their most immediate group , the reality has been that the survivalist nature of people during the liberation struggle does not make them resign their fate to a climate of narrow groups or tribes , people look at themselves in a broader context , as a united nation in the making. The irony of it is that, immediately after liberation, having survived an onslaught, having conditions that are totally immaterial for survivalist tendencies, people start being survivalist, factionalist and tribalist. When confronted with these tendencies , comrades have often side stepped the issue and relegated it into some obscure historical or heritage fact which is not itself tribalistic .President Oliver Tambo , in an Interview with Rixaka in January 1985 made a clear distinction between the preservation of cultural heritage and tribalism .The President stated that cultural heritage should not be a means of tribal identification rather than an elemental part of national culture .There has been little work done by cultural workers in this regard , in terms of contextualizing the import of President Tambos message to the masses of the people .We are seeing more and more of our people using culture and heritage more as a symbol of their own individual identity as a group rather than it being an issue of national character .This is one area that needs a specific attention for the obvious reason that , if not managed properly , we will fall into the trap that President Tambo had already identified .As to whether in the 13 years since our freedom we have moved towards growing our culture to assume a national character remains to be seen .As President Tambo put it ;
“The apartheid enemy tries to separate us into ancient “tribal” entities and pretends to be concerned with the preservation of our cultural heritage. We are one people with a rich cultural heritage which manifests itself in many variations. Our task is not to preserve our culture in its antique forms but to build on it and let it grow to assume a national character, the better to become a component of all evolving world culture. In this context language, oral literature, dance, etc., become elemental parts of the national culture - a people’s possession rather than a means of tribal identification. In any case the notion of “tribe” has colonial origins, is promoted by colonial regimes and serves the purposes of “divide and rule”. Culture does not divide. It unites because it is a universal possession. “
Factionalism and tribalism is what has been called by writers uncivil nationalism. It is in part based on nationalism, which is good; it however loses its positiveness by attaching to itself elements of destruction, strife, hatred, and all that is represented by uncivil tendencies. Factionalism and tribalism , as active ingredients of a disorderly society are often used as a cannon fodder by reactionaries to pursue their narrow interests .As was the case in the bantustans, these tendencies are mainly used to force the citizenry in a particular area to accept anti social tendencies as legitimate tendencies , legitimate for their factional or tribalistic survival .If these tendencies are not arrested in good time, the propensity is that they will entrench themselves in our movement and it will be difficult, or rather impossible to uproot them .The impossibility will be imposed by the beneficiaries of these sordid tendencies as they would fight tooth and nail to preserve them as their preservation automatically translates to their own political survival .The ANC has got only one main weapon that has allowed it to live and prosper , the weapon of unity .If factionalism and tribalism are allowed to live and prosper , the ANC will die. We have countless stories of liberation movements that died naturally because of factionalism and tribalism, the ANC is not immune from that as well. The approach by comrades has been to cushion their counter revolutionary tendencies by making use of divisive strategies like factionalism and tribalism that will ensure that they enjoy a comfort zone and are not prone to scrutiny.
In most areas , particularly at municipal level , there are cliques that have been formed around particular individuals .A closer look at the genesis and outlook of these cliques will reveal that they are nothing more that appendages of patronage and disgraceful hero worshiping of thugs who are holding the banner of the African National Congress sky high for reasons of patronage .These cliques will be formed in terms of who benefited from a previous corrupt dynasty and who is likely to benefit from the present corrupt dynasty and sooner or later they will start targeting each other for elimination physical or otherwise .
“The existence of a factional system can have serious negative consequences for a political organisation. If factional strife becomes intensive and public, the organisation may suffer from perceptions of disunity. Taken one step further, if the conflict is particularly severe, it may cause ruptures within the organisation that seriously impede its effectiveness, leading to break-up or collapse of the organisation. A climate of intense factional conflict can also motivate individuals to focus on attacking their factional enemies rather than furthering the broader organisation.”
In much more cosmopolitan areas, this factionalism is engineered into tribalism. That comrades were together in the trenches no longer counts, that they were together as student, civic, army and trade union leaders no longer counts. The language that one speaks or area where he comes from becomes paramount to everything and every approach .If this disease is not arrested as soon as possible, factionalism and tribalism will destroy the movement of the people.
“The colonial legacy of bureaucratic authoritarianism, pervasive patron-client relations, and a complex ethnic dialectic of assimilation, fragmentation and competition has persisted in post-colonial societies. Patron-client networks remain the fundamental state-society linkage in circumstances of social crisis and uncertainty and have extended to the very centre of the state. This accounts for the personalistic, materialistic and opportunistic character of African politics. Such networks also penetrate institutions of civil society and liberal democracy, undermining programmes of socio-economic and political reform.”
The ANC was formed out of the desire to unite our people. This was a made clearly by none other that Pixley ka Seme, a great giant of our revolution;
“The launching of the South African Native National Congress on 8 January 1912 (later renamed the African National Congress) was thus the culmination of a process that had started before Union. Emphasizing the dire need for unity which would have to cut across and replace all hitherto ethnically based organizational structures, Pixley ka l. Seme- one of the founders of the ANC - declared: ‘The demon of racialism, the aberrations of the Xhosa-Fingo feud, the animosities that exist between Zulus and the Tsongas, between the Basutos and every other Native must be buried and forgotten … We are one people.”

Ka Seme was elaborating on an earlier list of 21 objects that was drawn up during the inaugural meeting of the South African National Congress which had listed the scourge of tribalism as one of the issues that needed urgent attention;
“At the inaugural meeting in Bloemfontein on the 8 January 1912, a list of ‘21 objects’ was drawn up, including the need to encourage mutual understanding and bring together into common action as one political people of all tribes and clans of all tribes …to discourage and contend against racialism and tribal feuds or to secure the elimination of racialism and tribal feuds, jealousy and petty quarrels by economic combination, education, goodwill and by other means.”

That the issue of tribalism had pre occupied the founding fathers of the ANC as early as in 1912 is a pointer to the fact that , they viewed it as a threat to the cohesion of the movement .That in its 95th year , we have not been able to totally eradicate tribalism and its roots points further to the very same threat that was identified as early as in 1912 .The main impediment in terms of dealing with tribalism is that it is not a fundamental issue , it is manifestly petty .It is much easier to unpack and dissect something more fundamental rather than petty quarrels based on jealousy , which are in their nature mutational .As we march to the centenary celebrations of the birth of the trusted and tested movement of our people, the African National Congress, every cadre has to honestly and frankly ask and answer these questions:

• What is the ANC?
• Why did I join ANC?
• What values does it stand for?
• Am I true to its mission and vision?
• What traits make up a disciplined cadre?
• Am I that disciplined cadre?

9. Conclusion

In order for us to defeat Hitler’s weird legacy as encapsulated in his 1936 Berlin Olympics outburst and the TINTIN thesis, and which are so evident today in many spheres of our everyday life, comrades should go to the basics. Looting of state resources is at an alarming rate; in fact it is a competition. In some areas competitive tendering has become synonymous with corruption. In as much as a lot has been and is still being done , the reality is that most of our people particularly in the rural areas still live in dehumanizing squalor , poverty is still manifesting itself at a rate that is discomforting ,crime in our societies particularly juvenile delinquency and substance abuse is alarmingly high. Most of our people have lost their dignity , parents live , wash , dine and sleep with their children in the same room, which in most cases is a shack .It is not an uncommon sight to see a kid walking to school barefoot in a cold morning , sometimes snowing having had nothing to eat in the morning .To make matters worse , when he gets to school the school feeding scheme has been corrupted , there is no bread, some corrupt bureaucrat has bought an SUV with that bread money .As Donnison points out ,

“to keep out of poverty , people must have an income which enables them to, participate in the life of the community .They must be able to keep themselves reasonably well fed and well enough dressed to maintain their self respect .Their homes must be reasonably warm .Their children should not be ashamed by the quality of their clothing .The family must be able to visit relatives and give them something on their birthdays and at Christmas time .They must be able to live in a way that ensures so far as possible that public officials,doctors,teachers,landlords and others treat them with the courtesy due to every member of the community .”

We can craft the best policy interventions; our greatest and most important asset in pushing through those interventions is a cadreship that is disciplined, revolutionary and prepared to serve and sacrifice for our people. This cadreship will ensure that it translates these policies into programmes of action that can practically make the lives of our people better. This cadreship has got political clarity and leads by example .This cadreship does not look at itself as a separate layer , away from the people , this cadreship knows that it is for the people because it is the people .This is the kind of cadreship that understands that to serve our people is not for gain, and that if gain does presents itself in the form of a salary or other benefits that accrue in today’s world and changed conditions of the revolution , then same is consequential, and they should be content with what they get bearing in mind that other citizens are roaming the streets without a job . This cadreship is aware that if it fails our people, our people have no other recourse as they represent hope to the aspirations of the masses of our people. This cadreship knows that others before us have served our people with distinction without expecting to be rewarded and were never rewarded, never paid a salary and never had pension .As comrade Chris Hani had correctly declared that ;
“The perks of a new government are not really appealing to me. Everybody of course, would like to have a good job, a good salary, and that sort of thing. But for me, that is not the be-all of a struggle. What is important is the continuation of the struggle - and we must accept that the struggle is always continuing - under different conditions whether within parliament, or outside parliament, we shall begin to tackle the real problems of the country. And the real problems of the country are not whether one is in the cabinet, or a key minister, but what we do for social upliftment of the working masses of our country.’

Without this cadreship, the revolution is doomed. The road to freedom has been long and rough. However because of the disciplined resoluteness of our cadres to serve and sacrifice for our people, freedom was won. Our people, united behind the banner of the ANC have struggled through tooth and nail against apartheid tyranny .Some fell in the line of duty and some lie buried in foreign lands .Some lost their breath in enemy gallows, holding high the banner of our movement, the African National Congress, shouting the slogans of our movement whilst being walked by the enemy to the gallows, that they will never surrender, victory is certain. We should not spoil this victory that was written with the blood of our fallen martys.We all have a historic duty to honor their sacrifices and we should not fail to do so.
As someone once said;

” Our dignity is a living memory to their historic sacrifices “

Lest we forget the heroic sacrifices of Chris Hani, Steve Biko, Joe Gqabi,Nkulu Njongwe, Bathandwa Ndondo, Reggie Hadebe and many others who have written with their own blood, tears and sweat, the most shining chapters in the history of the national democratic revolution.

Makhubalo Ndaba.
African National Congress Member
Boughton , Pietermaritzburg
September 2007

NOTES

Berman B,(1988) Ethnicity , patronage and the African State ,Oxford Journal of African Affairs , Volume 97, London
Gould S (1981) The Mismeasure of Man, WW Norton and Company, New York
Little, K (1972) Negroes in Britain 1555-1833, Oxford University Press, London
McCrudden, C (1992) Affirmative Action and Fair Participation, ILJ

Mandela, N (2005) Emerging Voices: A Report on Mandela Education in South African Rural Communities, Nelson Foundation, vii.
Mbeki , G (undated) The struggle for liberation in South Africa
Meli , F (1988) A history of the ANC ,James Currey , London
Ross, J (2001) The Burden of Proving Discrimination, International Journal of Discrimination Law
Speer, A (1970) Inside the Third Reich, Weidenfield and Nicolson, London
Vail, L (1991)The creation of tribalism in Southern Africa, University of California Press
Wedderburn, W (1971) The Worker and the Law, Middlesex, Penguin Books
www.anc.org.za

UMZIMKHULU (in KZN)Prepared by Mr Thembelani Maphanga - BSc Computer Science and Statistics). Prepared by Mr Thembelani Maphanga a member of this community.  The community of Umzimkhulu (Border Locality) started patrolling the streets of this village some three weeks ago. They have managed to apprehend and hand over to the police 7 criminal who committed serious crimes (Murder). However, the police have never even come to meet with this community to show appreciation for what they did. This community stood up because the criminal justice system and the police had failed them for too long. They decided to take matters into their own hands because there was nobody who was protecting the poor and the vulnerable. The community members had reached a stage where they could not come out of their houses after 6pm. You could not send a child out at night no matter where he or she is going. These criminals had even started committing crime in broad daylight and the police were not able to protect the community.   1.2.  Poverty, disease and underdevelopment In 2005 the South African Business Trust undertook a study to analyse and document the profile of Umzimkhulu. The results of the study showed that Umzimkhulu was one of the most underdeveloped and poverty stricken area in South Africa.  International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) quote : “Umzimkhulu lies in one of the poorest rural areas of South Africa, the former Transkei homeland in the Eastern Cape. Employment levels are very low, with only about 12% of residents in the municipality employed. There is a marked dependency on government services, pensions and migrant workers, with 38% of households reporting no income at all (Department of Provincial and Local Government South Africa and South African Local Government Association: 2005). The IMR is 99/1000 live births and the antenatal HIV prevalence rate is 28%.” The study showed that only 4% of the people in Umzimkhulu have tertiary qualification and 71% of this community do not have matriculation. The study reported that the services offered by the local municipality were very limited. Around 69% of the population had no electricity and 87% did not have access to piped water. More than 77% of this community earned less than R9,600 per annum. These high levels of underdevelopment and poverty have continued to negatively impact on the interest and confidence of the potential investors. As a result local government has continued to struggle to attract direct investment of any kind into this region.  The impact of these factors can no longer be ignored by the key stakeholders. The 28% HIV prevalence with the low levels of education amongst the youth continue to delay and defer the promise of better life for all. In February 2007, the department of health presented a new national health strategy (NHS) with a view of halving the HIV infection rate in five years. During a feedback session Dr Xundu, the Chief Director of HIV/AIDS noted with concern the results of this new strategy. In other provinces the NHS showed some success stories with success rates of about 50%, whilst Umzimkhulu was reflecting a zero percent success rate. This is an indictment on the community and its leadership as a whole.    MY EXPERIENCES ON 3 SEPTEMBER 2008It is Wednesday, 3 September 2008 at 23h40. We have cloudy skies today and I think it about to rain. Around 190 young men some as young as 15 years are hurdled in a circle in an open field next to R56. The meeting has been going on for 3 hours, my friend Max continues to talk, “Guys, there is something I need to report today, I received a complaint from an old lady today elihlala la eAirport. She says that she has been verbally abused by uAndile”. He turns to look at the group and he calls, “Andile are you here today”, and Andile responds, “Yebo ngikhona”, “Please come forward, there is another complaint about you, ugogo wase next door has reported that you verbally abused her today, what is your story?”. Before he can answer somebody comments, “ This young men has been in front of the council on two other occasions. Young man what is your problem. The first time you came somebody defended you and said that you are not a criminal but you cause public disturbance when drunk, the second time you were brought was because you stole a cell phone. Now you are here again. I’m sure this time we will have to punish you.” Somebody else comments, “Andile, you need to tell us your story else mfana wam uzobola yinduku”“Bhuti, let me tell you the right story. I know that I messed up. I should not have abused uuuugogo (he stuttered). We went to this house to look for our girlfriends, and mine was not allowed to go out but my friend managed to get a chance to talk to his girlfriend. We spent a lot of time with her outside on the road such that by the time we took her back they had locked her out already. She went to knock but her granny did not open, she was ultimately allowed her inside the house and we left. In the morning her granny came to our house and she started using abusive language and she used a term that got me really angry, she said I’m misbehaving because I’m borne of “Idikazi”. I immediately saw red and I told her that she calls my mother idikazi because her daughters are amadikazi. I know bhuti I was wrong but her calling my mother idikazi was very offensive to me. The most painful thing is that I do not even know who my mother is. Maybe just maybe if I knew who my mother is maybe I would have responded differently. When she told me this she took me to the place I never want to visit. Bhuti, mina I do not know who my mother is. She left me for dead when I was 6 month old and some old lady who was not even related to me took care of me until I was able to walk. She died a few years later and I had no one else to take care of me. I went to the streets from that day onwards. I have lived in the streets for my entire life. I have lived in the streets of Durban, Harding, Port Shepstone and any other town that had space for a young person to survive. I have been on drugs as long as I could remember. Drugs have allowed me to forget, they have been a source of comfort for me. As a young person I have lived of handouts from white people, when I could not get anything from them I have then gone to the bins to look for something to eat. This is the only life I know, when Social Workers in Durban told me about my family in Umzimkhulu, emaChunwini I was very excited but that was short lived because my family never accepted me. Remember I have never been to school, never been within a family setting, never been loved by anybody” Somebody interrupts ”Andile don’t mess with us, you are staying with your granny now”. Andile turns around to respond. His voice is soft, and I hear the tears going down his face “Well bhuti omdala, the old lady I’m staying with is not my grand mother she is just an old lady who allowed me to stay at her place. I was kicked out of my home because of a fight I had with my sister when she took my girlfriend to Harding and introduced her to Amakwerekwere. I went there only to find that my girl was now staying with a foreigner who was friends with my sisters boyfriend who was also a kwerekwere. So that is my story, I know that I have messed up and I want to ask for your help. I have lived life the best I know how. Wrong, definitely yes, but what choice did I have. I know I was wrong in answering to the old lady, but I was very angry with her. Bo bhuti, this is all I know. In the streets you survive by being strong, else people hurt you. This is all the street had taught me. I have this anger, I do not know where it is coming from. All I know is that when people say things to me that I do not like then I have to fight with them. I would like to change this one day. I do not know how. I would like to be like anybody here today, but how do I get there. I would like to belong to a family one day like any other person but my mother denied me that opportunity. So what are the chances that I will have a normal life. NIL, I do need your help bobhuti. Please help me. Anything you can do to change my life will be greatly appreciated.” The young man had spent the last 30 minutes telling the group his life story. His life has nothing good about it. Everybody in the council just stood there amazed at how this young man has survived to be this old today. We were all taken back at how life can be tough to some of us. The only comment that came from the council was “ We would like to help you, and all we can do is try and get you back to your family, and also try and get umakhulu lo oxabene naye to forgive you. Will this be fine?. Andile answered, “I will appreciate anything that you can offer”. This is a true story. It happened last week and uAndile is around still trying to make sense of what life has to offer him. This is but one of many stories that have come out of a very interesting period of my life. I have been protected from this reality for a very long to time. I have lived a good life to an extent that I never realised that poverty was a reality right around me. We have managed to stop this young man and the others from committing crime within our areas, but we have not given them anything to survive. This young man has never seen the doors of education. He has never tasted the sense of belonging to a family. He has never been loved by a father or a mother. He is bitter because he continues to see families around him sharing and loving each other. He is longing for that same experience of a home he could call his own. He has fended for himself from the day he was borne. The question is, does he ever have a chance in life. The answer is simple, if not assisted by us as a community he does not have a chance. He will go back to crime as and when the opportunity presents itself.  As a society we have failed uAndile and many other like him. How much will it take to help him out. Are we willing to lend a hand and change the fortunes of Andile. Last week we met uSibeko – He had a similar and painful story to tell as well. He was once thrown out of a top floor of a building in Durban one day trying to steal from a white man’s apartment. He has survived, but for how long?I would like to appeal to anybody to help us tell our story and get the assistance we so need. We have stopped the crime today but what are these young people going to do to survive. They are NOT equipped in anyway to be self sufficient. I make this personal appeal to you to give us a hand. This is a story that need to be told so as to highlight the plight of the rural poor and marginalised. In order to get assistance that we desperately need to help uAndile, uXolani, uSibeko, Sdira, Sbhalala, Sniko, and many others that have joined us in the fight against the crime that they themselves have committed against this community.  We need your assistance to help them lead a meaningful life. We need your help to create a sustainable, decent and crime free existence for these young people. Lest they turn back to crime.

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” — Martin Luther King, Jr.

The objective of the low intensity conflict (LIC) as implemented by the previous South African government was to stifle resistance from societies that could not be controlled by normal means. This strategy was implemented over a number of years and the last 14 years (until 1994) was characterised by three identifiable phases… “ First, the Total Strategy phase, between 1980 and 1986, coupled reform with repression. Second, the Counter-revolutionary war phase, between 1986 and 1990, utilised the Win Hearts and Minds (WHAM) strategy. This phase witnessed an LIC trial run in KwaZulu-Natal. Thirdly, the LIC - Proper phase, between 1990 and 1994, the process of guided democracy, employed the dual strategy of negotiations and destabilisation”^[i]

This experience combined with 300 years of segregation and underdevelopment had a caustic effect on the black communities. These strategies were implemented to ensure that blacks remain on the fringes of society and continue to provide cheap labour for growth of big business and better life for the white minorities. Dr Verwoerd wrote “There is no place for him (African) in the European community above the level of certain forms of labour”.

The introduction of the “guided democratic rule” in 1994 gave South Africans a great opportunity to start developing creative solutions to address the challenges facing our society. Both black and white were affected by the oppression machinery with blacks suffering the most (in terms of oppression) and whites the least (in terms of fear of loosing what they had). The process of reversing and rebuilding these communities is a long and challenging one. There is still resistance from a few groups that believe in keeping the status quo. These pockets of individuals and groups cannot be allowed to succeed. We owe it to the future of this country to ensure that we build a new society with insight and good value systems.

The challenges facing our country have not spared our young people. High levels of crime in our communities, substance/drug abuse, gender based violence are a reflection of a society at war. Every member of our society has a responsibility to make sure that we win this war. We need to get all hand on deck and start by rebuilding our communities. South Africans both inside and outside the country, both educated and uneducated, young and old played a role in defeating the atrocious system of apartheid. Now we have a new enemy. It is an invisible enemy, and it is in the minds of us South Africans. It comes out of the many years of humiliation and poverty, deprivation of basic human rights and oppression. South Africans more especially our young people have come to accept these injustices as “normal within any society”. We are used to violence and we think that it is normal in any society. We think that it is normal to live below the poverty line. We think that it is normal to be unemployed because 45% of our people are roaming the streets looking for employment. We have come to accept as normal the level of crime in our society (“more especially in our black townships and rural areas”).

Our communities started the journey to reclaim their human dignity a few year ago. This culminated in the elections in 1994; the journey still continues because we have not defeated the enemy that ravishes the lives of our people. We need to use the same energy and urgency to garner the commitment from our communities to fight against the legacies that we see around us. 

 This is an example of a society that has been failed for too long

This is a community of about 175,000 people in the Eastern Cape (Source - Business Trust and DPLG)

69% are without electricity, 87% are without piped water, 95% are without waste removal services and 85% are without telephone services. More than 77% of households earn less than R9,600 per annum and live below the poverty line. Only 10,2% of the population are employed. 22% of people have no school education, 32% have some primary education, 8% have completed primary school, 27% of the population have attended secondary school, 7% have completed Std 10/grade 12, and 4% have tertiary education. This community has 3 hospitals that provide 605 beds. Clinics are characterised by restricted hours of operation, shortage of medication and poor accessibility. Ambulance services are not available in the remote rural areas.

We cannot allow these communities to continue living under these conditions. We need agents of change that will see these communities benefit from the sacrifices they made. We need to start building new cadre of young people that will work tirelessly to bring about better life for all. We need young people that will say “Freedom in our lifetime”. We need a generation of young people that are committed to fighting injustice wherever it raises its head, either is South Africa of beyond our borders of our country.  

“We have the power to shape the civilisation that we want. But we need your will, your labour, your hearts, if we are to build that kind of society. Those who came to this land sought to build more than just a country. They sought a new world. So I have come here today to your campus to say that you can make their vision our reality. So let us from this moment begin our work so that in the future men will look back and say: It was then, after a long and weary way, that man turned the exploits of his genius to the full enrichment of his life”. – “Great Society” speech, Lyndon B. Johnson, 1964

In an introduction to Absurd Drama - Martin Esslin (1965) wrote, “The Theatre of the Absurd attacks the comfortable certainties of religious or political orthodoxy. It aims to shock its audience out of complacency, to bring it face to face with the harsh facts of the human situation as these writers see it. But the challenge behind this message is anything but one of despair. It is a challenge to accept the human condition as it is, in all its mystery and absurdity, and to bear it with dignity, nobly, responsibly; precisely because there are no easy solutions to the mysteries of existence, because ultimately man is alone in a meaningless world. The shedding of easy solutions, of comforting illusions, may be painful, but it leaves behind it a sense of freedom and relief. And that is why, in the last resort, the Theatre of the Absurd does not provoke tears of despair but the laughter of liberation.”

We live through the times of absurdity with so much violence, pain and suffering and yet we celebrate the freedom from oppression and strife. Our society is faced with contradictions both in a number of terms and life experiences. Think about the two economies of South Africa, visit Sandton and then drive to Alexandra only a stone throw away. Our young people are expected to make sense of this contradiction and make choices on how to live their lives. They are expected to understand where we are, make decision on the issues around social cohesion, alleviation and eradication of poverty, unemployment, the skills deficit, issues of gender and race, employment equity and Broad-based Black Economic Empowerment. Are they ready to take charge of their future armed with the necessary tools to succeed in life? Have they been prepared to participate in the development of policy and to influence the ensuing discourse around issues of national importance?

Apathy has been raised a number of time as the challenge facing the youth today, is this fact or fallacy? If it is fact, then we have a long road ahead in getting our future leaders to engage effectively with the current debate on the future of South Africa. The scenes in the ANC conference in December 2007 in Polokwane followed by the ANCYL 23 conference in Mangaung should be only but a lesson to our society

 In conclusion 

The HSRC identified a number of challenges facing our young people in 2007:

• Impact of global economy: poverty, education, employment, globalisation
• Civil society: environment, leisure, participation and intergenerational issues
• Youth and risk: health, substance abuse, crime and violence, HIV and AIDS.[ii]

It is the responsibility of all stakeholders i.e. parents, civil society, political organisations, government departments, to help the young people navigate through this maze of challenges and succeed. We need to assist “young South Africans learn how to think positively, work as a team, overcome fears and move beyond obstacles” (quote from the “Make Connection” project [iii]).

Young people must be encouraged to be independent thinkers, entrepreneurs full of creativity and innovation. We need young leaders who “can summon the nation to get smart, study hard in science, maths, and engineering in order to reach the new frontiers of knowledge that the flat world is rapidly opening up and pushing out”[iv]. We want to create “pragmatic visionaries who achieve large scale, systemic and sustainable social change through a new invention, a different approach, a more rigorous application of known technologies or strategies, or a combination of these.[v] 

Thomas L Friedman in The world is Flat, quote of a Japanese student studying in the US “we can never live like Americans we do not have the resources, we need to study hard, work hard and export hard”. He quotes Marc Tucker, president of National Centre on Education and the Economy “we have to find a way to educate all our young people to a very high standard. Otherwise, if you don’t upgrade their skills, the only way the low-skilled can compete is by driving down their wages”.

Different mediums need to be employed if dealing with the challenges that face us today. Ian MacDonald writes:  “I have this dread that afflicts me . . . it is that, somehow, we have lost the power to generate new mythologies for a technological age.. We are withdrawing into another age’s mythotypes, an age when the issues were so much simpler, clearly defined, and could be solved with one stroke of a sword.. We have created a comfortable, sanitized, pseudo feudal world… a world where evil is a host of angry goblins threatening to take over Hobbitland and not starvation in the Horn of Africa, child slavery in Filipino sweatshops, Columbian drug squirarchs, unbridled free market forces, secret police, the destruction of the ozone layer, child pornography, snuff videos, the death of the whales, and the desecration of the rain forests. Where is the mythic archetype who will save us from ecological catastrophe, or credit card debit? Where are the Sagas and Eddas of the Great Cities? Where are our Cuchulains and Rolands and Arthurs? Why do we turn back to these simplistic heroes of simplistic days, when black was black and white biological washing-powder white? Where are the Translators who can shape our dreams and dreads, our hopes and fears, into the heroes and villains of the Oil Age?” [vi]

Remember the story of Cuba: The defeat of President Fulgencio Batista by Fidel Castro Ruz, brother Raul and Ernesto “Che” Guevara’s ill equipped army. The use of the Cuban masses on the ground played a vital in the success of the revolution. We need to start a revolution that will build this country from the ground up. We agree that we are at war against poverty and unemployment, social cohesion, skills shortage, high levels of illiteracy, backlog in healthcare, backlog in education. To fight this war we need both men and women loyal to this cause, honest in their ideals, with high levels of integrity and faithfulness. We need independent, innovative and creative minds with unity in purpose so as to design strategies and tactics that will see us through. We need our young men and women to take up the challenge and soldier on LEST THEY FORGET THE PRICE THAT WE PAID FOR OUR FREEDOM