THE ENEMY FROM WITHIN – A REVOLUTIONARY VIEW By: Kaizer Mohau
Dear Comrades It has become necessary today for us as cadres of the African National Congress to defend our organisation against the enemy even if the enemy is within. As a member of the ANC in the Tlokwe Sub region which is part of the Dr. Kenneth Kaunda Region in the North West Province, I am of the view that in this Sub Region the enemy of the ANC is the very ANC cadres themselves. Like all other structures of the ANC we late last year elected a Sub Regional leadership – the leadership we elected was a leadership which was challenged from the onset by other cadres who saw that leadership as representing the interests of the 1996 class project. While some of us argued by then that even if the leadership does not support the ANC President but it was nevertheless a leadership elected by the majority Branches of the ANC in the Sub region. It is this leadership that banned any political debate or discussion around the issue of leadership prior to Polokwane, the view expressed was that this Sub Region supports the Provincial leadership's position that Thabo Mbeki should be re-elected for the third term. Some of those who were not in support of this position were since then isolated and condemned – including the fact that a position was advanced and canvassed that they should not be part of the delegation to Polokwane – despite all these we continue to argue that in accordance with the principle of democratic centralism – we should not criticise the leadership so that they go to Polokwane and contest their position there. We maintained the point that even if they go with that position they will never win as the conference was to be attended by nine Provinces – convinced of the political soberness of the thousands cadres of our movement we were certain that they will come back disappointed – and indeed they came back disappointed. Hardly a week later after the Polokwane conference, the then Regional Secretary of the ANC in the Dr. KK region, convened a clandestine gathering were in which only those who did not celebrate after Cde Jacob Zuma was elected President of the ANC were invited – it is in this meeting were Cde Jacob Zuma was publicly criticised and insulted. After receiving the information we then protested against the Sub Regional leadership and its failure to support the democratically elected leadership of the ANC. An instruction was given to Comrades never to invite some of us to constitutional meetings of the organisation – because we were disruptive and not willing to support the Sub region – even though there was no serious political work that the Sub Region was engaged in. Our names and contacts were thus removed from the organisational database. Sometimes late last year, the region had its own conference in which the very regional secretary was elected the Regional chairperson – despite his election into chairing the region, Thabo Mosiane continued to insult and attack the President of the organisation – including the entire National Executive Committee. The Sub regional leadership joined this chorus were in which members of the Sub region started to publicly distancing themselves from the National leadership, arguing that they cannot be seen supporting a leadership which is full of people who are corrupt. Again we protested, to rub salt on the bleeding wound, the Regional chairperson resigned early this Month from the ANC and pronounced that he is joining "COPE" he left with some cadres from the region and the sub region. As I indicated sometimes last year – that here in Potchefstroom things are very strange especially in politics. The brother to the former Chair of the region is the Municipal Manager and his Sister is the Municipal Chief Whip – as such the brother joined "COPE" as well and this is soon after his young brother left. The Municipal Manager was then declared the local organiser of 'COPE" – When some Comrades who are councillors requested that the Province must re-call the Municipal Manger who prior to his joining of the so-called COPE was suspended for corruption and many financial irregularities – but due to pressure from the Sub region which we are convinced it is either "COPE" clothed in Black, Green and Gold or simply people who because of fearing to lose their jobs chose to remain in the ANC. The Municipal Manager was as well accused of giving out tenders to people who are financing this political photocopy called COPE. Last week as the ANC led movement we lost one of us, who was a member of SAMWU and a dedicated cadre of our movement who passed on. Very interesting, the task of making posters and T-shirts the Sub region gave it to Thabo Mosiane – who is one of "COPE" leaders in the Province, as we speak the funeral service is tomorrow and we expect the Sub Region to invite Thabo Mosiane to come and speak to an ANC audience in a funeral of an ANC cadre, strange, isn't it? Actually yesterday, Thursday, January 15 – we had a well attended memorial service – at the service which is organised by "COPE" and its ANC/COPE Sub regional leadership made sure that no one from those who are critical of "COPE" speaks as if they will anger those who are financially assisting us with the funeral arrangements, who are "COPE" leaders and sympathisers. At the memorial service the Municipal Manger of the Tlokwe city council and local organiser of "COPE" was on the program – under the disguise of being a former Comrade to the fallen cadre – but he represented "COPE" and spoke as "COPE" – when Comrades protested, the Chairperson of the Sub region called them to order to the amazement of the general membership of the ANC. In his speech the Municipal Manager used the following quote twice, in his introduction and in his conclusion: "It seems to me that the unacceptable practice of propagation of deliberate falsehoods to attain various objectives is becoming entrenched in our country". The above quote is from the statement of the former President of Republic in his response to the judgement by the Supreme Court of Appeal in the NPA appeal case. It is in this context that we request Comrades to help us in terms of how do we deal with this situation – and above all how do we ensure that the ANC is not auctioned by a sub region which we believe has no intentions of building a strong ANC but want to use the ANC and its structures to advance the agenda of "COPE". Due to time and space, I am not able to relate all the political challenges we face in this part of the country. For us the struggle continues and until we are able to purify the ANC we are not intending to give up as yet. Our position is that defending the ANC in the current political period should not be isolated from our election work - AMANDLA! --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. 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