In another twist following suspension of the armed struggle, the Pan Africanist Congress is clandestinely pursuing election deals with those it used to call “surrogates of the regime”.
The PAC’s strange bedfellows, which it hopes will agree to stand under its banner, include the Inkatha Freedom Party, the National People’s Party, Gazankulu’s Ximoko Progressive Party, QwaQwa’s Dikwankwetla, kwaNdebele’s Intando YeSizwe, kaNgwane’s Inyandza National Movement and Ciskei’s African Democratic Movement.
“As we learn from the Bible,” said PAC national organiser Maxwell Nemadzivhanani, “Jesus Christ did not become a sinner by mixing with sinners, but instead upheld and moved them to repent. Revolutionaries shouldn’t divorce themselves from the masses under the guise of maintaining their purity.”
The PAC had previously given the impression that It did not want to work with the ‘regime’s puppets”, although it was revealed last year that a number of Ciskei cabinet ministers held dual membership in both the ADM and PAC. Wounds have hardly healed since Brigadier Oupa Gqozo’s Ciskei Defence Force killed 28 people in 1992 as they tried to march on Bisho, yet the PAC hopes to take his ADM along on a PAC ticket.
The Ciskei government failure to register in time for inclusion in the TEC, after it severed ties with the Freedom Alliance might just be a bonus to the PAC. Ciskei Council of State spokesman Cedric Harrop said the ADM would contest the elections either under its own name or as part of an alliance.
He said no formal meetings had taken place with the PAC, but “sentiments expressed by Gqozo in the past indicated that he would be prepared to enter into such negotiations with the PAC. The only stumbling block could be violence”.
It was not enough for the PAC to place a moratorium on the armed struggle, he said; guarantees were also needed. “We are convinced the PAC wants an end to violence, but its problem has been to commit Apla,” he said.
The PAC’s surprising policy shift follows last week’s meeting between IFP president Mangosuthu Buthelezi and the PAC’s Clarence Makwetu, allegedly brokered by former PAC stalwart and now IFP central committee member, Ziba Jiyane.
Nemadzivhanani revealed this week that violence and the double ballot were not the only issues discussed by the two leaders. He said other issues regarding a “necessary common strategy” to persuade other influential personalities and organisations to work with the PAC were also discussed.
Sources in Natal said this week the PAC’s regional man-and-a-fax office had closed. Joe Mkhwanazi is now said to be organising in the rural areas where land is a drawcard, and is said to have the blessing of the IFP.
Amichand Rajbansi, of the National People’s Party, was the first party leader to enthuse over meeting the PAC “at the earliest possible time”, said, Nemadzivhanani. Rajbansi said that after elections were proclaimed, he, would give the PAC six days to decide whether it wanted to enter an alliance with his party.
Nemadzivhanani maintained none of the political parties; would win the elections on the basis of their membership over nine million South Africans did not belong to a, political party.
“A vote is a vote in an election; there is no reactionary or revolutionary vote. The vote of Rajbansi is identical to that of Makwetu. Anyone’s vote must be used to put a principled, organisation like the PAC into power,” he said,