Address To The Centenary Rally In KZN By ANC Secretary General, Gwede Mantashe
Comrade Chairperson, Cde Zweli Mkhize,
The Provincial Leadership of the ANC in KZN,
Members of the various RECs in the province,
Members of the various BECs,
Our Alliance partners, the SACP, COSATU and SANCO
The Leagues of the ANC, the ANCVL, ANCWL, ANCYL
Invited guests to the Centenary Celebrations of the ANC
Members and supporters of the ANC present here.
The ANC is now 100years old, we are celebrating this milestone of a centenary and starting the second century of our life as an organisation. This not only about telling the story of our past, but also reminding and educating society about where we come from. It is about ensuring that we know who we are. We cannot talk of the centenary of the ANC without talking to the wars of dispossession which stretched from the first war of resistance by the Khoi and San people in 1659, the gallant wars fought by all our nations and tribes under the leadership of the Kings and Chiefs. These wars covered a period of 247 years to the Bambatha war of resistance in 1906. As our people were driven off the land they were equal deskilled in plant and animal reproduction. They were deprived of the ability to feed themselves off the land. Our people became what Sol Plaatjie described in 1913 as “awaking on Friday morning, June 20, 1913 the South African Native found himself, not actually a slave, but a pariah in the land of his birth.” The situation described by Sol Plaatjie did not start with passing of the Land Act in 1913 but was at the centre of the process of colonisation, characterised by long history of the violent pushing of our people off the land. The Vereeniging Peace Treaty between the English and the Boers in 1902, led to the enactment of the South African Act by the British, opening the way to the formation of the union of South Africa in 1910, consolidating the unity of white South Africans into a single white nation to the exclusion of native inhabitants of this country.
This marginalisation and exclusion of the African in particular and Blacks in general led to the call by Pixley kaIsaka Seme for a widely felt need for a united struggle against colonial and W#hite domination. He invited the people of the sub-continent to meet in conference and bury all past differences and divisions, to discuss and plan together for their common future. It is this call that led to the gathering of representatives from the region on 08 January 1912 in Waaihoek, Mangaung, Bloemfontein. The presence of kings and chiefs was a concrete confirmation of the fact that the struggle for freedom was the continuation of the struggle against colonisation. Present among the chiefs and Kings we can mention Solomon kaDinizulu, Montsioa of the Barolong, Lewanika of Lozi of Zambia, Letsie 11 of Lesotho, Labotsibeni of Swaziland, Dalindyebo of abaThembu, Sekhukhuni of the baPedi and Khama of aBetswana. The oxen donated by the king of Lesotho, the ox from Botswana and the herd from abaThembu in the 2012 celebration is a symbolic claim on the ANC. We must appreciate this gesture and record it as an important indication that we belong together.
Equally important is the role that was played by the religious community in general and the Christian Community in particular, both in the formation and evolution and development of the ANC. This is in the form of mission schools that developed the intellectual capacity among the Africans. We must continue remembering and reviving colleges like Lovedale, Healdtown,, Adams, Inanda, Lemana, and many historic colleges. In the various generations of leaders of the ANC there is a visible presence of the people of the cloth. The very first president of the ANC Langalibalele Dube,Sefako Makgatho. Zacheus Mahabane, Canon James Calatha,, Nehemiah Tile, Mangena Mokone, Henry Ngcayiya (the first Chaplain general of the ANC), Ambrose Reeves, Trevor Huddleston, Beyers Naude and many others, including leading preachers like Charlotte Maxeke, Albertina Sisulu, Chief Albert Luthuli and even Oliver Tambo.
The ANC has always put up a premium on forming broad alliances. Working with the Industrial Commercial Union (ICU) in the 20s was the first experience of some informal alliance. The Doctors pact of 1947 was a formal alliance between the ANC on the one side and the Indian Congresses on the other. Working with the Indian Congress, the Coloured Peoples Organisation and the Congress of Democrats in collecting the demands and drafting of the Freedom Charter enriched the experience. The tripartite Alliance was a product sharing the trenches in the struggle and not a formal agreement signed by leaders in some boardroom. This longstanding alliance is an alliance between the ANC, a multi-class liberation movement and two working class formations. It is an alliance among three independent organisations, which do not melt into a single organisation. These organisations have different long-term objectives but agree on the minimum programme the National Democratic Revolution.
The ANC has developed through various stages, from the time of deputations and memoranda, to the time when progressive politics were introduced and resisted in the ANC. The phase of renewal and militant mobilisation in the 1940s was important, a period when the African Mineworkers Union and ANC Youth League were formed. The programme of action belongs to this era, when discriminatory law were defied actively. The response of the regime to passive resistance was charging our leaders with treason. When the struggle for freedom was intensified the regime responded by banning our movement and any organisation that committed itself to fighting for freedom. It is this reaction that forced our movement take up arms and form Umkhonto Wesizwe, to fight for peace. The four pillars of our revolution were well thought-out. The combination of armed struggle, mass mobilisation, strengthening of the underground network and the international isolation of the regime led to the regime surrendering the power, in 1990 when it agreed to negotiate with the ANC and ultimately when they subjected themselves to democratic elections. As we celebrate the hundred years of continuous struggle we must remember and honour those who paid the ultimate price and spent many year in apartheid prisons because of their love for freedom. We must remember and honour those who gave up their youth pursuing the struggle for freedom without expecting any reward.
Throughout the hundred the ANC developed traditions, culture and values. It is these values that sustained the ANC and made it remain relevant after hundred years. It is the ability to preserve and adapt that has kept us going and defy all the orbituaries that many analysts and commentators wrote and continue to write. We must go back and remind ourselves that there is an expectation that every cadre of our movement will uphold the values. Let us remind each other about these values: -
• Selflessness
• Humility
• Honesty
• Respect
• Discipline
Principles guiding discipline: -
• Never to use discipline to settle political disagreements
• Never to pretend that ill-discipline is political disagreement
• Never to use cases of ill-discipline as precedent for continuing behaving in a foreign way to the ANC
• In cases of discipline the movement must act at all levels of the organisation
This is the basis for the call not to use the 53rd National Conference as a reason for ill-discipline. We disabuse ourselves of terms that are foreign to our movement. The media donated a term called succession debate to our movement. We are all running with it as if we are Chiefs and Kings where there are heirs to the throne. The ANC is a democratic organisation with the history and tradition of electing leadership. We have already gone through 52 National Conferences, electing 12 Presidents and 15 Secretaries General in the process. Electing leadership is not and must never be a threat to our movement. The wrong terms we use polarise a normal political process. This is reflecting the effects of institutionalisation of factions. It is factions that sell slates to the branches. It is factions that are intolerant and suppress objective discussion about leadership. Leadership is treated as if it is a beauty contest.
Branches of the ANC must be liberated and be reminded that they constitute at least 90% of the delegates to any conference of the ANC. They don’t need to be intimidated by small groups with money to vote without thinking. We must not relegate branch delegates into dwarfs who will never be giants when the ANC must be saved from her enemies outside and inside of herself. End of January the ANC release the draft policy documents, including the research document on the role of the state in the mineral-energy complex. Branches must discuss and debate every document. When we go to both the National Policy Conference and the National Conference branch delegates must have tapped to the wisdom of all the members including those who will not have the opportunity to attend the conferences. This is the best formula of building vibrant branches that will appreciate their responsibility of contributing towards the fight against high unemployment, deep poverty and gro2wing inequality.
It is vibrant and strong branches of the ANC that will ensure that discipline is enforced in the organisation. It is these branches that will lead the fight against corruption and work with all the institutions set up to fight it. Corruption is like cancer and the biggest leakage is in the inflation of prices for anything procured by government. This leakage reduces the capacity to deliver services but instead lines pockets of individuals. Corruption is one of the biggest threats to our movement and can lead to a failed state. It is money that people get through corrupt means that is used to buy votes in our conferences. The target is not the conferences themselves but control of resources. The ANC must lead the fight against corruption unashamedly.
Let us continue to celebrate. Let us continue anchoring ourselves in history in our efforts to build a better future. We must recommit ourselves to lead the process of transforming society.
Thank you.
