ANC Today --------------------------------------------------------------------- Volume 2, No. 34, 23 - 29 August 2002 --------------------------------------------------------------------- THIS WEEK: * Letter from the President: Unity of democratic forces must be based on honesty * Media and democracy: Media transformation an essential part of social change * Women in Struggle IV: Dulcie September: A dedicated cadre cut down by act of cowardice --------------------------------------------------------------------- LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT Unity of democratic forces must be based on honesty In his January 8th Statement in 1980, celebrating our 68th anniversary, our late President O.R. Tambo addressed the question of unity. He said: "The need for the unity of the patriotic and democratic forces of our country has never been greater than it is today. Our unity has to be based on honesty among ourselves, the courage to face reality, adherence to what has been agreed upon, and to principle. "Certainly, it subtracts from the process of the unification of our people in action if we fall victim to the traps that the enemy has set and we start ourselves encouraging false divisions and antagonisms, as for instance between one ethnic group or so-called tribe and another, between one nationality and another, between our rural and our urban people, between the young and the old, between the liberation movement inside the country and those described as "in exile", and indeed, strange to say, between the ANC and the rest of the patriotic forces of our country. It is understandable that the enemy should try and promote these antagonisms. It makes no sense that we should want to do it for him. "Yet the fact must be admitted that during this past year we have seen many attempts to gain temporary advantage by seeking to foment and exploit these false divisions and antagonisms. In certain instances matters have even degenerated into public and personal bouts of mutual vilification. It would be playing into the hands of the enemy if we allowed the politics of our struggle to become a contest among the powerless for power over one another." When it met last weekend, the National Executive Committee of the ANC returned to the same questions raised by Oliver Tambo 22 years ago. What occasioned this discussion was the publication of interviews given by a member of the National Executive Committee of the ANC, which contained many negative statements about both the ANC and our National Executive Committee. Among other things, this provoked the public personal bouts of mutual vilification against which Oliver Tambo spoke. Once again, the National Executive Committee reaffirmed what President Tambo had said, that it makes no sense that we should promote antagonisms among ourselves, in support of the efforts of our opponents. In the exercise of the practice of honesty among us, once again the NEC urged all its members to speak out openly on any issue, at meetings of the NEC. It reaffirmed that it was incorrect and unacceptable for members of the NEC not to speak honestly in the NEC, choosing, instead, to voice their views about matters they have a right and freedom to raise in the NEC, outside of this institution. The National Conference of the ANC elects the NEC. The Conference charges this elected body with the responsibility to defend and enhance the unity of the organisation and promote the achievement of its goals. No member of the NEC is elected to oppose the movement and any of its organs. No genuine member of the NEC can ever claim that he or she has a right to set themselves up as outside critics and opponents of the ANC and the NEC. In the event that such persons feel that they have irreconcilable differences with the organisation, they have an obligation to resign and then act as such outside critics and opponents. On the other hand, all members of the NEC, like other members of the ANC, have an obligation to intervene within the structures of our movement to correct whatever they feel might be going wrong. In particular, they have to bear in mind what Oliver Tambo spoke about when he referred to the courage to face reality. Reality may demonstrate that changed circumstances render our agreed positions irrelevant and wrong. The organisation may behave in a manner inconsistent with its decisions, principles and traditions. All members have a responsibility directly to address the organisation in these circumstances, to correct whatever might be going wrong. The principle of adherence to what has been agreed upon is fundamental to the functioning and cohesion of any organisation. Disrespect for this practice by any organisation, of support for democratic majority decisions, can only mean that such an organisation has condemned itself to anarchy and collapse. Accordingly, the NEC insisted that its own members must respect the decisions taken by the majority at our constitutional meetings. This principle is respected even in the context of governance, according to which losing contestants respect the view of the majority of the electorate with regard to the formation of governments. Oliver Tambo also urged adherence to principle. This refers to both the political and organisational principles of our movement. Throughout our history, our movement has understood that an important part of its strength and durability derives from the adherence to principle of its members, especially its leadership. To this day, our organisation has sought to encourage this quality among its members. It is for this reason that we have consistently been sounding the alarm about the growth of careerism and opportunism in our ranks, which is driven by an unprincipled desire for personal material gain. In April this year, our Alliance held a summit meeting stretching over a number of days. At its conclusion, it adopted the Ekurhuleni Declaration. Among other things, this Declaration addressed the issue of unity within the Alliance. It said: "Unity, a sense of common purpose, the depth of understanding of our historical mission, activism, loyalty to the people -especially the poor - and commitment to international solidarity and joint action are some of the critical attributes that have placed the Alliance at the head of the forces of change in our country. "In elaborating our detailed programmes of action and in managing tensions that may arise among us from time to time, the Alliance partners proceed from the premise that ours is a strategic political Alliance founded on a common national democratic programme. All organisations that are part of the Alliance accept the ANC as the leader of the Alliance. "Our organisations, though profoundly inter-dependent, are separate organisational formations with their own identities, policy-making mechanisms and internal organisational arrangements. In this regard, each component respects the independence of its allies. "Having examined the causes and the impact of recent intense public discord among some components of the Alliance, the Summit concluded that this was an unfortunate development which we should not allow to recur. We do acknowledge that it would be artificial to expect that tensions would not exist among and even within components of the Alliance. The challenge is how we manage them within our constitutional structures, and use them as a catalyst for the growth and maturity of our organisations. "Where there are areas of difference, we are committed to resolving them through ongoing constructive debate and engagement within the context of our Alliance." The positions adopted at the Alliance Summit are consistent with what Oliver Tambo said. They represent a tradition that has been built over many decades, which enabled our democratic movement to prosecute a successful struggle against the apartheid regime and to play a central role in the difficult struggle of building the new South Africa defined in our national constitution. The challenge facing the Alliance as a whole is practically to implement the Ekurhuleni Declaration. This is centrally important to maintaining the capacity of the Alliance to discharge its responsibility to the masses of our people, to eradicate the legacy of colonialism and apartheid and to build a better life for our people. In this respect, disunity within the ANC and the Alliance can only serve the interests of those who do not want us to achieve these objectives. It is in this context that we must understand many of the critical comments made about the outcome of the last meeting of our National Executive Committee. Our critics have sought to portray the objectives and principles of the ANC and the Alliance we have been explaining as contrary to democratic principles and practice. They have therefore taken it upon themselves to determine for us how we should conduct our internal affairs. They present themselves as the supreme arbiters of democratic practice, whereas we are inherently prone to intolerance, authoritarianism and dictatorship. The positions adopted by these critics demonstrate that they have an objective interest in disunity within the ANC and the Alliance. They make no secret of this but advocate it publicly, to the extent of the destruction of the Alliance. In this context, they do not hesitate to communicate blatantly false information especially about the internal processes of the ANC. On no basis whatsoever, they say that open discussion within our ranks is suppressed. Without any facts to substantiate this, they allege that power has been centralised, to the detriment of democracy and honest dissent within our organisation. They go out of their way to invent special organisational rules for our movement, which they would not advocate even for a football fan club. One of these is that all our members should be free to defy the democratic decisions of our movement. Strangely, it is argued that democracy dictates this anarchy. Those elected to executive positions to implement agreed decisions are told to undermine these decisions, as an expression of their right to freedom of speech and action, with no respect for our internal democracy and our constitutional structures. Our opponents reward indiscipline in our ranks by heaping praises on those responsible for malpractice, as heroes and heroines. As Oliver Tambo said, it is understandable that our opponents should try and promote antagonism among us. It makes no sense that we should want to do this for them. In this regard we will take no instructions from these opponents. All our members must take the results of the recent meeting of the NEC to heart, that it makes no sense for genuine and loyal members of our organisation to do the work of our opponents within our ranks. Our opponents will praise them, and we will ask why! Thabo Mbeki --------------------------------------------------------------------- MEDIA AND DEMOCRACY Media transformation an essential part of social change The ANC should place the transformation of the media firmly on its political agenda of building a democratic society and meeting the needs of the people, according to a discussion document produced in preparation for the ANC's National Conference in December. Published in a special edition of the political discussion journal, Umrabulo, the document says creating a better media system should be part of broader social change, and should be pursued by all progressive South Africans. This is necessary, the document says, because in broad terms the mass media in South Africa is still shaped by the same political and economic forces which existed under apartheid. As a result, it tends to reflect the interests, views and political aspirations of those who benefited from apartheid. Linked to this is the predominantly commercial nature of the media, which means that the media generally addresses itself mainly to the affluent sections of society. This the document describes as the 'political economy' of the media. "The political economy of the media places the interest of the advertisers, and well-off South Africans, above the interests of other citizens," it says. Because the mass media has such a profound effect on shaping public opinion and has such a great capacity to disseminate information, this bias distorts the democratic process and limits public debate and broad access to information. A big part of the problem is that much of South Africa's print and broadcast media, including the SABC, is largely reliant on advertising to stay afloat. As advertisers are mostly interested in those sections of the South African population with disposable income, a large majority of South Africans hold little appeal for advertisers. Media which appeals to the less affluent majority, most of whom are black, struggle to survive. "This reliance on advertising revenue therefore places direct limitations on the ability of the media to expand and reach the majority of South Africans," it says. The result of this is that despite the positive changes that have taken place in the media since 1994, there is still no significant media which represents and articulates the aspirations, viewpoints and interests of the biggest constituency in the country. The document argues it is therefore necessary to develop a public funded model for media in South Africa so that the public and community media can serve as a vehicle to articulate the needs of the poor, rural people, women, workers and others currently marginalised by the media. This model should build on progress already made. The Media Development and Diversity Act, for example, has recently been passed to ensure roll-out of media services to communities that are not covered by the current system. "A foundation for the transformation of mass media has been laid and it is the responsibility of every progressive South African to protect the gains achieved," it says. Emerging from a past in which suppression of the media and freedom of expression assumed extreme proportions - in which journalists faced imprisonment and state terror - South Africa has firmly establishing constitutional protection of the right to freedom of expression and the right to information. Yet the ability of all South Africans to equally exercise the right to express themselves is severely constrained by the lack of diversity in the media. The majority of South Africans do not have a voice in the mass media. Transformation must therefore address the patterns of ownership and control within the media. However, it should not be limited to this, as diverse ownership alone does not guarantee diversity. There needs also to be a diversity of voices, which must involve a greater diversity of people within the media profession, as well as greater space for a diversity of views and perspectives. "This means the newsrooms of this country need to reflect a diversity of perspectives and experiences, not merely among journalists, but among sub-editors, editors, managers, even photographers." The document continues: "Too often we are provided with expert analysis exclusively from white men, some time white women, occasionally black men and very rarely black women. This is not because black women (or men) lack insight or are unwilling to express their views, but because we have not worked hard enough to break down the racist and sexist intellectual hierarchy in the country. The media need to analyse very critically the race, gender, class and age profile of the people it gives voice to." In working to transform the media, the democratic movement should challenge perceptions that it is "anti-media" or seeks to silence any critical media. "The ANC has fought for the freedom of the media and the protections it enjoys today and as enshrined in the Constitution. The struggle for the transformation of the media should be rooted within a campaign to extend these media freedoms to be enjoyed by all South Africans," it says. The media itself is often guilty of misrepresenting efforts to transform it. The document notes that on several occasions any criticism of how the media is structured or functions (or fails to function), is denounced in the very same media as threats to freedom of the media. "The media, whose overriding responsibility is to promote the airing and reflection of a diversity of views, most often when faced with criticism turns to the role of being the suppressor of open discussion," the document says. Discussion in ANC branches on this and other documents is taking place throughout August and September, leading to the ANC's National Policy Conference in late September and National Conference in December. More Information: Umrabulo 16, Special 51st National Conference Edition, August 2002 http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/pubs/umrabulo/umrabulo16/index.html --------------------------------------------------------------------- WOMEN IN STRUGGLE IV Dulcie September: A dedicated cadre cut down by act of cowardice The murder of Dulcie September in Paris on 29 March 1988 was among the most cowardly acts of terrorism committed by apartheid assassins. It robbed the democratic movement of one of its most committed and able cadres, and it robbed South Africa of a courageous leader. The ANC's Chief Representative in France at the time of her death, September was descended from the Coloured community in the Western Cape. She grew up in Gleemoor, a section of Athlone, one of the suburbs of the city of Cape Town. It was there, in the region of our country that lies in the shadow of Table Mountain, rich in traditions of struggle that extend back as far as the 17th century, that she evolved her keen social conscience and political commitment to the struggle for national liberation, democracy and social justice. September was among the first group of pupils to attend the newly-established Athlone High School. From Athlone, she moved to the Battswood Teacher Training College, where she qualified as a teacher in the mid-50s. It was the profession that she had chosen that first launched her into the thick of the struggle for liberation. During the 1950s, education had become one of the principal terrains of struggle. In 1954, Verwoerd had presided over the imposition of Bantu Education, and stood poised to debase higher education and the professions by submitting them to the ideology of apartheid. It was in the context of the struggles around education that Dulcie September received her baptism in politics. She joined the Cape Peninsula Students' Union, an affiliate of the Unity Movement of South Africa, in 1957. The political culture of Cape Town during those years was slanted towards the Unity Movement. It was not long, however, before September's vision caused her to break with the leadership of the Unity Movement. She aligned herself with some young militants around Dr. Neville Alexander, called the National Liberation Front, or the Yu Chui Chan Club. It was while engaged in the activities of this group that she was arrested and detained without trial in October 1963. Early in 1964, together with nine others, she was charged with conspiring to commit acts of sabotage, and incite acts of politically motivated violence. In April 1964, September was sentenced to five years' imprisonment. When she was released from prison in 1969, the Pretoria regime proscribed her activities in terms of a five-year banning order, which not only prohibited her from political activity, but also from practising her profession. She left South Africa in 1974, to pursue her studies in Britain. She joined the ANC. It was in the ANC that September found a movement that did not merely propound theories but also had a comprehensive strategy for the total destruction of the system of racist domination. It was a movement that could effectively harness her profound political commitment and energies, in a programme of political action based on a sober appreciation of regional and national realities. She threw herself body and soul into the work of the movement, and quickly won recognition for her contribution. In 1984 she was appointed Chief Representative in France, Switzerland and Luxembourg. Before the ANC sent her to Paris, she had worked for some time at the ANC headquarters in Lusaka, and before that for the Anti-Apartheid Movement in London. In the course of her work in Paris, she suffered physical assaults, manhandling by fascist thugs and a mugging. None of these daunted her or turned her away from the path she had chosen to follow. Courageously, she soldiered on in the full knowledge that the cause she upheld was just, and, come what may, must in the end be victorious. September was the victim of an unknown assassin who shot her five times with a .22 calibre rifle as she was opening the ANC office in Paris. Speaking after her death, then ANC Secretary General Alfred Nzo said: "If ever there was a soft target, Dulcie September was one." --------------------------------------------------------------------- This issue of ANC Today is available from the ANC web site at: http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/anctoday/2002/at34.htm To receive ANC Today free of charge by e-mail each week go to: http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/anctoday/subscribe.html