MK Tribute William Lloyd Garrison once said “With reasonable men, I will reason; with humane I will plead; but to tyrants I will give no quarter, nor waste arguments where they will certainly be lost”. Revolutionary greetings comrades to you all. I invite you to share with me the pleasure of having my dissertation for a Masters in Business Administration published by the University of KwaZulu Natal. It is there on the internet for all to see at click and “google” of “Tseko Elias Nell”, the son of his father and mother, Lennox and Emily Nell. It is a modest achievement, but spares me from being accused of having made a Faustian bargain as one of our finest comrades and leader in political circles was given a rude awakening recently. The dissertation is true to my principles as a stickler for accountability and discipline, which I was taught, tempered, tried and tested in the ranks of Umkhonto WeSizwe and the ANC. I have no doubt that if our leader, comrade Oliver Tambo was President in a free and democratic South Africa, one would have had a fair chance to be appointed as Minister of Finance or CEO of ESKOM or seconded to be a director at the World Bank or the IMF on this endeavour and modest achievement. But then again we are living in the times that are eloquently described by Charles Dickens in his novel, “The Tale of Two Cities”. I decry the incongruous state of the formations that constitute our movement as led by the ANC. We have not outgrown the understandable ‘less than democratic’ practices that used to characterise our methods and processes during the underground struggle and operation under conditions of legality. Now we live in a democracy and it should the best of who we are and are made of! But our own organisation and its cadres does not seem to enjoy the benefits of democracy within. We are often stifled and herded as unthinking and uncritical mobs into awkward political dead-ends by Machiavellian styles of leadership, governance and the power politics of patronage which erode freedoms in the Bill of Rights and are inimical to people’s democracy as in by the will of the people, for the people, and by the people. This undemocratic culture and styles of leadership engender mediocrity in selection and appointment of ministers and business leaders and is a gross disservice to our impatient people sons and daughters of the soil. People who seem enjoy the freedom of speech are those who belong to the opposition parties. Bona fide cadres live in trepidation of being persecuted by their own comrades and losing our jobs if they do not tow the line, wrong or right. They stand to lose fair chance in getting tenders if they do not declare their personal allegiance to the adjudicators of tenders or offer some bribe or so. There is a widespread practice of teachers buying senior positions through SADTU and I also know of a CEO who is alleged to have bought that position for R200k. I myself have had three different individual approaches to give a son, a wife, a friend a position in government for a payment in return. Qou vadis South Africa? Public funds and resources have generated a feeding frenzy for all dubious persons and self seeking charlatans, its their turn to eat after the others who have eaten already. These opportunists would not hesitate to eliminate other comrades or send them packing into the streets denying them means of livelihood. They keep those they do not agree with out of ANC branch meetings and conferences. How do you deny another ANC comrade participation and an opportunity to express ones view in a meeting? Our martyrs and stalwart comrades laid down their lives for freedom did not know that they we fighting for the children, husbands and wives of the ministers we have today. Some and not all of these ministers are so agonisingly inept, painstakingly incompetent and dismal in doing what is expected of them by the citizens. (As we served the organisation at different places and times, it could be the case that some comrades may know and can give impeccable testimonies of Humphrey Memezi, Dina Pule, Kebby Maphatsoe, John Block, Thami Sokutu, Ernest Makhanya, to mention a few that make the headlines). It often annoys and disconcerts me to see young men and women who were toddlers and not even born in 1976 have become our political principals, ministers and deputy ministers. What credentials qualify them to be in those positions in contrast and comparison to better known ANC and MK cadres? They don’t even have a courtesy to acknowledge veterans of the struggle nor seek guidance, advice and wisdom from these experienced cadres who have been tried, tested and tempered in the crucible of struggle. Where are the disciplined MK cadres of the ANC, I ask? Is it everyone for himself now and dog eat dog? Since the departure of comrade Oliver Tambo, there has been a crisis of leadership in the ANC, tried and tested leaders and comrades have not been affirmed to take our country forward and realise the expectations which our down trodden masses had of the ANC. Instead persons we do not know from the trenches, the frontlines and the coalface of the struggle have been affirmed to lead the political economy of this country and have the audacity to declare in front pages of the major newspapers, “F**k The Poor”! Comrades, ‘iqiniso iqiniso’, in our time we have regressed from the ‘colonialism of a special type’ that we inherited in 1994 to a quintessential ‘neo-colony’ of the type of Kenya that we used to bemoan in exile and which Ngugi Wa Thingo writes about in the “Petals of Blood” and Franz Fanon warned us about in “The Wretched of the Earth”. I doubt very much if our current crop of ministers and deputy ministers were ever exposed to this literature or would care to empower themselves in order to serve the people better. “Not yet uhuru” comrades, Ausi Letta Mbulu continues to sing the song. Today as I look at the spectrum of ‘who is who’ in the political and economic elite and high society, I see few of those comrades I have grown to know before the Soweto Uprisings, during the skirmishes of June 17 and 18 at Ngoye and after in the trenches and camps in Angola (the then firm trench of the Revolution, “trenchera firma de Revolucao”) and not to forget those comrades who were with me inside the country during 1985 to 1988 (Comrades John Zulu, Totsi Memela, Lazzie Don Mpela, Peter Mangwane, Hazy Sibanyoni, Iggy Mathebula, Isaac Sadike, Ntsiki Memela, Mita Mpela, George Mashaba, just to mention these amongst others who have not used their impeccable struggle credentials to climb the political ladder by surreptitious and underhand means, to gain personal wealth and political influence. Today I am also remembering my South African Students Organisation (SASO) comrades who nurtured and inducted me into the liberation struggle before I joined the ANC in 1976, some are late some are still around, comrades, Doctor Moloto (aka How Can I Love A Man), Nobleman Nxumalo (aka Mzala, late), Stanley Nkosi (late), Kenny Mashinini (aka Chris Mthuli, late), Nhlanhla Ngidi, Bafana (Nkosi/Khumalo?? Served time in Robben Island), Gwamanda Mbongwa (aka Sihle, late) Stanley Manana (aka Raymond Nkukhu), the Mental Panel Beater (Mkhonza?? Cannot remember his name), Nombulelo Kobus at Ngoye, and many others who never doubted and turned back from the just cause of the liberation of the African. Of the comrades I met and had the honour to meet and or work with in Angola I want to make special mention of comrades Moscow (Company Commander in Caculama), Godfrey Ngwenya (Bra Timothy, Regional Chief of Staff in Angola), the late Edwin Mabitse (Regional Commissar in Angola), the late Rogers Nkadimeng, Thandi Mohale (aka Patience Sekgametsi), Brian Hoga (aka Scratch), Brian Njongwe, Aluko, the foregoing three were part of the core “Dawn” team as I knew them then, Omry Makgoale (Sydwell Mhlongo, Luanda District Commander), Khotso Matli (aka Tshwene Makopo), Mandla Langa (aka Patel), Jomo Mavuso, Doctor (am told committed suicide in Viana Luanda 1981/82?) amongst many other comrades. I also would like to reminisce the revolutionary and inspiring times I spent with comrades Stone, Kruschev, Barney Molokoana, Bryan Njongwe, Norman Phiri (aka Bongani Matwa) Valdez, amongst other salient heroes and martyrs of our struggle when I was part of the platoon doing the Survival Course in Caxito (Funda) in 1981 in preparation to come back into the country on MK missions and operations. It is the memory of these comrades which inspires and insulates me from dabbling and dealing in corruption, scandal and malfeasance that delays realisation of a better life for our people. I have said it before and am saying it again that there is no brave and inspiring leader like Oliver Tambo who can rise up to arrest haemorrhage of scarce state resources, running down the country fast to a failed state. I forever cherish the week I spent under the same roof with OR in 1979 having discussion about our martyr Solomon Mahlangu in contrast to the sellout Kaizer Matanzima. Comrade OR Tambo was fiercely hated and feared by the enemy but loved and respected by his comrades. He did not lead by threats and coercion, he also acknowledged all the liberation formations in the country struggling for freedom in our lifetime. He was a leader par excellence and the best of all times for me. Comrades who were around during his time in exile in Angola and Zambia know that when he took the podium and spoke to us en masse or on a one to one conversation, one was left with no doubt nor fear, but to act and execute instruction and walk the talk. After OR had spoken to you did not look for excuses for lack of delivery and execution of task or mission at hand. He had a soft spoken and inspiring way of persuading and convincing one without intimidating or inducing fawning on the part of his audience. In any task or mission we undertook we were always conscious of serving the people of South Africa and were its ambassadors and dared not fail, whether we were students or guerrillas in battle. As an optimist, schooled and tempered in the school of thought that is informed by the philosophy of historical and dialectical materialism, I am convinced that we will get past these dark times and good leaders will emerge from coming generations to restore African pride and dignity as was epitomised and envisioned by leaders like Oliver Tambo, Albert Luthuli, Julius Nyerere, Amilcar Cabral, Jerry Rawlings, Abdel Nasser, General Murtala Mohammed amongst African leaders who loved their people. In June 2014, I was called to Luthuli House and refused to be a signatory to a transaction between the Treasurer General of the ANC, Zweli Mkhize and Xolisa Mvinjelwa and Thabo Ntshiqa, to sell on the cheap shares of Umkhonto WeSizwe Military Veterans in Nghala Mining (Pty) Ltd, to the Gingxi Family Trust owned by these two nobody’s could not even wipe their noses in 1976, but thrive by dropping famous struggle brand names as their relatives. The estimated value of those MK shares is R126million and to be sold for a pittance of R5million to a ‘mafinyelana’ who happens to have deep pockets to bribe those in political power with 25 year old whisky 750ml bottle, is obscene and is something I cannot countenance in my sense of decency, to say the least. I tried to get the intervention of the former Minister of Mineral Resources Susan Shabangu, and her DDG for Regulation, Joel Raphela and they both turned a blind eye to my plea. I also enlisted the support of comrade Omry Makgoale to assist me in stopping this theft and daylight robbery in the name of bona fide MK veterans and all in vain as we discovered that some of the ladies associated with former and current NEC leaders had vested interests in the Women’s component of the BBBEE deal and were after quick cash, irrespective of being short changed, having no time for a proper evaluation of the asset and a due diligence assessment. The board members of Nghala Mining (Pty) Ltd) held meetings and excluded me as a member of the board, and told me the matter was in the hands of the lawyers and therefore I should get a lawyer to represent the Trust. Appealed to Luthuli House and found no one to come to the rescue. I tried to persuade Zweli Mkhize and other trustees Thandi Modise, Max Sisulu, Ntate Isaac Makopo and Mme MaMsimanga not to sell back those shares to Imerys SA at a discount for the benefit of the Gingxi Trust, but to my chagrin and frustration Zweli Mkhize went ahead without my concurrence as the Principal Officer. Where can one go now? I am at my wits end considering what good would be served, when there is already so much overwhelming corruption and in any case the ANC NEC leadership did not even care nor bat an eye on the authentic Gobodo Report on theft of MK investments, that was copied to all of them. This is obscene and at variance to the ethos and expectation that our fallen heroes and martyrs lost their lives for. My reading of the Freedom Charter and the Constitution of the ANC does not condone or encourage corruption. Comrades will recall how corrupt practices in the MK ranks and ANC were viewed in a serious light and with dire consequences of demotion, detention in ‘khulukuthu’. In fact such practices were considered alien to the culture of the ANC and seen as work of the enemy agents attempting to destabilise the ANC and cause anarchy in the ranks. It is apparent that the children of the ministers are cushioned in the lack of aptitude and merit to play in the not so competitive space for opportunities and education, at least for them they have the luxury of brandishing famous struggle brand names or those of their parent ministers. While the daughters and sons of Ashley Kriel, Wilfred Madela, Barney Molokoane, Monareng, Gladman, British Empire and those of our other MK veteran comrades who are living indigent lives in Orange Farm, in the backyards of their parents homesteads and other squatter camps in the margins of the cities and towns of the country they fought, cannot find joy. These struggle orphans cannot get access to the elite “SASS Intelligence School” or any other decent school for that matter that can empower them to fend for their future or get a top notch position in the government and enjoy the fruits of the sacrifices of their forebears. The names of comrades mentioned above sustained my conviction that our cause was a just one and that “Victory was Certain” and that “Victory or Death” we would win, That is why I was imbued with fortitude whenever I had to cross the Swaziland fence with comrade Totsi Memela to work and execute missions in South Africa (1985 – 1988). My dissertation is dedicated to the fond and revolutionary moments I shared with them. Ironically, at the camps in Angola we were at times subjected to a subtle and systematic disdain for intellectual and scholastic endeavour whereby comrades who were aspiring to intellectual enquiry and search for knowledge were looked upon suspiciously with such snide remarks as “beware of the intellectual”. The only and exclusive premise of intellectual research that was acceptable was that informed by the socialist community as led by the Soviet Union. Comrades were not encouraged to read beyond the literature that was translated from the socialist community languages into English. Most of those readings were often eulogising the Soviet Union and the bulwark of socialism. The catch phrases or question and answer indoctrinated to many cadres was, “What is the acid test of a revolutionary?” And the appropriate answer would be, “the attitude to the Soviet Union.” In hindsight it is funny to reminisce about some of these dogmas even though at the time it could result in unpleasant and dire consequences should one dare ridicule. I recall at one time when my testosterone was getting pent up and getting the better of me I started getting romantic with beautiful and sumptuous German maidchen from the west side of the Berlin Wall. The principal of the Parteischule told me in no uncertain terms that if I persisted in my unbridled desire for this maidchen, I would catch the next flight Aeres de Angola straight back to Luanda and maybe eventually to Camp 32. The prospects of this consequence were ghastly to contemplate and I sulked and just called it quits with the maidchen. The problem was that the maidchen was from the West, as I quickly learned and struck my luck with a local East German maidchen and that was mildly tolerable to the Parteischule authorities. That was the height of hypocrisy! After 1994 a only sprinkling few of our comrades who earned their degrees in the universities of the socialist community were affirmed, whilst those who studied in the ‘imperialist’ universities of the West were the first to be affirmed as senior government officials and CEOs of state owned companies. Come to think of the National Development Plan that is half baked as we speak and yet to be implemented, after nothing has been done since its conceptualisation in 2010. How many years are left for its implementation? One realises that there is no serious intention or commitment to really make it happen. It was not widely canvassed and lacks the input of cadres and comrades who have knowledge and experience in long term and central planning in Africa and elsewhere in the former socialist community. These days our institutions, government and their skilling and capacity is informed by the dictates of the ‘Washington Concensus’ and the neoliberal agenda that seeks to keep us forever indebted intellectually and materially to the West. Now with the Chinese and the Guptas on the scene we are far from economic and political self-determination. In memory of my late and fond school mates in Orlando West High School namely Wilfred Nzamela Madela (died in the Siverton Trio siege) and the indomitable Sello Pule (accompanied OR Tambo in 1976 to the UN following the Soweto Uprisings, then got detained in Angola and was rescued by the late comrade leader Joe Gqabi and later committed suicide somewhere in Eastern Europe), I am making a passionate plea to our ANC leadership that we seek cleansing and atonement of our revolutionary consciences by going to those families and kin who lost their loved ones. These families hoped and trusted that the ANC would take care of their sons and daughters and next of kin in exile and far flung lands. We accept that we fought a fierce and bitter struggle with a lot of casualties and indeed collateral damage in the course. The enemy was sophisticated and had a knack of setting comrade against comrade in addition to a well resourced web of spies and agents inside and outside the country. Not to mention the atrocious methods of torture and murder, which not all comrades and cadres could withstand in the same measure. Mistakes were committed and omissions made inadvertently and as such some comrades were detained and persecuted erroneously in Angola and elsewhere inside and outside the country, including neck-lacing and assassination of innocent comrades. The leadership is enjoined in the spirit of reconciliation and healing to pay courtesy visits to those families who lost their loved ones due to the overzealousness of our “Mbokodo” and misinformed and misled leaders in some instances. Even to those who may have inadvertently become enemy agents without knowledge of their families, we still need say sorry to their families even if we do not have proof that they were enemy agents and maybe just, we can bring closure to some unanswered questions and move on and focus economic and political democracy and thereby bring closer the vision of a better life for all and be forgiven by their restless and haunted spirits. I am convinced that these families will accept this apology and forgive our organisation and perhaps we can move faster and remember where we come from. To err is human and to forgive is divine. Let me also take a moment of silence to give a thought and honour the memory of those comrades who fell on both sides of the mutiny in 1984. This was a painful page in the annals of the history of our organisation and members from which we have not fully healed and got closure. Some of us had friends and brothers on both sides of the showdown, in my case comrades Tsar Zanempi, Zaba Maledza, Naledi and Patrick Mabitle of those I can recall. It was not just a simple black and white differential of one a friend and the other a foe. Comrades let us desist from bad habits and stop embarrassing and disgracing ourselves and our people who look up to us. Every week there is some corruption scandal of someone placed in a high position of responsibility and accountability. When will it end? Such things are painting and muddying our organisation as corruption infested, without any modicum of moral integrity. The people are beginning to lose trust and respect for the ANC and show their impatience through service delivery protests. Why do public servants pay themselves before service delivery without fail every month? Where is self sacrifice and service to the people? Is only the 67minutes on July 18 and nogal at the cost to the state? The views expressed here are my personal views and I am open to engage with those who agree and disagree with them whether they are in the rank and file or in the corridors of power either in the political and/or economic oligarchy. I know that many comrades who are in comfort zones will be angry and upset with me for my lack of diplomacy and politeness in the views I hold, but if the cap fits were it and straight talk should not break comradeship. I believe all democracy loving people who fought against white racist supremacist oppression will agree that I must enjoy my hard fought democratic right to express myself more so that I have fought alongside those comrades that paid the supreme sacrifice and I also left my loved ones and did not enjoy the prime of my youth during the struggle, as I was displaced inside the country and far flung countries of exile. I also pray that I should not be persecuted in my career, as I believe I have something to offer the people of South Africa because the ANC invested in my education and I in my own person also educated and skilled myself in order to serve the people meritoriously and not make them suffer any longer because of my incompetence and ineptitude. I will forever be indebted to the ANC for nurturing and grooming to be a responsible servant of the people without fear or favour and will continue to serve the ANC and not persons who want to use it for personal gain. Warmest and heartfelt regards, Tseko Nell (aka Steve Rantso)
Posted on: Tue, 16 Sep 2014 07:20:16 +0000
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