P Mlambo-Ngcuka: Alfred Nzo Memorial Lecture

11 September 2006

Satyagraha

Mr PK Kapoor, (ICWA),
Members of the Diplomatic Corps,
Ladies and gentlemen,

Thank you for granting me the honour to deliver this year's memorial lecture
that bears Alfred Nzo's name.

South Africa has a historic relationship with India which dates back to when
Indians went to South Africa as indentured labour to work in the sugar
plantations. Today South Africa has the highest number of Indians outside of
India. They have played a significant role in the struggle for liberation and
the economic development of South Africa.

Mahatma Gandhi, of course, is the most prominent Indian to ever walk on the
shores of South Africa. This year we celebrate 100 years of Gandhi's Sataygraha
and we are honoured that the Indian Prime Minister will visit South Africa to
celebrate this very important and historic contribution to peace and
liberation.

Through our years of struggle for liberation India was one of our formidable
allies.

Who is Alfred Nzo?

Comrade Nzo was born in 1925 in Elliot, in the Eastern Cape Province and
grew up at Modder B Benoni into a family of five children. His father was a
mine clerk on Modder B Mine. Modder B mine would later be converted into
Modderbee Prison, where comrade Nzo himself would be incarcerated.

The young Comrade Nzo was sent off to receive a missionary education in the
Eastern Cape. After completing his matriculation certificate, he entered the
University of Fort Hare in 1945 and registered for a Bachelor of Science (BSc)
degree. However, the education Comrade Nzo received at the University of Fort
Hare was political rather than scientific.

After joining the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) at Fort
Hare he became active in student politics. He left Fort Hare in his second year
of study. After returning to the then Transvaal, he qualified as a health
inspector in 1951. He lived and worked in Alexandra Township.

Ladies and gentlemen,

It was comrade Nzo's experiences as a health inspector in Alexandra that
forged much of his understanding of the lives of millions of South Africans in
the 1950s. Comrade Nzo's daily exposure to the frustrations and bad living
conditions of people in the township paved the way for his entry into
politics.

Comrade Nzo was active in organising the Defiance Campaign in the 1950s. He
was also involved in the campaign to interview people about the kind of society
in which they would like to live. It was this campaign that culminated in the
Congress of the People in 1955, at which the Freedom Charter was adopted.

Comrade Nzo became the chairperson of the Alexandra branch of the ANC in
1956. In 1958 he was voted onto the regional and national executive committees
of the ANC.

This was largely due to his work in organising the Alexandra bus boycott of
1957, when the people of Alexandra walked nine miles from the township to town
and back every day for three months to protest against the increase in fares.
Their demands were finally met. Comrade Alfred Nzo became a full-time worker
for the ANC when he lost his job as a health inspector because of his political
activities.

He carried on his political work in Alexandra, although being fired meant
that he lost his permit to live and work in Alexandra. He was arrested several
times and was eventually sentenced to five months imprisonment for failing to
have a residence permit.

He was imprisoned in his father's old office at Modderbee Prison.

In 1962 comrade Nzo was placed under 24-hour house arrest. In June 1963 he
was detained for a period of 238 days. In 1964 the ANC ordered him to leave the
country to work for the movement outside South Africa, where he took up posts
in various countries including Egypt, India, Zambia and Tanzania where he
represented the ANC.

Ladies and gentlemen,

The first ANC office for Asia was opened in New Delhi, India on 14 November
1967. The late comrade Alfred Nzo (and the then Secretary-General of the ANC)
was functioning as the Chief Representative of the ANC in New Delhi along with
Moulvi Ismail Cachalia as his deputy. The date for the inauguration of the ANC
office in New Delhi was chosen by Comrade Nzo himself since it marked the birth
anniversary of Jawaharlal Nehru.

During the course of South Africa's struggle for freedom many leaders
visited India to address audiences clamouring for their voices. Each time they
returned, the crowds only grew, the meetings lasted longer and the visits took
more time. As a result, India became the platform to take the cause of the
South African people to the world.

Among the prominent ANC South African representatives who came to India were
IA Cachalia, Oliver Tambo, Mendi Msimang, Moosa Moola, Mrs Agnes Msimang, the
list is endless.

Each of these visits was for a purpose, either a nationwide campaign against
apartheid had already been organised, or an international forum had been called
to give South African leaders a chance to raise their voice to the world
community. Comrade Nzo was, therefore, very instrumental in facilitating these
meetings and extending the invitation to South African leaders abroad.

These leaders travelled with representatives of the Indian organisations
that had invited them to various parts of the country. Not just the metros but
even the interiors and rural belts of India where they informed the masses of
the cruelties of apartheid and the excesses of the racists' regime. These
masses of India, who once where themselves subjected to the racial
discrimination of an imperialist, colonial rule, identified with South African
leaders and gave their support, materially and morally to the fullest of their
capacity.

Ladies and gentlemen,

It is for this reason that we are celebrating comrade Nzo's contribution in
the liberation struggle and also his tireless and selfless efforts in bringing
people of Indian and African origin together, to discuss issues of common
interest.

At the Morogoro Conference in 1969 Comrade Nzo was elected to the position
of secretary-general of the ANC. He was re-elected to this post at the Kabwe
Conference in 1985 making him the longest serving Secretary-General of the ANC.
Following the unbanning of the ANC, he was part of the ANC delegation that
participated in talks with the De Klerk government.

Comrade Alfred Nzo was very instrumental in facilitating peace talks amongst
different political parties in what was known then as the Convention for a
Democratic South Africa (CODESA) peace talks that took place at the trade
centre in Johannesburg.

Ladies and gentlemen,

In trying to understand the current trend in global politics, it is
imperative that we also reach consensus on the definition of democracy.

The following are basic principles of democracy:

* that all governments must derive their authority from the consent of the
governed
* no person or groups of persons shall be subjected to oppression, domination
or discrimination by virtue of their race, gender, ethnic origin, colour or
creed
* all persons should enjoy the right to life
* all persons should enjoy security in their persons and should be entitled to
the peaceful enjoyment of their possessions, including the right to acquire,
own or dispose of property, without distinction based on race, colour,
language, gender or creed
* all persons should have the right and express whatever opinions they wish to
subscribe to, provided that in the exercise of that right they do not infringe
on the right of others.

The basic principles of democracy as I have just outlined above are imbued
within the spirit of Satyagraha. This provided guidance to leaders of the ANC
such as John Langalibalele Dube, Chief Albert Luthuli, Alfred Nzo and Nelson
Mandela. It is this legacy that continues to thrive in the spirit of the New
South Africa.

Comrade Alfred Nzo's work in the ANC has always been based on his
understanding of the needs of ordinary working class people in South Africa. He
has dedicated almost his entire life to the struggle for basic human rights in
South Africa and the fight for the liberation struggle in Africa.

Nzo's contribution to post apartheid South Africa

Comrade Alfred Nzo played a very important role during the post apartheid
period in the formulation and implementation of our foreign relations and
diplomacy. South Africa has continued to develop its foreign policy on the
principles that characterised our first decade of democracy. The consistency,
with which the principled positions of South Africa have been applied even
under some very difficult international conditions, has been important in
projecting the independence and progressive nature of South Africa's foreign
policy. This consistency allows South Africa to also look forward with
confidence at how it will continue to shape its policy positions and
institutionally adapt itself to the changing demands of international relations
in the future.

During his budget speech, Minister Alfred Nzo summed up South Africa's
attitude to effective diplomacy when he said and I quote, "The most important
and valuable lesson which we have learnt from the last five years has been that
diplomacy is not about quick fixes. Diplomacy is also not a popularity contest.
Diplomacy is about achieving lasting solutions to problems and building
sustainable benefits for our country and region."

Equally the impact South Africa has on multilateral diplomacy and the
creation of a rules-based international system of interaction between states
contributes to our domestic agenda. The setting of international standards and
rules, the creation of transparent trading and other systems and ensuring that
no single country or group of countries can dominate world affairs against the
interests of the smaller and weaker countries all create an environment within
which growth and development can take place.

From our bilateral and multilateral profile comes the ability to contribute
to the maintenance of international peace and stability and security. Many
examples of our role in this field already exist. Again this can have a direct
bearing on the attainment of our domestic policies, particularly when our
involvement is directed at our own region and continent.

The Indian Diaspora in South Africa

The history of the Indian Diaspora in South Africa is a fascinating saga of
suffering and triumph, alternately following each other over the last 140
years. As long ago as 1904 while the indenture system of importing Indian
labour on a contractual basis was nearing the end of its turbulent course, the
then governor of the British colony of Natal, Lord Milner, thought it right to
describe Indians as 'strangers forcing themselves upon a community reluctant to
receive them.'

The irony of the above statement would be apparent if juxtaposed against the
persistent demand, in earlier years, of the British settlers in Natal for
large-scale imports of cheap labour from India to shore up their sinking
economy. And then again, many years later, in 1948 even before the architect of
apartheid, DF Malan, came to power in the self-governing British dominion
called the Union of South Africa, his Afrikaner National Party had already made
its policy towards the Indian migrants crystal clear.

The National Party (NP) had declared in its election manifesto that 'Indians
are a foreign and outlandish element which is inassimilable.' Continuing in the
same vein, the manifesto had proclaimed the party determination to repatriate
as many Indians as possible! To what extent, if at all, were such statements
warranted or were they merely expressions of a racist attitude against the
Indian settlers both under Britain's crown colony of Natal and also
subsequently under the Boer regime that followed it in South Africa?

Slavery and early migration of Indians to South Africa

Contrary to popular belief that Indians had first gone to South Africa as an
indentured labourers in 1860, they had in fact already arrived there much
earlier in 1653.

Dutch merchants, returning home from their voyages to India and the East
Indies had taken them to the then Dutch Cape Colony and sold them as slaves to
the early Dutch settlers. There, they were made to work as domestic servants or
to join the African slaves who were already toiling on the newly established
farms. Between 1653 and the early 19th century, there were already as many as 1
195 Indians in the Cape forming 36,40 percent of the slave population imported
into the colony.

Mahatma Gandhi: Satyagraha � MK Gandhi's sojourn in South Africa

A new chapter of Indian immigration to South Africa began in May 1893 when
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, a young Indian barrister from Porbander arrived in
Durban. Abdul Karim Javeri of Dada Abdullah and Company had secured his
services in a GBP 40 000 legal suit against a rival Indian firm in Pretoria.
The young Gandhi's arrival coincided with the determination of whites to put
and end to 'the Indian merchant menace'. This campaign had been directed
against the ex-indentured labourers who had started working in other sectors of
the economy and especially against the more prosperous 'passenger Indians' who
had become the principal rivals of whites in trade and commerce.

In addition to the restrictions and prohibitions already enumerated above,
the entire Indian community was also being subjected to a long list of petty
indignities to humiliate them.

They were not allowed to sit on "European" benches in public parks, or bathe
in beaches reserved for Europeans. Nor could they enter a restaurant, tearoom,
barber's shop or a hotel as they did not have the 'uniform of a white skin'.
Instead of admiring the energy and productivity of the Indian immigrants which
had brought prosperity to their colony, the white settlers were outraged by
their very presence in their midst.

They resented the far sighted perseverance and the skill of the Indians,
their economic lifestyle, their food habits, their pride in their custom and
traditions and their attention to the education of their children all which had
ensured the Indian community would continue to prosper.

Gandhi started the Indian Opinion, a weekly newspaper, to give expression to
the feelings and aspirations of his fellow Indians and as an instrument to
guide them in their struggle for equality and fair play. He also set up a
Phoenix Settlement near Durban and later on the Tolstoy Farm outside
Johannesburg to provide shelter for the families of those who followed his
advice and peacefully courted arrest and detention. It was during his sojourn
in South Africa that the Natal Indian Congress (NIC) was established on 22 May
1894 and later also the forerunner of the Transvaal Indian Congress (TIC).

Mahatma Gandhi and Satyagraha

A central concept in Mahatma Gandhi's philosophy, in his struggle in South
Africa and later in India was Satyagraha. Defined most broadly (as Gandhi
defined it), Satyagraha is itself a whole philosophy of non-violence. Defined
most narrowly, it is a technique or tool of non-violent action. Satyagraha was
developed by Gandhi in South Africa to give the Indian population a weapon with
which to resist the injustices being perpetrated upon it by colonial
government.

This year is the centennial celebration of the advent of the Satyagraha
which was initiated at the Empire Theatre in Johannesburg on 11 September 1906.
This year will be marked with celebrations and lots of prominent Indian artists
will be invited to South Africa. In 1906, the government of South Africa
tightened its laws against the Asian Settlers in South Africa. It was called
the "Asiatic Act". It laid down that all men and women of Asian origin above
the age of eight should get their names registered. In addition to this the
government recognised only Christian marriages as legal. The result of this was
that a Hindu couple or a Muslim couple, who were married according to Hindu and
Muslim religious rites were no longer considered as legally wedded husband and
wife. Further, there was restriction on movement from one province to
another.

Mahatma Gandhi advised his men not to honour and obey the registration law.
This led to a fierce struggle. He called it "Satyagraha." It continued for six
months. After which the government of South Africa came to an honourable
settlement with Gandhi. The citizenship rights of Indians were recognised. Thus
Gandhi was the champion of self respect of the Indians in South Africa.
Satyagraha in South Africa was not only a struggle for rights of the Indians or
the redress of their grievances but a part of the struggle of India for freedom
and dignity. The experience of Gandhi in the struggle in South Africa had, in
its turn, a great influence on the Indian National Movement (INM).

Mahatma Gandhi first arrived in South Africa in 1893. He was a small-time
lawyer who had left two failed practices in India. It was thanks to the
increasingly systematic racism he encountered in South Africa, most
significantly, being thrown off the train for daring to buy a first class
ticket that planted in him a growing sense of injustice against the Empire that
would eventually make him its most persuasive enemy.

Satyagraha, this new way of struggle in South Africa, began a new chapter in
the political history of the world. Gandhi taught the principle that both the
end and the means must be equally pure and moral. He himself put that the
principle into practice. He showed that if this is to be possible, love or
non-violence alone is the way to it.

There was little discussion at the time of non-violence for no one had
contemplated an armed struggle, which was, in any case unthinkable for an
unarmed and vulnerable community of a mere 12 000 Indians in the Transvaal. The
emphasis was on the duty to defy an unjust law and to defend the honour of
India.

Alfred Nzo's role in peace talks

Comrade Nzo's open-minded leadership acumen left him with no option but to
participate in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) peace talks. In the fall
of 1998, as South Africa's Minister of Foreign Affairs he chaired a peace
initiative in Gaborone, Botswana. The Congolese rebel leaders had agreed to
meet with Minister Nzo and some selected Southern African Development Community
(SADC) colleagues, in an attempt to seek a resolution to this bloody conflict.
A peace conference that was initially scheduled to last only one day had
entered into its third day. The rebel leaders had agreed to finalise the
conditions for peace by 10 o'clock on that morning. But they did not turn up.
Several telephone calls were made only to reveal that the rebel leaders were
actually soaking up the sun at the swimming pool of their hotel in Gaborone and
talking to some members of the electronic media that had travelled to the
Botswana capital to cover this event.

When this news broke at the conference venue, Alfred Nzo's advisor said to
his Minister, "You are the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of South
Africa. We may not allow that these people treat a leader of your status with
such disrespect and humiliate you in this way!"

Nzo's answer was simple and to the point, "People are dying in the Congo and
millions have been left destitute. Peace is much more important than the
political ego of a foreign minister. We shall wait here until the rebel leaders
arrive and we will not forego the quest for peace".

It is this commitment to peace and the revulsion in seeking non-violent
solutions to political problems that makes today's event here in New Delhi so
poignant.

100th Centenary of Satyagraha and 11 September

Today marks the 100th-year of Satyagraha as well as 11 September bombings of
the famous world trade centre in the United States of America (USA).

The legacies of Mahatma Gandhi and Alfred Nzo will certainly provide
guidance towards peaceful resolution of conflicts and lasting peace.

In conclusion

It is the humility that secures the legacy of humanity. We will not remember
those leaders who have sent their people to war in the name of peace. We have
to sustain the legacy of Gandhi, Luthuli, Desmond Tutu, Mandela and Comrade
Alfred Nzo. They held a common principle of non-violence and those who walk in
their footsteps will achieve lasting peace.

As we remember those who perished five years ago on this day in America and
the many conflicts that happen in the world today, let us remember the great
message and lesson that the barrister from India turned world leader, Mahatma
Gandhi, taught us, to always fight injustice with justice. As he said, "an eye
for an eye makes the world blind."

I thank you

Issued by: The Presidency
11 September 2006