Opening Address by the Deputy President
Comrade Thabo Mbeki
Rustenburg - 25-27April 1997
Comrade Chairperson,
For us to gain a full and complete appreciation of the immense responsibility which lies on our shoulders as South African revolutionaries, as liberators of our people, and as social transformers of our world, it is not enough simply to know what we think of ourselves.
A perspective of ourselves and the magnitude of our responsibility which only derive from the subjective assessment of ourselves shall forever remain narrow, inadequate and disempowering.
A more rounded perspective of us and a more complete appraisal of our historical responsibility can only be gained if we appreciate what our people, our continent, as well as the world know and have come to expect of us.
Our proper understanding of the high expectation on the part of the masses of our people about the role the African National Congress should play in transforming the condition of their lives should give us an added strength and even more reason for us to rise and be equal to the challenges posed by our historical mission of national emancipation.
Sometimes one should be forgiven for getting the feeling that we do not appreciate the magnitude of the challenge before us.
The overwhelming mandate which the masses of our country have placed on the shoulders of the ANC is an indication that the democratic majority which awaits the improvement in the condition of their lives know fully well that it is only the African National Congress which possesses the history, tradition as well as the correct policies to help them sustain the momentum in the struggle for the final accomplishment of the goal of national emancipation.
We have no doubt that many students of history shall concur with the statement that our first national democratic elections in 1994 marked the end of the process of decolonization of the African people in our continent.
The question which has arisen in the wake of the end of that process ot decolonization is; Now, whereto Africa?
One still has to come across an attempt at answering this question which does not place our people among the forces which are expected to chart a new direction for the continent.
Again sometimes one should be forgiven for falling into the temptation of thinking that the international community might have a much higher regard of us then we actually think.
The international community fully appreciates the role that we have played in the struggle against Apartheid and racism, the contribution we have made in the international campaign for democracy and peace, the manner and content of our democratic transition, and has given the ANC a political and moral stature in the African continent and the world as a political and moral voice articulating aspirations of many in under-developed and developing countries.
That is the scope and the magnitude of the political and moral responsibility that, not only the masses of our people, but the continent and the world have come to expect of the African National Congress.
Comrade Chairperson,
We felt that it was important to sketch this larger picture in relation to our responsibility in order to emphasise the following cardinal points.
Firstly, to make the point that our responsibility as South African revolutionaries does not derive purely from our subjective assessment of ourselves but more accurately from the objective reality of what our people, the continent and the world expects of us. It derives from the objective reality of our revolutionary historical mission.
Secondly, in order to make the point that the ANCWL is an integral, inseparable part of the African National Congress. A weaker ANCWL is a weaker ANC. A stronger ANCWL is a stronger ANC.
Thirdly, the impact of the struggle ravaged by the ANCWL for women emancipation and gender equality has an impact and relevance on the entire national liberation movement.
In that context, the capacity of our country to meet the aspirations of its people as well as make its contribution in the advancement of human civilization depends on a stronger ANC and a stronger national liberation movement.
We sincerely hope that it is with this larger understanding of our responsibility that this conference is going to deliberate every aspect of the role and place of the African National Congress Women's League in transforming the present condition of the people for the better..
This conference, perhaps more than any other in the past, cries out for frank, dispassionate and open deliberations motivated by the common desire of all its participants to build a Women's League befitting of the sacrifices made by Lillian Ngoyi, Dora Tamana, Helen Joseph, Florence Mphosho and many other heroines who spared neither life nor limb in the struggle for the emancipation of women.
Comrade Chairperson,
All of us assembled here will agree that the recent history of the League has had a fair share of its ups and downs. It has been a history of set hacks and advances.
Indeed, to borrow the words of a Spanish poet, Lorca, it has been a recent experience "half full of cold, half full of fire".
Yet I am certain that all of us would agree that this conference, meeting as it does in the year in which the ANC has committed itself to the cultivation of the cadre and the building of the organization, has set its sights on overcoming the set backs of the past and building on the advances already made.
It is the measure of some of these advances that today we have the Commission on Gender Equality and the Office on the Status of Women. We have ratified the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). The ANCWL is an organization which has spearheaded the formulation of one of the most progressive constitutions in the world, ensuring that we rank in the top ten internationally in terms of the ratio of women's representation in legislative structures of government.
The adoption of the Constitution has also given a lasting impetus to the advancement of the majority of black and rural women who, for decades, were discriminated against as women in politics. in the constitution, at the work place, in property ownership, in marriage and household.
The plight of rural and illiterate women, the most down-trodden of all women, can now receive priority attention.
The provision of free medical care to pregnant mothers and children under the age of six years as well as the provision of paternal leave relate directly to the expansion of the rights of women
The seriousness with which we take the deliberations of this conference should derive from our appreciation that gender discrimination has adversely affected all sectors and levels of our society. Progress we make in the struggle for a non-sexist society has far-reaching significance to the entire democratization project.
Given this reality, we should accept the proposition that we must measure the success of progress towards reconstruction and development by the advances we make in the struggle for a non-sexist society.
As we have already stated, whilst the struggle for gender equality has been half full of fire with victories on one hand, on the other hand it has been half full of cold with set backs.
Today the most immediate and urgent challenge facing, not only the ANCWL, but the entire progressive women's movement in our country is the question of unity.
We need to restate the point that the objective of attaining total emancipation of our people ought to take precedence over everything else in our conduct of struggle as revolutionary leaders.
Personal differences, personal ambitions for power and glory, personal dislike of each other, are just some of the understandable little evils which are always present in a large and vibrant organization like ours. These little evils should always be subsumed to the larger goal of meeting the aspirations of the majority.
The failure to subsume them to the larger good always holds the danger of thwarting or delaying the advancement of the course of social transformation and social emancipation. At these stage of development they cease to be little devils and turn counter-revolutionary devils. They begin to eat the fabric of our organizations from within like a treacherous cancer.
We can all rest assured that there is no better gift which we can present to forces of counter-revolution, retrogression and Apartheid than to bleed our organisation to death from within through our failure to subsume the excesses of our individual human frailties to the general good of our organisation and our people.
At all times we need to keep in mind that the attainment of political liberation in April 1994 did not signify the total incapacitation of those forces which had always stood against the goal of national liberation.
Testimonies and half-testimonies as well as the refusal by some of the elements from the Apartheid era to tell the whole truth at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission should leave us in no doubt that a network of counter-revolution is still in existence, and it is still going to be preserved and nurtured
The question we need to ask ourselves is; for what good or bad reason.
Many of the forces which were arrayed against the liberation movement, whilst trying to adapt to the changed political situation. will continue in new forms to pursue the anti-people agenda of either diluting or derailing the mission of social emancipation.
If they cannot destroy the progressive organisations of the people from within, they will try from without. If they fail to destroy them from without, they will attempt to establish other anti-ANC formations, often with a helping hand and a resounding applause from the erstwhile Apartheid masters.
Comrade Chairperson,
The cold and brutal point which needs to be stated a thousand times in this conference is that without a strong and united ANCWL, there can be no strong and united progressive women's movement in our country.
So long our country lacks a strong and united progressive women's movement, so long the advances we mentioned above shall mark time .
So long these advances are made to mark time, so long the inauguration of a full non-sexist democracy shall be deferred.
So long the inauguration of a truly non-sexist democracy is deferred, so long patriarchal practices shall continue to confine the majority of our women to something a little more than second class citizens in the country of their birth.
We need to restate the point that the objective to attain the total emancipation of our people should take precedence over everything else in our conduct as revolutionaries.
Comrade Chairperson,
This conference is called upon to look at the progress we have made, identify and eliminate shortcomings in our functioning, identify challenges and opportunities ahead and chart the way forward towards the attainment of the strategic objective of women emancipation.
This conference should draw out a programme aimed at building a new cadre of the ANCWL, building and consolidating organisational structures and working out the mechanism and the programme for the mobilisation of the greatest number of our women behind the policies of the ANC.
We take this opportunity to call upon all our people to place themselves in the forefront of the struggle against physical and sexual abuse of women and children. The accomplishment of this task needs ordinary women and men who, as individuals and in all their organisational formations, are conscious of their collective responsibility both to their common needs and to their shared destiny.
The Programme of Action out of this conference should usher the women's struggle into the next century. The march of 20 000 women on the 9th of August, 1956 dislodged the boulder and set in motion a glorious struggle which has been rewarded with glorious victories. It has been a proud and bitter struggle at great sacrifice to the multitudes of women.
The slogan and chant of that struggle,
"wathint a'bafazi. wathint i'mbokodo, bhasobha uzakafa",
helped to define the fighting spirit of women in the era of resistance. That fighting spirit has been captured in MK battles, in marches, behind prison bars, in books, in films and in songs.
Solomon Mahlangu's mother, talking through the pen of a poet, tells us about the same fighting spirit when she says;
"My fear has been eaten away
by evil white ants,
like a salamander in the sun.
I used to have the heart
of a lamb
prudent and kind...
Today I possess the heart
of a ferocious lioness.
My finger itches for a gun
which spits fire."
Today however, we need to complement this fighting spirit with new programmes, new slogans and new songs which should prepare us for the challenges of the approaching century and the new millennium.
We need to set ourselves a new vision, a new strategy, new targets which are consistent with the task of social transformation geared to help us integrate into the global struggle for the promotion of human civilisation, peace and prosperity for all.
In this conference we ought to make a covenant that we shall not cross the threshold of time into the next century still burdened with the sin of gender discrimination and gender oppression.
Certainly, the vision of an African Renaissance should also be defined by the content and space it gives to the expression of the struggle for gender equality.
By all means, we should proclaim to ourselves and the world that the
AFRICAN RENAISSANCE WILL ONLY SUCCEED IF CONSTRUCTED ON THE BEDROCK OF WOMEN
EMANCIPATION.
Comrade Chairperson,
Our responsibility is immense. The full understanding of the immensity of our responsibility cannot be appreciated solely on the bases of our subjective and self-centred appraisal of ourselves. Perhaps more fundamentally, it also derives from what the people think and expect of us.
I would like to leave you with these thoughts from a poem by our stalwart, Dora Tamana:
"You who have no work, speak
You who have no homes, speak
You who have no schools, speak
You who have to run like chicken from the vulture, speak...
There are no creches or nursery schools for our children
There are no homes for the aged
There is no one to care for the sick
women must unite to fight for these rights
I opened the road for you
You must go forward"
I sincerely wish the honourable delegates fruitful deliberations and a successful conference. I declare the conference open.
THANK YOU.
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