The way we debate does matter!

Archbishop Desmond Tutu delivered the Harold Wolpe Memorial Lecture in Cape Town on 23 August 2006. He entitled his Lecture "Real Leadership". (He covered some of the issues discussed in the ANC document - "Through the eye of a needle?") Explaining his own inherited African outlook, he said: "The good leader in our African tradition was the one who listened to various and diverse points of view and would them sum up, describing the consensus he believed had emerged. Everyone felt they had been listened to, that their views had been taken seriously into account and that indeed they mattered in the scheme of things. We experienced some of this when we made our transition from repression to freedom. The winners were magnanimous in victory."

As he spoke, he reflected on our contemporary reality since our liberation and the demands of leadership in this context, and said:

"Our political atmosphere that has been remarkably stable given our less than propitious antecedents, has recently been convulsed by the succession crisis in the ANC with cries of plots and conspiracies and all the fallout that has resulted in considerable turbulence. I thought it might not be entirely inappropriate to talk about leadership - true, real leadership...

"The real, the true leader knows the position is to enable the leader to serve those she leads. It is not an opportunity for self aggrandisement, but for service of the led. And almost always this attribute is demonstrated most clearly by the fact that the one who aspires to lead suffers for the sake of the cause, for the sake of the people. It is the litmus test of their sincerity, the unambiguous stamp of authenticity of her credentials...

"We showed the world a thing or two when we made an almost peaceful transition. And we are regarded with awe and admiration for showing the world that it is possible for those who had been involved in bloody conflict to evolve into comrades..., really to undergo the metamorphosis of the repulsive caterpillar into the gorgeous butterfly by opting for the path of forgiveness and reconciliation instead of retaliation retribution and revenge. Let us become what we are... the rainbow people of God, proud of our diversity, celebrating our differences that make not for separation and alienation but for a gloriously rich unity."

Five days after Archbishop Tutu made these comments, on 28 August, the President of the Congress of South African Students (COSAS), Kenny Motshegoa, issued a Press Statement on behalf of COSAS, which, among other things, denounced Archbishop Tutu for some of the comments he made in this Lecture.

Specifically, this denunciation related to comments that the Archbishop had made with reference to our Deputy President, Jacob Zuma, knowing, I am certain, that these comments would be challenged by some people, within the context of open and legitimate exchange of views that characterises our democracy. Responding to these comments and speaking on behalf of the pupils who constitute the membership of COSAS, Kenny Motshegoa said:

"We condemn the recent attacks on the Deputy President of the ANC by the Archbishop Tutu, who claims to be the moral authority of society. We cannot allow Tutu to undermine decisions that are taken within constitutional structures of the ANC, on the support to be given to Comrade Jacob Zuma. To call the support given to Comrade Zuma as one that is not principled is an insult by the archbishop. Howling voices like Tutu, which are not founded on principles cannot mislead us.

"Does Tutu think he is higher than the court that cleared Jacob Zuma, or does he think he has a better moral base than others? There is intolerance to the views of the people in what he is saying, as this questions whether society's morals are valueless. His malicious statements to declare that Comrade Zuma should withdraw from the race are illusions without significance or impact to sober people of South Africa.

"Empty populists who just utter statements to score minor political points not caring whether they are disgracing their respective offices disturb us. His public behaviour is reckless; he is a scandalous man who cannot impose his moral views. People like Tutu complain about Comrade Jacob Zuma, but Tutu should provide us with his sexual history before he speaks as an expert on sexual behaviour. His statement that alleges that there is a race within the ANC, which the Deputy President of the ANC should withdraw from, are uninformed and criminal, full of self-interest that disgraces his office.

"We declare that we do not need any bishop, businessman or any self-proclaimed principal to tell us who the constitutional structures of the ANC must elect to the Presidency, as the delegates to national congress in 2007 are the deciders of the leadership the ANC needs. We are now not sure of his mental status as it leaves much to taste...

"The attack on Jacob Zuma is just loose cannons that have been 'certificated' without formal education on justice by conspirators who have degrees in political jealousy and conspiracy like Maduna, Ngcuka and Pikoli. Institutions of government have lost their role and direction and have reduced themselves to instruments of darkness and have adopted an illegal Programme of Action to act as the National Anti Human Rights Agency."

When he referred to our Deputy President, Jacob Zuma, which provoked this extraordinary COSAS response, among other things Archbishop Tutu had said:

"So far as I can tell no politician campaigned for public office having declared in advance a sexual misdemeanour... Knowledge of such has almost always come much later... I certainly do not think the misdemeanour as such should necessarily disqualify a candidate. After all God did not baulk at using an adulterer, King David, to be the ancestor par excellence of the Messiah. The crucial difference is that there was contrition and an asking for forgiveness in the case of David. I am not aware that Mr Zuma apologized, (which in fact he did!), for engaging in what he claims to have been consensual sex, a version accepted by the Court which acquitted him. He engaged in casual sex with someone young enough to be his daughter at a time when he was heading up the Moral Regeneration Movement of the country...

"Our constitution, which the country's President promises to guard and uphold, guarantees to each of us the right to our point of view. I like Jacob Zuma as a warm, very approachable person, but he did nothing to stop his supporters (during the rape case). I for one would not be able to hold my head high if a person with such supporters were to become my President, someone who did not think it necessary to apologise for engaging in casual sex without taking proper precautions in a country that is being devastated by this horrendous HIV/AIDS pandemic. What sort of example would he be setting?

"I pray that someone will be able to counsel him that the most dignified, most selfless thing, the best thing he could do for a land he loves deeply is to declare his decision not to take further part in the succession race of his party. I appeal to his undoubted patriotism as demonstrated by his distinguished role in the struggle. The litmus test as I said at the beginning, is the well-being, the good of the people and not self-aggrandisement by the leader."

Given the varied comments reflected in all the foregoing, some of the readers of ANC TODAY will legitimately ask the question - who, in any event, was Harold Wolpe! In this regard, below we cite excerpts from an Obituary written by Colin Bundy, the current Vice Chancellor of the University of London School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), when he was the Deputy Vice Chancellor of our own University of the Western Cape. He said:

"Harold was awarded his BA (Social Studies) at Wits in 1949, and then completed an LLB at the same University. He practised as a barrister and then solicitor during the 1950s and early 1960s, representing Mandela, Sisulu, Nokwe and many others charged with political offences. A member of the ANC and SACP, he was himself detained during the 1960 State of Emergency, and in July 1963 was arrested days after the Rivonia Raid. In a drama that commanded headlines across the world, Wolpe - together with Arthur Goldreich, Abdullah Jassat and Mosie Moolah - escaped from Marshall Square police station...

"Harold Wolpe was one of those rare academics who give intellectuals a good name. It is difficult, reviewing his scholarly output, to draw any sort of line between his specific ideas or positions and his commitment to finding their purchase towards social change and transformation. It is impossible, recalling those twinkling eyes and decisive gestures, to mistake the integrity and convictions that drove him."

Those of us who knew Harold Wolpe would add to this and say that he ended up as one of those rare academics who gave both intellectuals and revolutionary practitioners, as well as our people in general, a good name. An immensely humane and humble South African, he sought not only to understand the world, but also to change it.

Accordingly, regardless of his honest critique of the positions of our movement, which was his political home, he remained very firm in his conviction that his movement and ours, had to be supported to sustain the struggle to achieve the liberation of the oppressed masses in our country, and to use that success to address the aspirations of the masses of our working people.

He was one of those of our compatriots whom Archbishop Tutu described as a "real leader". To explain the value system that should inspire such individuals, as Harold Wolpe was, the Archbishop referred to a Biblical text, which says: "Whoever desires to be great among you must be your servant. And whoever wishes to be most important and first in rank among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to have service rendered to Him, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many."

I am convinced that our movement and our people as a whole should make every effort to obtain and study Archbishop Tutu's 2006 Harold Wolpe Memorial Lecture, regardless of whether we agree or disagree about his comments about Deputy President Zuma and others of our leaders. We must indeed engage the views he expressed, and disagree with him if we so wish, in the effort to ensure that together we develop some consensus around the challenge of leadership in our society. But, most certainly, we must expressly exclude personal insults from this dialogue, which is about a matter of vital interest to our future!

The central and fundamental message this Lecture communicates is of vital importance to the future of our country, given the fact that our democracy has opened millions of doors for all of us to accede to positions of leadership and power in all areas of human activity. Properly to understand what the Archbishop said in his Harold Wolpe Memorial Lecture, is to understand what it means to be a "real leader" in the new South Africa that is being born.

Of the greatest importance, the message that Archbishop Tutu sought to convey needs to be understood especially by our youth, including the very young. For us to succeed in the task to create a new South Africa, demands that today's older generations must make every effort to insulate the young from the kind of experience that, today, produces many of the social evils that make it impossible for us to claim that we have built a humane and people-centred society.

The truly distressing personal attack against Archbishop Tutu made by COSAS, a critically important component of our country's mass movement for progressive change, indicates the urgency and seriousness with which we have to approach this task.

These unacceptable comments make the frank and frightening statement that to date, twelve years after the victory of the democratic revolution, for which many sacrificed their lives, we have not yet succeeded to mould some of our people, especially some of the youth, to become the kind of human being that Harold Wolpe was.

In this context, together we must ask ourselves the question - how is it possible that children, such as the members of COSAS, feel empowered to demand that their grandfathers should "provide us with (their) sexual history before (they) speak as experts on sexual behaviour"! How is it possible that these children become so emboldened that they can easily dismiss the views of their grandfather by describing him as "a scandalous man"!

What happened that inspired the very young to conclude that our national heroes are nothing more "than loose cannons that have been 'certificated' without formal education on justice, by conspirators who have degrees in political jealousy and conspiracy"! What is it that gives the very young the audacity to repudiate what our senior citizens say to all of us as being nothing more than the product of "howling voices"!

How would democratic South Africa contain the anarchy that would result from general acceptance by our youth of the gravely mistaken view stated by the President of COSAS, that "institutions of government have lost their role and direction and have reduced themselves to instruments of darkness"!

In the end, we must ask ourselves the question - what have we communicated as the ANC, that has given the school children who constitute the membership of COSAS, the understanding that they can speak for the ANC, using the prestige of our movement to dignify their insulting statement that - "we are now not sure of (the Archbishop's) mental status as it leaves much to taste"!

In his Lecture, Archbishop Tutu said that during the apartheid years, "We had a noble cause and almost everyone involved was inspired by high and noble ideals. When you told even young people that they might be tear-gassed...and even killed, there was a spirit almost of bravado as they said, "'So what?' 'don't care what happens to me as long as it advances our cause.' They spoke of their blood watering the tree of our freedom. It was breathtaking stuff, and yes they really meant it, that the cause was the be all and end all and they were ready to sacrifice anything, even pay the supreme sacrifice for this noble cause."

I have no doubt that today's young people are similarly inspired by high and noble ideals. I am equally certain that they fully understand the practice fundamental to the integrity of any society - respect for the dignity of all human beings, including respect by the young for the dignity of the elderly.

The utterly unacceptable things said by the President of COSAS against the person of Archbishop Tutu are totally at variance with the cultural standards that inform the behaviour of the overwhelming majority of our young people. They have conveyed an image of an uncivilised society that our country and people do not deserve.

HIV and AIDS

Understanding South Africa's approach to AIDS

Can Africa follow in the footsteps of the countries of the North in addressing the challenge of HIV and AIDS in the region? What lessons can be learnt? The challenge of HIV and AIDS in Europe and North America has been portrayed as a problem facing marginalised communities - Africans in diaspora, immigrants, men who have sex with men, injecting drug users and so on. Very few cases of HIV infection are attributed to heterosexual relationships.

These countries have many more resources to support their social security system and their populations have access to much more complex health systems. With the advent of antiretroviral drugs, many of the people living with HIV and AIDS in these countries were put on antiretroviral treatment.

However, UNAIDS, the joint United Nations programme on HIV and AIDS, has reported that new cases of HIV infection and other sexually transmitted infections are increasing in these countries. UNAIDS says, the rate of new cases of HIV infection in Canada, which hosted the recent International AIDS Conference, has increased by 20% over the past five years.

In an article entitled "The real story of HIV rates in UK", published in July 2004, this is how BBC News reported on HIV infection in Britain:

"The number of people living in Britain with HIV is increasing every year because more people are joining this group than are leaving it. People join the group in two ways: people with HIV migrate to Britain from abroad (imported infections); and people living in Britain pick up HIV (domestic infections).

"Because HIV is still incurable, people only leave the group by moving away from Britain or by dying. The two communities that are bearing the brunt of HIV in Britain are the gay community and the African community."

Despite the difficulties in reducing infection rate, it is necessary to discuss whether South Africa and Africa in general would have been able to follow the path of the North in responding to HIV and AIDS. Is it feasible for Africa to meet expectations that are based on a model from the North?

In sub-Saharan Africa, HIV and AIDS is a generalised challenge not limited to a specific and small section of the population. Most of the cases are attributed to heterosexual relationships.

Our understanding of the difference in the manifestation of this challenge in Africa as opposed to the North is that Africa has high levels of poverty and underdevelopment affecting the vast majority of its population. There are serious health system challenges in our continent, including shortage of human resources and inadequate infrastructure. Access to affordable and quality medicines and limited social security support for the poor, who constitute the majority of our populations, remains a challenge.

With all these challenges, and the fact that we have significantly higher numbers of people estimated to be living with HIV and AIDS than Europe, adopting a model which focuses exclusively on antiretroviral (ARV) therapy would not solve our problem.

As we developed the most appropriate response to the epidemic on the continent, we had to acknowledge that the high prices of antiretroviral drugs as they entered the market meant that we would have had to divert resources from other social needs - education, water, housing and so on - to provide ARVs. Even if we had done so, the probability of these drugs reaching the patients and patients taking them at a required frequency was very low.

What did South Africa do under these circumstances? We said that since there is still no cure or effective vaccine for HIV and AIDS, let us focus on prevention as the first element of our response. Simply put, our first challenge was to make sure the problem did not get any worse than it was.

Secondly, we encouraged our people to find out their HIV status, and made voluntary counselling and testing services available in more than 80% of our facilities.

We then had to look at how to respond to the needs of those already infected. We asked ourselves: what can we do to prolong the period between HIV infection and development of an AIDS defining condition? What can we do to maintain optimal health for people living with HIV and AIDS?

We introduced the Healthy Lifestyle campaign that promotes regular physical activity and encourages people to avoid health risks like smoking, alcohol and substance abuse, as well as unprotected sex to deal with the challenge of both re-infection and new infections.

To deal with the broader problem of the poor nutritional status of our population, we introduced interventions that encourage intake of necessary micronutrients, like providing appropriate vitamin supplementation to pregnant women and children. Vitamins and minerals are now added to staple foods like maize meal and wheat flour and communities are encouraged to produce and eat fruits and vegetables.

These interventions are aimed at strengthening the body's ability to fight infections and maintain good health for a longer period. When infections occur, we provide appropriate treatment as most of the opportunistic infections can be treated even in the presence of HIV.

There is also another element that is peculiar to Africa and that is African traditional medicines. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that 80% of our people use traditional medicine for various conditions including HIV and AIDS. So we decided to encourage research and development of these medicines and create an appropriate regulatory environment for them.

Over the past few years, we made progress in reducing the price of medicines, increasing social expenditure and, to a certain extent, improving our health system. Progress in these three areas created a possibility, by the end of 2003, of introducing antiretroviral therapy. Based on WHO recommendations, we made antiretroviral therapy an option for HIV positive people whose CD4 count had dropped to 200 and less.

We evaluated facilities that could provide this treatment with a target of having at least one service point in every district by the end of the first year of implementation and we achieved that. We took this approach because we wanted to ensure that people in both rural and urban areas have access to more or less the same level of care. We now have 231 health facilities providing ARVs free of charge and they are spread across 72% of local municipalities.

Our targets are set in terms of establishing infrastructure and making services available to our people. While we make all the efforts to market these services, we avoided setting targets based on the number of people using the services because there are a number of factors influencing uptake and some of these factors are outside the control of the state.

The WHO, for instance, launched an initiative to put three million people on antiretroviral therapy by 2005 popularly known as the '3by5' initiative. At the AIDS conference in Toronto, it was reported that about 1,6 million people were on ARVs almost 8 months after the '3by5' target was missed.

In South Africa, the experience in the mining industry has been similar. Only a quarter of the HIV-positive workers at AngloGold Ashanti who need AIDS drugs had taken up the company's offer of free treatment, a local newspaper, Business Day, reported on 22 April 2005. About 2,700 were estimated to be requiring treatment but just 730 workers were taking antiretroviral medicines after one and half years of providing free drugs. This represents 27% of people initially targeted by AngloGold.

Experts can discuss the AngloGold's experience in detail. But it highlights the complexities involved in implementing a programme of this nature.

We should not mislead the public and claim that there can be easy victories in our efforts to curb the spread of HIV infection and reduce the impact of AIDS. Our collective duty is to emphasise prevention and ensure understanding of all the interventions that government is making available at different stages of the progression of this condition.

Separation of powers

Government committed to comply with court decisions

Editor's Comment: The recent court case around the provision of antiretroviral treatment to prisoners at the Durban-Westville prison has given rise to various statements relating to the separation of powers among the different arms of the state, and specifically the attitude of the executive to rulings of the judiciary. In light of this, and for the information of our readers, we are publishing below the full text of the government statement on 'the powers of the judiciary and the provision of antiretrovirals to prisoners at the Durban-Westville correctional centre':

"Following the decision of the Durban High Court regarding access to antiretroviral treatment by prisoners at the Durban-Westville Prison, an impression has been created that the government does not respect the decisions of the courts. The government wishes to clarify its position in this regard.

"The Government of the Republic fully subscribes to the doctrine of separation of powers between the executive, an independent judiciary and the legislature (Parliament). The three arms perform different functions as prescribed by the Constitution of the land.

"An independent judiciary is one of the cornerstones of our democracy and the executive will ensure that court judgments are complied with by all state institutions at all times. When a state institution lodges an appeal against the decision of a court, as happens in any democracy, this does not amount to defiance of the judiciary. Government would like to state categorically that there was never an intention on its part not to comply with the decision of the courts. The appeal was done in good faith and it was an attempt to alert the court to the administrative burden that would arise as a result of the decision of the court.

"Further, the government never gave an instruction to any of its officials not to comply with the Pillay judgement [handed down by Judge Thumba Pillay on 22 June]. Therefore, there is no constitutional crisis in this country as the executive will never give such an order and will ensure that all state institutions abide by the spirit and the letter of the constitution.

"During the appeal stage, the Department of Correctional Services did not stop the programme of providing and expanding access to ARVs to prisoners as it fully understood its responsibility in this regard and that it had to comply with the Pillay judgment. While the appeal was pending, the following concrete steps were taken:

• ARV therapy and treatment was provided to 116 offenders , 71 of whom were on ARV medication.
• Two full-time counsellors were appointed to provide counselling on site at the prison.
• Three visiting medical doctors were assigned to the facility.
• An application was lodged to accredit the Durban-Westville correctional facility as a site to administer ARV treatment. This accreditation will be finalised shortly.

"These actions demonstrate that there was never an intention to undermine the Pillay judgment. This factor was indeed confirmed by Judge Nicholson who acknowledges in his judgement that 'although there was no proper compliance with Judge Pillay's order, there has been progress'. However, government regrets that the department concerned had not met Judge Pillay's order to submit an affidavit which would have explained all these steps that were taken regarding expansion of ARV provision to prisoners.

"Government has and continues to take steps to expand access to ARVs to serving prisoners who require this treatment in our prisons across the country. This will be expanded largely through the accreditation of prison facilities as sites for ARV treatment. This move will reduce the administrative burden of having to shuttle prisoners to public health facilities, and reduce the possibilities of prisoner escapes during travels to and from public health facilities.

"It must be borne in mind that security considerations are a key factor every time a prisoner is taken out of prison to a public health facility to receive medical attention as the risk of prisoner escape increases. Public health facilities are still developing their capacity to expand access to ARV treatment. To date, three centres have already been accredited as sites at the following prisons - Grootvlei Free State, Pietermaritzburg and Qalakabusha in Kwazulu Natal. Concrete steps will also be taken to ensure that at least one Correctional facility is accredited as a site that can offer ARVs in each of the regions of the Department of Correctional Services.

"In the interest of progress and the need to ensure that the prisoners who are suffering from AIDS receive the treatment and care that they need, appeals against court decisions will not be used as a stumbling block to frustrate access to ARVs and other forms of treatment . The Department of Correctional Services, in partnership with the Department of Health, will take all the necessary steps to ensure that those who require treatment and care can receive this service from the state.

"Government wishes to re-assure all South Africans in general, and the judiciary in particular, that court judgments are binding on the state and that all state institutions will abide by court decisions. This position will not change under any circumstances."

** This statement was issued by the Government Communications and Information System (GCIS) on 31 August 2006.

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