AMBASSADOR PHATSE JUSTICE PIITSO
THE LONG JOURNEY OF THE RENEWAL AND BUILDING OF OUR REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT KNOWS NO HOLY COWS. A REVOLUTION DOES NOT NEED INSTANT HEROES.
I have with great enthusiasm, listened to the political input by our erstwhile former president of the ANC, and our republic, comrade Thabo Mbeki, during the meeting of the extended provincial executive committee of the ANC in the Eastern Cape. This is so because the voice of a good teacher is like a candle that gives light to others.
Former president Thabo Mbeki is unquestionably one of the outstanding organic intellectuals our movement has produced. He is undoubtedly a true political commissar of our national liberation movement.
During this difficult moment in the history of our liberation movement, we look upon leaders of his calibre to guide us in providing answers to the complex questions confronting our people. At the turn of this journey, this is the principal task bestowed on all of us, for the renewal and building of our revolutionary movement.
Revolutionary morality is the guiding principle of our National Democratic Revolution, it is about inner-party discipline, democratic centralism and the unity of our revolution. The difficulty about it is when revolutionaries can no more distinguish the personal from the political, or the political from the personal.
Some of the leadership of our movement is hellbent on elevating their personal aggrandisement at the expense of the difficult questions confronting our revolution. In its form and appearance, opportunism is a symbiosis of counter-revolution.
It appears that leaders such as former president Mbeki have chosen to forget the teachings of our revolution, those difficult moments are the bedrock of the lessons and experiences, through the long journey of our struggle for the liberation of our people. I thought at this age and time he has been humbled by the years of his voluntary isolation from the ranks of our movement.
Some of his connotations during public platforms make the occasion of his revolutionary consciousness incorrigible, making it difficult to turn the wounds of his own journey into wisdom, to tell our people the truth and nothing else but the truth. He has lowered his exemplary leadership into a carrier wagon of manifestation of vulgarity and vengeance.
The more I have the opportunity to listen to his oratory to the presidium of the extended provincial executive committee is the more I reckon that there is no benevolence inside the Emperor. Maybe it is true that emperors are good at reinventing themselves.
What they forget is that the day you touch the trappings of the monarchy is like opening the Egyptian tombstone, as its inside crumbles. Emperors forget that it is not what is engraved on the stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.
Even if I supported Mbeki during the elective national conference in Polokwane, the truth is the historic conference was like a revolt against tendencies of crowned democracy from a monarch, which he wanted to impose on our democratic movement. It was like a titanic battle to overthrow king Dom Pedro ll, the last monarchy of the present day modern Republic of Brazil.
At the height of the struggle by the vanguard Communist Party of China to consolidate its power and hegemony, to realise the noble dreams of achieving socialism with Chinese characteristics, the leader of the party, Chairman Mao Tse Tung, ordered that one of his trusted lieutenants, comrade Deng Xiaoping, be banished to a remote rural village, in the mountainous forest of the people’s Republic of China.
During one good day, years after his banishment, a delegation of high powered members of the Central Committee of the Communist Party visited the village. During the interaction with members of the community, the glimpse of the prodigal son of the vanguard party became the centre stage of their journey.
His banishment did not turn his hopes into despair, his dedication was his love to the party, and his humbleness the virtue of his revolutionary character. He did not abandon the party, he was part of its nucleus in the locality and ensuring that it is rooted in the struggle of the people.
With great profundity of a revolutionary vested in the true culture and tradition of a vanguard party, he pleaded with the delegation to convey his regards to Chairman Mao, and to inform him that he was indeed humbled by the forest. In other words demonstrating his appreciation of the discipline of the party, and the need to uphold himself to the principles of democratic centralism.
After years of isolation, he returned to the realms of the leadership of the party. The journey saw him becoming the general secretary of the party, transforming China into one of the most powerful nation-states in the world’s political and socio-economic arena.
This true episode is a lesson to all of us, that there is nothing to celebrate against our comrades who have to step aside, as a result of the resolutions adopted by our 54th elective national conference. The fade of a comrade is not the rise of the other, but the continuity of the revolution, today and tomorrow.
The principle of stepping aside is not a new phenomenon in the history of our national liberation movement. It has been there during the different epochs, and forms of our struggle.
Its cornerstone is revolutionary morality, inner-party discipline and democratic centralism. These are its basic tenets as long as they are not applied selectively, and without eyes.
It is a blatant lie for Mbeki to insinuate that the only reason he could not campaign for the ANC in the recent past years is because there was not a good story to tell our people. Throughout the hundred years of its existence, our national liberation movement always had a good story to tell to the people of our country.
Throughout the history of the struggle, as its strategic objective, our movement has always presented the balance of forces in our country, the continent and the world, bringing on board the understanding of our people to the challenges of the time. It is the tradition of the ANC to relate the successes and failures of our national democratic revolution.
After his defeat during the elective national conference of Polokwane, and subsequently his recall as the president of the republic by the national executive committee of the ANC, applying the very same principles of inner-party democracy and democratic centralism, he did not take it kindly. He deserted the movement and turned his back on his own.
His recall was just less than a year before the next national general elections. If my memory serves me well, there was a good story to tell.
The leadership of the ANC and the Alliance formation was able to present a manifesto to our people, detailing both the achievements and the challenges confronting our democratic government. The truth is that he could not reconcile himself with the decision of the national executive committee of the ANC, immediately after his recall, he abandoned our movement in the eyes of our people.
He did not campaign for the ANC and refused to tell the party who he was going to vote for. Did he imply that a year after his recall as the president of our republic there was no good story to tell?
It is also a misrepresentation of facts by the former president to insinuate that the concept of two centres of power, which came to the practice that a person elected as a provincial chairperson of the ANC becomes a premier, and a chairperson of a region becomes a mayor, was as a result of certain comrades manipulating our movement, to fulfil their aspirations.
The decision on two centres of power was a resolution of conference, arising out of intense debates from delegates of the branches of the ANC at plenary, and therefore becoming a resolution of the conference to be implemented, like any other resolutions adopted at various conferences of the ANC throughout history.
If Mbeki wanted this resolution to be amended, he was supposed to follow the right organisational processes, of influencing debates from within our movement as we prepare for our policy conference and the subsequent national monference. It is therefore untold of his expediency for him to rise from the ashes of his fort, and reduce this important resolution of the conference to a being a mere tendency of factionalism.
The call to all revolutionaries is to tell no lies and claim no easy victory. The holier than thou attitude will not help the collective effort by our movement to build on the unity and cohesion of our national democratic revolution.
In my lifetime, I stepped aside on two occasions, first as the provincial secretary of the SACP in Limpopo, and secondly as a member of the Limpopo Executive Council responsible for roads and transport. I can attest it was the most difficult experience for me at my young age.
Among the compelling reasons by the party to disband us was that we invited former president Mbeki to a political education school without the consent of the central committee. The provincial executive committee accepted the decision with the understanding that if we do not abide by it, history will not forgive us.
This was a decision arising out of the debates of the meeting of the provincial executive committee. A sober and well-informed decision to co-operate with the leadership of our party.
Unlike what we witnessed later when the central committee again disbanded the provincial executive committee, we did not throw the files and the records of our vanguard party into the rubbish dumping place in the city of Polokwane. A tantamount act of political treason in the living memories of the life of our party.
Later the provincial executive committee of the ANC took a decision that I will be reshuffled as a member of the executive council, to give way for the newly elected chairperson of the province comrade Cassel Mathale, to learn the ropes of governance. After intense discussions, I called a press conference with the leadership of the ANC, where I resigned and unreservedly became part of the elections campaign, for the victory of our movement.
I can attest that to step aside is not an easy thing, it is difficult and most painful, it can make or break a comrade. Like any other human being, it is the reason why comrades will receive it in different ways.
It is one of the most difficult calls, where you have to separate your self-interest from that of the movement. The time where you lose the essence of hope, the time when you lose some of your family members, friends and neighbours.
Difficult times even when you attend meetings of the movement, your comrades make sure that they are not seen associating themselves with you. The time when you become a prodigal son of your community, when you realise that you are on your own, no one wants to be seen to be close to you.
This is the time you realise that just as despair can come to you through other human beings, hope, too, can come to you through other human beings. The time when you appreciate to trust those who are alongside you during the darkest hours, than those who enjoy with you the sunshine of your prosperity.
I am greatly saddened by the degree of vulgarity and insults by former president Mbeki directed to the persona of the secretary-general of the ANC comrade Ace Magashule. His attacks have deeper ramifications than an ordinary eye can see.
It is time that leaders separate their political interests from their interests, and truth from falsehood. The sour grapes of the Polokwane conference cannot be a new birthmark of our democratic movement.
The supreme law of our country, our beautiful constitution, states that every citizen of our democratic republic is innocent until proven guilty. This is a universal principle and not the law of the jungle.
In the past few years, the former president of the Republic of Brazil, comrade Lula da Silva, was found guilty by the court of law through dubious charges, which saw him sentenced to jail. After spending just over a year in prison, his charges were later withdrawn by a different judge, citing reasons for political conspiracy and manipulations.
The former president of the Ivory Coast, Laurent Gbagbo, spent over ten years in prison at the International Criminal Court on charges of crimes against humanity. He was acquitted just two months ago by the court based on a lack of evidence.
This is a demonstration of the importance of the universal law of innocence until proven guilty. The reason why we cannot celebrate the demise of our comrades as they face such difficult situations.
The secretary-general of the ANC, and many of our comrades, affected by the step aside decision are loyal members of our movement and respected leaders of our people. No amount of vulgarity will take away the years of their dedication to the struggle for the liberation of our people.
The trumpets of triumphalism horned by comrades like former president Mbeki will not help the movement to transcend this difficult period of renewal and organisational building. The difficult process of the renewal and repositioning of our liberation movement knows no holy cows.
Our struggle is to fight against the malfeasance of corruption and all its manifestations from the foundations of our society. In this regard, our revolution needs no instant heroes.
Ambassador Phatse Justice Piitso wrote this article in his personal capacity