President Thabo Mbeki has expressed disappointment at the poor turnout for the centenary celebration of Mahatma Gandhi’s Satyagraha (non-violent resistance) in Durban last weekend, saying the truth will out.
Writing in his weekly newsletter on the African National Congress (ANC) website on Friday, Mbeki referred to the historic visit by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, during which they attended the celebrations in Durban and Pietermaritzburg.
”It will, for a long time, remain a black mark against our movement and our people that on October 1 we brought our esteemed guest, a comrade-in-arms and an outstanding representative of the sister people of India, Manmohan Singh, to a virtually empty Sahara Kingsmead Stadium at Ethekwini,” Mbeki said.
He nevertheless thanked those ”South African patriots” who came to the stadium on the only occasion government had arranged for Singh to talk directly to the masses, ”to whom he is intensely attached and to whose welfare he is deeply committed”.
”In time the full story will be told of what happened that kept our people away from Sahara Kingsmead on October 1,” Mbeki said.
The truth would be told of who those were, who did what they did on the stands of the stadium to disrupt the prayers said by religious leaders of all faiths to open proceedings.
He knew as a matter of fact that the stadium did not inadvertently find itself ”serving as a site for the perpetration of acts of national humiliation for the reason that the masses of our people have turned their backs on the noble values of Satyagraha, on the Mahatma and the country of his birth, on friendship and solidarity between India and South Africa, and on their own glorious history of struggle”.
Throughout the ANC’s 94 years of the existence, some had tried their best to destroy and negate what it stood for, and failed.
”I know this as a matter of fact as well, that even 100 years after the birth of Satyagraha, the masses of our people, all true patriots, and genuine members of the ANC, will not allow that anybody should destroy or negate the common and noble message of the true liberation and dignity of all our people that Mahatma Gandhi, John Langalibalele Dube and Pixley ka Isaka Seme preached in 1906,” he said.
India support
Meanwhile, Singh said on Monday that India supports a permanent seat for South Africa on the United Nations Security Council.
”South Africa, by virtue of its standing, by virtue of its role in Africa and in the international community, is entitled to that,” Singh told a press conference following his meeting with Mbeki.
UN reform, and particularly the reform of the Security Council, were high on the agenda of the talks.
”We decided to strengthen our cooperation in the reform of the UN system and, in particular, reform and expansion of the UN Security Council, without which the overall reform of the UN will remain incomplete,” Singh said.
In 2004 India, Brazil, Japan and Germany jointly announced their willingness to serve on the Security Council. South Africa has since formed a trilateral commission with India and Brazil.
The Security Council currently comprises five permanent members — China, Britain, France, Russia and the United States — and 10 elected members that have a two-year term.
Several countries have been pushing for an expanded security council, but there are several conflicting proposals.
Several African countries have said they would like to take a seat on the Security Council, among them Nigeria, Libya, Egypt and Kenya.
”We need to bring maximum pressure to bear on this matter so that there can be movement forward,” Mbeki said about the UN reform.
He said the two countries would work with others to see how they could speed up the reform process.
Mbeki not at NEC
Mbeki did not attend the first day of the ANC’s national executive committee (NEC) meeting on Friday, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported.
Mbeki’s deputy in the ANC, Jacob Zuma, was present on Friday afternoon at the gathering of the party’s top brass in Kempton Park, Johannesburg.
The president will, however, be presenting his political overview report to the NEC on Saturday. — Sapa, Reuters