On March 17 an extraordinary thing in our remarkable politics occurred in Khayelitsha, Western Cape: 11 opposition political parties took to the stage in a visible show of solidarity against the Protection of Information Bill. They did so because of the ANC government's refusal to include a most necessary public interest defence clause in the bill.
As momentous as this solidarity was, the real high point was the readiness of the people in the audience, from different political parties, to collectively own leaders such as Robert Sobukwe, Steve Biko, Nelson Mandela, Mangosuthu Buthelezi and Helen Zille, among others. Important living and deceased leaders, for once, became common property associated with the common good.
The trivialisation of politics through a territorial, factional or racial attitude was overcome by people seeing the larger canvas. How exhilarating it was to leave the confining boxes and for once be free in the greater expanse of open political space. Here, for the first time, South Africans were willing to accord the kind of reverence to all leaders of the kind that the PAC exclusively gives to Sobukwe, Azapo to Biko, the IFP to Buthelezi and the DA to Zille. All distinguished leaders committed to democracy, the existential struggle of the people and to unadulterated freedom were acknowledged and given recognition.
The forging of a national spirit and willingness of the assembled politicians and supporters to accept the great leaders of our democracy, not in the division of segmented parties where they exist or existed but in the unity of a common matrix of freedom, is a turning point in our glorious history and augurs well for the preservation of our democracy.
May the light of freedom never dim in our country and may moral courage glow bright to show us the way to a safe and secure future. What the leaders and their parties did in Khayelitsha will reverberate through history.
Source: Times Live
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