03/03/2022
POLITICAL LECTURE DELIVERED BY DADA MORERO, THE ANC GREATER JOHANNESBURG REGIONAL SECRETARY , AT THE ANC DENIS GOLDBERG BRANCH , WARD 102 in Zone 14.
The Development of a New, Competent and Disciplined Cadre of The 21 st Century.
03 MARCH 2022
One of the sorrow-filled but most profound lamentation of our time is found in one of our songs – Angalila uma es’bona sinje!
The veracity as to whether this statement refers to the plight of our people as they are ravaged by poverty and co-existing with squalor needs not be questioned.
As to whether it refers to insensitivity with which our motive forces for change are driven to the periphery in this country - spatially, economically, or even socially is not the case in point here.
Indeed, as to whether the masses of our people are incrementally losing faith in the glorious movement of our people as recent electoral humiliation continue to be our reality – one thing has been determined and surmised by this lamentation – our Gods and indeed, amongst them, O.R Tambo - will weep!
I will single out Pres O.R Tambo from the constellation of the outstanding stars in our galaxy as he is the one who charged us in the 80s to be the shock troops of our revolution and invoked in us the valiant character of the royalty of the jungle – the species of the lion – whose offspring has the same feisty temper and temerity we embodied.
I am referring to the martyr who thus located the Cadre as a centrepiece in the complexities of our country, continent and indeed the world - and the revolutionary zeal with which that Cadre has to contend with those complexities. It is the centrality of that Cadre which inspired the NEC that O.R Tambo led - to declare the year 1985 – as the year of the Cadre!
Many of us were besotted with the term – Comrade – and when we were referred to as Cadres – we had to re-evaluate our definition. Coupled to that definition came the attributes that coronates an activist to be regarded as a Cadre.
“Loyal servant of the people with selfless devotion and commitment to sacrifice, guided by the requisite moral compass, discipline and ideological clarity – ranked high in the definition given to us - as to what a Cadre is.”.
That definition is premium, Comrades – hence we were asked by by O.R – of making apartheid unworkable and making the country ungovernable…..and alternating that by creating organs of people’s power.
Those who were to be charged with this heavy task and mission impossible – had to have these characteristics and learned traits – very few and far between possessing such - are to be found today.
Unbeknown to many – the activation of the organs of people’s power was a dress rehearsal for the freedom we were certain of achieving and it was clear in the minds of the leadership collective of O.R Tambo - as to who was to be entrusted with that noble and highly responsible task – it was the Cadre!
It is very commendable that in its centenary year – the movement was visited by such nostalgia and even though it had reached 100 years – found the relevance of the concept of cadreship in the movement surpassing all time and one that has to live through the ages.
At its 53rd National conference of that centenary in Mangaung – one of the sterling resolutions made was to make the years 2012 to 2022 – the Decade of the Cadre.
I have been given the desirable task, in this last year of the Decade of the Cadre – a moment to share my thoughts and comprehension – “on the development of a new competent and disciplined Cadre of the 21st century”.
I am most humbled that, amongst others – it had to be at the Dennis Goldberg branch – a branch named after one of the movement’s finest cadres - a loyal servant of the people with selfless devotion and commitment to sacrifice, guided by the requisite moral compass, discipline and ideological clarity.
It would be amiss not to bore this branch with the accolades of this noble son of our glorious movement, a recipient of the Order of Luthuli and accused No.3 after Cdes Mandela and Sisulu at the Rivonia Trial, whose sentence he served with no comrades to lean on, very few to non-existent those who would pacify him when the woes of prison engulf one, to provide moral support and share strength.
He was not accorded the kind of fellowship that his co-accused could rely on – as they were incarcerated 1400kms away on Robben Island and Pollsmoor maximum prisons. The impression of this tragedy was visited on him purely on nothing else - but the colour of his skin.
Comrades and patriots, the 21st Century is one of the most exciting times to be living in.
Technologically, it is advanced, socially it has become more awkward and politically it is getting more complex.
All of these variables require ideological clarity as we would have seen how technology entered the political space - with Apple taking sides on the Russia-Ukraine stalemate.
Naturally, we are puzzled that in the same scenario playing out in that part of the world – the African child is, once again, regarded as less human than others - as Ukrainians and their guests flee to Poland.
The awkwardness is caused by the fact that no country has legislated racism in their statute books - but it is the lived reality of the natives of this continent.
The complexity of our global (and sometimes even local) politics is that the West has done worst atrocities in Latin America and the Middle East with the slightest or no provocation and justification - to roll their tanks into the cities of those countries.
I am raising this very political development that is unfolding in front of our eyes - yet many of our people have not been capacitated with the intricacies of this stalemate.
To many, it is the sparring of two egos and one to speculate and be a spectator on because they feel that for the first time in 80 years – there are those who simplify it as white on white violence and yet, Bosnia is not a distant memory to some of us.
Our loyalty as servants of our people is found in the most challenging times and the COVID-19 pandemic proved as to how inept we are as a movement - in dealing with such eventualities. We were spectators and followers - yet we claim to be leaders of society.
In our branch structures – there is a subcommittee on health which has to be a corps of branch members who will deal with health matters at ward level. Assist health care workers and become the nucleus of Community Health Workers - so as to provide leadership in our communities.
According to the Constitution of the ANC – this branch ought to have, amongst others - a subcommittee on Community Safety that will be an extension of the Community Police Forum and be its nucleus – yet the army had to be called in to patrol the streets of our townships as if we were in a war situation. Where was the leader of society? Where was the Cadre of the movement?
I am citing these organs of people’s power, Comrades because sister countries we have modelled our branch structures with – deployed these structures during the pandemic – People’s Republic of China being one. The security forces, the health workers and Party Cadres (with a red band around their upper arms) worked in tandem to contain the severity of the pandemic.
Our Cadre was lurking behind the curtains because selfless devotion and sacrifice has to come with perks and benefits. It has to come with a career path that leads all the way to offices of the State and cannot be serving at branch subcommittees but as one of the BEC members – if not – canvass for the next BGM to rattle and unseat the current BEC.
Every opportunity to get a quick buck has diminished the glory of hard work as the moral compass behaves as it reputedly does in the Bermuda Triangle – the hand revolves like the wheel of a fan – totally providing no sense of direction.
Ideological clarity is the cornerstone, therefore, my Comrades – when we are confronted by the complexities of the contemporary world. It is the sharpest tool in our analysis shed and has to be employed in order to make a cut in the realm of cadreship.
It is ideological clarity that will keep us buoyant in the turbulent seas of material pursuit and acquisition - because it will be by that yardstick will the people measure as to whether you are for them or are in this – for yourself.
Amandla
