Note: there are two separate links to be clicked on, one for the text and the other for the endnotes
This was a seminar paper, prepared for the University of the Witwatersrand, in June 1986, just before I was rearrested for a further 27 months. Continue reading
Political turmoil in North-West province
Political violence is now a conventional pattern of ANC politics, as people fight for positions, tenders and other resources amongst the ANC itself or against emerging rivals. Some of the government, ANC and SACP statements about AMCU and the ANC’s right to be the dominant force in the platinum belt, do not augur well for peaceful resolution of disputes and competition. The report indicates a growing crisis of legitimacy as well as a crisis of governance, with unsolved killings and threats of more, apart from (not reported here) continued high levels of dissatisfaction over subhuman living conditions.
The article by Greg Marinovich describes the continued violence in the Rustenburg platinum belt, particularly in Marikana. What is significant also is how the ANC and government do not distinguish their partisan political interests in relating to AMCU, who are in ‘ANC territory’ and attempting to reverse the gains of the revolution, as the Minister-of Mines says more or less. This is not only a failure to distinguish what belongs to whom -party and state, but it may well exacerbate an already volatile situation. That a peacekeeping force is being sent in, is claimed to be requested by all sides, but if government has such a partisan attitude can one be sure that the peacekeepers will simply keep the peace?
One of the features distinguishing post-Polokwane political developments has been the attack on constitutionalism and legality. Continue reading
One of the features distinguishing post-Polokwane political developments has been the attack on constitutionalism and legality. Continue reading
It is clear that very few people believe government’s explanation for the illegal landing of the Gupta wedding party at a key military installation in Waterkloof. There are very few people who accept that the handful of individuals who have been fingered would undertake such a massive breach of security on their own. Continue reading
The legacy of Chris Hani is obviously contested. Underneath many of the tributes referring to his selfless and revolutionary qualities there is on the one hand an attempt to legitimate the decadent, looting leaders of today. They have the resources to be present and in the forefront of a range of events to commemorate Hani’s life, as they will be later this month when OR Tambo is remembered.
On the other hand, those who are being robbed, evoke the memory of Hani as an alternative to what they see and know and even what they do not know but have come to expect will happen with their resources and the dreams they cherish for improvement of their lives.
No matter how many layers of red some of the leaders may wear, or the number of times they use revolutionary phrases or call others counter-revolutionary, they will not be able to stand in for Hani. He used to listen carefully to people. His speeches were not rhetorical displays, but responses to what he heard. That is what the people who loved him now miss.
I have hesitated to write about Chris Hani, partly because I did not know Comrade Chris all that well, meeting him for the first time in 1990. But I want to convey a few things that I learnt. The first is that Chris cared about people and this one hears from all the MK soldiers, that he was concerned about every one of them, spending evenings with them, remembering their names even after fleeting meetings. Continue reading
We are in a country that is in denial in the sense that there is not recognition of the scale of the crisis of violence, predominantly violent masculinities, manifested in schools, shops, in the streets, by the police and also by the public in various situations. Continue reading
Raymond Suttner 