Programme Director
Ausi Dolly
Ausi Ouma
Ambassador Joseph Kotane
The Kotane Family
Moses Mauane Kotane Foundation board members
Distinguished guests
Comrades and friends
Ladies and gentlemen.
I am honoured to address you on this special occasion to launch the Moses Mauane Kotane Foundation.
I am pleased that after many years of good-intentioned exchanges regarding the establishment of the Kotane Foundation to investigate, preserve and share his legacy, we have finally brought this dream to fruition.
As you would recall, Mme Rebecca Kotane clearly indicated at her centennial birthday early this year that the most appropriate gift to her in 2012 would be for her to see this foundation get off the ground.
By way of observation, it is encouraging to note that Mma-Kotane is still blessed with a good health and an excellent memory. She remains a deep reservoir of knowledge and a fountain of wisdom for our country.
All of us are encouraged by her triumphant and tenacious spirit; a spirit that has made her a tower, enabling her to support her family while her husband was providing a higher service to humanity without any expectation for personal rewards.
With this in mind we hope that this foundation and the memory of Moses and mme Mma Kotane will serve as an abiding reminder for young people and the future generations of the ideals that Moses Kotane and his generation fought for.
From this point of view serving on the Moses Kotane Foundation is a contribution I am all too willing to make because the vision that Moses Kotane lived for is a universally inspiring cause.
Thus associating myself with his memory is an honour that invokes immense responsibility to uphold his legacy to the letter, at all times.
Perhaps, then, the logical question that arises for us today is the type of a leader Moses Mauane was? What is it that the current and future generations need to learn from the life of Moses Kotane?
I think it is advisable to tease out his characteristics, the better to have a useful grasp of his legacy and the scale of burden his memory imposes not only on the foundation we are launching today but the democratic society as a whole.
No closer a figure to Moses Kotane than Dr Yusuf Dadoo himself, the leader of the then South African Indian Congress as well as the South African Communist Party, had this to say about Moses Kotane in a tribute to him at his funeral:
‘Moses Kotane was in the thick of every struggle in South Africa – the Defiance Campaign of 1952, the treason trial of 1956-61, underground in the 1960 emergency, one of the main organisers of the liberation movement’s army. In the 1950s and 1960s he went on many diplomatic missions for the liberation movement and won the respect of all the world statesmen with whom he came into contact.’
So as a leader, Moses Kotane led by example, taking charge even under conditions that were potentially threatening to his own life and limb. He would not expect of others that which he himself could not do or say under the same circumstances.
More tellingly, Moses Kotane was a man of many parts, a dynamic leader equally at home, as a soldier, as a leader of the masses, as a volunteer against the apartheid state, and as a respectable diplomat.
Indeed he was a hard act to follow. When we speak of a legacy of leaders of Moses Kotane calibre we are invoking the weight of history.
Later in the same tribute, comrade Dr. Yusuf Dadoo describes the main, defining quality of Moses Kotane in the following terms:
‘But if there is one quality in Moses Kotane which I would single out before all others, it was that he was incorruptible. He was incorruptible not only in his politics but also in his personal life. Moses Kotane was a man you knew could never let you down, never do something behind your back, never deceive you. You always knew where you were with Moses Kotane’.
Once again we learn in clear terms that Moses Kotane was a man of integrity and an upright leader with impeccable credentials. We learn that to aspire to lead the masses calls forth transparency, honesty, accountability, openness and to stand by one’s word.
I would like to re-emphasis the above delineation of the leadership qualities of Moses Kotane by citing an oration by Oliver Tambo, the late President of the ANC, at the funeral of Moses Kotane, in May 26, 1978 in Moscow, the then USSR and i quote:
‘He (Moses Kotane) was a communist, a Marxist-Leninist and at the same time a member of the ANC par excellence. He did not "support" the ANC but was himself a personification of the ANC; a man who attached so much importance to the national liberation of the African people, especially the African workers.
His conviction, devotion, dedication and commitment to the cause of his people was to him more than just a question of principle: it was a way of life.’
As we gather here to witness the launching of the Moses Kotane Foundation, we should remember the responsibility that we face lest we deviate from the solid principles that drove the vision of Moses Kotane.
We should remember that his conviction, devotion, dedication and commitment to the cause of his people was to him more than just a question of principle, it was a way of life.
Few would disagree that if only half of us in the ANC and society could make the ideas for which Moses Kotane lived his entire adult life a way of life, our efforts at bringing about a united, non-racial, non-sexist, just and prosperous society could be realised within a wink of an eye.
What I mean by this is that we should stop the culture of corruption that is creeping in within our ranks, corroding our value system and undermining the memory of thousands of leaders such as Moses Kotane, who, by virtue of their vision, have ensured that the ground is prepared for a free and democratic society that we are taking for granted today.
As we deepen this tradition of theoretical engagement, we should also remember that comrade Moses Kotane’s passion for intellectual development was tempered by the corresponding need to test out theory by practically putting it to the service of humanity.
We should bear in mind that when speaking of the role of Moses Kotane in South African history we are here referring to 50 unbroken years of remarkable contribution to both working class and national liberation struggle.
At this juncture, we could well ask ourselves whether we have been able to produce cadreship in the calibre of comrade Kotane, to serve society as we seek not only to undo the legacy of apartheid but to rebuild our society in the light of the vision Moses Kotane and his generation advanced.
Have we created an environment that produces self-motivated, selfless and committed individual cadres who can apply their minds on the defining issues of the day?
Young leaders of all description cast in the mould of comrade Kotane should issue forth in this critical juncture to lead society into the future.
However, such leaders do not just materialise, they are nurtured and groomed to take over the baton when the time is right.
Now more than ever our country is thirsting for transmission of the exalted values with which comrade Moses Kotane’s life was imbued.
By the same token, his legacy enjoins those left behind to educate succeeding generations about values of honour, selflessness, justice and a humane society.
Ladies and gentlemen;
Foundations such as this one always face the challenge of identifying a niche area in which to make a contribution. What is unique about the Moses Kotane Foundation is that it seeks to continue to the legacy of this giant leader.
This challenges us to find a niche to channel our cause in a manner that attracts funding in an already competitive donor funding environment.
Many foundations are lucky enough that they are endowed by their founders, some of whom had been well-off during their lifetime.
The same is not true in the case of the Moses Kotane Foundation; a foundation established to advance the legacy of a freedom fighter and a working class leader whose entire life was dedicated to the struggle against poverty and inequality.
Be that as it may, the force of Moses Kotane’s legacy and memory resonates with many and should make an easy rallying point to attract sufficient support.
In this regard, areas that sustained his passion and propelled his vision are there for all to see.
I believe that among Moses Kotane’s greatest contributions and legacy to the African National Congress (ANC) and our the country is that he valued education highly.
As we have said before, Moses Kotane was the embodiment of the remarkable spirit and history of the dynamic and mutually beneficial relationship between the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the African National Congress (ANC).
This contribution was made mainly through facilitating education even though Kotane started working at the age of 12, and only began formal schooling at the age of 15, an age at which he started learning to read and write.
Yet from this effectively illiterate state he was moulded into a fine thinker and leader who dedicated his time to educating others.
As Albie Sachs once explained, his mother was amongst those who taught Moses Kotane but later became his secretary and typist as a leader of the Communist Party.
Kotane valued education because, and i want to quote from an article that he wrote for a publication in 1942 called Vryheid:
‘Proper education is a mirror in which man sees the world around him and learns to understand it - the right kind of education enables man to see what the world has been, what it is, and how it can change to suit him or his way of living.
Education can be and has been used to befuddle the minds of the common people. But education can also be used as an important instrument in the struggle for freedom and human progress. It is this kind of education which we need. We must learn geography to know the universe, that there are other countries besides our own and to know the people of different nationalities inhabiting these countries.
We must learn history to know and understand the story of man’s development through the ages – the various forms of social organisation and the causes of the rise and fall of those forms of human relationships.’
Kotane also understood education as important for mass mobilisation and making people conscious of the struggles for human rights and justice.
With his superior thinking and understanding of society he was able to trace the important role teachers and educators played in the struggle.
He explained that teachers who were loath to political activity ended up conscientised through having to read and write letters of hardship in their assistance of those who were illiterate.
They also had to read struggle documents in order to answer the questions of ordinary people about the anti-apartheid struggle and what needed to be done to take the struggle forward.
Thus in a roundabout way, education served as an important weapon against the apartheid regime by linking people across the globe through small actions such as writing letters, pamphlets and so on.
Today, education is no different and must be used to tackle the triple challenges of poverty, inequality and unemployment.
Ladies and gentlemen;
The Moses Kotane Foundation, in its vision and programmes, is a fitting tribute to a luminary leader of Moses Kotane’s stature.
It is a fitting contribution to those who lost their lives and limbs in the struggle against apartheid, to a South African community of orphans, and also to the widows and mothers who have lost their own in this struggle.
This is the ultimate tribute to a man Dr Yusuf Dadoo described as part of the men who have left an indelible and eternal stamp on the history of their peoples; men who are both products and makers of history. And when they pass they leave a vision of a new and better life and the tools with which to win and build it.”– this foundation is but one of those tools!
I thank you.
