I-ANC ISAHLULEKA UKUGUBHA UMLANDO WETHU SONKE 

Nhlanhla Mtaka

Unyaka ka-2012 uqale ngesasasa elikhulu, hhayi nje kuphela enhlanganweni i-African National Congress (ANC) kepha nakithi njengomphakathi waseNingizimu Afrika, ikakhulukazi labo ababecindezelwe. Kuqale ngokuthi le nhlangano nonyaka eneminyaka elikhulu yaba khona nendala kunazo zonke e-Afrika kulezo ezazilwela inkululeko ibe nendumezulu yomgubho mhla ka-8 kuMasingana eBloemfontein.

Ngenxa yokubaluleka komlando kaKhongolose kuleli nasemazweni omhlaba lo mgubho wasakazwa kuwo wonke amaziko ezindaba sonke sabona umhlabahloso. Sonke sakuthakasela ukuthi lo nyaka ngeke ugcine nje ngokubungaza i-ANC kepha uyobuka nhlangothi zonke iqhaza labantu phaqa ekulweleni inkululeko. Iningi labantu layamukela le migubho ngoba lithemba ukuthi nxa seyenziwa kuzoqhakambiswa umlando wethu sonke, ngoba phela sonke salwa emikhakheni eyahlukahlukene. 

Nembala sizizwile izinkulumo lapho uMengameli wale nhlangono uJacob Zuma ethula izifundo ngomengameli abanye abake bayibamba kule nhlangano. Angisho ngiselapho ukuthi umuntu udumele ngokwenziwe nguKhongolose kulezi zifundo. Esikhundleni sokuthi njengoba athembisa aqhakambise iqhaza lawo wonke umuntu owayibamba - okuyizinhlangano kanye nabantu nje phaqa - sizwe nje kutuswa abaholi bale nhlangano. Angazi noma-ke yimi engingaqapheli kepha kulezi zifundo angikezwa nje ngamakhosi afana noMamongwa woSuthu, uDinizulu kaCetshwayo namanye amakhosi namafelankosi ayibamba ishisa. Angikezwa kutuswa abantu ababesezinyunaneni, angikezwa ngeqhaza le-Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), Azanian People’s Organisation (AZAPO), United Democratic Front (UDF) kanye neleNkatha yeNkululeko yesizwe. Asikezwa ngegalelo labantu abafana no-KE Masinga, oSobaba uZulu owaba nguMbhishobhi wokuqala omnyama - nali ibandla lakhe lapha eSt Faith’s Angilcan Church enkabeni yeTheku. Asizwa ngoMsizi Dube we“Asinamali” lapha eLamontville, baphi o-Archie Gumede be-UDF? Baphi abangakini nawe obaziyo abalwa, baboshwa badingiswa abanye bafa? Usuzwile nje ngabo? 

Ngiyazi abanye bazothi qha angingaxhamazeli ngoba isikhathi sisekhona, kepha iqiniso elimsulwa lithi kasisekho kulo nyaka. Umbono wami uthi uKhongolose kusuka kuleli sonto uyobe unake izindaba zawo zokukhethana eMangaung hhayi lokhu komlando. Uma kukhona okuzokwenziwa kuyobe nje sekuthelwe amanzi umongo ungekho, okuyobe kuqhakambiswa nje yizikhulumi kuleyo mcimbi eyoba khona yimibono yezinhlangothi ezilwayo kuKhongolose.  Kepha lokhu kusho ukuthini kithi njengezakhamuzi nabanikazi bomlando? Ngaphandle kokuthi sizolahlekelwa wumsoco womlando ebesingawuthola ukuba uKhongolose wenze kahle, iqiniso lithi isithombe esikhona nesizoba khona yileso esiveza okungaphelele ngathi kanye nomlando wethu. Kuzoqhubeka ukucabanga ukuthi umzabalazo wethu uqale ngo-1912 nokuthi wuhlangothi noma yisizukulwane esithize kuphela esazabalaza. Lo monakalo uyobulala izingane zethu kanye nezizukulwane futhi okubuhlungu yikuthi leli phutha lenziwa yinhlangano elwaziyo usizi lokuhlanekezelwa komlando. 

Umbuzo-ke uthi sikhona yini isixazululo, kukhona yini esingakwenza? Owami umbono uthi yebo sikhona isixazululo nokuthi kukhona esingakwenza. Ngiyakholwa futhi ukuthi konke kulele kubantu hhayi ku-ANC noma kuhulumeni kepha kimi nawe. Njengabantu abangabanikazi bomlando, ezikoleni, ematekisini emabandleni asiqale ukuziqoqela umlando wezindawo zethu. Lokhu singakwenzi ngoba sigubha okuthize kepha sikwenze ngenhloso yokufundisana nokufunisana umlando wethu sonke. Cabanga nje uma kungase isikole nesikole sithume ingane ukuba iyoqoqa umlando wakubo kogogo nomkhulu noma kubazali bayo okanye abafowabo nodadewabo? Uma lokho kungenzeka ngesonto nje ungabe usunezincwadi ezingaki zomlando obungawazi njengesikole nesizwe? Lokho singakwenza futhi kwenzeke.

Ukuqinisekisa ukuthi izingane ziyakwenza izikole kumele lokhu zikwenze njengento enganika umfundi amaphuzu emsebenzini wakhe wesikole, ngaleyo ndlela umsebenzi lo uyoba yingxenye yezivivinyo, okusho ukuthi empeleni ayikho imali okumele isikole noma abantu bayikhiphe. Konke lokhu siyobe sikwenzela ukuthi abalandelayo bazuze ngoba ngisamile kwelokuthi uKhongolose ubhekene nezawo izibi ngakho ngeke usilekelele kakhulu kulokhu okumqoka kangaka kithi sonke. 

AFTER ZUMA: IS THE KZN ANC'S POWER AND INFLUENCE SUSTANABLE?

Nhlanhla Mtaka

It is always my argument that real or modern politics is less about slogans, or in some cases numbers, than it's about power and influence. On the issue of numbers, a particular group can have numbers, but that is of no use if numbers are not used in order to influence. Another problem with numbers is that they are fluid. Perhaps a rather simplistic example is that of Africans, who are a majority in South Africa, but they don't have power or influence in the country's economy.

In both political organisation's as it is in government, influence denotes one's ability to get others to act, think, or feel as one intends. As noted by R.J. Mokken and F. N. Stokmanin in Power and Influence as Political Phenomena, influence can also be a source of power.

As things stand within the African National Congress (ANC), the province of KwaZulu-Natal is important and others even state that it's powerful and influential.

There are many reasons for this assertion. Out of 12 ANC Presidents in one hundred years the province has produced five: John Dube, Pixley Seme, Chief Albert Luthuli, Josiah Gumede and Jacob Zuma. It is also the home of ANC Youth League founder Antony Lembede and has produced some of the finest and most respected Mkhonto weSizwe combatants, communists and unionists.

According to the organisation's records, the province has the biggest support base of 252 668 members. This not only serves to ensure the ANC wins provincial and local government elections, but also has made the province powerful and influential when it comes to decision-making.

Acknowledging the strength of his home province, President Jacob Zuma warned delegates attending a weekend conference that, "being a leading ANC province comes with many challenges". He further advised that the province should "behave in a manner which is not factional and in a manner devoid of any arrogance".

While there is a perception that KwaZulu-Natal is currently immune from internal conflict, Provincial Chairperson Dr. Zweli Mkhize, in his political report, accepted that "even though they [tendencies of ill-discipline and factionalism] may not be features of the ANC in our province, they remain symptoms of an organisation beginning to self-destruct and will also have a significant effect on the future of our movement".

Surely this was an objective analysis by Mkhize, but I think his leadership and general membership in the province should start to look beyond Mangaung and Jacob Zuma. That is if it still wants to continue to influence decisions within the ANC.

Jacob Zuma, who has been able to use the influence of KwaZulu-Natal to advance his political career, will exit the political stage just like Mandela and Mbeki before him. He will soon be called "former president". In Jacob Zuma lie the strengths and weaknesses of the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal. This then brings in the question of sustainability.

When Zuma finally exits as Head of the organisation and the country, the province will have to identify a new person of "national stature" who will, among other things, possess what American clinical psychologist and political strategist, Drew Westen, called "kerb appeal". Westen describes this as a feeling voters get when they see a candidate a few times on television or hear him/her on radio and form an emotional impression.

Then the question is, what are the attributes of Jacob Zuma that make him such a pivotal figure in the sustainability of ANC power and influence in KwaZulu-Natal? It is true that according to some people Zuma is an augmented product beyond its intrinsic value. However, despite that, the power and influence of his home province has made him very strong, something that cannot be said of Julius Malema, for instance.

Currently Zuma has been a huge unifying factor in the province. Will this unity be sustained beyond Jacob Zuma? With him exiting the political stage in five years or so, will the remaining ANC leadership in the province be able to produce another candidate with mass appeal, thus sustaining power and influence?

Follow Mtaka on twitter: @ingabadigroup.

Luthuli, radical humanism and international society today

Sphamandla Zondi

On this day in 1967, Inkosi Albert Luthuli, was struck by train on a railway bridge in Groutville near Stanger, northern Natal, bringing to an end a life committed to freedom and develoment on the basis of transformation defined in terms resembling those propagated by radical humanists. How should this day be remembered today?

Luthuli epitomized a typical convergence amongst African middle class of his time of the cosmopolitan liberal values of human rights and social justice, and a radical commitment to transformation. He was by virtue of objective conditions part of the petit bourgeoisie born out of colonial capitalism and, by subjective choice, he was also part of the proletariat - those did not own any means of production although they sold their labour of the economy - fighting against systems of domination in both the economic and political spheres. Although a man of relative privilege, he dedicated and even risked his life by fighting political and economic domination. He might have not died in Stanger and in the way he did if he was not banished to Stanger by the apartheid regime, a mere 6 years after being awarded with the coveted Oslo Peace Prize.

I propose that in remembering this day we should recall the fact that Luthuli represented a commitment to total change in the lives of peoples of South Africa, Africa and the world - seeing these geo-political spaces in a sort of a continuum. He strongly believed that cosmopolitan "rights of man" that countries founded on liberal values espoused at home needed to be the very basis of international society. He would therefore decry the rampant hypocrisy of powerful states and some other weaker countries who today propagate democracy and rights, but continue to maintain the systems of domination inherited from imperialist ages.

Responding to a speech by the British Prime Minister, Harold McMillan, during his visit to South Africa, Luthuli applauded the affirmation of rights and non-racism, but noted that, "...we must stress that nations which, by their actions external or internal, try to keep other people in subjection, are a danger to peace not only in their own countries but also in the world. Such countries should be reprimanded and disciplined in some way in world councils."

He advocated non-racism and national unity in South Africa and elsewhere. He saw this as the essence of peace within and amongst nations. He argued strongly that such non-racism should be based on rejection of any semblance of superiority of the Cartesian and the inferiory of the 'Other.' For this reason, he would reject supremacist ideologies that are re-emerging in South Africa, in Western Europe and North America. He would reject a treatment of Africa by what radical structuralist call the Pacific Union, the West, as if it was inherently inferior and incapable to lead in the solution of its problems.

He was committed to the struggle to redeem Africa's glories not merely by unearthing its splendours that lie buried under the weight of physical destruction meted out on her or under domination of other forms that sought to deny Africa's historical significance. This is why his oft-repeated slogan was "i-Africa Mayibuye", which means Let Africa be Free. So, we would do well to push for progress in the building of a strong African Union, regional integration and in strengthening its independent voice in international fora.

He would applaud therefore the fact that after a divisive election contest Africa has finally elected a woman as a chairperson of the AU Commission in Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma. It would not be only because she belongs to the political movement he belonged to, a movement he believed should place Africa at the top of its priorities, but it would be because he believed strongly in improved African unity, built on the basis of democratic practice.

Therefore, in paying homage to Luthuli, we need a foreign policy that combines a commitment to cosmopolitan values, a commitment to African unity and progress, and a commitment to democratising the world. It is about South Africa being unashamedly in favour of the peoples and countries excluded by systems of domination, denied their right to dignity by misrule and economic domination. It would build relations with countries in the rich-core towards a new world order based on social justice, democracy and equity.

It is this spirit of radical humanism that we need to revive in us so that we can claim back our ability to act as agents of change and transformation in our countries and in the world. It is the affirmation of our ability to infuse human rights into the conduct of political and economic power tha Luthuli and his peers like Mahatma Gandhi epitomized, that we need not loose to the neoliberal fetish for individual success, cut-throat competition, domination and materialism.

Could Mulder be right?

Kagiso Pooe

The recent utterances by leader of the Freedom Front Pieter Mulder have inflamed and agitated the majority race and most progressive-thinking individuals. Yet, this article takes an altogether different view of Mulder's historical revisionism (storytelling). To begin with, this article to a large degree agrees with Mulder's theoretical argument, which really hinges on the fact that South Africa is a contested terrain intellectually and until the African understands this truth, his or her story will forever take a back seat to the white story. Yet, Mulder blurred the line between reality and storytelling by stating that "Africans in particular never in the past lived in the whole of South Africa".

And even though his revision of history was incorrect, the real debate should be about his insinuations and held truths. Furthermore, the anger shown at Mulder is really misplaced, and should rather be channelled towards wrestling this land's resources back towards the African. Mulder's theoretical argument should be welcomed and dealt with analytically. For in welcoming his false assumptions, people can actually gain insight into the thinking of people like him who aren't necessarily white. Saint Augustine said: "Don't you believe that there is in man a deep [truth] so profound as to be hidden even to him in whom it is? Mulder's argument rests on three assumptions.

TRUTH IS WHITE

When Mulder explained his argument, he based it on a book he proudly waved around, which presented skewed interpretations of history. This wasn't actually the cornerstone of his argument. The main thrust was that blacks and Africans in particular haven't presented any acceptable academic argument to challenge "our white" history. Emotions aside, could he be right? After all, how many Africans in the National Assembly stood up to debate him, based on available literature, except on the following day and in subsequent written articles. However, responses coming through haven't been enough and most disappointingly in a few weeks' time this debate will disappear from the national consciousness, but the thinking of people like Mulder won't. The defining silence that will ultimately arrive won't be because the majority population doesn't care, but because post-1994 Africans and blacks haven't invested time and resources in educating their children and themselves about their own history and their role in becoming knowledge makers. The most startling fact concerning this issue of truth and academic proof is the fact that members of the African majority are the chief culprits in not taking up their rightful place as equal academics and leaders. Proof of this is seen in the lack of interest in literature such as The Second Coming: The Life and Times of Pixley Ka Isaka Seme, the Founder of the ANC by Moss Mashamaite and books by first-generation African intellectuals such as Magema Fuze, who wrote Abantu Abamnyama Lapa Bavela Ngakona. Or the fact that leaders like Anton Lembede, Robert Sobukwe, Miriam Makeba, Hugh Masekela, Kaizer Motaung and Kalamazoo Mokone aren't being unpacked. And perhaps most disappointing is the fact that Africans and blacks have allowed white academics, foreign or local, to narrate their own history.

NEGOTIATED SETTLEMENT: MINORITY RULE

Mulder's second insinuation that the white population "compromised" and as such should be readily accommodated for its sacrifice. Well, nothing else can really explain Mulder's emboldened stance in the face of well-documented history. Conversely, could one imagine going to the German Reichstagsgebäude (parliament) and hearing a pro-Nazi sympathiser state: "Adolf Hitler wasn't that bad. He was just misunderstood for killing Jews." Such a scenario wouldn't happen, yet in the year of the ANC centenary we heard Mulder's shocking sentiments. A deeper analysis shows that they are the building blocks for resistance to policies like Broad-based Black Economic Empowerment. Clearly, this highlights just how exaggerated our Constitution is. African and black people's neglect of their history has led to a situation described best by anti-colonist intellectual Frantz Fanon: "The colonial world is a world cut in two … In a capitalist society the educational system, whether lay or clerical, the structure of moral reflexes handed down… all these aesthetic expressions of respect for the established order serve to create around the exploited person an atmosphere of submission and of inhibition …" Eighteen years after 1994, Fanon's words seem to capture perfectly the African person's situation in South Africa - not sure whether to revolt, vote or just not care and live for self (which ultimately kills what the struggle was about).

WHAT THE STRUGGLE WAS ABOUT

Finally, Mulder and his ilk could be correct, for one reason. The issue of what the struggle was about. No issue is as heated as land in Mzansi, because no other issue exposes our false victory as Africans and blacks. So when Mulder made his statements it whispered (loudly) to us that for all the BBBEE deals, government positions, tenders and constitutional frugality, Steve Biko's words still ring true: "Black man you are on your own". With no land, no economics, no family, no pride, no home - just homelessness in the land of your ancestors.

Kagiso Pooe holds a Master's degree in public policy from UKZN. He is the former head tutor for UKZN's School of Politics.

SA'S HUMANITARIANISM NOW NEEDS A DELIBERATE STRATEGY

Sphamandla Zondi

Recently, the Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Ms. Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, announced that South Africa was to despatch humanitarian aid to the Republic of Niger in the Sahel region of north Africa. The aid comprised of four consignments by air of 1000 tonnes of maize boost and nutrition for children under five years of age.

This week and next, there will be other consignments of the same to be followed by several hundred tonnes of fertilizer and animal feed by the end of the year.

South Africa also undertakes work with Niger to develop some nine million doses of special PPR vaccines for livestock, thus enhancing Niger's capacity to develop its own vaccines.

The Sahel region is notorious for terrible droughts, floods and crop-destroying locusts. It is a thousand kilometer-wide eco-climatic zone of transition from the terribly dry Sahara desert and the Sudanian Savanah to the south. It spans over a three million square kilometers in land area, stretching from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Red Sea in the east. It comprises of various ecoregions with distinct flora and fauna.

It is home to some of the most advanced ancient civilisations including the Nubian and Egyptian civilisations that gave rise to western civilisation through contact with ancient Greece. Northern Senegal, southern Mauritania, middle Mali, southern Algeria, southern Niger, northern part of South Sudan and northern Eritea form part of this biogeographic zone.

The Sahel is prone to food crises and this has been the case for over centuries and populations. Generally low annual rainfall, occasionally long droughts, increasingly excessive heat, and desertification combine with weak governance and low-intensity conflict to cause frequent food insecurity in this region. The famine that results further erodes food security for years, precipitating new rounds of food crises year-on-year. The last crisis took place in June-August 2010 when average temperatures soared to high 40s and led to a long drought and crop failure. Thousands perished as a result.

In March this year, the African Union's Peace and Security Council declared food crises in Sahelian Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger. South Africa pledged emergency food and humanitarian aid for all four countries. This comprised of 103 500 tonnes of food grain, millet, sorghum and nutritional provisions for children and pregnant mothers in Niger. There was also animal feed, fertilizer, bio pesticides and protection kits for workers applying pesticides. Mali received from South Africa 45 886 tonnes of millet and sorghum, dry seeds and potato seeds and nutritional supplements for children. Chad and Mauritius also received food crops, seeds and nutritional supplements.

The March assistance was meant to help the affected countries with seeds during the planting season between February and June, while the newly announced ones are a response to failure of food crops in the last season.

For a long time, the Sahel countries have relied solely on western donors and UN agencies for assistance. South Africa has over the past decade sought to change this by encouraging other actors to contribute to this "good" cause. It has projected itself as a caring African power, responding to crises in the Sahel, in Somalia, and in Mozambique. The African Renaissance Fund, which is about to be replaced by the SA Development Partnership Agency (SADPA), has been an effective vehicle for the humanitarian face of SA's foreign policy.

While humanitarian assistance is a good cause in and of itself, it is often part of a bigger scheme of things in foreign policy designed to enhance the influence of a country in international affairs. Similarly, it is an important component of what is called soft power on the part of South Africa, a major source of its prestige and moral position in Africa and in the world. It says South Africa understands that with immense regional capacity and global power ambitions comes responsibility to help the weaker countries cope with the vagaries of a changing world including climate change and globalisation.

However, to be optimally effective this good cause needs to form part of a broader soft power strategy that is thoroughly thought-through and discussed with civil society broadly. It should make room for forming partnerships with NGOs, UN agencies and major western and eastern donors, and for forming new forms of south-south cooperation to jointly prevent unnecessary death of children, mothers and livestock is prevented.

Such a platform could be called an African Development and Humanitarian Fund. It could also become a conduit through which the AU negotiates humanitarian partnership with international actors including BRICS, IBSA, ASEAN. MERCUSOR and the UN. South Africa should lead this move to gear up humanitarian partnership on a grand scale. South Africans must be encourage to contribute to such a fund.