31/03/2012
Revolutionary, intellectually engaging, honest, sober, yet simple words of guidance to Cdes in the ANC, ANCYL, SANCO, SASCO, COSAS, Cosatu and SACP by Cde Deputy President. Kgalema Motlanthe on 25/03/2012. Alas there is benefit therein for all South Africans, especially young people. Whilst cutting to the core of our current political, leadership and social challenges, his emphasis on introspection, critique within, learning from others, not fooling ourselves with historical achievments, tackling the problems which South Africans raise, returning to ideas as opposed to personality cults, and the integral role of a vibrant and militant ANC Youth League, the Deputy President provides hope for us, epecially young people. Lets engage with this words. Aluta!
Speech by Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, Limpopo, ANC Centenary Celebration 25 March 2012
In the ANC nothing matters more than unity
We are running against time. I have a sense that this day has been rather too long. And I am not going to detain you any further. I do know that once people gather in a stadium it is always important to ensure that the programme rolls so that you can attend to important messages in time.
We are gathered here today to celebrate the centenary of the African National Congress. The temptation may be there that we go through the whole history, and if I were to do that we will be here for the next two weeks. So I will spare you that. What I will do is to highlight, lift the important principles which we must take to heart.
The ANC was born as a response of our people against land dispossession, colonialism and deprivation. And that is why it was actually not born in 1912. The ANC existed in the Transvaal, in the Orange Free State republic, in the Natal colony as well as in the Cape colony, and these native congresses when an all white national convention was convened to their exclusion in 1909, they responded by convening their own national convention in 1909 March 24th, and it is at that convention that a decision was made to establish the African National Congress as we know it.
Those who came from the republics and the colonies had to go back to report that decision, and hence in 1912 delegates converged into Mangaung to found the African National Congress.
And these delegates together with Magoshi came from all over. They did not only come from the two republics and the two colonies; they also came from as far afield as Zambia, Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland. They all came because they were all affected by land dispossession and colonisation. And so from the outset, the ANC was founded on the principle of unity, the unity of the people. And it is that principle which we must take to heart; it is that principle which sustained the ANC throughout these glorious 100 years.
In the ANC nothing matters more than unity, and it is unity which is based on principle. That is one of the first lessons that we should take to heart when we celebrate the centenary of the ANC, because comrades history is only of use to the extent that it enables us to understand who we are, where we come from, where we are today and how to create a better future.
Otherwise if we do not approach it in that manner, it becomes a fruitless exercise of self adulation. And those of us who believe and are church goers were privileged on the 8th of January this year to attend a church service in Mangaung in the church in which the African National Congress was founded. And the bishop gave the most profound sermon, he used the book of Ezekiel and referred to Ezekiel standing in the valley in the midst of dry bones which were lifeless; and he said we must not glorify lifeless bones.
And he advised that today we suffer from the misfortune of having mirrors and he says in the olden days there were no mirrors and so even the most handsome, the most beautiful of people could not see themselves, they could only see others and appreciate the beauty of others. And so today we suffer from the disadvantage of having mirrors and we look in the mirror we see our own images and we talk to those images, we talk to ourselves.
This was the most profound sermon because he was essentially advising that we should always concern ourselves with the plight of the people and never about ourselves as individuals and we must not engage in self praise and self adulation, we must be prepared to be at the service of the people.
That was the most profound sermon delivered on January 8th by the archbishop of the Methodist church; and I think that is an important lesson we must take to heart. In the ANC's history we learn of how over the years it has always experienced problems because an organisation of people will always experience problems.
What is of importance is drawing lessons from the manner in which problems are resolved; and that is why it is so important for us in celebrating this centenary to ensure that we do not allow problems to be the endpoint. Problems are there to be solved, to be resolved, because this organisation exists for a purpose and it exists for one purpose and one purpose only and that is to solve the problems of our people.
And today as a governing party, as a party which is in government, we must expend all our energy and time in solving problems of our people. But we cannot do so without involving the people, because if we do so on our own without involving the people that is not a revolution, hence we will hear of problems of delivery.
The people themselves are their own liberators; they need to understand that they are in power; it is not those of us who are privileged to be in government who are in power. This power belongs to the people and that is why in the ANC tradition we say "Amandla" and the people respond and say "ngawethu". They don't say "ngawakho", because if you were to say "Amandla" and you say "ngawakho", that would mean the end of the revolution.
But comrades, revolution is deliberate; revolution is never by accident; revolution is deliberate and it is methodical. And so it is important that we must always test as to whether we are organised correctly to advance the revolution. Because if the structure, if the manner in which we are organised no longer serves the purpose of tackling the problems which affect our people then we must know that we are living on borrowed time.
For the ANC to remain relevant, we cannot rely solely on our glorious past. History is important yes, our icons are important yes, but we must remain relevant today because we are capable of dealing with the problems of the moment. Because if we look backwards all the time, it would mean we suffer from false consciousness.
Those who suffer from false consciousness are conservative. You believe in yesterday's truths and you don't want to move forward. Our role and what we expect from the ANC Youth League because the ANC Youth League is a very important component of the African National Congress, like the other leagues, the Women's League is very important in ensuring that the ANC is forever sensitive and alive to challenges which face our mothers, our sisters, our daughters that the African National Congress continues to lead in dealing with the challenges of gender.
The Veterans League is a unique league in the ANC; it is one structure that does not recruit. The Vateran's League does not recruit members; it just waits, just folds its arms and waits for you, so that as you grow and develop one day you will arrive there and the requirements are only two, that you must have 40 years of unbroken service in the ANC. You must also be 60 and above, so it does not have to recruit anybody, it just waits.
But the Youth League has got to recruit, the Youth League has got to remain relevant to young people and so the ANC, as the ANC, we have absolutely no need, we have absolutely no use for a Youth League that is passive. We need the Youth League to be militant, determined and creative. It is that kind of Youth League that we need.
You can imagine, I mean you know when young people are seating here and an aeroplane flies past and the rest of the children say aeroplane, aeroplane, aeroplane, until it disappears in the firmament. If the Youth League of the ANC sits there sheepishly saying nothing and the aeroplane disappears and only once it has disappeared, the Youth League says aeroplane, we have no use for such a Youth League. We might as well disband it.
We want a militant Youth League, nge sizulu "o'vuka aibambe". In other words when the call is made, when the call is given, they should answer that call yesterday, not today. There must be rapid response from young people. And so the ANC is very clear that young people must be afforded the space to think, to generate new ideas and to ensure that it infuses into the ANC new ideas, new thinking and militancy.
Because you see comrades, as you grow old, as you grow old you also learn fear, because you now know consequences; and of course you adapt and you are an expert in explaining why things should not change. That comes with age. As you become older you mellow with the years and that is why the combination of youth energy and experience and counsel of the years has always been a strong point of the African National Congress, it has always been a strong point of the African National Congress.
So when we say to you, you are autonomous take your decisions, embark on campaigns, do as you deem fit. If of course when we are sitting there and we are observing we discover that you are veering off the road; you are veering away from the straight and narrow path, when we come to you, we don't say come over here buti and so on, this is the right path. No, we grab you by the ear and we turn it around and we twist it and as you follow the pain, we drag you back into the straight and narrow.
That is our duty; that is our responsibility, because the African National Congress can't shirk that responsibility. We can't say well fine you are the youth of the ANC; you have the freedom to grow on your own. There is no such thing; we guide you all the time, all the time, we must make sure that we guide you and we must also make sure that when you come with radical perspectives we afford you the space to persuade us so that the organisation can on a continuous basis be radicalised.
An organisation is only relevant to the extent that it is radical. If it adapts it will only specialise in explaining problems away and, of course, the test is always with reality and practice. And that is why the second lesson that I want to share with you, which we draw from the life and evolution and development of the African National Congress, is that the African National Congress has always been internationalist in perspective. It has always learned from the best in society internationally and it has always influenced ideas that occupy centre stage internationally.
It is this African National Congress which in 1923 came up with a Bill of Rights. It is this African National Congress which in 1943 came up with the Africans Claims before the United Nations could come up with the Bill of Rights [Declaration of Human Rights].
So the ANC has always been a trail blazer and it has been so because it has always been internationalist in approach and interacted with other radical thinkers in the world. And so we must continue with that tradition. And the ANC has survived to be a 100 years old because it debates and develops and adopts its own policies. It never ever takes our folk culture or any catechism of any church and say now this is our policy. It has never ever worked like that.
If we say this is policy of the African National Congress we will be able to say to you it was debated and adopted at such and such a conference in such and such a year. And that is why the ANC has survived to be a 100 years old.
It has always served as home to all the people of South Africa. It has always been regarded as a movement for the peoples of Africa because its founders include Chief Lewanika, Chief Lobengula, the Kgamas in Botswana, the Letsies in Lesotho, the Dlaminis in Swaziland were founding members of the African National Congress in 1912. And so when they observe from a distance and they don't get clear explanations when the ANC acts and conducts itself and pronounces in a manner that is unfamiliar, they ask a simple question. They come to the ANC and they say: 'couldn't this matter be handled differently?'
We have had delegations and delegations at Luthuli House at various times when the elders of fraternal parties come and say: 'couldn't this matter have been handled differently?' And when they say: 'what are you doing with our movement; they don't say no this is your organisation, they say this is our movement: how dare you take such a decision without explaining to us?'
And so when you are a member of the African National Congress you must remember that you carry the responsibility, not only of yourself as an individual - don't look into the mirror, don't admire yourself, admire the others because that is what defines the African National Congress.
It was founded on love; love for the people; love for the course of liberation. It was never founded on hatred. And so today, today when you have slates and once your slate is triumphant you mete out what we call victors justice; you go after comrades and say you did not vote for us, so we don't want you. How do you know? Because voting in the ANC conferences is by secret ballot. How do you know that?
In any case if you are active in pushing away members of the ANC, that is the opposite of organising and if we interpret that, if you disorganise the ANC, what are you doing? Because the ANC is the only instrument that our people have. It is the only hope that they have for better change. And so if you are actively busy undermining the ANC and disorganising it, whose interest are you advancing? We have to pose that question.
Because we are conscious, but consciousness comrades, does not happen automatically, it is acquired. You become conscious as you work with people, you learn from them and you attend to their problems. You get to understand their problems better when you are able to listen, because some of us don't listen, comrades. Some of us know everything. We have long stopped learning and if you stop learning you stagnate, and if you stagnate you become disgruntled, and once you are disgruntled you generate negative ideas and negative energy because to you there is no tomorrow.
The ANC believes that there is always tomorrow and tomorrow must always be better than yesterday and tomorrow must always be better than today. And so comrades, everything is in a state of motion. That is how we must approach our problems. Nothing is but always in a state of motion. Today you may think that this is the reality and tomorrow it may be a different reality.
But as I said, revolution is deliberate. We are not fatalistic, we don't wait and say well; let nature take its course. We impact on nature, we teach nature new things. We implant into trees new branches and that is what we must do, we must focus our energies comrades; we must not be diverted by inconsequentials.
You are preoccupied and you join those who are preoccupied with conference elections. And I know that if we were to ask you one by one: did you join the African National Congress in order to be in a position of leadership? All of you will say no, all of you. And yet you are preoccupied with elections. That is an inconsequential. It does not matter. If we say we have a healthy organisation, it does not matter who leads the organisation. Because there will be standing at the helm of an organisation which is clear, which debates policies and the collective can only be as successful as the organisation itself.
Once we personalise leadership issues, we commit fundamental mistakes. Because here you are, here are these beautiful comrades here, they are wearing t-shirts here with the face of one Kgalema and they are saying Kgalema for President. Once you do that you personalise organisation. And tomorrow I commit a serious error, what are you going to do with these T-Shirts? When I now discredit the name of the ANC with my own deeds and pronouncements, what are you going to do?
That is why we must never have a situation in which we idolise leadership. Leadership is a reflection of an organisation. Once you personalise leadership, problems are bound to arise. We can idolise Oliver Tambo, may his soul rest in peace, he will not commit any mistake, he will not. We can idolise Moses Kotane because he will not commit any mistake; we can idolise Joe Slovo because he will not commit any mistake.
But if you idolise me comrades, or you go and name a school or a street after me, or you name your child after me, what are you going to do when I discredit that name with my deeds and mistakes? It is not done. Politically it is incorrect. We must glorify the ANC; we belong to the ANC; we don't belong to individuals. We appreciate and understand the role of an individual in the organisation, but the organisation is more than the sum total of its individual members. It is bigger, far much much bigger.
And we must always remain loyal to this organisation. We must always seek to enhance its prestige among our people. And its prestige is a function of; it depends on what we do as individual members, and what we say as individual members. If we go about molesting people, or we go about, so let me put it, today is Sunday isn't it, I must put it mildly because it is Sunday. If on Sunday you are on the wrong side of sobriety because you have taken the holy waters, or too much of it, those who know you to be a member of the ANC will not say: 'oh no he has just had more than a fair share of the holy waters', they will say: 'this is the ANC, they are never of the right side of sobriety, they are never sober.'
Now we don't want that to happen, because that dents the image of the ANC. The image of the ANC depends on how we conduct ourselves and we mustn't be disciplined only when we are in formal gatherings of the ANC and when we disperse we think we are no longer members of the ANC, because you carry that flag, you carry that image wherever you are all the time and that is what we must strive to do.
When you commit a mistake, the organisation will correct you because the organisation only abandons the most incorrigible. It has abiding faith and confidence in its corrective capabilities. That is why in the past as you know prisons were called jails and prisons. The ANC comes into government and says these are correctional services because it believes it can correct inmates.
And that goes to the membership of the ANC. When you belong to the ANC you belong to a glorious movement. But it will only remain glorious to the extent that you contribute to that glory. And that is a responsibility we must take as individuals; that is a responsibility we must take as collectives so that we always act in the best interest of the African National Congress.
The challenge which faces us today is that of the stubborn problems of inequality. We still have in South Africa today virtually two countries. The one country is well developed; it even hosted the FIFA world cup in 2010. And there is another South Africa where people do not have portable water, where people draw water from wells that are used by animals, where learners and teachers do not have toilet facilities. It is that South Africa that we must fix; it is that South Africa that we must attend to with a sense of urgency.
We have no time and we must never ever as the African National Congress beat ourselves in the chest and say we have delivered. Yes of course there is progress; yes of course the pass laws are gone. But 'freedom means recognition of necessity', that is what freedom means. When someone is homeless, when a person lives in a lean-to shack or a mud house that is a death trap and we provide that family with an RDP house, we have not satisfied the needs of that family. Instead we have only met one aspect of their needs because they need furniture, they need electricity they need all other things, so their needs multiply. That is why we say 'freedom means recognition of necessity'.
And so my last word is that as members of the African National Congress, particularly those of us who are in government, we must never say to our people wait, be patient. They have a right to be impatient; they have a right to demand that all their needs should be met today and not in the next 10 years or 5 years, we have no such right.
Martin Luther King says: "when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of nobodiness - then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait". And many of our people are engaged in that continuous fight against the degenerating sense of 'nobodiness', and our struggle was about restoring their dignity.
I thank you for your attention
Amandla!
