Those who have eyes to see, let them see!

During the period 8 to 12 October, we will observe Eye Care Awareness Week. World Sight Day, observed by all countries, falls within this Week. This will be on 11 October. For some years already, we have used World Sight Day and Eye Care Awareness Week to focus especial attention on the challenge of blindness caused by cataracts.

We took this decision because cataracts are in fact the largest cause of blindness in our country. Already in 1997 we identified the National Cataract Surgery Project as one of our country's priority social projects. This was followed by the launch in our country of "Vision 2020: The Right to Sight", a global programme decided by the World Health Organisation in 1999.

The prevalence of blindness in our country is estimated to be at 0.75%, ie. 7,500 blind people per one million. Of these, 60% are blind due to cataracts, 14% because of glaucoma, with 20% comprising all other causes. In 2006 it was estimated that our national backlog in terms of cataract operations was 160,000, with the number of cataract sufferers increasing at the rate of 10,000 a year.

Of utmost importance in this regard is that the sight of those suffering from cataract blindness can be restored with relatively simple surgery. This means that if we conduct a determined and sustained campaign to wipe out cataract blindness we can liberate large numbers of our people suffering from this disability within a relatively short period of time. This would stand out as one of our great national achievements in terms of advancing the goal of a better life for all our people.

The gift of sight

In 2005, a KwaZulu Natal newspaper (Post), gave witness and a human touch to this assertion. It reported on Sheetal Maharaj, 67, a grandmother and housewife who was "blinded in her right eye and could barely see in the other for the past two years, due to cataracts".

She had been contacted by a Dr Kanoo Soni, "one of the founding members of the Into The Light Foundation, a non-profit organisation that offers free cataract operations to those who cannot afford it." Dr Soni arranged that she undertakes the operation to remove her cataracts, free of charge.

After this successful operation she said: "'I did not think that I would be able to see again...When I was told (my sight would be restored), I felt joy...The Foundation has given my life back. I am very grateful to them and wish they grow from strength to strength.'"

Another 2005 newspaper (Sunday Independent) report said: "The human eye, more than any other part of the anatomy, has been mythologised over the centuries in every form of artistic endeavour. Odes to beautiful women invariably describe their eyes, while many a Victorian painting exudes a luminous blue from the eyes of its subjects.

"The age-old notion of the eyes being the window to the soul describes most succinctly the human obsession with that part of the body. But, when you visit the St John Eye Hospital (the biggest eye hospital in the southern hemisphere) at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital, the poetry you encounter is of a different nature.

"If you peer through the microscope while surgery is being performed, you will see that the eye is a world unto itself. It is a planet, a spherical entity where a black hole finds itself surrounded by liquid colour and the grey-white of a litchi. Every circle, speckle and line forms part of an entire landscape...

"For the industrious team of ophthalmologists and supporting staff who deal with up to 500 patients per day, there is little time for such musing. Theirs is a task of precision and concentration and despite the volume of patients, they treat every eye with the respect it deserves...

"The task of the medical and nursing staff at St John is an endless one: to ensure that it is not only wealthy patients in the private sector who receive the best in medical and surgical eye care but that the millions living in Jozi's (Johannesburg's) under-resourced townships can also receive such care. It is all these factors and moments in history, (advances in medical technology), which have come together to ensure that they can continue with their all-important work."

Commenting a year ago on the important issue we are discussing, the private health care group, Netcare, said: "Cataract surgery not only restores the sight of patients; it also allows for them to become fully functioning members of their families, their communities and society as a whole. It provides some of the patients with the ability to continue their employment which would otherwise have been at risk. It allows others to seek employment and to regain their independence and restores their dignity.

"For many patients, it affords them the opportunity to once again see their family members, see for the first time what their grandchildren look like and ensure that small things such as making a cup of tea are no longer a huge risk to them due to their failing sight."

A commitment to the blind

Our country was privileged to host the Sixth General Assembly of the World Blind Union, in Cape Town in December 2004. I had the privilege to address this important Assembly on behalf of our government and people. The Assembly also honoured all of us by electing to the high position of President of the World Blind Union that outstanding South African fighter for the rights of people with disabilities, himself a blind person, Dr William Rowland, National Executive Director for the SA National Council for the Blind.

Among other things, in the Address to the World Assembly of the World Blind Union (WBU), I said: "It is significant that this is the first time that the WBU General Assembly has been hosted in Sub-Saharan Africa. This is important because this event should help us, as Africans, to pay more attention to the challenges and rights of blind and partially sighted people.

"It is also significant that the Assembly is held here during Africa's Decade for the Disabled. It draws attention to the imperative we face as Africans, to carry out the tasks we set ourselves when we proclaimed the Decade.

"In this regard, and speaking on behalf of our government, I would like to make the commitment to the Assembly that we will continue to do everything we can to fight for peace and stability on our continent. I mention this here because as we all know, war is one of the central causes of disability in Africa.

"Therefore we should not only have correct policies and programmes to meet the needs and aspirations of blind people and others with disabilities. We must also and as vigorously address the issue of the causes of disability...In this regard, we are hugely indebted to the disability movement in this country for the valuable role it has played and continues to play in the struggle for justice and equality...

"Furthermore, the promotion of Braille literacy in South Africa has been an important aspect of our work. We have developed Braille codes for all of our 11 official languages and have made books, magazines and study materials available.

"The demand for Braille literature has grown dramatically in this country during the last ten years. We see this demand as an indication of the success of our Braille literacy programmes at school level and among previously disadvantaged adults.

"There is also good progress with regard to the literacy drive in some other parts of the African continent. It is encouraging to see Braille printing initiatives starting in countries such as Kenya and Botswana...

"I would like to make particular mention of Judge Zak Yacoob, Chairperson of the South African National Council for the Blind, and also a Judge of the Constitutional Court. Judge Yacoob was a courageous activist against apartheid and after we attained our freedom in 1994 was an advisor to the Constitutional Assembly, which wrote the new democratic Constitution of our country, of which we are so proud.

"I think that in the new struggle for the realisation of the rights of blind people, we need many people like Zak Yacoob. We need many like these distinguished delegates gathered here, so that together we rid our world of the stereotypes about blind people. We have a duty to ensure that through education, skills development and the necessary resources we create the possibilities for all the people with disabilities to realise their full potential and contribute fully to the development of our countries.

"Our wish for the promotion of the rights of blind people and other people with disabilities has to form part of the central agenda to achieve Africa's renewal. It is important that we should take advantage of the infancy of both the African Union and its development programme, NEPAD, to ensure that these two critically important initiatives fully take on board the task to protect and advance the rights of the blind and other people with disabilities."

A unique coalition

Our sustained national response to the blight of cataract blindness in our country, for some years now, represents a practical effort to give effect to these observations and the undertakings we made to the Sixth General Assembly of the World Blind Union. Of the greatest importance in this regard is the fact that the campaign to end cataract blindness has brought together in a unique coalition, our government at all levels, the private sector, the professional associations, the domestic and the international NGO sector.

A central player in this exciting coalition is the Bureau for the Prevention of Blindness, a division of the South African National Council for the Blind, which plays a critical role in mobilising specialists in eye care, ophthalmologists and optometrists, to provide their services free of charge.

Cooperating with the Bureau in this excellent venture focused on practically improving the lives especially of the poor are:

• the National and Provincial Departments of Health;
• private hospital groups;
• the Ophthalmologic Society of South Africa (OSSA);
• the South African Optometric Association (SAOA);
• the ophthalmologic departments of our universities;
• the corporate sector;
• the World Health Organisation; and,
• international non-governmental organisations such as the Christoffel Blindenmission, the Fred Hollows Foundation, Lions Sight First and St John's.

African solidarity

We must also make special mention of the excellent role played by Tunisian doctors in helping us to respond to the challenge of blindness in the spirit of African solidarity and the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD). Starting in 2000, Tunisian doctors have been visiting our country to join their colleagues to treat our eye patients, concentrating on the rural areas.

This year, during their visits in January and August, the Tunisian doctors were based at Butterworth Hospital in the Transkei in the Eastern Cape. Our government is engaged in discussions with the Government of Tunisia further to expand our cooperation to speed up the implementation of our National Cataract Surgery Project.

In pursuit of the objectives of this Project, between 1997 and 2006, the public health sector performed 301,877 eye operations, working in partnership with the Bureau for the Prevention of Blindness. Because of the persisting backlog in this area, our government and the private and non-governmental sectors are determined to increase the number of people that receive treatment during the year.

The People's Contract in action

This determination will be shown by the number of people treated during this year's Eye Care Awareness Week, compared to last year. During this Week, once again our medical specialists, drawn from both the public and private sectors, supported by their colleagues from Tunisia, will go out in force to bring to the blind the invaluable gift of sight, free of charge.

This inspiring cooperation between the public, the private and the non-governmental sectors stands out as an example of what our country can and must do to give substance to the idea of the People's Contract to provide a better life for all!

The Post newspaper account to which we have referred also spoke of grandmother Runganayagi Reddy, 59, whose vision had been blurred for three years.

The newspaper reported that Gogo Reddy had said: "I was surprised when Dr Soni phoned me on my 59th birthday, October 1, to say that I had been selected to have the operation." After the operation, she thanked her lucky stars. When asked how the operation changed her life, a tearful Reddy said: "I can see clearly now. I am so grateful."

The simple words of a grandmother - "I can see clearly now. I am so grateful" - express the deep-felt gratitude of our nation to our Minister, our Health MECs and Departments of Health, the Bureau for the Prevention of Blindness and other non-governmental organisations, the medical practitioners and their organisations, the private health sector, our Tunisian brothers and sisters, our universities and our corporate sector.

What they have done and will do, to ensure that those who have eyes to see do see, makes it possible for us to say - we are proudly South African! I am indeed very privileged to convey our nation's heartfelt thanks to all of them. Those who have eyes to see, let them see!

What the media says

Manufacturing usable lies

In its 30 September 2007 edition, the newspaper City Press published on its front page an entirely false and deliberately manufactured story about ANC National Chairperson Mosiuoa 'Terror' Lekota.

The story, published under the headline, "Veterans give Lekota an umshini whammy", and written by Caiphus Kgosana, said: "ANC chairperson Mosiuoa Lekota was booed and heckled by MK veterans who broke into song when he tried to address them.

"A disappointed Lekota was forced to abandon his plans to address the veterans and disappeared from the Boksburg venue where they were holding their third national (MK Military Veterans Association - MKMVA) conference, without speaking."

The report deliberately underplayed what ANC spokesperson, Tiyani Rikhotso, had said to the journalist who wrote the fabricated City Press story. It reported: "ANC spokesperson Tiyani Rikhotso said it was not true that the minister was booed or that he left because the veterans started singing Umshini Wam.

"He said Lekota, who is also the acting provincial and local government minister, had to represent the ministry at the funeral of a traditional leader in Piet Retief, Mpumalanga." (This refers to the funeral of the late Nkosi Mthethwa, Chairperson of the Mpumalanga House of Traditional Leaders when he passed away.)

Tiyani Rikhotso was entirely correct. He told the truth. Part of that truth is that during the entire period Terror Lekota was at the venue of the MKMVA conference in Boksburg - one-and-a-quarter hours - there was a power failure.

For this reason the proceedings of the conference were suspended. To avoid being late at Nkosi Mthethwa's funeral, Lekota had to leave Boksburg without entering or setting even one foot in the conference hall where the MKMVA met.

The story written by Kgosana and published by City Press, about what had allegedly happened with regard to our National Chairperson, was a complete fabrication. The ANC would be very foolish and absurdly naïve if it did not ask itself the question - why did Kgosana take the decision to tell deliberate lies to the readers of City Press and the country?

It is perfectly obvious why Kgosana decided that his political agenda had to take precedence over all ethical considerations, including the ethics of his profession, centred on the need to respect the truth and not tell lies, as well as the integrity of his newspaper, City Press.

Kgosana decided that he should encourage a perception that the ANC is deeply divided. In this regard, he decided that he would illustrate this by reporting that the veterans of Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) are hostile to our National Chairperson, Mosiuoa Lekota, because they support our Deputy President, Jacob Zuma.

Thus he sought to position these senior leaders of the ANC as belonging to opposed factions in our movement, each seeking victory over the other. The fact of the matter is that Kgosana did the utterly immoral thing he did with the intention to encourage a faction fight in our ranks, especially during the period leading up to, as well as during, the forthcoming December ANC National Conference in Limpopo.

His well thought-out intervention, effected by means of a fabricated story, has the deliberate goal to weaken and possibly destroy the ANC. Were he to succeed in his intentions, which he will not, the hopes of the masses of our people for a better life free of the legacy of colonialism and apartheid, would, for some time anyway, be turned to ashes.

Kgosana is not alone in pursuing this agenda. There are others inside and outside our country who share this agenda. For many years now, to this day, our movement has made a serious effort to watch, study and understand this phenomenon in all its elements.

Some among those who pursue the agenda to weaken and destroy the ANC, and therefore stop and reverse the national democratic revolution, have lived under the illusion that our movement has relaxed its guard. Accordingly, they have acted in a manner that suggests that they are convinced that the popular democratic victory gives them the ideal platform from which to prepare and launch a counter-revolution, using the democratic space for whose creation many of our people sacrificed their lives.

One of the central and current tasks of the ANC, as argued in our recent issues, Vol 7 Nos 33-37, is to defend the democratic revolution. Centrally, this means that we must defeat the counter-revolution. To do this means, in turn, that we must understand the counter-revolution and, in our own interest, avoid any wrong and dangerous characterisation of everybody and every formation with which we differ as counter-revolutionary.

One of the great advantages we enjoy is that with our liberation coming as late as it did, certainly in terms of the historical process of the final global defeat of the system of colonialism and white minority rule, we have the possibility to study and understand many other processes of revolutionary change that preceded our own, and draw the necessary lessons from these.

One, but only one of these lessons is that the democratic revolution might succeed to bring about the transfer of political power to the people, as ours did, through the establishment of an honestly democratic system of government.

However, this does not mean that the defeated forces, or at least some among these, will accept that their political defeat represents the final chapter in terms of their aspirations. Neither does it mean that the social forces they represented, and the state and non-state machinery they established to realise their goals, wither away, simply because they had suffered what they would consider to be a temporary political reversal.

At the same time, we have seen instances where the victorious revolution loses some of its adherents in the aftermath of victory, because these, among other things, decide that they have been denied the possibility to determine the process and content of post-revolutionary transformation, despite the contribution they believe they had made to ensure the victory of the revolution.

In the end, to put the matter in simple terms, historical experience teaches us that more often than not, this "dissident" faction ends up siding with the counter-revolution, because both the "dissident" aggrieved on one hand, and the former "masters" on the other, come to identify the democratic power as their common enemy, even temporarily.

Our country is currently and has for some time been experiencing much frantic activity focused on fomenting or encouraging tensions and conflict within the ANC and within our Tripartite Alliance. The strategic intention of this activity is obvious. It aims to ensure the defeat of the ANC and therefore the democratic revolution. The fabricated story told by Kgosana falls within and is an example of this activity.

Necessarily those committed to our defeat, and the reversal of the democratic gains of the masses of our people, have to wage a sustained campaign over a considerable period of time. As they do so they establish a visible track record, a distinct spoor, a defining footprint.

This enables us to answer the question - who is who, and what do they intend? It is easier to answer these questions today than might have been the case even two years ago. With no invitation from anybody, the counter-revolution has given the nation the identity of many of the warm bodies which constitute its combat troops, each with an identifiable face, an identifiable history, and personally attributable actions.

In many instances the objective reality of the visible track record, the distinct spoor and footprint of those who have made it their profession to divide, weaken and defeat the ANC and the Alliance, rather than our subjective opinions, provides the answers to the questions - who is who, and what do they intend?

These answers, based on a systematic understanding of the track record established by single-minded opponents of the ANC and the national democratic revolution, point to the stubborn persistence of old networks established to defeat the ANC and the Alliance, originally developed to ensure that the national liberation movement fails in its protracted offensive to defeat white minority domination.

Karl Marx is credited with the now famous saying that - previous philosophers had sought to understand objective reality: the task, however, is to change it!

During our years of liberation, especially the recent past, our historical opponents have taught us that the leopard has not changed its spots. The immediate task our movement and all genuine revolutionary democrats face is to answer the question practically - what should we do to defeat the marauding leopard that continues to stalk the ANC and the national democratic revolution, as the predator we defeated in 1994 did.

In this sense, we must be grateful to Kgosana that he had the courage to tell blatant lies. This act of desperation, obviously intended to promote a particular political agenda literally at all costs, has reminded us that, as the series this journal published recently - the enemy manoeuvres, but it remains the enemy!

Elandsrand Mine accident

Snatching life from the jaws of death

During the seemingly long hours that characterised 3 October, a deep sense of impending doom rippled through the ranks of our movement and our population at large.

The news had filtered through that because of a mine accident, more than 3,000 mineworkers were trapped underground at the Harmony Gold Elandsrand gold mine in Carletonville. The possibility of so many of our compatriots perishing deep down, buried alive, stared us in the face as a catastrophe that was too ghastly to contemplate.

Most fortunately, after a painfully long wait, all the mineworkers were rescued and brought to the surface. There were no casualties, and none of the workers had suffered any injuries. The lives of 3,200 hard working members of our working class, who help to create the wealth we need to change the lives of all our people for the better, including their own, were saved.

A few among these workers had to be treated for trauma, resulting, naturally, from psychological stress. Some had to be treated for dehydration, and others for heat-induced disorders. Again fortunately, all of these received immediate medical attention as soon as they were brought to the surface.

We reiterate the profound thanks of the African National Congress for the work that everybody concerned did, Harmony Gold, the Elandsrand mine management, the Minister and Department of Minerals and Energy, the workers, our trade unions, the rescue and the medical teams, to ensure that thousands of our workers re-emerge from the bowels of the earth alive and well.

We are very happy to convey to the workers at Elandsrand gold mine our congratulations that they maintained their calm in the face of impending death, and walked out of the lift that brought them out of the deep shadow of darkness full of confidence about the future.

What happened at the Elandsrand gold mine imposes an urgent obligation on our government and all concerned to ensure that all our mines, in all parts of our country, comply with all the measures provided for in our laws to ensure the heath and safety of our mineworkers, without whose invaluable contribution we can never achieve the noble objective to provide a better life for all our people.

We must draw all the necessary lessons from the potential catastrophe represented by the Elandsrand accident, and act urgently and decisively to respond to these lessons.

The Editor

Message on World Teachers' Day 2007

Making the important difference in the lives of our children

Today, 5 October, we celebrate teachers, past and present, who have dedicated themselves selflessly to their profession. This year has been a trying one for not only teachers, but parents and pupils as well.

We are committed to improving working conditions for all teachers. We are encouraging teachers to remain in the profession by improving school discipline and safety and by making salaries more attractive than before. In addition, we have expanded teacher training through the provision of full-cost service-contract fundza lushaka bursaries and we look forward to a new generation of teachers in our schools in the near future.

"Teaching makes a difference" is the slogan we use to encourage young people to take up teaching as a career. One of the ways in which we are improving working conditions for teachers is through the introduction of an occupation-specific dispensation for salaries.

This means the establishment of a salary structure that will be unique to teachers in the public service. This structure will be defined by broad job profiles, facilitate career-pathing based on competencies, experience, and performance, provide for pay progression within salary levels, and consolidate benefits and allowances.

If the unions agree, the occupation-specific dispensation will be introduced for school-based educators and principals from Tuesday, 1 January 2008. Office-based educators are due to benefit from the dispensation from Tuesday, 1 January 2009.

My message to teachers this year on this day is to "drop all and read". This year we began the "Drop All and Read" campaign that encourages principals to set aside a specific reading period at school. It has been a resounding success. It helps our children to read. I encourage teachers to focus on improving reading and writing from an early age.

Our country is proud of the hard work teachers undertake in and out of the classroom. I thank teachers for making that important difference in the lives of our children.

Naledi Pandor

Minister of Education

Invitation To ANC Today Readers

In response to the interest shown in the subject of last week’s ‘Letter from the President’, ANC Today readers are invited to contribute articles about the promotion of African languages and literature (including Afrikaans) in South Africa. We will publish selected contributions in future editions of ANC Today. Articles may be sent to umrabulo@anc.org.za.

The Editor

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