South African Politics Demand A More Critical Review Dr Motsoko Pheko

[XXPANTHAXX]

South African Politics demand a=2 0more critical review. The politics of liberating the poor, the powerless and the working class is being replaced by greed for power instead of service delivery and upliftment of this country’s people. But history is also repeating itself. This history shows how the South African Communist Party has often been the cause of divisions in the African National Congress (ANC).

This history must now be told. It has a bearing on what happened to the ANC in Kliptown in 1955 and now in Polokwane in December 2007. The South African Communist Party was formed in 1921 by neo-liberal whites calling themselves “communists.” These liberals undermined the land question. They denied the colonial nature of the African liberation struggle in South Africa. They also arrogated to themselves the role of being the “brains” of the African liberation struggle.

The South African Communist Party both in the country here and in exile caused divisions in the ANC. In the 1950’s the SACP infiltrated the ANC of 1912, which was founded by Langalibalele John “Mafukuzela” Dube, the African kings and others, to abandon the basic aims of the ANC as founded in 1912. The main aim was the equitable redistribution of land. The Native Land Act of 1913 had robbed the indigenous African majority of this country of 97% of their land and its riches.

In their petition to King George of England in 1914, since South Africa was colonized by the British; the ANC of 1912 and African kings demanded that “the natives (Africans) be put in possession of land in proportion to their numbers.”

The ANC of 1912 in its Constitution of 1919 in Article 25 stated one of the ANC objectives as “the safe-guarding of the interests of the African people.” At its meeting held in Pietermaritzburg on 22 October 1916, the ANC passed a resolution objecting to the parceling of land into private farms for whites and demanded that LAND remain a permanent reserve for the original owners (the Africans). The African kings had themselves fought numerous wars of national resistance against colonialism to defend their land. They had been very vocal about land dispossession of the African people.

Up to 1954 the ANC had four basic Freedom documents. They were:

(a) Africans Claims in South Africa and Bill of Rights 1943.
(b) Congress Youth League Manifesto 1944.
© Basic policy of the Congress Youth League 1948
(d) Youth League Programme of Action 1949.

Africans Claims in South Africa and Bill of Rights, among other things declared: “We demand the right to an equal share in all the material resources of the country and we urge; That the present 13% of the surface area to 8,000.000 Africans as against 87% to 2,000.000 Europeans is unjust… and therefore, demand a fair redistribution of the LAND.”

In 1955 the ANC was hijacked by the “brains” of the South Africanist Communist Party. They came up with the divisive preamble in the so-called “Freedom Charter.” It reads that “South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white.” The “Freedom Charter” was proclaimed 53 years ago, but Africans are still dispossessed of their land as they were in 1955.

Commenting on the “Freedom Charter”, Jordan Ngubane, author of AN AFRICAN EXPLAINS APARTHEID, wrote, “People who sat in the inner circles of this alliance stated privately that the ANC leaders tended to accept instructions from white liberals rather than to participate in the formulation of policies.”

In his own book, LET MY PEOPLE GO (1st Edition) Chief Albert Luthuli the then ANC President wrote, “I can only speak vaguely about the preparations which went before it… The main disadvantage from which it suffered was that local branches submitted their material for the Charter at a very late hour – too late in fact… It was not possible for the National Action Committee to circulate the draft Charter carefully. The result is that the declaration is UNEVEN.

Indeed, on the land question, the Freedom Charter is uneven, unjust and cheating on land ownership and its riches to this day. Section 25 (7) of the South African Constitution allows Africans to claim their land only from June 1913. On that date there were only crumbs left to claim. That is why millions of Africans in a country that is said to belong to all who live in it, have nothing and remain land dispossessed and poor in a country which is four times the size of Britain and Northern Ireland combined.

South Africa in terms of ownership and economy, is a white man’s country. The lot of the African majority are poverty, disease, ignorance, unemployment, landlessness, short life expectancy and high child mortality. There is enormous inequality. There are two nations, one extremely rich and white, while the other is extremely poor and black. This stems from the defection of the 1912 ANC to the 1955 ANC which is n ow suffering from the Polokwane cholera.

The extent to which the SACP “brains” have had an adverse influence on the ANC, is reflected in the fact that in 1988 in exile, the ANC assigned Francis Meli, its member, to write the authorized history of the ANC. The book is 258 pages. Its title is SOUTH AFRICA BELONGS TO US. But it sits on the fence concerning the ownership of the country. A reviewer of this book had to write, “Even in a book like this, the ANC does not spell out to whom it believes the country belongs. At the end of reading SOUTH AFRICA BELONG TO US, we still do not know to whom the ANC believes the land belongs.”

The apartheid regime labeled the Freedom Charter, “Communist”, but it never banned this document, though it banned the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC) and all its documents for 30 years. It must not be forgotten that the apartheid colonial regime banned the PAC when it was only one year one day while the ANC now with its “Freedom Charter” was banned after more than 48 years.

Perhaps, Anthony Sampson lets the cat out of the bag when he writes in his book BLACK GOLD Tycoons, Revolutionaries and Apartheid, that the “Freedom Charter” was depicted by the South African Government as Marxist though it is hardly more radical than the Labour Party Manifesto in Britain.” Samson concludes, “The Freedom Charter sounds like a Psalm, rather than a Policy.”

Of course, the PAC was never amused with the Freedom Charter which in essence is the “Freedom Cheater” on land and is a perpetuation of land dispossession of the African people. Africanists before they formed the PAC, sent the alarm to the bamboozled nation.

It read, “Following the capture of a section of the Black leadership of South Africa by a section of the ruling class, the masses of our people are in extreme danger of losing the objectives of the struggle. This captured leadership claims to be fighting for freedom when in truth it is fighting to perpetuate the tutelage of the African people. It is tooth and=2 0nail against the Africans gaining effective control of their LAND. These leaders consider our country and its wealth to belong to all who live in it, the dispossessor and the indigenous victim.”

Twenty two years later in 1977, Steve Biko of the Black Consciousness Movement echoed the warning by the PAC. He wrote, “Above all, we Black people should keep in mind that South Africa is our country. The arrogance that makes the white people to travel all the way from Europe to come and balkanize our country and shift us around must be destroyed… whereas whites were guests to us on arrival in this country, they have now pushed us to a 13% corner of the LAND and are acting as bad hosts in the rest of the country. This must be put right.”

Why has the South African Communist Party been the cause of some of the serious divisions in the ANC?

In his book, The Awakening of the people, I. Tabata of the Unity Movement of South Africa has written, “the Communist Party of South Africa can never tolerate any organization, which it cannot control.”

Is there evidence for this? In 1919 there emerged in South Africa a powerful African Trade Union, the Industrial and Commercial Union led by Clements Kadalie. It was so strong and influential that it was often said, the colonial regime feared it more than it feared King Dingane of the Zulus.

The ICU was infiltrated and weakened by the SACP. Kadalie had opposed their interference in the affairs of the ICU. This powerful Trade Union split into two wings and was finally destroyed. The SACP was funded by the now collapsed Soviet Union. Its mission was to turn the national democratic revolution of a colonized people into a “workers struggle.”

Jordan K Ngubane has explained why the CPSA acted in this counter-revolutionary fashion in a clear anti-colonial national struggle in South Africa. He writes: “In 1929 the Communists in South Africa ceased to need a mas s movement of their own. Instead the Party was to remain the “brains” of the liberation movement as a whole. Today however, the circumstance places communism in a position of relative weakness, since its limited numbers make it impossible for it to take a clearly defined Party stand or adopt an independent political programme. To be effective at all, it had to use African political organizations.”

It is not surprising to those who are read in the political history of South Africa that it is mainly the South African Communist Party which completely took over the ANC in Polokwane and dictated terms, which led to the departure of President Thabo Mbeki

It is also not puzzling that in Parliament on 25th September 2008, it was Ben Turok one of the early leaders of the SACP who nominated President Kgalema Motlanthe to be voted as President of South Africa to replace Thabo Mbeki.

Ben Turok has deliberated on the South African politics in his writings for a long time. He often referred to African Liberation Movements in South Africa which fought f or self determination as “chauvinists.” He saw the African struggle in South Africa in terms of the Soviet Union Foreign Policy. In 1987 he wrote, “The author is committed to the view that the role of the Soviet Union is vital to the world against imperialism.”

This prompted a Ghanain political journalist, Kofi Buernor Hadjor to write, “Turok’s perspective for the change is entirely unrelated to the condition of Africa… the issue of Pan Africanism is not even discussed in a book entitled WHAT CAN BE DONE? The only context in which Turok discusses internationalism is when he puts the case for Africa forging an alliance with the Soviet Union. Turok’s silence on Pan Africanism is indicative of his general acceptance of neo-colonialism.”

While in exile some senior members of the ANC such as Dr Pascal Ngakane, Tennyson Makiwane and Robert Resha challenged the SACP for its interference in the affairs of the ANC. They were expelled from the ANC. These ANC members described the leaders of the Communist Party as “white liberals of the South African Marxist type who emerged in the country=2 0at a time when the white working class totally accepted the predominant ideology of the ruling class….”

The present black leaders who inherited the SACP are no different. They have the same mission as their white founders of the SACP namely, that of being an “alliance” that dictates terms. They never stand on their own and contest elections.

The SACP made attempts to destroy the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania, in the struggle for liberation in South Africa so that it could have total control of the liberation movement, but it failed. The PAC has impeccable revolutionary credentials.


1. The most world-shaking uprisings in South Africa were organized and led by the PAC. They were a turning point in the national liberation of South Africa. They made the evil system of apartheid known internationally. These are the Sharpeville Uprising and the Langa Uprising. The United Nations d eclared the Sharpeville day, the International Day For the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. This day is observed on 21st March each year internationally.



2. After the apartheid colonialist regime unleashed its reactionary violence killing 89 Africans and wounding 365 throughout South Africa in March 1960, the PAC was the first liberation movement in South Africa to form a military wing to confront the forces of reactionary violence. The PAC launched the armed struggle on 11th September 1961. The PAC’s military wing was called POQO, later renamed the Azanian Peoples Liberation Army (APLA).


PAC battles such as Paarl, Mbashe, Ntlonze, Villapery, King Williamstown against the apartheid regime became household names. Some heroic Africanist leaders involved in this gigantic and noble struggle for national liberation were sons of the soil such as P K Leballo, T M Ntanta la, Nyati Pokela, Mfanasekhaya Gqobose and Gasson Ndlovu.


3. Robben Island in modern times happened because of the liberation activities of the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania. PAC leaders were the first to be imprisoned on Robben Island. This was on 2nd October 1962. It was long before Nelson Mandela and his ANC colleages got to Robben Island in 1964.


PAC members were the first to be sentenced to life imprisonment on Robben Island in modern times. They were:

1. Jafta Masemola
2. Isaac Mthimunye
3. Philemon Tefu
4. Samuel Chibane
5. Dimake Malepe
6. John Nkosi

4. The first PAC President Mangaliso Robert Sobukwe was imprisoned on Robben Island without even a mock trial. He was sent to Robben Island under a special law called “Sobukwe Clause.” He was poisoned while on Robben Island. After this he was banished to Kimberly where he died.

5. In exile the PAC prepared a well researched paper on the colonial nature of South Africa. It convinced the Organization of African Unity (OAU) that indeed, the South African struggle was not merely an anti-apartheid struggle, but an anti- colonial struggle for self-determination. The PAC then had its case brought to the United Nations through David Sibeko and Elliot Makoti.

Writing on this matter, Prof Tom Lodge says, “In November 1974 PAC succeeded in obtaining the expulsion of South Africa from the United Nations General Assembly and in July 1975 the OAU Meeting adopted as official policy a long document prepared by the PAC arguing the case for the illegality of South Africa’s status.”

That is how the PAC got apartheid South Africa expelled from the Un ited Nations and took the South African seat to represent the African liberation struggle and shared that seat with the ANC until 1994.

6. Seventeen PAC leaders and members were sentenced to imprisonment in 1979 for the Soweto Uprising of 16 June 1976. Accused Number one was Zephania Mothopeng. He was sentenced to 30 years imprisonment. Passing sentence on Mothopeng , Judge David Curlewis said, “You Mothopeng acted to sow seeds of anarchy and revolution. The riots you predicted eventually took place in Soweto on 16 June and at Kagiso the next day.”

7. The 1994 elections were fixed to be won by Mandela’s ANC with the support of the ; South African Communist Party. Western countries considered PAC radical and the ANC moderate. They were proved “right” when Joe Slovo a leader of the South African Communist Party who had denied the colonial nature of South Africa, came up with a ”Sunset Clause”, while Africans had looked for a sunrise clause of liberation against colonialism for over 350 years.

8. In the Parliament of South Africa, the PAC was the first political party to demand that “arms deal” corruption be investigated. In the South African Parliament PAC has demanded the amendment of section 25 (7) of the Constitution so that Africans can claim land from before June 1913.

9. &nbs p; The PAC has advocated a law which prohibits the sale of land to foreigners. Moreover foreigners buy with dollars, British pounds and the euros. It is peanuts when the Rand is compared with these currencies. So, even if our government was to sell land to foreigners, they would not get value for their land. It is in any case senseless to sell land when its owners remain dispossessed of land.

10. The PAC demanded the release of APLA members and other former freedom fighters like Mkhonto We Sizwe . They are languishing in the prisons of South Africa. They are political prisoners. They fought against apartheid which the United Nations declared a crime against humanity through the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid.

11. In Parliament the PAC got laws such as “Floor Crossing” with Party seats to be abolished.

12. The PAC both inside and outside Parliament has demanded free education for the poor who cannot afford fees for education. The PAC has pointed out that the rapid acquisition of advanced technology is an imperative to enable Africans to process the country’s raw materials, export them as finished goods and create employment for the unemployed and enrich its own people.

The PAC has achieved and fought some of these things for the country without the “brains” of the SACP. The present situation in the politics of South Africa is a wa ke up call. What is clear is that no true Marxist Leninists or Communists can be leaders of a Marxist Party and non-Communist Party at the same time. That Gwede Mantashe can be Chairman of the SACP and Secretary General of the ANC is a delusion and an illusion.

What is happening in the ANC at present is a political conundrum.. A senior member of the South African Communist Party Jeff Radebe was Minister of Public Enterprises. He administered a privatization programme of privatising strategic state assets in the ANC government. This policy enriched the rich and made the poor poorer. It created massive unemployment for the working class. Workers were also ordered by the SACP and COSATU to vote for the ANC – a distinct capitalist organization as manifested by the ANC Policy of “GEAR”.

The South African politics demand a more critical review. The present20conditions in the country need political leaders who are committed to liberatory democracy and the fundamental interests of the vast poor millions. Democracy for a country that is emerging from colonialism and apartheid is not a matter of vote, periodic elections and personal or group power that does not uplift the majority population of this country and make their welfare, the main objective of their political agenda. Ambition for power that is not used for the good of the poor will destroy this country.

In these days of political confusion and disillusionment it is important to state that the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC) as founded by Mangaliso Robert Sobukwe and his colleagues like P K Leballo and Zephania Mothopeng, is committed to a non-racial society of fighting economic inequality in this nation. An Africanist socialist democracy, a national programme of building our country’s economy for the benefit of all its citizens regardless of their “race”, “tribe” or political affiliation. All heroes of our country must be honoured without discrimination.

The liberation struggle of this country was not fought by one liberation movement or ruling Party. It was a national effort. It is wrong to honour only the leaders of the ruling Party. It is foolish and dishonest to behave and think as if heroes of other Parties are no heroes. Solid nation-building depends on doing justice to all who deserve honour in this nation. END.






Dr Motsoko Pheko is a PAC Member of Parliament
Former PAC President
Former Representative of victims of apartheid at the United Nations





Roy Walker
Pan-African Perspective