Nelson Mandela joined the African National Congress (ANC) primarily because he understood that black South Africans had to truly believe that they deserved to be free and could rule themselves. Every ANC manifesto has included the slogan “A better life for all”.
Colonialism, separate development and apartheid were all social engineering instruments and if South Africa is serious about attaining an equal, fair and just society, it must embark on a fundamental transformation to reverse the devastating and long-lasting consequences of multigenerational social engineering.
It is evident that at both country and individual levels, South Africans have not dealt with the impacts of our collective traumas and there has been no concerted attempt to re-engineer our society to one with a shared national psyche of common purpose and greater good — nation-building and social cohesion. This must be driven by and through individuals who see themselves as patriots, active, meaningful, equal and integrated members of a diverse society.
We still vividly remember the challenges behind the birthing of South Africa’s democracy, of the battles that took place on our streets to end apartheid and of the intense period of negotiations to enable a country of despair to become a country of hope.
A Constitution is a body of fundamental principles according to which a state is to be governed. It sets out how all the elements of government are organised and contains rules about what power is wielded, who wields it and over whom it is wielded in the governing of a country.
It can be seen as a kind of contract between those in power and those who are subjected to this power. It defines the rights and duties of citizens and the mechanisms that keep those in power in check.
The preamble is instructive: “We therefore, through our freely elected representatives, adopt this Constitution as the supreme law of the Republic so as to heal the divisions of the past and establish a society based on democratic values, social justice and fundamental human rights; lay the foundations for a democratic and open society in which government is based on the will of the people and every citizen is equally protected by law; improve the quality of life of all citizens and free the potential of each person and build a united and democratic South Africa able to take its rightful place as a sovereign state in the family of nations.”
‘Regrouping to loot again’
In the chilling words of the first African Nobel Prize laureate Prof Akinwande Oluwole Babatunde Soyinka, “Justice is the prime condition of humanity … only in Africa will thieves be regrouping to loot again and the youths whose future is being stolen will be celebrating it.”
With this as a guide, it is the ANC, having applied its collective mind and with the people at the centre, that chose the government of national unity versus coalition/s.
Of the many available options, in order of the majority of the share of the vote are the 64.3% of the ANC + MK + EFF; 62.0% of the ANC + DA; 54.8% of the ANC + MK; 53.6% of the ANC + EFF + IFP; and the 51.8% of the ANC + EFF + PA. Some of these scenarios are not just ideological alignments — the parties want the same things for the people but are factions of the ANC.
If guidance were needed, the words of Chief Albert Luthuli ring true when he opined that you don’t want even your worst enemy, at his moment of weakness, to exclude you as an option.
We certainly don’t want to be the only African country that became free from colonialism, that failed to substantially increase the education level of its people, dramatically increasing the ownership of the economy by the indigenous population to at least double digits and the very first to hand power back to its oppressors after just 30 years.
The ANC was formed in 1912 as a result of many grievances. These included black dissatisfaction with the South Africa Act of 1910 that established the Union of South Africa, their treatment after the South African War and numerous laws that controlled and restricted black movement and labour.
During the eight years of negotiations, it became apparent that delegates of the four provinces were determined to forge a settlement that excluded Africans from meaningful political participation in the envisaged unified South Africa. This galvanised different African political formations, hitherto fragmented and each with a “provincial” appeal, to forge a unified political movement that would challenge the exclusion of black people.
The need for a permanent body to represent blacks on a national level was the reason for the transformation of the body into a more representative and dynamic organisation. South Africa’s advent to democracy was ushered in through the 1993 Interim Constitution, drawn up through negotiations among various political parties, culminating in the country’s first nonracial election in 1994.
The road to democracy in South Africa was marked by centuries of racial and economic discrimination and oppression as well as the unyielding sacrifice and resistance of the oppressed peoples, together with a minority of their white compatriots.
A new society
Today, South Africa is a new society built on a foundation of freedom and democracy. The ANC is a national liberation movement formed in 1912 to unite the African people and spearhead the struggle for fundamental political, social and economic change. The primary objective is still to uplift the quality of life of all South Africans, especially the poor.
The Freedom Charter remains the basic policy document of the ANC, drafted when it was abundantly clear that the 45 years of the Union of South Africa had brought nothing but land expropriation without compensation, pass laws, ghettos, Bantu education, etc, all intentioned to bring about low wages and hunger.
As the struggle for freedom reached a new intensity in the early 1950s, the ANC saw the need for a clear statement on the future of South Africa. The idea of a Freedom Charter was born, and the Congress of the People Campaign was initiated.
During this campaign, the ANC and its allies invited the whole of South Africa to record their demands so they could be incorporated into a common document. The document would be accepted at the Congress of the People and would become the Freedom Charter.
Thousands of people participated in the campaign and sent in their demands for the kind of South Africa they wished to live in. These demands found final expression in the Freedom Charter which begins with an assertion of what is and has been a cardinal democratic principle: that all can live in South Africa whatever their origin.
Military wing
Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) was the military wing of the ANC from 1961 until 1993. Founded by, among others, Mandela, it included members of the South African Communist Party (SACP). Other well-known MK leaders over the years included Govan Mbeki, Joe Slovo, former president Kgalema Motlanthe, former president Jacob Zuma and Chris Hani. It carried out waves of sabotage and guerrilla attacks against the apartheid government, which sanctioned racial segregation and discrimination against all those in SA who were not white.
MK suspended its activities in 1990 amid negotiations between the government and the ANC as apartheid measures were gradually being repealed, and it was officially disbanded on 16 December 1993. While grassroots and internal support for violent resistance to the South African apartheid regime had been fomenting for some time, the direct impetuses for the founding of MK were the 1960 Sharpeville massacre and the banning of the ANC.
Discouraged by the government’s disproportionately violent repression of the anti-apartheid movement, a group of highly placed ANC members successfully campaigned for the establishment of a branch of that organisation dedicated to violent resistance against the South African government.
In the words of MK’s founding document, “The time comes in the life of any nation when there remain only two choices: submit or fight. That time has now come to South Africa.”
The South African government responded to MK’s activities with extreme repression and violence, executing several MK leaders and issuing long prison sentences for others, including Mandela.
In the mid-1960s, MK was left leaderless and spent the following decade regrouping. Drawing on alliances with the SACP and sympathetic groups in neighbouring countries, MK set up a series of guerrilla training camps. DM