Oliver Reginald Kaizana Tambo, known for the better part of his life by young and old, friend and foe, simply as OR, was born on 27 October 1917, in the village of Kantolo in the Mbizana district of eastern Mpondoland, eQawukeni. His primary schooling was done at the Holy Cross Mission in the Eastern Cape. He demonstrated from an early age that he was destined for bigger things.
OR was remarkable in that, while a student himself, he used to teach others the intricacies of mathematics and the sciences. Teachers found him a helpful young man who was always willing to offer a helping hand. He passed matric top of his class across all race groups and won a scholarship to study at the University of Fort Hare. Here he read for a degree in science, qualifying as a teacher of science and mathematics. He taught these subjects at his alma mater, St Peter’s, from 1943 to 1947.
He gave up teaching to study law in 1948 and upon graduation went on to establish the first black law firm in South Africa in partnership with Nelson Mandela. Actions of the repressive apartheid regime of the time pre-empted OR’s plans for one more career change. Two days before the bishop of Johannesburg was to prepare for his ordination as a priest, OR was arrested on 6 December 1956, together with 155 others, on charges of high treason.
Turbulent times
Tambo joined the African National Congress after completing his studies at Fort Hare. He was part of a group of young members of the ANC under the leadership of Anton Lembede that in 1944 founded the ANC Youth League. As history has recorded, virtually every one of these young militants went on to lead the ANC mother body: both Lembede and AP Mda were elected to the ANC national executive committee (NEC) in 1945. Two years later in 1947, OR himself became a member of the NEC.
At the 1949 annual conference of the ANC, the Youth League campaigned successfully for the adoption of the Programme of Action. Subsequent to that, other founding members were elected to the NEC, including Nelson Mandela, with Walter Sisulu becoming secretary-general of the ANC in his thirties. From 1947 until his death in 1993, OR was among the leading figures of the ANC. As a result, he was on the cutting edge of the South African national liberation struggle. He had been in the leadership of the ANC for two decades before he was asked, at the ANC’s Morogoro consultative conference in 1969, to become its president.
Even then, anecdotal accounts from those who were close to him suggest he continued to insist on being called acting president, citing among others the fact that the leaders of the ANC were incarcerated on Robben Island and other jails or had been assassinated. It was under OR’s leadership that the ANC developed into a seasoned and sophisticated national liberation movement, and now a political party. That the ANC was able to survive the repressive years, here at home and in exile, is testimony to the leadership qualities that OR Tambo possessed.
Leading the struggle
It was under OR’s guidance and tutelage that the theory of the four pillars of the struggle as led by the ANC — mass mobilisation, armed struggle, negotiations and international isolation of the apartheid regime through economic sanctions — were conceptualised and actualised. The ANC became a “broad church” because OR Tambo was alert to the paradox that the struggle against apartheid had to be fought on all fronts with the support of different forces, some with contrasting economic interests, but with the joint goal of the defeat of apartheid. It could only be OR Tambo who could bring under one democratic front capitalists, trade unionists, communists, socialists, Christians, Hindus, Jews and Muslims.
And yet, in the same way that he accommodated the views of every member who swore allegiance to the ANC’s constitution, he was also consciously aware that the decisions taken needed to be implemented. It was during OR’s presidency that the ANC made extensive strides which resulted in a negotiated settlement and the democracy we enjoy today. In the words of his biographer, Luli Callinicos, OR Tambo’s character can be captured in three related ways:
- his unfailing courtesy
- his lack of vanity and
- his ability to fix his gaze on the goal of liberation.
Former President Thabo Mbeki, who was mentored and influenced by OR Tambo through having worked closely with him for well over three decades, attests to a luminary, a man who had foresight. Together with the leaders of the ANC at the time (many of whom went into exile or were incarcerated on Robben Island), OR Tambo insisted on the youth of the 1960s, who included Thabo Mbeki, going to school and getting the education required to run successfully a liberated, democratic South Africa. At the time when this happened, many of these young people were more interested in swelling the ranks of Umkhonto weSizwe and fighting directly with the forces of apartheid.
International focus
Based on his substantive position as political secretary to OR (the role incorporated responsibility for the drafting of OR’s public speeches and other major documents of the ANC in exile), Mbeki’s recollection of the OR Tambo legacy is that of one who insisted on maximum precision in the preparation of his speeches and public statements. What Mbeki learnt as a result is “the obligation to understand the tasks of leadership — and never to tell lies, never to make false and unrealisable promises, never to say anything you do not mean or believe and never to say anything that might evoke an enthusiastic populist response”.
These recollections by Mbeki during the year that OR Tambo would have turned 90 should be understood in their proper context, of course. Clearly, OR was an internationalist. It is due to his systematic leadership that the ANC got to enjoy the support and respect that no other liberation movement in Africa and abroad experienced. No doubt he would have welcomed Barack Obama’s ascension to the presidency of the United States, in the same way that his business partner and friend of many decades, Madiba, did. No doubt he would have honoured some of the games during the 2010 World Cup, time and health permitting, as Madiba did.
Sadly, Oliver Tambo did not live long enough to enjoy the fruits of the liberation to which he dedicated his productive life. Given a different context and different circumstances, there is no saying where OR would have ended up. What is apparent, though, is that he would have become a man of the cloth and might have gone on to become a missionary, using his knowledge, experience and expertise to benefit all of humanity, especially the poorest of the poor.
I cannot see that OR Tambo would have approved of the rampant corruption that has permeated our social fabric so deeply. He would have rejected outright the tendency of public representatives and civil servants to line their pockets with resources aimed for the public good. He would have taken the side of the homeless and the hungry in matters where some in our own democratic government opt to prefer their next of kin instead of feeding and housing those in need.
A matter of pride
We of the city of Ekurhuleni are proud of the fact that South Africa’s and Africa’s premier international airport is not only situated in our metro, but that it is actually named after this great man who was hailed at his funeral as “a great giant who strode the earth like a colossus” by Nelson Mandela. A giant and a colossus he was indeed, for he travelled and traversed all corners of the globe at great expense to his own family and personal health.
He sacrificed life’s comforts so that today we can all enjoy relative peace, stability and tranquillity. It is 18 years since OR Tambo died, but he is not forgotten. As a metro, we have had discussions with his family with the aim of exploring ways and means through which his legacy can be best recorded for posterity and for his contributions to receive the recognition deserved.
Let the spirit of OR live on.
Mondli Gungubele is the executive mayor of the City of Ekurhuleni.
This article originally appeared in the Mail & Guardian newspaper as an advertorial supplement