Address by Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe at the South African Student Congress’ Walter Sisulu memorial lecture, Walter Sisulu University, Mthatha, Eastern Cape

Programme director
Vice Chancellor of Walter Sisulu University
President of South African Student Congress (SASCO)
Members of SASCO National Executive Committee
Students and comrades
Ladies and gentlemen

It is my deepest honour to address the South African Student Congress’ (SASCO) Walter Sisulu Memorial Lecture.

I appreciate this privilege and I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate SASCO for creating a public platform for open engagement on key ideas inherited from the life of comrade Walter Sisulu and their relevance to the current phase of the struggle for a better life for all.

SASCO’s nomination of Walter Sisulu to be its life-time president is an apt tribute to an inimitable leader and a father figure of our struggle. More fitting is that this occasion is taking place at an institution of higher learning named in honour of his life and contribution.

Disseminating, debating and discussing ideas by inquiring minds were some of the hallmarks of comrade Walter Sisulu’s life.

Continuing this culture at a national level provides us with a conceptual framework for the perception of reality as it unfolds and our place within it.

The truth is as we trudge the rugged terrain that leads to the future we need to draw lessons from our past lest we go off the track and betray the mandate which history has entrusted us.

I am convinced that the Walter Sisulu Memorial Lecture will help us, especially the south and students, appreciate the history of our struggle which laid the foundation for our freedom. 

This will also help enhance our awareness of the responsibility we have to posterity by safeguarding this democracy in much the same way the past generations of our leaders helped bring about a democratic order.

Chairperson,

Before proceeding further let me remind all of us that, on 18 May 2011 were comrade Walter Sisulu alive he would be turning 99. Remarkably, 18 May 2011 is the day on which South Africans will be voting in the fourth local government election since the inception of our democracy in 1994.

The fact that this poll will be held on the day that Walter Sisulu was born is historically resonant, reminding us that this democracy we are enjoying today is the result of years of hard and painstaking struggle. In another sense it is a day that says all of us, especially progressive youth and students, have to go all out to mobilise people to vote for the African National Congress.

Nothing would have pleased comrade Walter Sisulu more than seeing a landslide victory which, in a way, serves as a befitting birthday gift to him.

I therefore wish to appeal to all of us to redouble our effort to ensure that on 18 May 2011 our movement remembers comrade Walter Sisulu in a special way – by securing an overwhelming victory.

Comrades,

The topic assigned to me reads: “Walter Sisulu’s life and the relevance of his ideas for the liberation movement today.”

It is patently clear that there is a great deal of lessons that we can and must learn from the life and ideas of comrade Walter Sisulu.

These lessons range from his belief in the power of education to improve social conditions; organisational unity, unity of our alliance; our relations with power; and our commitment to the reconstruction and development of our society.

Among others of equal rank, these categories comprise the key elements in the vision that propelled comrade Walter Sisulu’s relentless struggle for a better society.

To delineate the lessons from these categories I will try to sketch comrade Sisulu’s life in the context of the struggle he waged for a free, united, non-racial, non-sexist, democratic and prosperous South Africa.

I assume we are all aware that one cannot live one’s life outside the context of one’s ideas, especially if such a life is lived in a politically oppressive social space.

Necessarily, this means one’s life is refracted to the outside world through the thoughts one expresses both in word and deed in the course of the struggle.

It also remains true that experience is the best teacher. Karl Marx put it even better when he argued that:

‘Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under self-selected circumstances, but under circumstances existing already, given and transmitted from the past’.
 
As we go through the crucible of social experience we learn lessons which lead to a change of direction in our lives as we seek to improve our conditions. Such was the case with the life of comrade Walter Sisulu.

At the level of political development, there is a vast difference between the young Walter Sisulu that waded into the murky waters of the struggle in 1940 and the Walter Sisulu that emerged triumphant from the Robben Island prison in 1990.

Programme director,

The vehicle comrade Sisulu used to contribute to the achievement of the overarching objective of a free and equal society was the ANC, which served as the organisational expression of his ideals.

In this regard a caveat is in order. The ANC of Walter Sisulu was not given on a platter. Instead, it was built, brick by brick, conscientiously, in an insufferable climate of political oppression.

In this task he was guided by principles, values and norms that had inspired the formation of the ANC.

With a full grasp of these values and the expectations that went with them he was able to make a mark on the development of the ANC.

In consequence we need to appreciate the role of the youthful Walter Sisulu in changing the character of the ANC from a petition-oriented entity to a vibrant organism commensurate with the exigencies of the time.

Along with William Nkomo, Lionel Majombozi, Anton Lembede, Nelson Mandela, Oliver Reginald Tambo and others, comrade Walter Sisulu was instrumental in the formation of the ANC Youth League.

This new auxiliary structure injected a vibrant energy into its mother body, re-focussing the ANC through the Programme of Action, a practical document that would reorient the ANC towards action-bound strategies.

Throughout this process Sisulu had focussed on the task of building and strengthening the organisation in the full knowledge that a weak, divided and factionalist ANC was bound to fail.

Sisulu, along with Lembede, Majombozi, Oliver Tambo and Ashley Mda, was elected to the executive committee of the ANC Youth League in 1944.

On this account he seized on the opportunity of creating the youth league of the ANC because he had come to the determination that the youth league needed a more active role in the struggle.

He had realised that a moderate, almost elitist ANC which was not mass-based stood no chance against the oppressive regime.

Yet all these changes he and his comrades envisaged were to happen within the ambit of organisational discipline and norms.

Furious debates raged within the ANC and even among the youth leaguers themselves, but all these took place with the express objective of strengthening the organisation.  No comrades were marginalised or ostracised on account of different views; yet at the end of it all the organisation emerged with a common vision.

Among some of the heated issues to engage the organisation’s intention was the close cooperation with the South African Communist Party and the Indian Congress.

Again comrade Sisulu did not hesitate to argue against narrow African nationalism in favour of a broader policy of non-racialism. He would personally engage in daily struggles that exemplified the overall vision he espoused.

We learn that among heroic deeds attributed to him, away from the glare of the media, he had his first clash with the police when he was charged after a scuffle on a train with a white ticket collector who had confiscated an African child’s season ticket.

Armed with values of equality and committed to common human decency, he would not stand by in the midst of demeaning acts meant to strip black people of their innate humanity.

This small but revealing act reflected the rugged principles inherent in the individuality of comrade Sisulu, which expressed itself within the broader context of the ANC.

Today it is widely recognised that comrade Walter Sisulu’s commitment, strategic cast and organisational abilities were instrumental in transforming the ANC.

He can be counted among a few comrades that turned the ANC around, enabling it to grow as a mass-based organisation ready to take on the oppressive regime in a systematic, organised and disciplined fashion.

Comrade Sisulu made his contribution with commendable dedication while he never thrust himself into the limelight. Walter Sisulu was not a man for the public occasion, though he could rise to any occasion. He was the man who made public occasions possible.

These are personal attributes of comrade Walter Sisulu that we need to grasp as we seek to learn from his great leadership.

Without comprehending this stage in the growth and evolution of Walter Sisulu, we are likely to commit the cardinal sin of historical myopia and thus failing to appreciate the connection between the present and the past so that we can triangulate our location in it.

For an even clearer historical perspective we must first retrace comrade Sisulu’s evolving consciousness from his youth.

Comrade Walter Sisulu’s condensed biography tells of a life of difficulties from the moment he was born.

In summary Walter Ulyate Sisulu was born in the village of Qutubeni in Engcobo district of the Transkei on 18 May 1912.

He attended an Anglican missionary institute, but left in Standard 4 as a result of his uncle’s death.

To help support his family he was forced to seek work in Johannesburg where he found employment in a dairy.

This bleak situation into which he was born steeled him for the life of struggle ahead.

Most invaluably, Walter Sisulu put much premium on education, trying his level best to further his studies all the time.

He knew that education was not only the means to rise in the world but one of the most potent weapons in the struggle for equality.

Whilst he found work at Premier Biscuit factory, he also attended night school at Bantu Men’s Social Centre, though he left without completing Standard 5.

He would enrol once again when he was on Robben Island, notwithstanding the fact that he was a life prisoner.

He went on to complete his ‘O’ Levels. Furthering his education would have helped him sharpen his tools of analysis and enhanced his world outlook.

At the time when he enrolled to further his education he did not know that one day his life imprisonment would be overturned.

Despite the difficult circumstances that promised life-long prison term, comrade Sisulu never wanted to die an ignorant man.

Today when our nation is struggling with massive illiteracy spawned by the same history that imprisoned comrade Walter Sisulu, we must appreciate the abundance of resources made available and accessible by the democratic state.

We have these resources and countless opportunities to learn and educate ourselves because of the sacrifices made by comrade Sisulu and his generation.

If we cherish the value of education we are able to continue the struggle against under-development, backwardness and ignorance.

Nothing would please comrade Sisulu more that seeing multitudes of youth from historically disadvantaged background enhancing their education for the betterment of our future as a nation.

I am sure you will agree with me that SASCO can draw invaluable historical lessons from the life of comrade Sisulu.

As a student formation that sees itself as “members of the community before you are students” you should remain seized with the task of taking the challenges that face our communities, and society in general, and build them into the academic work of this university and others.

In other words SASCO struggles have to reflect an understanding of the role of education in contributing towards the building of a developmental state.

SASCO’s members, armed with elevated understanding of this historical mission, have to go back to their communities after they graduate to reinvest in whatever form possible.

At the same time, SASCO needs to build a strong Progressive Youth Alliance, to contribute to broader policy and skills aimed at building a developmental state and to build solidarity with other students across Africa and the world.

Ladies and gentlemen,

As I said earlier on, learning was one among the plethora of principles that Walter Sisulu cherished and epitomised.

Another one in his arsenal of principles was the ability to resist allurements of office if he did not deem it appropriate to take on the responsibility.

Such was the case with the onset of the democratic order in 1994, when he decided to yield way to the new generation.

In the same way he decided against moving to suburbia, preferring to remain in his Orlando West house that saw most of his anti-apartheid activism before he was incarcerated for life.

Nowadays we often speak of selflessness in reference to comrades who had gone out of their way to sacrifice for others in the cause of the struggle.

Yet the life of comrade Walter Sisulu has selflessness inscribed all over it from the very moment he stepped off the train to seek greener pastures in Johannesburg.

This selflessness was highlighted by his leadership under trying conditions, such as his activism in trade unionism.

In 1940, Sisulu was fired from his job at the bakery for his role in organising a strike for higher wages.

Putting his interests on the line in service of a greater duty of uplifting the economic lives of the downtrodden where he worked, he did not hesitate for a moment in fighting injustice in every space into which he entered.

He joined the ANC in 1940 when he was only 28. Today we may take it for granted that the youth at 28 are informed and knowledgeable.

It was not always so during the time of Walter Sisulu; ignorance was enforced on the population as a way of keeping them pacified.

Looked at this way, it becomes clear that he defied the odds to impact on his age in a way that left an indelible mark on history.

Chairperson,

We have today a few challenges of our own, both within and outside our organisation, which would need the vision, skills and principled nature of comrade Sisulu to address.

In other words, we need the historical lessons emanating from the struggles comrade Sisulu and his generation waged in order that we should keep in line with the innate traditions of the ANC.

One such challenge is the practice of slates, which is particularly pronounced during elective conference of the ANC.

Slates are a form of open factionalism, whereby comrades line up behind a particular candidate.

What this means is that the organisation is split in two, with each side owing allegiance to itself in such a way that it elevates its interests above those of the organisation, at least at that time.

What is worse about this particular practice is that slates have the tendency to take on a life of their own.

Long after the elective conference is gone comrades still see themselves through the prism of slates, and act accordingly.

While the winning faction indulges in triumphalist euphoria, the losing side, smarting, begins to prepare itself for the next elective conference, and acts in a manner consistent with this intention.

No matter how injurious a deed is to the integrity of the organisation, it will still come to pass for as long as the one side thinks it gives it an edge over the other.

This way all principles of the organisation are defenestrated, leaving us all the poorer.

In practical terms, even service delivery will suffer, since suitable comrades for certain work in local government will never realise their ambitions for as long as they are deemed loyal to the other side.

This becomes a vicious cycle, infesting all the nooks and crannies of the ANC in a way that is harmful to the long term interests of our movement.

Ultimately the practice of slates weakens the ANC by sawing deep divisions that never heal.

More pessimistically, such continued internal fractiousness finally hobbles our efforts to govern, undermining the electoral mandate of the ANC.

This scenario, essentially, translates into gross selfishness where the interests of a few within the ruling party override the interest of society in whose name we are purportedly governing.

On the contrary, Walter Sisulu worked for the unity of the ANC and put his entire adult life at the service of all South Africans.

We cannot claim to be inheritors of his exalted world outlook when in practical terms we work against the interests of our movement, our people, and indeed, our history, the history Walter Sisulu epitomised.

His deeds embodied the spirit of organisational unity, guided by principles and values which lay at the foundations of his organisation. In whatever he did the interests of the ANC took precedence.

In keeping with the revolutionary legacy of comrade Walter Sisulu, we have the responsibility to maintain unity within the ranks of the ANC.

In themselves, contests and lobbying among comrades are not a bad thing.

A healthy, comradely spirit of competition subordinates everyone’s individual interests to the overarching interests of the organisation.

Comradely spirit, immersed in the traditions of our organisation, negates sectarianism, factionalism and slates, which would lead to the degeneration of our value system and finally the weakening of our movement.

One would not be far off the mark in contending that some of the internal challenges we are facing on the eve of the local government elections are spawned by this history of slates and resultant feelings of marginalisation.

It is evident that some within our organisation are beset by perceptions of vulnerability, exclusion and powerlessness in the face of fissures and concentrations of power in certain pockets.

To this end, we need to openly discuss practices such as slates with a view to assessing what effect they have on organisational integrity and principles which underpin the traditions of our movement.

Chairperson,

The second challenge we are facing in this current phase is the broad unity of our alliance.

We have already stated the historical fact of comrade Walter Sisulu’s championing the cause of unity and co-operation between the ANC and the South African Communist Party (SACP).

Throughout its history, the ANC has derived strength from its alliance partnership with working leadership in the form of both the progressive trade union movement and the SACP.

Comrade Sisulu taught us from prison that unity and the belief in a united South Africa sustained prisoners to survive the harsh conditions in prison.

It was also this discipline and sense of common purpose that stood them in good stead.

From his essay “we shall overcome”, written in prison comrade Sisulu taught us that every organisation engaged in national liberation is constantly facing various challenges but it is the spirit of unity, self-criticism and its ability to continue to analyse, to search for solutions that is crucial for both its continued existence and growth.

I would contend that it is these principles that we should appeal to when dealing with challenges within the alliance.

We must discuss whatever differences we may be facing openly and honestly so that we can move forward in unity.

Whatever the challenges that the alliance may be facing today, they are no different from many that we have overcome during Comrade Sisulu’s time.

As far back as 1976, he was concerned, as we all should be today, about the disunity amongst comrades about the participation of Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and the Communist party in the Liberation movement.

He argued lucidly that the majority of black people earn wages in one form or the other and that it remains true that these workers constitute the majority.

He went on to say that because this working class is at the forefront of the struggle  “...the national liberation movement, can neither ignore this nor close its eyes to the fact that Marxism explains the nature of exploitation in a way that enables the worker to give meaning to his condition”.

Therefore, he continued: “the ANC and its allies in the congress movement have consistently supported and assisted the organisation of black workers.” He went on to say that the task of the liberation movement is to unite all people, irrespective of their class position.”

These unbreakable ties were forged in the cut and thrust of the struggle, and have endured many challenges engendered by time and the pressures of each age.

Throughout these phases of the struggle stalwarts of such high credentials as Moses Kotane, JB Marks, Walter Sisulu, Nelson Mandela and O.R. Tambo ensured that our alliance was as solid as a rock.

Programme director,

The last category of challenges that I wish to reflect on is what is generally called the ‘sins of incumbency’, and it particularly concerns governance.

Sins of incumbency comprises dangers attendant to accession to power, reflected in the misuse and abuse of power.

Sins of incumbency are invariably marked by betrayal of the ideals of freedom, where a former liberation movement turns into a monster that devours the very principles of freedom that sustained it over the ages, and that it is supposed to uphold.

Our movement is in a stage when for the first time we have come face to face with the allurements of office and blandishment of power, which had upended many a noble struggles throughout the history of revolutions.

History has taught us that even the most glorious liberation forces are no exception to what in most former liberation movements across the world have come to be known as ‘the sins of incumbency’.

The impulse that had driven national liberation movements across time and space easily turns into an ugly spectre of internal organisational undemocratic practices and cult of personality that ultimately overturns the noble objectives of the former liberation movement.

Accordingly the post - 1994 period threw up challenges attendant to access to power.

Such challenges manifested themselves in the emergent strains on the values, culture and character of the national liberation movement.

Among some of these challenges are issues such as social distance between the governors and the governed; bureaucratic elitism; arrogance of power, careerism; venality and corruption; moral and ideological degeneration among rank and file; and use of state institutions to fight inner-party battles.

Once again these challenges, real or apparent, are inconsistent with the upright moral posture espoused by the generation of comrade Walter Sisulu.

Our task is to identify these challenges through political education that elevates a particular brand of historical consciousness we have imbibed from our past.

This includes the quality of membership and leadership and thus the capacity to deliver on the needs of the people.

This way we will be able to genuinely attempt to uproot these internal party pathologies before they assume an immutable form capable of recasting the organisation into the very inverse of its historical character.

The story of Comrade Walter tells of tremendous life sacrifice, fearless leadership, and commitment to the struggle for liberation, discipline, humility and in finality the triumph of the human spirit.

Perhaps we should take guidance from another great stalwart of our struggle and comrade Walter Sisulu’s life partner and fellow comrade Albertina Sisulu who said that we should learn from their life story because:

“It is the only way that the next generation can learn from those who have walked before them, so that they can take the journey forward long after we can no longer continue. We can do no more than tell them our story- it is then up to them to make of it what they will.”

I thank you.

Source: The Presidency

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