Ace Mgxashe leaves behind a broken PAC July 24 2013 at 04:13pm
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [Description: 371104] Ex-QDMS Ace Mgxashe Bennie Bunsee When Ace Mgxashe passed away on Sunday at his home in Table View, he joined the list of senior PAC (Pan Africanist Congress of Azania) members and leaders who laid the foundations of the organisation in the 1960s and who are now dead. He follows in the wake of Joe Mkwanazi, Keke Hamilton, Mfanesekhaya Gqobose, Glen Mpukane, Zebulon Mokoena, Barney Desai, Vijay Megan, Imam Haroun, Cardiff Marney, Kenny Jordaan and George Peake - the last six being non-Africans from Cape Town of sterling political character. Ace's death has stripped the PAC of the very last of its outstanding members, a void now filled by immature elements with little experience of the organisation, its history, its historical aspirations, its struggles, its achievements and its follies. Ace died in the manner which befitted him as a writer, author and journalist: at his computer from a sudden cardiac arrest. He was 69, a diabetic with high blood pressure. When he returned from exile in Dar es Salaam, he worked for the Cape Argus and from there had a stint with the Desmond Tutu Foundation. Brought up to believe in the resurrection of the African people and nation in the country, he found the repression of Africanist aspirations in the country frustrating, as it was for the likes of Dikgang Moseneke, Joe Thloeloe, Thami Mazwai, Christine Qunta, journalist Matthew Nkoana of Drum fame, and Pitika Ntuli. But the anti-Africanist combination of the colonial regime and the ANC under Mandela was too powerful to break. He tried to revive the PAC and called a conference in Cape Town. But the internal squabbles frustrated its development. It is where the PAC finds itself today. In exile, Ace was a regular contributor to the PAC journal Azania News and its military newsletter Azania Combat. Ace was among the first members of the PAC who carried forward the African nationalist themes of Anton Lembede and Ashby Peter Mda, and before them of Sol Plaatje. This happened after the formation of the white Union of South Africa and the passing of the Land Act of 1913. The SA Native Congress - as the ANC was then known was - formed as the nationalist aspirations of the African people came together. It was this tradition that Ace pursued up to the time he died, and which he tried to revive. He recorded his experiences and views in the first volume of his book called Are You With Us which was launched at Exclusive Books at the Waterfront (and which incidentally never got a review, as he told me, in any of our media). I recall the glee with which he completed the first chapter of his second volume. Perhaps when he died at his computer, he was working on that book. He consulted me then for documents and advice. It was to be his final contribution to the PAC cause, and also a record of the history of the PAC up to the present. The PAC was banned a few years after it was formed and much of its history took place in exile. And it was in exile that a large part of Ace's political life was formed and developed, a truncation between home and away that has had a debilitating effect on our liberation movements. In exile, Ace and the PAC were influenced by the likes of Walter Rodney, Mahmood Mamdani, Dan Nabudere, Yash Tandon, Milton Obote, Yoweri Museveni, the senior Joseph Kabila, Eduardo Mondlane and Jose Eduardo Dos Santos, and Zanu leaders under the benign patronage of Julius Nyerere. Dar es Salaam buzzed with revolutionary discussions and activities. It was also at the height of Maoism worldwide and the PAC was not exempt from that influence. Ace and his comrades - led by TM Ntantlala, who was related to the illustrious Jordan family - tried to steer the PAC towards the formation of a Marxist-Leninist party. This led to the greatest crisis in Ace's life and of the 100 or so comrades in the group to which he belonged. Their move was opposed by Potlako Leballo, who was supported by the youth that flooded into Dar es Salaam. The leadership were defeated at a conference in Morogoro and expelled from the PAC. It was the greatest crisis in the history of the PAC. It never recovered. Undefeated, Ace and his group immediately formed the APRP (Azanian Peoples Revolutionary Party). They published the best political programme to come out of the country's history, a mature mixture of Marxism and Africanism. But it was too late. Ace and many like him ended their political lives in limbo. Africanism and Black Consciousness are isolated in our politics today. But Ace can take assurance that pan-Africanism is slowly emerging again. l Bunsee is a veteran of the anti-apartheid struggle and editor of the journal Ikwezi. A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing. George Bernard Shaw<http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/George_Bernard_Shaw/> kind regards Mduduzi Sibeko Distribution Customer Service Coordinator [cid:[email protected]] T +27-11-724-9300/01 C +27-71-101-2595 F 086-754-2176 E [email protected] www.randwater.co.za This email and any accompanying attachments may contain confidential and proprietary information. This information is private and protected by law and, accordingly, if you are not the intended recipient, you are requested to delete this entire communication immediately and are notified that any disclosure, copying or distribution of or taking any action based on this information is prohibited. 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