Umrabulo Number 26, August 2006

Number 26, August 2006

Editorial

Malibongwe igama lamakhosikazi!

When women from across the length and breadth of South Africa marched on the Union Buildings on 9 August 1956, their demand for freedom reverberated both around the globe and across the ages. The women's anti-pass campaign provided further evidence to the world of a people that were not to be silenced by intimidation and repression. As we celebrate the 50th anniversary of that watershed event in the history of our nation, the courage, determination and message of those women continues to activate and inspire.

It is therefore fitting that this milestone coincides with the launch of the Progressive Women's Movement of South Africa, which is intended as a broad front of women's organisations and institutions all committed to the emancipation of women. As is argued in this edition, this movement will need to bring together the various and diverse strands of the South African women's movement on the basis of a minimum platform of action. This task is not without its challenges and contradictions. The diversity of formations that organise and mobilise women will demand creative forms of networking, coordination, dialogue and negotiation. It will take intensive work to overcome differences of class, race, ideology, culture, focus and consciousness.

Yet it is precisely this diversity that presents the movement with its greatest potential strength. Being able to draw on the experience, energy and organisational capacity of so broad a cross-section of South African women offers the greatest opportunity for meaningful progress towards addressing the issues that affect all the women of this country.

The 50th anniversary of the women's march provides a valuable symbolic platform for the launch of this new women's movement. It also provides an opportunity to reflect on the advances that have been made over the last half-century and, in particular, to reflect on the profound contribution that women have made to the struggle for national liberation, towards a united, non-racial, non-sexist and democratic South Africa.

The anniversary is also an opportunity to reflect on the sobering reality that South Africa remains a patriarchal society, in which the oppression of women takes various and numerous forms, ranging from the crude to the seemingly innocuous. The prevalence of violence against women is just one among many harsh reminders of the challenges that still lie ahead. So too is the extent to which women are disproportionately affected by poverty, unemployment, disease and underdevelopment. Unequal relations between men and women still obtain in almost every area of personal, social, political and economic life.

Amid these challenges, the launch of the Progressive Women's Movement is a moment of hope. It is a cause for celebration. It is a sign of determination to ensure that the struggle for the emancipation of women is set to deepen and intensify.

As we welcome this new initiative, we need to guard against any tendency that regards the task of building a non-sexist South Africa as being the responsibility of women alone. It is one of the central tasks of the national democratic revolution, and, as such, is a task that falls on the shoulders of all South Africans who identify with this struggle. It is the responsibility of all of us, male and female, to fight against patriarchy, to strive for gender equality, and to build a society that belongs equally to all who live in it, men and women, black and white.

The 1956 women's march marked a high point in the South African freedom struggle. It is up to all of us to ensure that the launch of the Progressive Women's Movement 50 years later is viewed by generations to come as a pivotal moment in the struggle for a united, non-racial, non-sexist and democratic society. Malibongwe!

An invitation to Umrabulo readers

Readers of Umrabulo are invited to submit articles for publication in the Readers' Forum section. Articles may cover any topic considered relevant to the purpose of Umrabulo, including responses to previous articles. When submitting articles, please consider the following:

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Now is the time, our age of hope

Paying tribute to the heroic women of 1956

The women's movement should be like a tapestry, with identifiable and distinct colours, yet part of a distinct whole. The thread knitting this together would be an action plan and a commitment to completely overthrow patriarchy and all its manifestations, writes Thenjiwe Mtintso.

Fifty years ago, on 9 August 1956, the women of South Africa were galvanised into that great tide that saw a male racist chauvinist flee in front of their anger. We owe it to them to recognise, learn from and pay tribute to their historic actions that laid the foundation for the democracy we have achieved and the strides we have made on our determined march to gender equality.

However the best tribute we can pay to these heroines and the heroes is to defend the gains made and also in action, to change the lives of those who have yet to taste this freedom in real terms, the majority of whom are the black, poor, rural and working class women existing on the periphery of society. All of us should unite with them in action to make sure that in reality 'today is better than yesterday and tomorrow will be better than today'.

The people and the government of South Africa have put in place many policies, laws and institutions to ensure that women not only regain their dignity but are 'mistresses' of their own destinies. Papers have been written in praise of the achievements made in South Africa and in particular in the inclusion of women in decision-making spheres. Tempting as it is to analyse the gains and the gaps, this contribution is directed only at the current debate on the 'formation' of a 'South African women's movement'.

The story of 'forming' a Women's Movement in the current period dates back to the Malibongwe Conference in Amsterdam in 1989. In the glorious, long and arduous road to freedom, there have always been women's movements. If by a 'women's movement' we mean all women who recognise the need to mobilise and organise themselves at any level and engage in any form of struggle to better their lot, or fight against any form of discrimination against women, or engage in any form of struggle for the achievement of women's emancipation and gender equality, then there has been not one women's movement, but many.

The debate about forming a woman's movement should therefore not be taken to mean that there has never been one or that none currently exists. The debate should in fact be informed by these, their experiences, victories and challenges.

The debate and anticipated launch of the women's movement should help us to:

critically analyse the challenges of the current period and the tools necessary to take us forward;
identify the priorities and the minimum programme for unity and united action;
select the thread that will effectively bind and knit us together for the success of our actions;
create the best organisational form that will effectively drive our programmes and actions;
dialogue about how we can learn from and use our diverse interests and lived experiences to fortify our political and ideological tools of analysis and at the same time use theory to understand the root, and dynamics, of unequal gender relations;
understand how we can galvanise all the resources we have and use the instruments we have painfully fought for, in and outside the state, for the overall transformation of unequal gender relations in our society;
strategise on how we can use the power gained through access to, and inclusion and participation in, decision-making bodies to transform these institutions and society while at the same time transforming power to being an instrument of liberation and equality.

The debate about, and launch of, the South African Women's Movement should be the space we deliberately create to dialogue and strategise for further onslaughts against patriarchy, that abominable system, ideology and practice of domination of women by men that permeates all spheres of our lives.

Democracy is crucial for, and has contributed to, the road to gender equality in our country, including the improvement of the status and quality of life of women. It has also very importantly created the opportunity and a healthy environment for furthering the gender struggles. However it is not sufficient for dislodging patriarchy. We still have to do much more for the complete eradication and transformation of all power relations in society, across which runs the gender inequality thread. The whole society has to be mobilised into a strong and vibrant movement for transformation, at the centre of which should be women's movement driven by women, particularly the most marginalised poor, black and rural as well as working class women.

Patriarchy cannot be eradicated only by government, or one group or organisation. It needs all forces within society. Particularly because it coexists with, and survives even under, the most progressive political systems; because it is articulated in many diverse subtle and hidden or open and crude forms; because it is explained away in many logical-sounding ways ranging from the natural, biological to religious and cultural arguments; because one of its strongest bases is the family, the home, and among loved ones; and because it is the most complex and entrenched system embedded in, and permeating through, all spheres of life, it needs all forms of struggle - persuasion, contestation, compromise, pressure and confrontation.

The struggle against patriarchy is a 'struggle within the struggle'. The different forms and levels of engagement, organised or not, formal or otherwise, constitute the women's movements.

Women's struggles take different forms and occur in different localities determined by the diverse interests and needs. Some women, especially poor and black women, are mobilised in their communities and localities on needs that are so basic that they are taken for granted (like access to clean water). They thus struggle for elementary rights. Their needs are classified by some scholars as the practical gender needs (PGNs). The organised forms of these needs, interests and struggles include among others the stokvels, religious groups (such as umanyano and masingcwabanes) and many such locally based groups that focus on economic survival, self reliance, solidarity and support. Significantly, these women and their organisations do not link their situation to that of patriarchy. Feminism is a foreign word to many of them. They may perhaps not even have the tools of analysis to help them understand how things got to be how they are. They may even accept the biological, religious or cultural explanations of their place and role in society.

If women's struggles and organisations were to be presented in a continuum, the basic needs (PGNs) group, sometimes called the popular women's movement, would be at the one end. Towards the other end would be the strategic gender needs groups (SGNs). These include, but are not limited to, feminists (of many kinds) mainly concerned with the complete eradication of unequal power relations between men and women. Some of these look down upon the practical gender needs and struggles maintaining that these wittingly or unwittingly reinforce the socially defined but not natural role of women as being in the domestic sphere. Of significance with these is that they have many different and diverse theories to explain the root of and path to the eradication of patriarchy and how to change it. Most, though not all, tend to be scholars and academics, some of whom tend to research, theorise and avoid direct struggle beyond struggle through the intellect and pen (or more likely, computer).

At the other end of the continuum would be what some of us call the transformative group that is committed to a transformative agenda. These acknowledge and are directly and indirectly involved in the whole range of the struggles, from the practical through to the strategic needs, seeing each as a necessary building block for women's emancipation, gender equality and a competently transformed society that has eradicated all forms of inequality, oppression and discrimination. They use different strategies, tactics and participate in all kinds of organisations and struggles. They fight for access to water and access to decision-making bodies, use power to transform power and its instruments, and transform society and social relations.

In between the two extremes would be different formations focusing on practical gender needs, specific interests, demands and other gender struggles. These include the rural women with their specific demands about land; the working women with their struggles in the workplace; service, support and protection groups and organisations; lobbying, advocacy and non-governmental groups; skills, empowerment and training groups; women in the media; religious women's groups; research and many other groups, organisations and formations. In the same continuum are the women in politics, including those within the political parties and women's wings or leagues, bound by the policies of their parties but, in some instances, using the very party as a lever for resolving both the practical and strategic gender needs.

There are no borders between these groups and struggles. There is mobility, support and solidarity, and sometimes overlaps, among them. The strength of some of them lies in their formal networks and structures, though organisational independence is still maintained.

All of these strands have gone through highs and lows at different times and for different reasons. One of the highest moments in recent times was when we were galvanised into action by the perception of imminent exclusion of women and their rights in the new order. We formed the Women's National Coalition (WNC), which led to the adoption of the Women's Charter. We also championed the formation of the National Gender Machinery and subsequently the adoption of government's gender policy.

The WNC showed that whatever the challenges, women could, if mobilised and motivated across racial, ideological and political divides, find common ground. We were united around a common issue - the charter and, later on, the machinery. We had a fair share of challenges and problems. It is however not correct - as some of the current debates infer - to say that the WNC died or dissipated. The WNC was and is the sum total of the women and the organisations within it. We, and not a vague entity, killed it. It may have been necessary to do so or we did so unconsciously, but we have to take responsibility for its condition, objective conditions notwithstanding. This is critical for us as we move into the women's movement gear because we are the same drivers - the ANC Women's League (ANCWL), the Alliance and the broader Movement. We have to conclude the unfinished debate of whither the WNC for the women's movement to rise and be strong.

One of the lessons that will have to be learnt is the challenge of politics of access, inclusion and participation. When some of us moved into the state and its machinery we had to shift the sites to other battles. While this was very good, the unintended consequence was a temporary demobilisation and expectations of delivery from a state that has so many women. In some cases there was a sense of entitlement for us as women. In some cases the politics and advantages of access and inclusion prevailed with many acting as if the mere act of inclusion was transformation - the ultimate goal and not a step towards transformation.

Others grappled with how to use the state for transformation while simultaneously transforming it. Some academics withdrew into their offices and engaged the state from a distance. The political party sphere also began to dominate with many women tied down in their political parties and some even unable to negotiate, never mind fight, for the gender agenda. Yet others momentarily felt confused, shifting from politics of entitlement as women to outright demobilisation. The 'them' and 'us' mood temporarily disorganised us. We unfortunately did not effectively create space and time to reflect on the prevailing conjuncture and how to operate within it.

Nevertheless, the women's movement, in various forms, trudged on and many of the struggles were taken down to localities or sectors.

As we prepare for the formation of this movement, the lessons have to be brought to the fore for us to emerge stronger. This becomes critical as it determines how in this complex epoch we unite in action for the bigger goal of equal gender relations. What is the glue that will keep us together? The strength of any movement lies in its ability to link with others.

The women's movement should therefore include, but not be limited to, these networks and organisations. It should be the much-needed coordination, cooperation and collaboration point for solidarity and united action.

Some of the keywords that have to guide the women's movement are:

Unity in action and united action: This should be the thread that runs through and weaves our women's movement together. The movement has to be action-based as most of the challenges cannot be debated away. They have to be acted against or upon. Each action should be a direct hit at any aspect of patriarchy. The diverse groups would have to agree on what are acceptable and unacceptable actions, as well as the different kinds of actions for different struggles.
The face, the voice and vibrancy: The women's movement has to be very visible, vibrant and loud and persistent, not only in voice but in action.

There should not be any space in our country that we have not occupied or in which our voice is not heard. This is why the organisations in their localities and sectors have to be strengthened even as we consolidate at the national level. The slogan of 'nothing about us without us' should be real, as there is absolutely nothing in our country that is not about us.

Minimum programme: There can be no action without programme and focus.

Diversity may open us to all sorts of competing calls for action. It is thus important that as we mobilise we do not fall into the trap of listing a long catalogue of grievances that ends up bogging us down as we try to prioritise.

Bridges, linkages, alliances: The strength of our women's movement will depend on our ability to build bridges and alliances not only among women's groups but across the whole spectrum of formations in the state and in society.
Resource, 'herstory': Many of the formations do not have the necessary resources, financial, technical or human, and it thus crucial to share these and maximise their usage. For instance, we already have located in the Women's National Coalition (WNC) a lot of our memory, 'herstory' and resources. The WNC sits in National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac). Many of our research groups and academics have produced kilometres of written material on many issues that we are trying to understand. A way of sharing all these has to be found to avoid duplication * The drivers: The women's movement has to be driven by those worst affected by gender discrimination and oppression. Sometimes and even unintentionally, with good intentions in some instances, the advanced elements tend to stifle, overshadow and even patronise the grassroots women. They claim, in some instances, to speak for or on behalf of grassroots women without giving them space, opportunity and tools. Most of the time they are so removed from them that they no longer know their immediate needs. The voice of the women should be the real voice of women not the voice of the advanced sections.
Communication and information: Most of the grassroots organisations are starved of information. Some wither away due to this starvation. Others hoard information. Knowledge is an important weapon for our struggles.
Respect, support and solidarity: We have to respect each other's needs and struggles. No one struggle is more important than the other and no one struggle can win us gender equality. All of them are skirmishes, battles that contribute to the bigger war. Grassroots women have to be supported in and helped with the theoretical tools for their struggles.
Inclusivity, heterogeneity, diversity, trust and liberation: Women have diverse identities, interests and perspectives informed by their relations to property, the state, class, race, religion, education, etc. There is no universal sisterhood and that should be understood unapologetically. However they can be united even within that diversity. Liberation is the key word that is omitted - the complete title should be the women's liberation movement. The omission of the word 'liberation' should not result in the omission of the strategic goal of liberation. The women's movement should be inclusive of those committed to this goal. Inclusion should be based on key fundamentals, such as the commitment to gender equality, women's emancipation, participatory democracy, transformation of society for real gender equality - all defined according to a common understanding. Exclusion should not be based on any difference or historical background except the non-acceptance of the movement's objectives and principles.
Independence: The women's movement should not be a front, appendage or extension of any organisation. It has to have open links with all institutions in society, including the state and its organs, without being its extension. Members should maintain their organisational and political affiliation. Women in the media should be part of the women's movement without them losing their ability to continuously inform, educate and even challenge any weaknesses observed in the women's movement. A healthy but not antagonistic debate should continue in and about the women's movement. While maintaining its independence it should be linked to the broader movement for transformation if it is to avoid isolation.
Regional and international linkages: The women's movement has to be part of the broad regional and international women's movement which in turn is located in the global movement for a better world.

One of the weaknesses we have had as the Alliance has been the poverty of gender theory. This makes us lurch from side to side as a rudderless ship on the seas of gender engagement. Some kind of theory emanating from our and other experiences would help us to have markers and pointers in our struggle. The documents of all the Alliance partners are unable to give this guide in a meaningful way. A women's movement does not necessarily evolve around a theory, but it needs a basic reference point beyond the slogans of engendering, mainstreaming, integrating gender, etc. South Africa as a whole is poorer for the limitation of the intellectual debate especially on these matters. Many women in South Africa have the practice, but that is not sufficient for the transformation agenda. Practice and experience needs to be continuously fortified by theory, while in turn enriching theory.

These are the pieces of the jigsaw that have to be put together to form the tapestry of one women's blanket - with identifiable and distinct colours and yet forming part of the whole. The thread knitting us together would be our action plan, unity in action and commitment to completely overthrow patriarchy and all its manifestations. We are ready, able and willing. Now is the time, our age of hope.

Thenjiwe Mtintso is a member of the ANC National Executive Committee.

Women marching for equality, peace and development The Progressive Women's Movement of South Africa

Coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the 1956 women's march, women from across South Africa are gathering in Bloemfontein this month to launch the Progressive Women's Movement.

Women struggles in South Africa started before the last century. Women took a lead in the fight for land after the promulgation of the Land Act of 1913.

At this time they were not full members of the liberation movement. They were deemed as associate members, yet they were able to define their role within the struggles of the South African society. They formed an organisation, the Bantu Women's League, under the leadership of Charlotte Maxeke because of her deep understanding of the challenges facing women in South Africa. The League represented all the women of South Africa irrespective of class and education. These women fought for their rights and the rights of all the oppressed people. It was during this time that the liberation movement came to realise that women were powerful allies and that they had a role in the fight against apartheid.

When they became full members of the ANC they continued to work with women from other racial groups, rural areas, professional women, peasants and others. The Federation of South African Women (FEDSAW) showed that women united have power. The 9 August 1956 march against the carrying of passes bears testimony to the collective strength, determination and unity among women of all races and classes. The government of the day had banned the march and women defied the ban, and brought the whole country to a standstill.

The effort to establish a women's movement in South Africa began a number of years ago. A decision to begin discussions about the formation of a national women's structure was taken at the Malibongwe Conference in Amsterdam in the Netherlands in January 1990. South African women from all walks of life attended the conference.

After the unbanning of political organisations, negotiations started. Women were initially excluded from playing a meaningful part in the negotiations.

As a result women formed a coalition of women from different political backgrounds and political affiliations. Through the National Women's Coalition (WNC), women were able take part in negotiations and articulate their demands. Women had drawn up a Women's Charter for Effective Equality, which was a development from the Women's Charter of 1954. Women presented the Women's Charter for Effective Equality to the first democratic government under the leadership of the then President Nelson Mandela. Many aspects of the charter are now reflected in the present constitution.

The Women's National Coalition disintegrated after the adoption of the new democratic constitution. This is due to the fact that women focused more on party politics, rather than on issues affect all women.

However, the ANC and the ANC Women's League have held a view that there is a need for some kind of an organic structure that will take up broader issues of women in South African society. This is part of the role that the Women's League has played in marshalling women to fight for their emancipation.

Over the years various discussion papers and resolutions have been developed and adopted on the purpose, character and proposed programme of establishing a progressive women's movement. For this reason the ANC Women's League and Alliance partners have proposed the formation of a Progressive Women's Movement whose key objective is to promote the transformation of South African society into one that is truly non-racial and non-sexist.

The new challenges facing the women of South Africa today demand that we form this women's movement so that we can meet the present challenges as a united force, in line with the transformation that is taking place in our country, on the continent and globally.

In October 2005, during a meeting of the ANC Women's League National Executive Committee (NEC), it was decided it would be ideal if South African women established a Progressive Women's Movement in 2006. The NEC chose this year because it marks the 50th anniversary of the 1956 women's march to Pretoria. It is also the year in which the country commemorates 10 years of a democratic constitution and 30 years since the June 1976 uprising.

Women and liberating religion

The struggle for the emancipation of women needs to be fought on several fronts, including in the sphere of religion, writes Cedric Mayson.

When President Thabo Mbeki was inaugurated for his second term as President of South Africa in 1999 it was asked why men should always lead the prayers of the people on such occasions. At least half of our citizens are women, and women are great prayers. Muslims, Hindus and Jews saw the point and agreed to consider the change 'if the others did': but the rabbis, imams and priests felt the development would require too much preparation among their supporters. A woman minister spoke for the Christians, and a woman not only prayed for the African traditional worshippers, but used the President's birth language as well. Two out of five was as least a start.

Religious institutions have all been inherited from patriarchal societies.

Their leadership has always been dominated by men at all levels, from bishops and priests, imams and moulanas, rabbis and swamis, presidents of this to treasurers of that. Women prepared the refreshments, cleaned up, visited the sick, and raised money for stipends and building funds, but the men ran the show.

Society has often been motivated by strong women leaders in the religious sphere from the great women saints of history and Joan of Arc, to women icons of modern societies, and in our own experience to the crucial role played by hundreds of thousands in the women's Manyanos, and the women saints of the struggle. But it has been an uphill battle against patriarchy.

There was invariably an assumption that God was male, whether a loving forgiving Father or a condemning vengeful Punisher.

Despite these inherited attitudes of many in the churches, the SA Council of Churches rejected this concept many years ago ('Do our words hide the truth about God?' SACC, 1993): 'God is Spirit, and has neither a male nor a female body (John 4.24). The humanity created in the divine image was both male and female (Genesis 1.27). The personal relationship of God with people is seen in terms of loving parenthood, often as father (eg Luke 25), but sometimes as mother (eg. Deut.32.18; Isaiah 42.14; 46.3-4; 66.13; Matthew 23.37; Luke 15.8-10).

The Spirit of God was poured out upon both men and women throughout the New Testament period (Acts 1.34 and 2.1 etc.) and has continued to this day.' The Congregational Church of South Africa was the first to ordain a woman as minister, but the practice has gradually spread to other denominations, including major bodies like Methodists and Anglicans. But the Catholics still follow the Pope despite the gradual emergence of radical and feminist Catholic theologians. As long ago as 1982, inaugurating the Institute of Contextual Theology, Albert Nolan stated it would take into account 'the oppression of women', but it has been a slow process. The largest formations of churches in SA today are said to be the Pentecostals, who seem to prefer men up front. Only the small Reformed Jews accept women rabbis; many Muslims are disturbed by those who break the old codes, and others by those who do not. Most Hindu religious practices are in the home, and here women often take the lead.

It is a concern which brings our diversity together. Writing in the March 2006 issue of the SA Journal of Theology, Professor Annalet Van Schalkwyk of the University of South Africa (UNISA) shows some of the parallels between the suffering of Afrikaans women against oppressive attitudes in their churches, and the quest of African women theologians for a fuller liberated life. She writes: 'Healing is usually found in struggle - in struggle for life, in struggle to overcome those forces which threaten life... Afrikaans and African women have to struggle against oppressive forces so as to find healing and life.' The liberatory role of women is an ongoing matter of concern and conflict in all religions, between those who see religions as bastions of the past, and those who see them as voorlopers of the future. It is a struggle waged by sangomas and theologians, by men and women, by academics and cleaners, in schools and homes, in parliament and local ANC Branches. And in prayers for the President.

Cedric Mayson is coordinator of the ANC Commission for Religious Affairs.

Towards the RDP of the soul

Pursuit of personal wealth undermines social cohesion and human solidarity

Whatever the benefit to any individual member of our nation, we share a fundamental responsibility to defeat the tendency in our society towards the glorification of personal wealth as the distinguishing feature of the new South African citizen, writes President Thabo Mbeki.

The great masses of our country everyday pray that the new South Africa that is being born will be a good, a moral, a humane and a caring South Africa which as it matures will progressively guarantee the happiness of all its citizens.

Because of the infancy of our brand new society, we have the possibility to act in ways that would for the foreseeable future, infuse the values of Ubuntu into our very being as a people. But what is it that constitutes Ubuntu beyond the standard and yet correct rendition Motho ke motho ka motho yo mongoe: Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu!

The Book of Proverbs in the Bible contains some injunctions that capture a number of elements of what constitute important features of the Spirit of Ubuntu, which we should strive to implant in the very bosom of the new South Africa that is being born, the food of the soul that would inspire all our people to say that they are proud to be South African.

The Proverbs say: 'Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it. Say not unto thy neighbour, Go, and come again, and tomorrow I will give; when thou hast it by thee.

'Devise not evil against thy neighbour, seeing he dwelleth securely by thee.

Strive not with a man without cause, if he has done thee no harm. Envy thou not the oppressor, and choose none of his ways.'

The Book of Proverbs assumes that as human beings, we have the human capacity to do as it says, not to withhold the good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of our hand to do it and not to say no to our neighbour, come again, and we will give you something tomorrow, even when we can give the necessary help today.

It assumes that we can be encouraged not to devise evil against our neighbours, with whom we otherwise live in harmony. It assumes that we are capable of responding to the injunction that we should not declare war against anybody without cause, especially those who have not caused us any harm. It urges that in our actions, we should not seek to emulate the demeanour of our oppressors, nor adopt their evil practices.

To the cynics all this sounds truly like the behaviour we would expect and demand of angels. All of us are convinced that, most unfortunately, we would find it difficult to find such angels in our country, who would number more than the fingers on two hands.

It may indeed very well be that, as against coming across those we can honestly describe as good people, we would find it easier to identify not only evil-doers, but also those who intentionally set out to do evil. In this regard, we would not be an exception in terms both of time and space.

Many years ago, Nelson Mandela made it bold to say that our country needs an 'RDP of the soul', the Reconstruction and Development of its soul. He made this call as our country, in the aftermath of our liberation in 1994, was immersed in an effort to understand the elements of the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) that had constituted the core of the election manifesto of the ANC in our first democratic elections.

That RDP was eminently about changing the material conditions of the lives of our people. It made no reference to matters of the soul, except indirectly. For instance, the RDP document said: 'The RDP integrates economic growth, development, reconstruction and redistribution into a unified programme. The key to this link is an infrastructural programme that will provide access to modern and effective services like electricity, water, telecommunications, transport, health, education and training for all our people. This will lead to an increased output in all sectors of the economy and by modernising our infrastructure and human resource development. We will also enhance export capacity. Success in linking reconstruction and development is essential if we are to achieve peace and security for all.' All of these were and remain critically important and eminently correct objectives that we must continue to pursue. Indeed in every election since 1994, our contending parties have vied for the favours of our people on the basis of statistics that are about all these things.

All revolutions which, by definition, seek to replace one social order with another are in the end, and in essence, concerned with human beings and the improvement of the human condition. This is also true of our Democratic Revolution of 1994.

Assuming this assertion to be true, we must also say that human fulfilment consists of more than 'access to modern and effective services like electricity, water, telecommunications, transport, health, education and training for all our people'.

As distinct from other species of the animal world, human beings also have spiritual needs. It might perhaps be more accurate and less arrogant to say that these needs are more elevated and have a more defining impact on human beings than they do on other citizens of the animal world. Thus do all of us and not merely the religious leaders speak of the intangible element that is immanent in all human beings - the soul.

Acceptance of this proposition as a fact must necessarily mean that we have to accept the related assertion that, consequently, all human societies also have a soul. To deny this would demand that we argue in a convincing manner and therefore with all due logical coherence, that the fact that individual human beings might have a soul does not necessarily mean that the human societies they combine to constitute will themselves, in consequence, also have a soul.

This would prove to be an impossible task. Nevertheless, we must accept that as in the construction of a humane and caring society entails a struggle, rather than any self-evident and inevitable victory of good over evil.

The question must therefore arise for those among us who believe that we represent the good, what must we do to succeed in our purposes? Since no human action takes place outside of established objective reality and since we want to achieve our objectives, necessarily we must strive to understand the social conditions that would help to determine whether we succeed or fail.

This relates directly to what needed and needs to be done to achieve the objective that Nelson Mandela set the nation, to accomplish the RDP of its soul. This relates to what I said in 1978 in a lecture delivered in Canada, reflecting on the formation of South African society, which was later reproduced in the ANC journal, Sechaba, under the title 'The Historical Injustice':

'The historic compromise of 1910 has therefore this significance that in granting the vanquished Boer equal political and social status with the British victor, it imposed on both the duty to defend the status quo against especially those whom that status quo defined as the dominated. The capitalist class, to whom everything has a cash value, has never considered moral incentives as very dependable. As part of the arrangement, it therefore decided that material incentives must play a prominent part.

'It consequently bought out the whole white population. It offered a price to the white workers and the Afrikaner farmers in exchange for an undertaking that they would shed their blood in defence of capital. Both worker and farmer, like Faustus took the devil's offering and like Faustus, they will have to pay on the appointed day.

'The workers took the offering in monthly cash grants and reserved jobs.

The farmers took their share by having black labour including, especially prison labour directed to the farms. They also took it in the form of huge subsidies and loans to help them maintain a 'civilised standard of living'.'

The critical point conveyed in these paragraphs is that, within the context of the development of capitalism in our country, individual acquisition of material wealth, produced through the oppression and exploitation of the black majority, became the defining social value in the organisation of white society.

Because the white minority was the dominant social force in our country, it entrenched in our society as a whole, including among the oppressed, the deep-seated understanding that personal wealth constituted the only true measure of individual and social success.

As we achieved our freedom in 1994, this had become the dominant social value, affecting the entirety of our population. Inevitably, as an established social norm, this manifested itself even in the democratic state machinery that had seemingly 'seamlessly', replaced the apartheid state machinery. The new order born of the victory in 1994 inherited a well-entrenched value system that placed individual acquisition of wealth at the very centre of the value system of our society as a whole.

In practice this means that, provided this did not threaten overt social disorder, society assumed a tolerant or permissive attitude towards such crimes as theft and corruption, especially if these related to public property. This phenomenon, which we considered as particularly South African, was in fact symptomatic of the capitalist system in all countries.

It had been analysed by all serious commentators on the capitalist political economy, including such early analysts as Adam Smith.

In despair at this development, RH Tawney wrote in his famous book, 'Religion and the Rise of Capitalism':

'To argue, in the manner of Machiavelli, that there is one rule for business and another for private life, is to open the door to an orgy of unscrupulousness before which the mind recoils. Yet granted that I should love my neighbour as myself the questions which under modern conditions of large-scale economic organisation, remain for solutions like who precisely is my neighbour? And how exactly am I to make my love for him effective in practice?

'To these questions the conventional religious teaching supplied no answer, for it had not even realised that they could be put religiously and had not yet learned to console itself for the practical difficulty of applying its moral principles, by clasping the comfortable formula that for the transactions of economic life no moral principles exists.'

In his well-known book 'The Great Transformation', in a chapter headed

'Market and Man', Karl Polanyi says:

'To separate labour from other activities of life and to subject it to the laws of the market was to annihilate all organic forms of existence and to replace them by a different type of organisation, an atomistic and individualist one.

'Such a scheme of destruction was best served by the application of the principle of freedom of contract. In practice this meant that the non-contractual organisations of kinship, neighbourhood, profession and creed were to be liquidated since they claimed the allegiance of the individual and thus restrained his freedom.

'To represent this principle as one of non-interference, as economic liberals were not to do, was merely the expression of an ingrained prejudice in favour of a definite kind of interference namely, such would destroy non-contractual relations between individuals and prevent the spontaneous reformation.'

In a foreword to a recent edition of this book, Joseph Stiglitz says, 'Polanyi stresses a particular defect in the self-regulating economy that only recently has been brought back into discussion. It involves the relationship between the economy and society, with how economic systems or reforms can affect how individuals relate to one another. Again, as the importance of social relations has increasingly become recognised, the vocabulary has changed. We now talk, for instance, about social capital.' The point made by Polanyi is that the capitalist market destroys relations of 'kinship, neighbourhood, profession, and creed', replacing these with the pursuit of personal wealth by citizens who, as he says, have become atomistic and individualistic.

Get rich! Get rich! Get rich!

Thus every day and during every hour of our time beyond sleep, the demons embedded in our society, that stalk us at every minute, seem always to beckon each one of us towards a realisable dream and nightmare. With every passing second, they advise, with rhythmic and hypnotic regularity - get rich! get rich! get rich! Many of us accept that our common natural instinct to escape from poverty is but the other side of the same coin on whose reverse side are written the words: 'At all costs, get rich!' In these circumstances personal wealth and the public communication of the message that we are people of wealth, becomes at the same time the means by which we communicate the message that we are worthy citizens of our community, the very exemplars of what defines the product of a liberated South Africa.

This peculiar striving produces the particular result that manifestations of wealth, defined in specific ways, determine the individuality of each one of us who seeks to achieve happiness and self-fulfilment, given the liberty that the revolution of 1994 brought to all of us.

In these circumstances, the meaning of freedom has come to be defined not by the seemingly ethereal and therefore intangible gift of liberty, but by the designer labels on the clothes we wear, the cars we drive, the spaciousness of our houses and our yards, their geographic location, the company we keep and what we do as part of that company.

It is perfectly obvious that many in our society, having absorbed the value system of the capitalist market, have come to the conclusion that, for them personal success and fulfilment means personal enrichment at all costs and the most theatrical and striking public display of that wealth.

The well-known financier George Soros has made statements which directly confront the crisis to social cohesion and human solidarity caused by the elevation of the profit motive and the personal acquisition of wealth as the principal and guiding objectives in the construction of modern societies.

Among other things, Soros said that in an earlier epoch, 'people were guided by a set of moral principles that found expression in behaviour outside the scope of the market mechanism.'

'Unsure of what they stand for, people increasingly rely on money as the criterion of value. What is more expensive is considered better. People deserve respect and admiration because they are rich. What used to be a medium of exchange has usurped the place of fundamental values, reversing the relationship postulated by economic theory. What used to be professions have turned into businesses. The cult of success has replaced a belief in principles. Society has lost its anchor.

'The laissez-faire argument against income redistribution invokes the doctrine of the survival of the fittest...There is something wrong with making the survival of the fittest a guiding principle of civilised society...Cooperation is as much a part of the (economic) system as competition, and the slogan 'survival of the fittest' distorts this fact.

'I blame the prevailing attitude, which holds that the unhampered pursuit of self-interest will bring about an eventual international equilibrium in the world economy.' ('The Capitalist Threat', The Atlantic Monthly, February 1997) The critical concern that George Soros has expressed is what he describes as 'market fundamentalism', the dominance and precedence of the capitalist motive of private profit maximisation which has evolved into the central objective that informs the construction of modern human society in all its elements.

Nothing can come out of this except the destruction of human society, resulting from the atomisation of society into an agglomeration of individuals who pursue mutually antagonistic materialist goals.

Necessarily and inevitably, this cannot but negate social cohesion and mutually beneficial human solidarity and therefore the most fundamental condition of the existence of all human beings namely, the mutually interdependent human relationships without which the individual human being cannot exist.

Whatever the benefit to any individual member of our nation, we nevertheless share a fundamental objective to defeat the tendency in our society towards the deification of personal wealth as the distinguishing feature of the new citizen of the new South Africa.

The Book of Genesis says, 'In the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it was thou taken: for dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return.' (Genesis 3:19) This Biblical text suggests that of critical importance to every South African is consideration of the material conditions of life and therefore the attendant pursuit of personal wealth. After all, what interpretation should be attached to the statement that 'in the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread'.

Perhaps strangely, this could be said to coincide exactly with a fundamental proposition advanced by the founders of Marxism, expressed by Friederich Engels at the funeral of Karl Marx in the following words: 'Just as Darwin discovered the law of development or organic nature, so Marx discovered the law of development of human history: the simple fact, hitherto concealed by an overgrowth of ideology, that mankind must first of all eat, drink, have shelter and clothing, before it can pursue politics, science, art, religion, etc; that therefore the production of the immediate material means, and consequently the degree of economic development attained by a given people or during a given epoch, form the foundation upon which the state institutions, the legal conceptions, art and even the ideas on religion, of the people concerned have been evolved and in the light of which they must, therefore, be explained, instead of vice versa, as had hitherto been the case.' Putting all this in more dramatic language, Marx had said: 'Man must eat before he can think.' In this regard, Vladimir Lenin, the leader of the 1917 Russian Revolution, said: 'Before we perceive, we breathe: we cannot exist without air, food and drink'.

Marx and Engels represented a particular point of view in the evolution of the discipline of philosophy and were not asserting any love for the private accumulation of wealth. They were 'materialists', who were militantly opposed to another philosophical tendency described as 'idealism'.

One of the most famous expressions of this 'idealism' was stated by the French scholar and philosopher, Rene Descartes, who wrote in Latin: 'Cogito, ergo sum' - 'I think, therefore I am'.

In the context of our own challenges, this 'idealism' must serve to focus our attention on issues other than the tasks of the production and distribution of material wealth.

Economic news and our economic challenges have come to occupy a central element of our daily diet of information. Matters relating to such important issues as unemployment and job creation, disbursements from the national budget and expenditures on such items of education, health, welfare and transport, the economic growth rate, the balance between our imports and exports, the value of the Rand, skills development, broad based black economic empowerment and the development of the 'second economy', have all become part of our daily discourse.

Nevertheless the old intellectual debate between 'materialists' and 'idealists', whatever side we take in this regard, must tell us that human life is about more than the economy and therefore material considerations.

As a nation we must make a special effort to understand and act on this because personal pursuit of material gain, as the beginning and end of our life purpose, is already beginning to corrode our social and national cohesion. What this means is that when we talk of a better life for all, within the context of a shared sense of national unity and national reconciliation, we must look beyond the undoubtedly correct economic objectives our nation has set itself.

In this context, most unfortunately, there is much trouble in the world.

Much too regularly all of us are exposed daily to news of human-made conflict and death and the disasters caused by poverty and natural disasters. Currently, none of us can avoid being extremely concerned about what is happening in the Middle East. What is happening in this region constitutes a tinderbox that has the potential to set the whole world aflame.

An impending catastrophe We are confronted with an impending catastrophe that is almost out of control. We must pose the question whether, even in the medium term, we are not ineluctably progressing towards the situation when the centre cannot hold. I refer here not only to the serious problems in the Middle East but to the phenomenon of social conflict everywhere else in the world. As Europe and the world sowed the seeds for the catastrophe later represented by the Second World War as in a Greek tragedy, the eminent Irish poet, William Butler Yeats, like other European thinkers, sounded alarm bells that nobody seemed to hear.

Hopefully, the warning he sounded so many decades ago will be heard today, so that, by our acts of commission and omission, we do not condemn humanity to an age of extreme misery and death that could have been avoided.

Thus do I appeal that all of us, the mighty and the lowly, hear the words of the poet not only with our ears, but also with our minds and our hearts, as he spoke of 'The Second Coming': 'Turning and turning in the widening gyre / The falcon cannot hear the falconer / Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold./ Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, / The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere /The ceremony of innocence is drowned; / The best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity / Surely some revelation is at hand; / Surely the Second Coming is at hand. / A shape with lion body and the head of a man, / A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun, / Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it / Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds / but now I know / That twenty centuries of stony sleep were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle, / And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, / Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?' To ensure that things do not fall apart, we must in the first instance, never allow that the market should be the principal determinant of the nature of our society. We should firmly oppose the 'market fundamentalism' which George Soros has denounced as the force that has led society to lose its anchor. Instead, we must place at the centre of our daily activities the pursuit of the goals of social cohesion and human solidarity. We must therefore, strive to integrate into the national consciousness the value system contained in the world outlook described as Ubuntu.

We must therefore constantly ask ourselves the question - what is it in our country that militates against social cohesion and human solidarity? We would all agree that to achieve the social cohesion and human solidarity we seek, we must vigorously confront the legacy of poverty, racism and sexism.

At the same time, we must persist in our efforts to achieve national reconciliation.

Mere reliance on the market would never help us to achieve these outcomes.

Indeed, if we were to rely on the market to produce these results, what would happen would be the exacerbation of the deep-seated problems of poverty, racism and sexism and a retreat from the realisation of the objective of national reconciliation.

Then indeed would we open the door to the demons that WB Yeats saw slouching towards Bethlehem to be born - emerging from the situation where the centre could not hold, in which mere anarchy would be loosed upon the world.

We must therefore say that the Biblical injunction is surely correct, that 'Man cannot live by bread alone' and therefore that the mere pursuit of individual wealth can never satisfy the need immanent in all human beings to lead lives of happiness.

The conflicts we see today and have seen in many parts of the world should themselves communicate the daily message to us that the construction of cohesive human society concerns much more than the attainment of high economic growth rates, important as this objective is.

As we agonise over the unnecessary killings of innocent people and the destruction of much needed infrastructure in Iraq and Palestine, in Lebanon and Israel, we have to ensure that we do not slide into an era when the falcon cannot hear the falconer, when things fall apart and the centre cannot hold.

As we South Africans grapple with our own challenges, billions of the poor and the marginalised across the globe see the world ever evolving into a more sinister, cold and bitter place: this is the world that is gradually defined by increasing racism, xenophobia, ethnic animosity, religious conflicts, and the scourge of terrorism.

Our nation has begun to exhibit many critical common features deriving from a unified vision of a society based on non-racialism, non-sexism, shared prosperity and peace and stability. Yet, at the same time, we still display strong traits of our divided past with the debate about our future quite often coalescing along definite racial lines. Despite this and despite the advances we have made in our 12 years of freedom, we must also recognise the reality that we still have a long way to go before we can say we have eradicated the embedded impulses that militate against social cohesion, human solidarity and national reconciliation.

We should never allow ourselves the dangerous luxury of complacency, believing that we are immune to the conflicts that we see and have seen in so many parts of the world. In a world that still suffers from the blight of intolerance, wars, antagonistic conflicts, racism, tribalism and marginalisation, national reconciliation and reconciliation among the nations, will remain a challenge that must occupy the entire human race continuously.

In our case we should say that we are fortunate that we had a Nelson Mandela who made bold to give us the task to attend to the 'RDP of the soul', and lent his considerable weight to the achievement of the goal of national reconciliation and the achievement of the goal of a better life for all our people.

Ten years ago, Nelson Mandela travelled to the Republic of Congo to assist the people of the then Zaire, and now the Democratic Republic of Congo, to make peace among them. In this regard, he was conscious of the task we share as Africans to end the conflicts on our continent, many of which are driven by the failure to affect the RDP of the African soul, to uphold the principles of Ubuntu, consciously to strive for social cohesion, human solidarity and national reconciliation.

This month the people of the DRC went to the polls to elect their president and members of the National Assembly. We must therefore say that we have arrived at a proud moment of hope for the DRC and Africa. I can think of no better birthday present for Madiba than the elections in the DRC and no better tribute to the initiative he took 10 years ago to plead with the leaders of the Congolese people that together as Africans, we must build a society based on the noble precept that - Motho ke motho ka motho yo mongoe: Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu!

Thabo Mbeki is President of the ANC and President of South Africa. This is an edited version of his address at the Fourth Nelson Mandela Lecture, University of Witwatersrand, 29 July 2006.

'Nothing about us without us'

The role of youth in the current conjuncture

Society has no choice but to hear the call of youth for their own development, because there can be no future without a youth capable of meeting the needs of the country's development, writes Fikile Mbalula.

The socio-economic and socio-political evolution of South African society has dramatically impacted on our youth and altered the dynamics of the environment they find themselves in. As we look back and remember events that came to pass in June 1976, we similarly reflect on the path we have traversed as South Africa's youth and the historic role we have played in moulding latter-day South Africa.

The dawn of democracy in 1994 necessitated a review of the role of youth in a free and democratic society. Gone was the era of brave revolutionaries whose dedication to their country was demonstrated on the battlefield by placing themselves in harm's way to free their land. Society had redrawn its boundaries overnight and laid down new tasks for the youth. Ours was a free nation desperate to cultivate a dedicated and patriotic cadre to advance the national democratic revolution along new frontiers of struggle. The National Party had been defeated and was facing extinction. A new sense of urgency had emerged to position our youth as benefactors of the South Africa of tomorrow.

Our youth has always lived by the ethos, 'nothing about us without us'. They have internalised this and have become champions of their own cause across all social strata. In the same vein, they have fully internalised the reality that the future of this country, and indeed the world, is in their hands.

South Africa boasts a youth that has characterised itself as robustly activist, be it in politics, on social issues or within the economy. We must build on this activist culture to cultivate a truly patriotic and dedicated cadre whose commitment to the advancement of the national democratic revolution is beyond question. Too often our youth have become whiners and whingers who are quick to throw stones before they understand the prevailing dynamics. This energy and activism must be harnessed and channeled appropriately such that it adds the right kind of value to our national growth and development. This is a national imperative that must be driven collectively by all organs of civil society.

Others have not hesitated to suggest that our youth have been depoliticised and have become apathetic since the advent of democracy. This assertion has been refuted, backed by statistics and trends in recent years that demonstrate that our youth remain activists and understand their role in advancing our democracy.

In defence of our democracy As frontline soldiers, our youth have a primary obligation to defend our democracy. This manifests itself in a number of ways. It is the youth who must set the agenda in the national public discourse. These are the opinion-makers who must influence the direction of our national development and growth. The media establishment has sought to denounce our youth as a lost generation who cannot add any value to our national growth, and has sought to position itself themselves as their mouthpiece. Yet young people have spoken for themselves and declared that they are ready and willing to assume their rightful place as kingmakers and opinion-makers in every facet of our social and economic life.

Our youth must remain militant revolutionaries and rebels with a cause, and must rebel against attempts to depoliticise them and render them insignificant in our national discourse. Militancy remains a strategic vehicle for our youth to advance the youth development and empowerment agenda. Our detractors continue to project our youth as a 'spent force' whose relevance has passed its 'sell-by' date and whose interests do not go beyond parties, clubs and alcohol. Our youth must collectively rise to put pay to this lie and demonstrate their central role in South Africa's socio-political and socio-economic life.

We must similarly reject politics of patronage that seek to place us in positions to buy our loyalty and silence. We must expose those among us whose sole interest is to ascend to positions of power and influence with no interest in forwarding the national developmental agenda.

Young people's voices must be loud and clear. They must demand the right to speak for themselves; not through spokespersons whose sole interest is to advance their own selfish agendas.

Some people have been quick to undermine democratic platforms of youth simply because they wish to put forth young puppets as leaders, puppets with whom they would be able to effect their own hegemony. Some have even dared to decry the alienation of the youth from such democratic processes as though democracy means that their puppets must be at the centre of youth leadership. As the ANC Youth League we will continue to lead the youth to rebel against all forms of patronage, opportunism and careerism. As leaders of the youth we must pride ourselves with leading a youth generation that thinks independently and charts its own way forward on the challenges that confronts it. We must oppose any agenda that seeks to treat our youth as robots.

The national democratic revolution (NDR) is still firmly on course and the realisation of its tasks depends on our ability to remain vigilant and reject those tendencies that seek to detract us from the task at hand. We must never be found wanting when the NDR is entrusted to us. The revolution must be safe in our hands, for to be apolitical and less militant is tantamount to selling out the revolution.

Youth in education Education remains the most significant arena for youth development and emancipation. As our society continues to grapple with the legacy of apartheid, the youth remains at the receiving end of our efforts and is therefore most affected by our interventions. At times, such interventions have unintended consequences, diluting our well-meant efforts. Our greatest challenge on this front is to ensure our education system is responsive to the nation's cultural diversity. Western culture and value systems have been imported wholesale into African communities at the expense of indigenous cultures. To date, this remains the biggest failure of our education system.

Young people themselves have a significant role to play in addressing this anomaly. More importantly, education must ensure that our youth are able to further both their individual and collective development as a nation. We cannot afford to perpetually produce graduates that are not equipped for meaningful economic participation.

Youth and AIDS The HIV and AIDS pandemic has reached alarming proportions in our society, and young people are the hardest hit. Our ability to secure our nation's legacy and to build a cadreship better prepared to lead South Africa to a brighter future is directly related to our ability to contain the HIV and AIDS scourge and achieve a zero new infection rate by 2014. This is a task that must be taken up by every young person in the country. This goal will forever remain a pipe dream unless young people themselves take ownership of this campaign and lead from the front. The ANC Youth League has declared war on this pandemic and every Youth League branch needs to incorporate in its programme of action initiatives that seek to advance this objective.

For young people to play a meaningful role in taking responsibility for their lives and their behaviour, we need to integrate education about HIV and AIDS into our schooling system from the lower grades throughout the schooling years. In every community, young people must assume the role of being care-givers to those infected and affected by AIDS. We must retrace our steps and find our way back to a caring society whose value system and ethos is driven by ubuntu. We have no doubt that our youth have what it takes to rise to the occasion and fight this pandemic with the same vigour and determination they fought the struggle against apartheid.

As part of doubling our efforts in ensuring that our interventions make the necessary impact, we must ensure that government's roll-out of antiretroviral drugs is accelerated to reach all those who need them. Those who come after us must never find us wanting and blame us for not paying enough attention to a scourge that has the capacity to decimate our nation.

The vibrancy of our democracy and the growth of our nation has, as one of its most critical cornerstones, civil society. There can be no doubt that youth form an integral part of civil society and has a fundamental role to play. The ongoing task of transforming our society to one that is non-racial, non-sexist and at peace with itself requires a firm commitment from our youth.

Youth and the workplace

Our 'Jobs For Youth' campaign seeks to place the plight of youth at the centre of the country's job creation agenda. It is for the same reason that we opposed any attempts to liberalise South Africa's job market through the creation of a dual labour market characterised by wholesale casualisation of labour, particularly at entry level. For our country to progress effectively towards full youth emancipation and empowerment, young people themselves must take advantage of the benefits of freedom and participate in the mainstream economy of the country. Institutions created by government to advance youth economic participation have fallen far short of expectations and have failed to make a dent in growing youth unemployment. Young people therefore need to apply their own innovation and carve out their own place in the national developmental agenda.

It remains a sad reality that the vast majority of those in prison and in trouble with the law are young people. Many get brutalised on entering the criminal justice system and emerge from the system hardened criminals. A sustainable solution to their criminal behaviour will not be found unless the root causes of the criminal behaviour itself are addressed in a focused and sustainable way. Research has shown that there is a direct relationship between crime and poverty. As a society, we therefore have an obligation to work together to eradicate poverty and build a peaceful society.

The correctional services system remains a matter of serious concern to us.

Our prisons are bursting at their seams and those jailed for petty crimes end up being hardened criminals with little regard for society. Our youth must therefore be at the forefront of providing voluntary services and making a difference.

It is our expectation that our youth will embrace the value system handed down the generations by the founders of the ANC and ANC Youth League. Their selfless dedication, personal sacrifices and unwavering commitment to the liberation struggle must inspire our youth to emulate their example and reject dogmatism and ignorance and become a dynamic force to take South Africa to new heights.

In advancing the NDR, young people have a central role in ensuring that the deracialisation of our society becomes a reality. Through national discourse and engagements at other forums, African youth must build bridges to reach out to and engage white youth within the overall ambit of building a patriotic cadre.

South Africa is a member of a global community and we must continually strive to advance the struggle for a just world through unwavering solidarity with those who remain oppressed. We must intensify our struggle against imperialist and neo-colonial tendencies. South Africa must become a beacon of hope for those who have yet to be liberated and our youth must rigorously engage with their international counterparts to influence the world order in line with our national vision. We must work for the liberation, among others, of the people of Swaziland, Western Sahara, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Palestine.

Meeting recently during the National Youth Policy Review Convention, organised by the National Youth Convention, the youth were unanimous in their call for an Integrated Youth Development Strategy that would permeate all government departments in all the three spheres of government, including the private sector and NGOs. The youth in this convention also elaborated on the need for a comprehensive institutional mechanism that would implement this Integrated Youth Development Strategy. Thus the youth continue to define their role and chart the way forward on the tasks at hand to ensure their own development. In this way, the youth continue to demonstrate the motto that 'nothing about us without us'. Society at large has no choice but to hear the youth's call and yearning for their own development because there cannot be any future without a youth capacitated all round to meet the leadership needs in the various spheres of our country's development.

Fikile Mbalula is President of the ANC Youth League.

The third pillar of our transformation

The Native Club is not an organisation, not does it have a membership. Yet it aims to mobilise South Africans to ensure that the ideas, philosophies, values and knowledge that propel society in a particular direction reflect the indigenous identity of our people, writes Titus Mafolo.

Voluminous texts have been written about the Native Club, what it represents and what it does not represent, who is eligible to be a member and who is not, with the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) saying this is a 'foolish initiative'.

The Native Club is not an organisation and has no membership. It is a forum, led by a small committee that facilitates workshops, discussions and debates around different issues and will soon begin research around identified topics. It is a club that seeks to encourage on-going critical engagement, especially among blacks, around the many and varied matters confronting our transformation.

We seek to strengthen our democratic order by interrogating the philosophical framework within which we produce knowledge and within which certain ideas have become entrenched and dominant in our society. This is particularly critical because today, blacks in South Africa are responsible for around only 15% of knowledge production.

We have also identified the need to work with schools around debates, creative writing, research, drama and other extra mural activities to engender critical consciousness among young people. We will in the near future engage the Minister of Education and the MECs of education with this programme.

The main focus of the Native Club is the area of culture. Culture in this context refers to the totality of inherited ideas, beliefs, philosophies, assumptions, values and knowledge that propel society in a particular direction. Of particular importance is the space of knowledge production, which is in the hands of whites, the majority of whom adhere to a liberal ideology. We refer here to writing and production of books, tutorials, study materials and research work and the dissemination of all these knowledge materials. As in the economy, whites control and own the means of knowledge production and dissemination.

For instance, there is a big challenge for the rich knowledge in the hands of comrades to be translated into books. Yet, only a tiny minority among us has written about our own experiences in the struggle for liberation. As a result, young people have no actual and real references about the challenges that we faced as we prosecuted the struggle for freedom. Perhaps the problem is that we own the stories but we don't own the pen. The Native Club wants to ensure that comrades and blacks in general also own the pen.

The contest for the hegemony of the cultural space is consistent with the strategic objective of the ANC which is the liberation of blacks in general and Africans in particular. That liberation is not only political.

The Native Club and the national democratic project

Now that political power has been achieved, we cannot afford to marginalise the realm of ideas in the process of transformation, writes Eddy Maloka.

The current debate on the Native Club speaks directly to the question of the role of intellectuals in South Africa, an issue already raised in the pages of Umrabulo particularly by Jeremy Cronin and Mandla Nkomfe (See Umrabulo 25).

Yet, the Native Club is simply a movement, or rather a network, of a section of our country's intelligentsia which is 'gatvol' with the dominance that whites continue to enjoy in our knowledge production sector.

Three revolutionary intellectual traditions

The intelligentsia has historically played a role throughout the world, not only in the generation of ideas, but also in the many struggles against inequality, exploitation and oppression. In the African context, the nationalist project has dominated the preoccupation of the continent's intelligentsia, especially with respect to issues around colonialism, the right to self-determination, anti-imperialism and combating racism. Over the years, these issues came to coalesce around Pan-Africanism, which is simultaneously a movement for the liberation of the African continent and an intellectual project aimed at contesting the ideological hegemony of the West.

The Pan-African project evolved in the context of the anti-colonial struggles, and came to entail four elements: a sense among Africans on the continent and those in the Diaspora of themselves as 'one' people because of common historical experience and destiny; the quest for the 'regeneration', 'awakening' or 'renaissance' of Africa on the social, cultural and economic fronts as well as in global affairs; the 'dream' of an Africa united in the social, cultural, economic and political spheres; and the spirit of solidarity among people of African descent.

The South African intelligentsia, like its counterparts in the world and the rest of Africa, could not escape the effects of the anti-colonial struggle.

For most of the white intelligentsia, colonialism was a project to rationalise and defend. The few who broke ranks fell into three categories.

The majority of the latter resorted to the liberal interpretation of the South African question; they reified 'race' at the expense of 'class', and regarded the oppressed as objects of pity. To them, identifying with the struggle of the oppressed was as exotic as visiting a stone-age community in the middle of some jungle. Nonetheless, the liberals dominated 'left' thinking among the whites, and their influence continues to this day.

In the second category were a comparatively smaller group of white intellectual cadres who made a genuine leap to join the ranks of the struggle of the oppressed. An even smaller group, in the third category, refused to join either the oppressed or the liberals. These 'legal' Marxists accused the liberals of failing to understand 'class', and dismissed the liberation movement as a 'petty bourgeois' project; they searched for 'class' purity and 'perfect' revolutions in lecture halls and libraries. This tendency has dwindled in influence, especially in the aftermath of the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the end of apartheid. In fact, some of the former 'legal' Marxists are today over-zealous champions of the racist campaign against affirmative action.

The black South African intelligentsia, by contrast, has generally been influenced by three revolutionary intellectual traditions. Since the early years, the liberation movement in South Africa never lost sight of similar struggles taking place on the continent and elsewhere in the world. In this context, the influence of Pan-Africanism reached our shores. Some of our compatriots, like Pixley ka Seme, Sol Plaatje and Albert Luthuli, also contributed to the development of Pan-African thought. To this day, various tendencies of Pan-African thought dominate the ideological orientation of the liberation movement and the outlook of post-apartheid South Africa. Some of the ideas currently on the table which are traceable to this intellectual tradition include our determination to regain and assert the independence of our country and continent, building strong linkages with the African Diaspora, reaffirming and asserting African culture, challenging Western notions of Africa, and working hard to position Africa as a force in the global arena.

Marxism is another intellectual tradition whose influence on the black intelligentsia continues to this day, thanks to the role particularly of the South African Communist Party. The early Black Consciousness (BC) Movement, building on the heritage of Negritude and the influence of Frantz Fanon and the Black Power struggles in the United States, has also made its contribution in directing the outlook of our country's black intelligentsia.

The three revolutionary intellectual traditions are, indeed, complementary, to the extent that they could even be synthesised into a single body of thought. For example, Marxism, by extracting 'class' out of the complex of racial colonial domination and adding an internationalist dimension to the anti-colonial struggle, helped deepen and enrich the understanding in the liberation movement of the national democratic project. And, thanks to the BC influence, very few in our ranks will dispute the importance of reaffirming and asserting black identity. Whereas the emphasis of BC is on psychological liberation, the primary focus of Pan-Africanism and Marxism is on resolving national oppression and class exploitation, respectively.

To a large extent, the debate among the black intelligentsia has mainly revolved, on the one hand, around the definition of and the relative weight that one attaches to dialectically linked categories such as 'race', 'class', 'culture' and 'nation', and, on the other, around the political definition and socio-economic content of post-apartheid South Africa. There is in our country a genre of intellectual thought whose components are elements of the three traditions.

The liberation movement has had to depend for decades on its own intelligentsia, not least because pillars of knowledge production in the country were in the hands of whites. Even the black intellectuals who were based at institutions which were controlled by whites had to draw inspiration from the three traditions and from the actual experience of struggle. The theories of the liberation struggle which informed the approach of the various organs of the liberation movement were the product of the thinking within the ranks of the movement itself; they were not developed by some intellectual sitting somewhere high, up there, in some ivory tower. To be sure, most in the knowledge sector establishment were hostile to the liberation movement; liberals thought our struggle was too violent while 'legal' Marxists doubted whether we were radical enough. To this day, the cadreship of the movement is trained not by some academic, no matter how well read the person may be, but by those well schooled in the theories and praxis of our struggle.

The members of the Native Club are influenced predominately by the three revolutionary intellectual traditions, with the battle-cry being to address the legacy of apartheid in the knowledge production sector. The liberation movement, as argued already, came to power with its own body of knowledge and an engaged intelligentsia, but since 1994 there has been a significant retreat on these two fronts. This has largely been because many of those who in the past were dedicated to the generation of ideas for the struggle have now been absorbed into new responsibilities. The private sector is also playing its part, paying the highest price for the best brains in the country. In the private sector innovation is subordinated to the logic of capital accumulation.

The terrain of ideas should not be left uncontested, lest our school children are condemned to singing, under the banner of the flag of our new South Africa, praise songs for Christopher Columbus for having 'discovered' the world. Our ancestors, in their resistance against colonial intruders, never lost sight of the importance of ideas, some even sending their children and trusted cadres to missionary schools to learn the 'secrets of the white man'. During our struggle the realm of ideas always stood vigilant behind the barrel of the gun. Why then, when we have political power, do we marginalise ideas as a priority sector for transformation?

Eddy Maloka is the President of the African Association of Political Science (AAPS)

Is Parliament weak?

As parliament delivers on its responsibilities towards the process of fundamental social transformation, new challenges will arise, exposing limitations in the functioning of the institution. These should be openly discussed and addressed, writes Mbulelo Goniwe.

The Freedom Charter contains the vision that steers our efforts towards the creation of a society based on democratic values, social justice and fundamental human rights.

The ANC's Strategy and Tactics document defines our strategic objective as the creation of a united, non-racial, non-sexist and democratic society. It observes that the democratic breakthrough of April 1994 constitutes a platform to launch a programme of social transformation to overcome the legacy of a social system that was based on the oppression of the black majority.

The new society we are building today arises from the ashes of a deeply divided past characterised by strife, conflict, untold human suffering and injustice. This situation generated gross violations of human rights, transgressions of humanitarian principles in violent conflict, a legacy of hatred, fear, guilt and revenge.

Over the years various forms of limited participation in government were devised by white minority regimes for the black majority, particularly the homeland policy. Through this system, the black majority was denied socio-political and economic rights. The colour of one's skin was the sole determinant for one's participation in political, economic and social life.

The transitional period from 1990 culminated in the interim constitution, whose preamble identified the 'need to create a new order in which all South Africans will be entitled to a common South African citizenship in a sovereign and democratic constitutional state in which there is equality between men and women and people of all races so that all citizens shall be able to enjoy and exercise their fundamental rights and freedoms'.

When, on 8 May 1996, a democratically elected Constitutional Assembly adopted our country's new constitution with an 86% majority, our people's fundamental vision was realised: 'That South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white, and that no government can justly claim authority unless it is based on the will of all the people.' Our Constitution is supreme, has a Bill of Rights and contains the values that guide us in our work. These values guide all branches of government in the conduct of their functions.

The doctrine of separation of powers is a fundamental feature of South Africa's democratic system. State power is devolved among the three branches of government. The legislature makes, amends, repeals laws and performs the oversight function. The executive implements and enforces the laws, while the judiciary interprets and applies the law to concrete situations. The doctrine of separation of powers prevents the concentration of power in one body.

The ANC's 51st National Conference, held in Stellenbosch in 2002, said: 'The ANC commits itself to the fundamental provisions of the basic law of the land, which accords with its own vision of a democratic and just society. We have set out to implement both the letter and the spirit of the constitution, including such principles as multi-party democracy, the doctrine and practice of separation of powers in a constitutional state, fundamental human rights to all citizens, respect for the rights of linguistic, religious and cultural communities, and social equity within the context of correcting the historical injustices of apartheid.' The Strategy and Tactics says: 'The character and strength of the ANC must continue to reside in its mass base. And, as the leading force in government, the ANC should continuously improve its capacity and skill to wield and transform the instruments of power. This includes a systematic approach to parliament as the forum to lay the detailed legal framework for transformation, creative employment of public representatives in organisational work, a cadre policy ensuring that the ANC plays a leading role in all centres of power, and a proper balance in its day-to-day activities between narrow governmental work and organisational tasks.' 'In all centres of power, particularly in parliament and the executive, ANC representatives must fulfill the mandate of the organisation. They should account to the ANC and seek its broad guidance. As a matter of political principle, and in our structures and our style of operation, we proceed always from the premise that there is one ANC, irrespective of the many and varied sectors in which cadres are deployed.' The constitution enjoins parliament to pass the budget and laws, to amend the constitution, perform oversight functions, to review the constitution and to provide a platform for public debate.

Criticism of parliament

There have been some public criticisms that parliament is weak. These criticisms have not however pointed out the specific areas where the weaknesses are in relation to the tasks of parliament as contained in the Constitution.

David Welsh, Emeritus Professor of Political Studies at the University of Cape Town, in his paper on Democratic challenges and opportunities for South Africa says, 'The National Assembly features little more than a dialogue of the deaf.' He continues to quote Colin Eglin as follows, 'The old parliament was a debating chamber; the [post-1994] one is a speaking chamber. There's no confrontation in terms of debates. '

Welsh writes: 'There has been a centralisation of power in the presidency and an expansion in the size of the office, where Mbeki has surrounded himself with trusted confidantes...'

Arising from our country's past, the ANC Strategy and Tactics identifies various tasks that our movement must fulfil, including, among others:

ensuring equality among the racial, ethnic, language, cultural and religious communities; and equality between woman and man: to build a united nation of free individuals with the rights to associate with whomever they wish on the basis of equality;
the de-racialisation of South African society and the elimination of patriarchal relations;
affording the youth, the disabled and others who have borne the brunt of apartheid's hierarchy of denial the requisite conditions for their advancement;
the integration of the Southern African region, so as to bring our joint strengths to bear in the wider world, and ensure that the region becomes one of the nodal growth points of the world.

This is by no means an exhaustive list of the elements that characterise our programme of transformation, but we highlight them to emphasise what the ANC says, that: 'The new democratic government derives its character from these challenges. These tasks are made the more urgent and the difficulty of implementing them further compounded by the massive social disparities that we have inherited.' The tasks that parliament faced, and continues to be confronted with, can be no different from those that the country has to resolve. Therefore, when our country demanded, through the interim constitution, the drafting and adoption, of a democratic, non-racial and non-sexist constitution, our parliament engaged in an open participatory process to fulfil that task.

When our country needed the laws to allow for the evolution of a society visualised in the Freedom Charter and our Constitution, our parliament processed a great volume of statutes in the period up to 2001.

We have now acknowledged that the necessary legislative framework has been laid. We now need to pay more attention to oversight and constituency work.

Parliament is doing everything possible to avail resources to enable us to carry out these tasks.

The criticism that there is no confrontation in parliament seeks to define the role of parliament outside of the South African historical context. This type of thinking is born of the Westminster type of government, a system that is no longer a central part of our constitutional state.

This approach is also designed to sew confusion among the people about the manner in which our cadres should conduct themselves as members of the national liberation movement as opposed to a parliamentary party.

It deliberately disregards the directive cited above that in all centres of power, particularly in parliament and the executive, ANC representatives should account to the ANC and seek its broad guidance. That directive states that, as a matter of political principle, and in our structures and our style of operation, we proceed always from the premise that there is one ANC, irrespective of the many and varied sectors in which cadres are deployed.

There is a difference between open and robust debate, to which we subscribe, and confrontation. Our political adversaries prescribe a confrontational approach for the ANC. However we do not see them taking the same medicine in their organisations.

On the subject of the 'all-powerful presidency', it is difficult to identify which of parliament's powers have been usurped by the presidency. The presidency has and continues to function within the scope of its constitutionally designated responsibilities.

Parliament continues to function within the context of correcting the injustices of the past, to deepen peace and the culture of democracy and respect for human rights. It continues to work for the reconstruction of our country and Africa and the creation of a better world.

This does not mean there are no challenges or weaknesses in parliament. We entered the institution without experience. Those who knew better about the functioning of the institution dominated the proceedings.

Because we are a liberation movement, deployed comrades cannot take decisions on their feet, and this affects the turn-around time. We have consistently highlighted the weakness with respect to members' support.

Does the fact that ministers are also members of the National Assembly weaken or strengthen discussion? On this aspect, various models operate in different countries. We have chosen a particular route that we think is consistent with the historical evolution of our country.

People-driven change

The ANC's 2006 January 8th Statement reiterates the need for a people-driven process of change. The constitution enjoins parliament to facilitate public involvement.

Parliament manages its affairs through committees, and the committees report to the houses. Committees are structured and function to promote multi-party participatory democracy. By and large, the output of committees is good.

However, public participation in committees is impacted upon by the broader social and economic realities. Large sections of our communities are poor and live in underdeveloped areas, and a minority is well off and owns the means of livelihood. This determines which section can, in a sustainable way, consistently take part in committee public hearings and wield influence over the general course of events.

Fully realising the demand that 'the people shall govern' is a complex process that requires parliament to find creative ways to reach out to the people. While we still have some extensive ground to cover, work is being done. The adoption of the new vision and mission by parliament is a significant step in the right direction. Through this new vision, parliament aims to 'build an effective people's parliament that is responsive to the needs of the people and that is driven by the ideal of realising a better quality of life for all the people of South Africa'.

The constitution, in section 77, provides for the enactment of legislation to create a procedure for an amendment by parliament of money Bills. There is a view that the absence of this legislation makes it difficult for study groups to interrogate the budget. There is currently no way of contributing to the process of aligning allocations to make them finely consistent with the objectives of our programme of transformation and resolutions without rejecting the whole budget vote. Given its ramifications, this is not a realistic option.

Issues around the amendment of the budget need further engagement. However, within the context of our historical challenges, there is no doubt about the splendid and consistent work that parliament has done. The new challenges that are today assuming significance are a result of parliament having delivered on its previous tasks.

In debating the question of whether parliament is weak or not, we cannot allow ourselves to commit the mistake of elevating subjective weaknesses to the level of objective weaknesses. Our vision of parliament is correct, as is our ideological platform.

Our commitment to take the work of parliament to a higher level will inevitably require us to consider resource issues. For instance, as we debate the issue of amending the budget, so will the issue of whether committees have the requisite skills support to execute this function. What of our study groups? The importance of proper political management of ANC caucus as a motive force of transformation in the context of parliament as a site of struggle cannot be overemphasised. We need to strengthen the collective and inclusive approach to tasks.

In the light of the challenges, we need to pursue the idea of ensuring every Member of Parliament is provided with research and administrative support.

We also need to focus on retraining and upgrading the skills of the current human resource support.

Constituency offices need to be equipped and used as hubs to bridge the information technology and communication divide.

For its part, the ANC caucus also needs to continue the effort to strengthen the programme of political discussion. Our ability to make an effective contribution to the transformation effort depends on proper legislative interrogation and oversight rather than glorified posturing in the chamber.

The debate about the state and role of our parliament is most welcome.

Earlier this year parliament held a joint sitting to debate the report from the parliamentary process on the African Peer Review Mechanism. These debates provide a mirror and parliament should not be insulated from them.

We need to strengthen parliament's overall capacity to lift the quality of oversight and constituency work. This contribution to the national project should help to place our country on a higher trajectory, which will itself bring new challenges.

Mbulelo Goniwe is the ANC Chief Whip in the National Assembly. The views expressed in this document do not represent the views of the ANC Caucus.

The people shall share in the country's diamond wealth

The mineral wealth beneath the soil is the national heritage of all South Africans, and should be used to fulfil the socio-economic needs of the masses of our people, writes Nathi Mthethwa.

South Africa is well endowed in mineral wealth, but her children live in underdevelopment and poverty. This situation is what the diamonds legislation adopted by parliament in November 2005, in its own modest way, seeks to redress.

The ANC remains committed to the goal, proclaimed over 50 years ago, that the 'people shall share in the country's wealth'. Prophets of doom, like the Democratic Alliance, accused us of bringing in nationalisation through the backdoor. Nothing can be further from the truth. The industry is still owned and run privately. What the legislation seeks to do is to allow the majority of the people to share in this important national resource.

The ANC-led government, guided by the Freedom Charter, continues to advance policies and legislation that advocate social inclusion and social justice.

It is in this context that we passed the Diamonds Amendment Act and Diamonds Second Amendment Act.

At its National Consultative Conference in Morogoro, Tanzania in 1969, the ANC said: 'Today most of the wealth of South Africa is flowing into the coffers of a few in the country and others in foreign lands. In addition, the white minority as a group has over the years enjoyed a complete monopoly of economic rights, privileges and opportunities. An ANC government shall restore the wealth of our country, the heritage of all South Africans to the people as a whole. The mineral wealth beneath the soil, the banks, and monopoly industry shall be transferred to the ownership of the people as a whole.' The analysis at Morogoro was informed by the fleecing of the mineral resources and wealth of South Africa by the few. The diamond amendment legislation is a legislative tool intended to stop the fleecing of our mineral wealth and practicalise the ideals contained in the Freedom Charter.

This legislation seeks to revolutionise the South African mineral industry in terms of its outlook and operation. Consistent with the ideals contained in the Freedom Charter and the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP), the diamond amendment legislation embraces accountability, transparency, economic growth, redistribution and job creation.

The day of the adoption by Parliament of the diamond amendment legislation, 1 November 2005, will go down in history as the day on which a 138-years old industry ceased to be an exclusive business terrain. The application of the legislation will ensure equitable access to rough diamonds for all role-players, and this will stimulate the development and growth of the local beneficiation industry. The legislation confirms the continued centrality of the Freedom Charter in informing our policy and legislative development.

This piece of legislation aims to unleash a potential that was deliberately suppressed to sustain the downstream jobs in centres like London and Antwerp. The development of the downstream sector of the diamond value chain in South Africa, as advocated by the legislation, has an immense economic potential, as it will stimulate business development in the diamond industry and related industries. The legislation seeks make strategic interventions in the following areas: * Socio-economic impact: The legislation aims to provide impetus to create jobs for the unemployed. This will reduce the number of unemployed people in general and unemployed women, youth and graduates in particular. During a visit to India, the ANC study group on minerals and energy noted the impact of beneficiation on employment creation. The Indian beneficiation industry employs millions of people. The development of the cutting and polishing industry in South Africa will play an immense role in job creation here.

* Skills development: Through this legislation there is a potential for the unemployed and the retrenched, particularly women and youth, to be re-skilled and trained to work in the cutting and polishing industry.

* Equitable wealth distribution: The subsidiary aim of the legislation is to spread wealth within the industry for the benefit of the masses, and to avoid unnecessary advantage by the existing diamond cartels, which have been dominating the industry since the discovery of diamonds in the country. The sightholding system that is utilised by some major industry players has denied many small and medium players access to rough diamonds, and has contributed negatively to development of beneficiation, fair trade and competition. The provisions in the legislation create conducive conditions for new entrants from historically disadvantaged backgrounds to gain access into the industry.

* Access to rough diamonds: The legislation caters for the establishment of the Diamond and Precious Metals Regulator to oversee implementation, administration and control of all matters relating to the purchase, sale, beneficiation, import and export of diamonds; and the establishment of the Diamond Exchange and Export Centres (DEECs). These will facilitate the buying, selling, export and import of diamonds. The regulator empowers the State Diamond Trader (SDT) to acquire and supply unpolished diamonds to local diamond beneficiators. The SDT will purchase a portion of rough diamonds based on the requirements of local beneficiators and sell them to local beneficiators at a fair market price. This is intended to stimulate the growth and development of small role-players, and it will enable those who did not have access, to freely access rough diamonds. This will also help to achieve broad-based black economic empowerment in the mining sector.

It will stimulate both competition and economic growth in the country for the benefit of all role players, both big and small. The SDT is also mandated to promote the industry through research, support and development.

As the ANC-led government, we envision a situation where we are going to have an 'Africa Mix' in the diamond industry as opposed to the current 'London Mix'. The 'London Mix' refers to the convergence of diamonds from various diamond producing countries in one centre in London.

Consistent with the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), diamond producers from Africa should integrate efforts to give effect to the vision of intracontinental trade and business development. Major producers of diamonds like Botswana, Angola, Namibia and the Democratic Republic of Congo do not have a beneficiation industry. The diamond amendment legislation seeks to set a precedent on the continent and in the developing world.

As the ANC we believe that the mineral wealth beneath the soil is the national heritage of all South Africans. It should be used to fulfil the socio-economic needs of the masses of our people. This legislation is a vehicle for the realisation of the wishes of the masses, as contained in the Freedom Charter, that the people share in the wealth of the country.

Nathi Mthethwa is chairperson of ANC study group on minerals and energy.

The day the enemy struck us a blow

Remembering Joe Nzingo Gqabi

Twenty-five years after his assassination at the hands of the apartheid government, Joe Gqabi's legacy as a dedicated, disciplined and effective revolutionary leader continues, writes Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi.

Speaking at the funeral of Joe Nzingo Gqabi on 9 August 1981, former ANC President Oliver Tambo said: 'To say that the enemy has struck us a blow is to tell the truth. He is a positive loss because he is the type of leader who knew how to follow. He was the type of operative who yielded results. He was a leader who in his sector produced results. And it is the test of leadership to be able to produce intended results. Joe Gqabi passed this test with great distinction.' These words resonate through our minds as we remember Joe Gqabi.

It is twenty-five years since the assassination of Joe Gqabi in Ashdown Park, Harare on 31 July 1981. The South African revolution now, more than at any other time, needs the kind of leader that Oliver Tambo described Joe Gqabi to be - a leader that 'knew how to follow... an operative who yielded results... a leader who in his sector produced results'. He was also a leader who would never place the revolution and the democratic project at risk, a leader who was willing to pay the ultimate price in furthering the revolution and defending its gains.

Joe Gqabi touched the lives of many of people. In the words of Tambo: 'Joe Gqabi was capable of making friends across political and ideological barriers, across colour lines. He communicated with ease and effortlessly with all generations: young and old. That is why in the Pretoria Twelve trial one of the accused was 67 years old, another twenty. That was why he was the most effective organiser of the youth - he understood them and they understood him.'

Those who met him - as activists, members of the underground, in mass political formations, as members of the community, and others socially -have vivid recollections of their interaction with him. He could quite easily appear as just another 'peasant' if the situation required, as he pointed out that an underground operative should never attract undue attention to themselves. However, when the situation required he distinguished himself through his interaction with people.

Recent recollections by the Swedish Minister of International Development Cooperation, Carin JSmtin, of when she was a sixteen-year-old in Harare, as the daughter of a Swedish diplomat, bears testimony to the impact Gqabi made on old and young alike. She recalls discussions her father, Ula JSmtin, had with Joe Gqabi for hours on end debating the South African struggle. They provided him with 'safe accommodation' when he was warned of a direct threat on his life by the South African regime. This action was reflective of many who formed a support network to Joe Gqabi fully conscious of the risks associated with it. He was able to develop an extensive support network that would not only be for his personal benefit.

Joe Gqabi was a good and rigorous teacher. Those who were exposed to training in underground work under his tutelage would recollect that he emphasised the need for rigour in understanding and appreciating the political-military situation. He combined theoretical and practical training. He would allocate tasks starting with less complex ones to observe the results and allow for learning, then escalating these to more complex tasks. He allowed for time with people irrespective of their background as he believed that everyone could make a contribution.

Joe Gqabi was persuasive in recruiting people into the ANC and in mobilising others to support our struggle. He also taught perseverance. He had a love for the Marxist classics and he would spend hours studying, reading and re-reading the classics, specifically Lenin's 'What is to be done?', in preparation for meetings with internal operatives.

Joe Gqabi did not hesitate to express his impatience when he felt comrades were taking undue risks that could lead to their exposure, arrest or worse.

One such incident was when a young Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) cadre called 'Fury' was in some difficulty and came directly to the Angwa Street office of the ANC. He was exposed to the wrath of Gqabi, who physically lifted him off his feet and said: 'You know how to contact me. This place is under constant surveillance by the enemy and you are unnecessarily exposing yourself, which could lead to problems for yourself and the unit that you are part of.' He was particularly critical of mistakes by those who he believed, because of their maturity in theory and practice, should have the tools of analysis to assess a particular situation and handle its complexity.

He loved the music of the ANC's cultural ensemble 'Amandla'. On one occasion when he left Harare for Angola he had collected some money and bought guitar strings as it had come to his attention that they needed these. He enjoyed listening to the cassettes of 'Amandla' and Letta Mbulu and Caiphus Semenya as he drove his white Toyota Cressida in the streets of Harare. He had a great sense of humour and he loved life.

He loved his family very dearly and yet they never had the opportunity to spend sufficient time together. He believed that his commitment to the larger cause would ensure that all families, his family included, would eventually be able to live together in 'peace, security and comfort'. His untimely death came as a great blow to the ANC but especially to his wife Nomazothswa, daughter Nonkululeko and son Jomo. At that stage, he had one grandson, Tebogo. His grandsons will never have the opportunity to know their grandfather.

An extraordinary comrade On 6 June 1960 a group of amaMpondo community leaders and representatives met on Ngquza Hill between Bizana and Lusikisiki to discuss their grievances. Since the passing of the Bantu Authorities Act (Proclamation 180 of 1956) the people of the area had been trying to get the authorities to hear their grievances and had been holding meetings. In March 1960 these meetings had been banned, but the people continued to meet, and it was on that day at Ngquza Hill that the turning point came.

Between the green grass and blue winter skies, they discussed their concerns around the Bantu Authority and government interference within their communities. Suddenly two Harvard airplanes and a helicopter swept overhead and dropped teargas into the crowd. At this, men in the crowd tore off their white shirts and waved them in the air: they wanted peace. They did not get it - police vehicles roared up and what had been a peaceful and orderly meeting descended into chaos. Eleven people were killed, scores were beaten with sjamboks, arrested and sentenced to prison.

A government commission of inquiry into the incident reported that the complaints raised at the meeting were unjustified. The amaMpondo, of course, rejected this.

Deployed by the ANC to organise in the region was a man who had played a significant role in earlier campaigns, Joe Gqabi. Gqabi was born in Aliwal North during the depression. He was 20 years old when the National Party came to power in 1948. In 1950 he joined the ANC Youth League and the ANC.

The community embarked on a boycott in November 1960. The people avoided shopping in towns, and refused to pay taxes. They also boycotted the Native Recruiting Corporation. The campaign was highly organised, and a complex cell structure developed. Mass meetings were held, many of which ended in violent confrontations with the police. This was the Pondoland Revolt. The revolt ended with 30 members of the community being sent to the gallows for participating in this campaign against apartheid oppression.

Potato Boycott In an article in Sechaba in October 1982, Wolfie Kodesh describes how he was sitting in his office at New Age newspaper, when a gaunt man dressed in tattered clothing walked into his office.

The man told an horrific story of 'starvation and deaths from exhaustion and whippings on the farm; of work bent over from sunrise to sunset in long rows, picking up the potatoes, while behind them were sjambok-carrying 'baas boys' whipping anyone who straightened up through sheer exhaustion. All of the slave workers had been 'bought' at the detention centres for pass (offenders).

Kodesh, with his colleagues Ruth First and Joe Gqabi, immediately drove out to the farm and saw - as Gillian Slovo describes in her book, 'Every Secret Thing' - 'a vision straight from Hades: scarecrow men, shoeless and dressed in sacks, working with hoes along rows of potatoes while baas boys - black overseers - stood ready to lash at them with knobkerries.' Kodesh noticed mound in the fields which, he realised, were the same shape as those he had seen in Ethiopia during World War II - mounds formed by too-shallow graves, which when kicked revealed corpses. Later investigation would reveal that these were indeed corpses, though who was buried in the graves would never be discovered - by the time the graves were uncovered, only skeletons remained.

The photographs by Joe Gqabi and articles by Ruth First on the conditions on this and other farms triggered a sensation in the national press, and led the ANC to launch the historic potato boycott which resulted in stockpiling of potatoes across the cities of South Africa.

The Pondoland Revolt gave Gqabi an insight into the challenges facing the struggle for liberation. He was described as a militant cadre and became one of the first four ANC cadres to be sent to China for military training. The youngest of the four, he returned to South Africa in 1962 to become an active member of Umkhonto we Sizwe. On his return he immediately resumed his political activities and carried out several sabotage operations.

In 1963, as part of a group of twenty-eight who were to receive military training outside the country, Gqabi was arrested in what was then Southern Rhodesia. He was deported to South Africa and sentenced to 12 years on Robben Island.

He completed his sentence at a turning point in the struggle for liberation.

In 1975 he returned to Soweto. His imprisonment did not deter him from getting centrally involved in underground work. Many a youth activist at the time relates how they scaled the wall of his Soweto home to meet with him at night and confer on their organising. He was directly linked to many of the leaders and youth who played a role in the Soweto uprising.

In December 1976, he was arrested and was one of the twelve ANC cadres who stood trial in 1977, charged under the Terrorism Act. He, however, was so effective at operating underground that the state was unable to secure a conviction against him at what became known as the Pretoria Twelve trial.

Following his trial he escaped to Botswana where he continued to play a major role in organising and working with underground structures from the neighbouring states.

After the independence of Zimbabwe, Gqabi was appointed ANC representative there. In the short time he spent in Zimbabwe he made an impact in the diplomatic arena. Along with current ANC President Thabo Mbeki he played a crucial role in developing and cementing relations between the ANC and the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU). He retained his links with both the political and military underground structures.

The South African regime made several attempts on his life in 1981. An attempt in January 1981 involved attaching a bomb to his car at the ANC residence in Ashdown Park. In view of this attempt on his life, the ANC recalled Gqabi to Lusaka, Zambia. However, he insisted that he needed to return as he had just started his work in Zimbabwe. He increased his vigilance and avoided staying at the Ashdown Park house at night.

On 31 July 1981, Gqabi was murdered by operatives of the apartheid government outside the ANC residence in Ashdown Park. After Joe Gqabi's murder, the Citizen newspaper published an editorial alleging that Gqabi was killed as a result of an internal fight between factions within the ANC. One of self-admitted members of the death squad who assassinated Joe Gqabi, Gray Branfield, was killed in Iraq in April 2004.

Gqabi's entire adult life had been dedicated to the liberation of South Africa. The remains of Joe Gqabi were returned to South Africa in 2004, where they were re-interred at his birthplace, Aliwal North, on 16 December.

Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi is a member of the ANC National Executive Committee.

Big events have small beginnings

The roots of the great miners' strike of 1946

The 1946 black miners' strike, which took place 60 years ago this month, was an heroic confrontation between the most exploited worker in the country and the most powerful of employers allied to the state machine. In this extract from the South African Communist Party's 'A Distant Clap of Thunder', we explore the background and significance of the strike.

The beginning of the first real mass trade union for South Africa's black miners was a small event - so small that history records very little about it, save that the initiative came from a meeting of the African National Congress (ANC) Transvaal Executive in 1941. The records state that a proposal to sponsor the organisation of such a union was put, and carried.

Its proposers were Gaur Radebe, a well known trade unionist and public speaker, long time member of the ANC and a communist in the process of drifting out of the Party, and Edwin Mofutsanyana, a studious and intellectual figure, former mine clerk, and also a veteran ANC and Communist Party member.

History does not record the reason for the proposal at that precise time, or the views of Executive Committee members in the debate. The decision was scarcely in keeping with the ANC character of that time, an organisation with only a small membership, steeped in a tradition of quasi-parliamentary type politics, without a great impact on the national political scene, and certainly with little direct connection with working class or trade union affairs.

Perhaps it can be explained by a combination of two factors - the general political atmosphere of the times, and the internal politics of the ANC. It was wartime. Everywhere the rhetoric of 'freedom' and 'democratic rights' was being used to whip up support for the war; declarations by statesmen at home and abroad spoke of war aims of an undefined 'freedom from want' and 'freedom of opinion'; some of the heady atmosphere of hope and the anticipation of a better world acoming rubbed off, even in South Africa, remote though it was from the centre of the war and bitterly internally divided into pro and anti-war factions.

In that atmosphere of rising expectation, a new surge of life was rising in the ANC itself. A young generation, deeply committed to national liberation, had grown up under the leadership of Anton Lembede. That new generation -Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo, Duma Nokwe, Govan Mbeki and others - had burst their way into the leading ranks of the organisation, particularly in the Transvaal. It displaced an old generation which had failed to move with the new times and tides of feeling. On the Transvaal Executive of the ANC, the militants of the ANC youth league formed a natural working partnership with the militant veterans of an earlier period, particularly communists like Radebe, Moses Kotane, Mofutsanyana and JB Marks, who were already in the leadership ranks. Perhaps it was the natural consequence of such a partnership that the small decision was taken to sponsor a mineworkers' trade union.

There were two massive mountains to climb in

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