ANC Today --------------------------------------------------------------------- Volume 2, No. 24, 14 - 20 June 2002 --------------------------------------------------------------------- THIS WEEK: * Letter from the President: Farewell to a young lion whose roar still inspires us * Peter Mokaba: A life of courage and service --------------------------------------------------------------------- LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT Farewell to a young lion whose roar still inspires us This week, on the occasion of the 26th anniversary of the Soweto Uprising, we will celebrate National Youth Day. All of us should join together to salute what the youth of our country has done through history to bring our country to where it is today. At the same time, Youth Day will give our youth and our country as a whole the possibility to discuss and agree on the tasks that face our youth today, as well as our obligations as a country to our young people. As we prepared for our celebrations, all of us received the shocking, unexpected and sad news that one of our compatriots who grew into national prominence as a youth leader had passed away. I refer, of course, to the late Peter Mokaba, Member of Parliament, member of the National Executive Committee of the ANC and head of its Elections Department. As we celebrate National Youth Day, we will therefore have occasion to pay our respects to this outstanding activist for the liberation of our people. We will draw on his contribution to familiarise and inspire as many of our youth and people as possible with the example he set, of selfless commitment to the realisation of the goal of a better life for all our people. I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to the late Peter Mokaba as an architect both of the organised progressive movement in our country and the ANC Youth League. In this regard, he followed in the footsteps of the founders of the Youth League, including Anton Lembede, Oliver Tambo and Nelson Mandela. The banning of the ANC and the PAC in 1960, after the Sharpeville Massacre, marked the beginning of a period of extreme repression in our country. It is clear that during this period, the apartheid regime took the decision that its survival depended on the complete and permanent destruction of the organised movement for national liberation. It was in this situation of states of emergency, mass arrests, the torture, imprisonment and exile of thousands of freedom fighters and the silencing of all dissent through open state terror, that the ANC Youth League and the African Students Association were destroyed as organised formations. Being the vanguard organisations of the progressive youth movement, their destruction also meant the demise of this movement. Nevertheless, the young activists that served in the ranks of these organisations of the Congress Movement, such as Barney Pityana, were later to play an important role in the birth and leadership of the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM). Later, in the aftermath of the 1976 Soweto Uprising, the youth were to rejoin the mass struggle for liberation in their millions, building on the work that had been done by the BCM to re-energise and reactivise our youth and people to defeat the campaign of terror imposed on our country and people by the apartheid regime. After the banning of the BCM organisations in 1977, the activists and leaders of these organisations turned decisively towards the historic traditions and organisations of the Congress Movement, including Umkhonto we Sizwe. It was out of all these circumstances that it became possible for the Congress Movement finally to recover from the decimation it had suffered during the period of extreme repression that followed the Sharpeville Massacre. Young patriots, such as Peter Mokaba, took charge of this process among the youth. Among other things, this led to the formation of the South African Youth Congress (SAYCO), which counted Peter Mokaba as one of its outstanding leaders and, after 1990, the reestablishment of the ANC Youth League, with Peter Mokaba as one of its front rank leaders. Accordingly, this we can say of the late Peter Mokaba that he led our youth as it established the organisations it needed to lead it during its final assault on the bastions of apartheid tyranny. He led our youth during that victorious offensive. He led our youth as it established the organisations it needed during the period of liberation. He led our youth as it began a new struggle to build a democratic, non-racial, non-sexist and prosperous South Africa. He was truly a potent force against the old and reactionary order, and a committed architect of the new and progressive society. I am certain that all of us will seek to dedicate this year's National Youth Day to such of our compatriots as Peter Mokaba, who played such an important role during the critical period of the end of apartheid and the birth of democracy. What happened during this period has been characterised by many as a miracle. Peter Mokaba was among the midwives of that miracle. Our National Youth Commission (NYC), a product of our democratic order, has decided to carry out its activities this month under the theme: "Letsema, Youth Service for Sustainable Development". In its published documents, the NYC says: "Key to this campaign is the establishment of the Youth Volunteer Corps that must sustain all the activities commenced during this month. Programmes should be underpinned by sustainability plans to ensure that such activities continue beyond June 2002. "With the forthcoming inauguration of the African Union and the launch of the New Partnership for Africa's Development, it is becoming inevitable that our role in combating poverty at domestic and continental levels be consolidated. "Global challenges to youth development demand that we extend these efforts to the global arena. Hence activities during this month are also meant to mobilise youth towards the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) to be held in Johannesburg in August-September 2002." The specific matters that the youth will focus on as it addresses issues of youth development include building democracy, creating a non-racial and non-sexist society, education and skills development, employment, moral regeneration, crime, urban and rural community development, sport, arts, crafts and culture, health including AIDS, drug and substance abuse, the environment, the African Union, NEPAD, the WSSD and Palestine. Our country recognises its responsibility towards the youth of our country. This centres on two objectives. One of these is the creation of the circumstances for our youth to grow up in conditions that ensure the all-round physical, moral and intellectual growth of each young person. The second is the preparation of our young people to enable them to assume responsibility for themselves as individuals and for the society they will inherit. To achieve these objectives, we have sought to focus on all the matters identified by the National Youth Commission. We have a responsibility to do more in this regard and to act with even greater vigour. We must also monitor the outcomes of our activities closely, to determine whether we are actually making progress towards the attainment of the goals we have mentioned. In this regard, a number of questions stand out in a very stark way. One of these is that we have to ensure that we expose our youth to a system of education that gives them the skills, initiative and confidence that enables them to engage in sustainable economic activity once they leave school. Our educational system continues to graduate many young people who, in reality, are unemployable. Even where we have sought to place young people in training programmes intended to give them specific skills relevant to economic activities in our country, in some instances the training has been insufficient actually to prepare the students for employment in functioning economic establishments. Another of the urgent issues to which we have to attend is the overall value system to which our young people are exposed. In the context of the 1999 general elections, our country was worried about the lack of interest of our youth in the elections. This raised the legitimate concern that these young people would no longer be interested either in the attainment of the objectives we have mentioned, or the matters referred to by the NYC. Many among us concluded that the problem we faced extended beyond interest in elections, and related to the very future of our youth as responsible adults. In part, these concerns arose from what we all knew about many things that are wrong in our society which, among other things, have resulted in the calls for moral renewal and a new patriotism. All of us knew then, as we do now, that our society teaches our young people many wrong things that contribute to unacceptable social behaviour. One of these is the accumulation of personal material wealth as the principal objective of human activity. Another is the elevation of individual interests to the level where society, community and the interests of other individuals cease to have any meaning. In this context, the concept of pride in one's national identity also ceases to have any relevance. The totality of these circumstances gives birth to all manner of unacceptable behaviour. This includes the disappearance of the demarcation line that separates right from wrong. It creates the situation in which it becomes impossible to inspire people to do anything directed at increasing the greater good. It opens the way for the individual to indulge all his or her whims without let or hindrance. It leads to an easy acceptance of criminal misconduct, including violence against other people, drug and other substance abuse and loss of identity, except as a social misfit. It leads to the emergence of a frame of mind that only recognises absolute individual rights and rejects any notion of social obligations. Clearly, we have to create the circumstances such that we do not allow this kind of alienation of our young people to take place. This is a challenge to which we have to respond as part of the process of building the new South Africa we want our youth to inherit. In this context, we salute the decision of the NYC to establish a Youth Volunteer Corps. Indeed the best way to inculcate the concept and practice of service to the people among our youth is by drawing them into organised social activity. Merely to lecture to them will not produce the desired results. Similarly, to teach the youth to take responsibility for its future, as did the children of Soweto and as did Peter Mokaba, requires that the youth should actually engage in struggle to confront the challenges they and our country face. The focal areas identified by the NYC provide the possibility for our youth to influence what our country does further to respond to the problems contained in each of these areas. It is important that the government, our society as a whole and all adults respond positively to the initiative taken by the NYC, and which we hope will be supported by the majority of our youth. It is necessary that we communicate the message to our youth in very clear terms that they have the full support of the country as they take their place in the common effort to build the kind of South Africa for which so many young people paid the supreme sacrifice. As we say farewell to the Young Lion that roared, Peter Mokaba, we must repeat the call to our youth who are engaged in struggle to build a caring society, a winning nation and a humane world - roar, young lions, roar! Thabo Mbeki --------------------------------------------------------------------- PETER MOKABA A life of courage and service Peter Mokaba, who passed away on Sunday 9 June 2002, was the leader of a generation of young freedom fighters. As the youth of this country took up the spear of liberation in the latter part of the 1970s and throughout the 1980s, Peter Mokaba emerged as a committed fighter, a relentless organiser and an inspiring leader. While Mokaba will probably be remembered most for his role as a youth leader - as President of the South African Youth Congress and later President of the ANC Youth League - his contribution was far broader and his legacy far greater. Born in Mankweng near Pietersburg on 7 January 1959, Peter Mokaba's early years prepared him for a life of struggle. Born to Albert Mogodi and Priscilla Mapitsi Mokaba, who worked as migrant workers in and around Johannesburg, Mokaba was exposed from an early age to the inequities, injustices and violence of the apartheid system. Mokaba's family was forcibly removed to Mankweng township near Pietersburg - now called Polokwane - where they lived as squatters, moving from one yard to the next around the township. According to an autobiographical piece Mokaba wrote shortly before his death, it was his experience of poverty, violence and social exclusion during this period in his life that instilled in him his determination to excel at everything he did. Yet Mokaba's ambition was not only that he should succeed, but that all oppressed people in South Africa should succeed. He was determined not simply to fight his way out of poverty and build a successful career. He was determined to fight poverty itself and build a nation. This determination took a political form as he emerged as a student activist who clearly expressed the militancy of the '76 generation. Mokaba became a leader of the school boycotts in the north while at Hwiti High School in Mankweng. He was inspired to early political action by Ongkopotse Tiro and black consciousness poets - and more directly by Winnie Kgware. He slept in the mountains to evade arrest until he was captured in November 1977. He was charged with public violence but acquitted after all 28 state witnesses refused to give evidence against him. He was then 19. The authorities banned him from attending school so he completed matric on his own in 1978, working in a variety of jobs. In 1979 he taught maths and science at Makgoka high school in Moria City. In 1980 he registered at the University of the North. While his education was repeatedly interrupted by state harassment and arrest, Mokaba had a life-long passion for learning. Mokaba never stopped studying, completing a Masters degree in Development Management at the University of the Witwatersrand. At the time of his death, he was studying for a second Masters degree, this time in Economics at the University of Stellenbosch. He was a revolutionary intellectual, always keen to expand his knowledge and deepen his understanding, and never shy to engage head-on with the political and theoretical debates of the moment. He was equally never shy to engage in the practical tasks that were demanded of revolutionaries, no matter how difficult or how dangerous. He is remembered as a daring challenger willing to shoulder the responsibility of taking forward the struggle on whatever front was necessary. By the beginning of the 1980s, Mokaba had become involved in underground organisation and together with other comrades decided to leave the country for military training. They entered Swaziland illegally through the fence at Piet Retief. Having been detained briefly by the Swazi police and surviving an attack by the apartheid regime on the house he was staying in, Mokaba proceeded to Maputo in Mozambique. Given the choice of furthering his studies or undergoing military training, Mokaba chose to go to Angola where he received political and military training. He returned to the country with the task of setting up bases for those who would follow, training new recruits and conducting economic sabotage He was arrested in 1982 and tried for membership of the ANC, possession of weapons, undergoing military training in Angola and Mozambique, and recruiting for the ANC. Sentenced to six years, Mokaba was sent to Robben Island where he found himself in the midst of an active school, where formal and political education was prioritised. However, one year later the Appeal Court set aside his conviction, and he was released. He was immediately rearrested on the same charges and tried in Pietersburg. The court sentenced him to three years suspended for five years. Once more Mokaba went to work among the youth. His energy, practical experience and fiery vision quickly gave him a place in the leadership. When the Mankweng Youth Congress was formed in 1985, he was elected to its leadership. He then served as education officer for the Northern Transvaal UDF Regional Youth Co-ordinating Committee, building youth congresses in the area. He also played a key role in ensuring vigorous opposition to the planned independence of KwaNdebele in 1986. In March 1987, although threatened with arrest, he was elected South African Youth Congress (SAYCO) president at its secret national launch in Cape Town. SAYCO's existence, declared Mokaba, showed that the State of Emergency could not destroy political opposition. During the same year he was elected to the NEC of the UDF and initiated and founded the Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa (CONTRALESA). Mokaba was also a founder of the Northern Transvaal People's Congress (NOTPECO), which was formed to organise migrant workers in metropolitan areas, particularly the hostels. In 1988 he was again arrested and sent to Pietersburg to stand trial on charges of commanding MK structures in the Northern Transvaal. Co-accused with him were Malebane Tswai and Thabo Masemola, who refused to testify against him. It was during this time that Mokaba's mother was arrested and detained for nine months, just one of the many times that Mokaba's family was targeted by the apartheid regime. Mokaba was acquitted and Tswai and Masemola were sentenced to four years each. On his release Mokaba declared: "We need every nerve, every fibre, every activity and aspect of morality of the youth to service the aims of the national democratic struggle. Our guiding words are: rather die to a person than let the enemy pass." During the apartheid years, more than a dozen attempts were made to kill Mokaba. Shots were fired at him, his home was been fire-bombed, and a would-be assassin once confessed he had been ordered by security police to kill him. He was re-elected to the SAYCO presidency in March 1990, and in July 1991 he was elected to the NEC of the ANC. After the unbanning of the ANC, SAYCO was dissolved. Mokaba was elected national chairperson of the Provisional National Youth Committee (PNYC), a caretaker structure overseeing the establishing of the ANCYL. In December 1991 at the 17th national conference, he was elected ANCYL president. He bowed out of the ANCYL at its national congress at Soweto's Vista University in January 1994. By now Mokaba was a well-respected national leader, a member of the ANC National Executive Committee in his own right. He was elected as a Member of Parliament in the country's first democratic elections in April 1994, and in August 1996 was appointed Deputy Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism in the government of former President Nelson Mandela. Mokaba was re-elected to the NEC in 1994 and 1997, and was deployed by the national leadership to head the ANC's preparations for the 2004 elections. Peter Mokaba was a great South African patriot who spent his life in the service of the people of this country. Within his lifetime he was able to see the fruits of his determined efforts to achieve a democratic, non-racial and non-sexist South Africa. While we know what he has done in his life, we will never know what he had yet to achieve. Peter Mokaba was destined to achieve yet greater heights in the cause of freedom, equality and prosperity. Peter Mokaba has left a rich legacy which we must embrace with ambition and determination equal to his own if we are to achieve the kind of society for which Peter Mokaba and so many like him have selflessly fought. He is survived by his parents, sister, brother, and his three children, Thandiwe, Nomzamo and Siyabulela. --------------------------------------------------------------------- This issue of ANC Today is available from the ANC web site at: http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/anctoday/2002/at24.htm To receive ANC Today free of charge by e-mail each week go to: http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/anctoday/subscribe.html