Violence a relic from people’s war to make SA ungovernable

NUMEROUS types of chickens are coming home to roost in South Africa. During their long campaign to win power by making the country ungovernable via a no-holds-barred "people’s war", the ruling alliance made up of the African National Congress (ANC), the South African Communist Party and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), injected into the bloodstream of the body politic a virus of violence that they cannot now eradicate.

Whether to enforce strikes or bus or school boycotts, protest against "service delivery" failures, back some or other demand on campus, or complain against trains that are late, violence in South Africa has become routine, not unusual. Nonstrikers are murdered (60 of them in the security guards strike in 2006), city centres or university buildings trashed, roads blockaded or railway coaches set alight. People from other parts of Africa who undercut local traders are threatened or even murdered in so-called xenophobic violence.

It is a tragic and bitter irony that all this is happening in a country that is second to none in constitutionally guaranteed and judicially protected democratic rights. The bitterest irony of all is how the virus of violence has corrupted parts of the trade union movement. During apartheid, when union officials were banned or detained without trial, and black unions frequently barred from factories by hostile employers, the emerging black union movement won its legal rights by a struggle that was essentially nonviolent.

Now, with a privileged position, plus organisational and strike rights that are also second to none around the world, unions have become increasingly intolerant, as the Democratic Alliance experienced during its recent march on Cosatu House.

Killing people in the context of inter-union rivalry at Lonmin is also a manifestation of a principle that the ruling alliance introduced during its people’s war, which was to eliminate rival political organisations as far as possible. One of the chickens that is now coming home to roost is that some of the rival factions within the ANC are now using violence — possibly even assassinations — against one another.

Another of the chickens is the poor quality of the police. Their behaviour at Lonmin is but the most lethal manifestation of a wider lack of professional skill, including frequent inability to master the basics of crime scene investigation.

Any intelligent leadership in the police force would have long ago foreseen the risks arising from our violent political culture. Proper training and equipment would long since have been provided to avoid precisely what happened at Lonmin. But, of course, the ANC has ensured that there is no proper leadership at the top of the police force. Instead, the police have become the plaything of rival factions in the ruling party, not to mention the victims of affirmative action and cadre deployment policies.

So South Africa is in a catch-22. The people’s war was part of the strategy of the national democratic revolution to make the country ungovernable. Continued adherence to the strategy of the national democratic revolution in the form of cadre deployment in particular results in a police force that cannot handle the violence that continues as a hangover from the people’s war.

One consequence of the ineptitude of the police is their inability to handle situations such as that at Lonmin without making things infinitely worse. Another is their inability to put a stop to the violence that now characterises so many demonstrations across the country. A third is their inability to secure prosecutions and convictions of violent demonstrators.

Over all of this presides a president out of his depth as CE of the state. His ministers take unto themselves more and more power. Yet, apart from collecting taxes, his government fails increasingly to get the very basics right, top of which is providing law and order under the rule of law. His fondness for singing about his machine gun while the whole nation listens symbolises the very culture of violence that is helping to ruin this country.

• Kane-Berman is CE of the South African Institute of Race Relations.

Source: Business Day

Lekota: revolutionary songs ANC policy

ANC national chairperson Mosiuoa Lekota has defended his negative remarks about people singing freedom songs such as Umshini Wami, saying the issue was not about ANC Deputy President Jacob Zuma, but about policy. Speaking to journalists at a media briefing on Wednesday, the defence minister said although he was talking to a specific audience when the remarks were made, the essence of what he said was relevant to everybody. "These liberation and freedom songs are not pop songs, which we sing for personal entertainment here and there. "These are instruments of revolution, cultivated since the inception of our movement," he said. They had been sung with a purpose, and been used to advance the ANC's policies, to announce them, and popularise them.

The songs had changed as policy positions had changed as the ANC went through its phases of struggle. This was why the ANC national executive committee (NEC) - following the conclusion of the negotiations at Codesa - had stepped in when Peter Mokaba continued using slogans such as "kill the boer, kill the farmer", which clearly flew in the face of policy.

The ANC had to look at what it was it wanted to say to the people, Lekota said. "We have a responsibility to unite the people of this country. We carry the responsibility to unite these people and to reconcile them, and to focus their attention on the task of national upliftment and a better life for the people. "Leaders of the ANC, therefore, cannot behave like anybody else on the street. I want to see the ANC work in the interests of the people of South.

Source: IoL

Zuma 'not right in the head'

The supporters of African National Congress deputy president Jacob Zuma were fuming on Monday after the party's national chairperson, Mosioua Lekota, took off the gloves in the ANC succession race by suggesting that Zuma was "not right in his head" by persisting in singing the "Umshini Wami" (Bring me my machine gun) song after the armed struggle had been abandoned.

Lekota, who is also minister of defence, was quoted on SABC TV News on Sunday as saying the ANC had suspended the armed struggle during negotiations with the apartheid government and thereafter it was totally abandoned. He was addressing a function in Gauteng to commemorate the Delmas treason trial, where he and other anti-apartheid activists were tried. Lekota did not refer to Zuma by name but many of his backers saw his statement as an attack on Zuma as "Umshini Wami" was his popular song. 'We expect Lekota to rise above petty squabbles. He did not understand why a person "obhadlile ekhanda lakhe" (who is right in his head) could keep on saying "bring on my machine gun" when the armed struggle had long been abandoned.

Political analysts saw Lekota's statement as indicating "gloves-off" ahead of the important ANC conference in Limpopo in December. There were angry reactions from Zuma backers who described it as "unfortunate and uncalled for". ANC Youth League spokesperson Zizi Kodwa said Lekota had "stooped so low". "As the national chairperson of the ANC we expect Lekota to rise above petty squabbles. But we are not surprised because this is indicative of personal frustration on his side because as we discuss the future of the ANC and its leadership, his name does not feature anywhere.

'This song was sung by our cadres during difficult times in exile' "He thinks people have abandoned him and it confirms our assessment of him is correct in that he should not be included in any key leadership position," said Kodwa.

He warned that revolutionary songs should not be interpreted literally. We did not expect such a thing from the national chairman of the ANC. "This song was sung by our cadres during difficult times in exile. "When we sing it, we do so to remember those times and to ponder the future," he said.

Don Mkhwanazi, the chairman of the Friends of Jacob Zuma Trust, a body charged with raising defence funds for Zuma, urged that there was a need to understand the song in its correct context. The song, he said, was being used figuratively to reflect on the challenges still ahead for the country. "Because of what has happened in South Africa, the national democratic revolution is not complete yet. "We have arrived at a political destination but we have not really arrived at the promised land, where political and economic equity will be realised. The song actually means that we must be vigilant and vigorous in defending the gains that we have made because there are certain things that are beginning to fester, like perceived selective justice which is going to undermine the rule of law. No one wants to shoot anyone; we have passed the stage of shooting but we cannot stop to defend our gains," said Mkhwanazi.

Zuma's aide, Renjeni Munusamy, said she could not comment as Zuma was out of the country. Political analyst Nhlanhla Mtaka said with the ANC conference on the horizon, the country was entering an interesting time where people, formations and cabals would be tempted to attack their opponents at every opportunity. "Particularly with provinces announcing their nominations, some leaders might be tempted to fight for their names to be there. "The unfortunate part in this exercise is that it will be the image of the ANC that will be tarnished as senior ANC members enter the street fight ahead of Limpopo. "However, it will not be those who are vocal that will win the day but those who present themselves as statesmen in the midst of this raging political storm," said Mtaka.

The spokesperson for Lekota, Sam Mkhwanazi, could not be contacted for comment.

Source: IoL