Collective leadership, humility and unity within the movement are legacies with which former African National Congress president Oliver Tambo left the party, ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma said in Johannesburg on Wednesday.
”Tambo’s emphasis on collective leadership was one of his hallmarks, as was his exemplary sense of vision and humility. At this stage in our revolutionary struggle, it is well worth remembering some of the specific lessons that OR taught us,” Zuma said in his delivery of this year’s OR Tambo Memorial Lecture at the University of Johannesburg.
Without making any reference to the current split in the ANC, Zuma said the relevance of Tambo’s leadership lessons is perhaps more pertinent today than ever before.
Zuma spoke at length on Tambo’s ability to lead the party, how he gave it international credibility during the apartheid years and how he built a ”vibrant, united and disciplined” ANC.
Tambo was the ”glue” that held the party together during its most difficult and frustrating period, when the liberation movement was banned and in exile.
Zuma said Tambo led the ANC for as long as its leadership required him to.
”When it came time for him to pass the baton, he would have no problem in doing so; he was prepared to serve the ANC under whichever capacity the organisation asked him to,” he said to cheers and applause from hundreds of students who included a large contingent of ANC Youth League members.
To more cheering, he added: ”We don’t vote in the ANC, we discuss until we reach consensus.”
Tambo had internalised the principle of collective leadership and he had deep respect for consultation with other members.
”His practice of deferring issues to the ANC as a body was continual.”
Zuma concluded by asking whether South Africa is the type of society for which Tambo worked so hard.
”We need to ask ourselves whether we are living the values he taught us through his words and deeds,” he said.
Among those attending the lecture was ANC Youth League president Fikile Mbalula, Cuba and Madagascar’s ambassadors to South Africa, and Tambo’s eldest children, Thembi and Dali Tambo.
Several hundreds of students chanted and sang, one waving an ANC flag, while waiting for Zuma to arrive.
He was greeted with deafening chants of ”Zuma, Zuma” and ”Amandla” when he appeared on stage. — Sapa