In his book, Child of this Soil, the Pan Africanist Congress’s current president, Letlapa Mphahlele, noted that it was ‘sad that, to this day, we haven’t had a PAC postÂmortem of our struggle to liberate Azaniaâ€. Mphahlele further noted that the ‘PAC ought to call a big indaba to answer honestly some hard questions. Is the organisation still relevant and necessary?†If so, what must it do for them, and with them?
Four years after posing these questions, Mphahlele became the PAC’s president. But the PAC is yet to call the big indaba.
As the organisation observes the 40th anniversary of the death of its first president, Mangaliso Robert Sobukwe, the best tribute it could pay Sobukwe would be to call this big indaba. But the big question is: will Mphahlele do so?
This question is raised because, soon after assuming power, Mphahlele noted that there was a need for the PAC to have a truth and reconciliation commission of its own, since the party’s members had done and said things that hurt each other badly. We saw the expulsion of former president Motsoko Pheko. Another former PAC president, Mlamli Clarence Makwetu, was dragged kicking and screaming from Parliament! There was also Maxwell Nemadzivhanani, one of the most gifted products of the PAC. After vilifying him while he was still the PAC’s general secretary, many in the PAC said ‘good riddance†when Nemadzivhanani joined the ANC.
Contemplating what a party can do with the people is a recognition that people should not be reduced to mere recipients of charity. It points to the need to find creative ways to restore a sense of dignity by building their potential for self-development. This is different from buying elections by making promises on which parties have no Âcapacity to deliver.
One of the PAC’s founding aims was ‘to promote and project the African image and personality to the whole worldâ€. Before addressing the world, the PAC, in memory of Sobukwe, should embark on educating its own members and South Africans at large about African values that can help to alleviate the poverty confronting this country.
The PAC’s leaders are not yet tainted by the culture of greed that has been associated with many who belong to the ruling party. The party could offer a leadership that will reflect the African personality. It should give South Africa leaders who will not, upon being elected, desert the people to live in suburbs, or bury them in dust when driving by in their 4X4s.
The poor need leaders who truly care for them. Sobukwe was that kind of ‘outstanding leaderâ€, as President Thabo Mbeki observed in this year’s State of the Nation address.
Simphiwe Sesanti is a lecturer in Stellenbosch University’s department of journalism, and writes here in his personal capacity