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TRANSCRIPT
Verbatim Speech:
My President, Comrade Thabo Mbeki;
My leaders: the Officials, members of the NEC, PEC's, and BEC's;
Colleagues and comrades;
Dear Guests.
The time has come to hand over the baton.
Last Wednesday Comrade Thabo Mbeki was elected unopposed as President of the African National Congress, I congratulate him for that honour. The election is a fitting tribute to his leadership of the youth in this country, to his brilliant performace in various capacities in exile, to the impressive contribution which he made is as part of the ANC team in the negotiations in Codesa and to the brilliant manner in which he has carried out his duties as Deputy President of the ANC and the government, I am [of] course worried by the fact that thtere should be two bulls in one kraal, even though one has an advantage because the other is short. But I would like to deal very briefly what it means in the term of South African politics for a national leader to be elected unopposed, unanimously. We have had the National Party in this country ruling the country for 46 years and apart from the case of Dr Malan, who when the election took place in 1994 was already the leader of the National Party, there is not a single election for a national leader which was not bitterly contested, and leading to a great deal of dissatisfaction and the resignation of those candidates that had lost. The election Pact between the National Party led by Dr Malan and the Afrikaner Party led by Minister Havenga who was Min of Finance, won the general election of 1948. One of the agreements was that when Malan stepped down, Havenga would succeed him as the Prime Minister of the country. Dr Malan stepped down in the 1954 but the National Party breached that trust, refused to honour it. They elected JG Strijdom died in office in 1958 and there were three candidates Dr Verwoerd, Dr Donges from the Cape and CR Swart from the Free State. That election was hotly contested and Dr Verwoerd emerged as winner.
Dr Verwoerd was assasinated in Parliament in 1966 and the election was between John Vorster and Ben Schoeman. Some of the histories written by party faithful, they say Schoeman withdrew- that's not true, we were there. He was persuaded to withdraw very much against his will and when he took account of those members of the caucus who supported Verwoerd, he withdrew but left politics a bitter man. In 1978 Vorster resigned because of a scandal in government. At that time, they had introduced the Presidency, so he was President when he resigned. There were three candidates Dr Connie Mulder, Pik Botha and PW Botha. In that contest PW Botha emerged as the President. Botha resigned in 1989, again there was more than one candidate: De Klerk again PW Botha. I mean Pik Botha and Du Plessis. De Klerk won by a narrow margin by 7 votes, he beat Du Plessis by 7 votes. We had another election for the national leader of the national party in 1997. All of you even young people, you were there, there were about 3 candidates. There was Danie Schutte from KZ, there was Kraai Van Niekerk from the Northern Cape, there was Marthinus Van Schalkwyk. Van Schalkwyk won. But every election in the National Party has been contested. And there were cases when some people left with a group who were dissatisfied about the election. It places a very heavy responsibility on a leader who had been elected unopposed. Now one of the temptations of a leader who has been elected unopposed is that he may use that powerful position to settle scores with those with his detractors, margnialise them and in certan cases, get rid of them. And surround himself with 'yes men and women.' A leader, especially with such a heavy responsibility, who has been returned unopposed, his first duty is to allay the concerns of his colleagues in the leadership- for movement. Because there is a contradiction in leadership because the leader must keep the forces that leads his organisation together. But you can't do that unless you allow dissent. That any subject should be discussed from all angles and people should even be able to criticise the leader without fear or favour. Only in that case are you likely to keep your colleagues together. There are many examples of this- allowing differences of opinion as long as those do not put the organisation in disrepute. Now many of the younger people here know the history of the People's Republic of China more than they know abou the history of their families. So they will readily understand what I'm going to say: In the early days of the Chinese revolution Lili Sen who was a real maverick who opposed Mao Tse Tung and his policies, criticised them bitterly. But what did the Chinese leadership do? They examined whether he had said anything outside the structures of the movement, which put the movement in disrepute and they decided that the best way of dealing with him was to bring him to the Central Committee of the Party and to give him responsibility. They made him the President of the All Chinese Chamber of Commerce, I mean of workers, of the Labour Movement- gave him responsibility for which he had to account and he was forced to talk less and to be accountable. Fortunately I know that our President understands this issue. One thing I know is that in his work he has taken criticism in a comradely spirit and I have not the slightest doubt that he is not the man who is going to sideline anybody because he knows that to surround yourself with strong and independent persons who can, within the structures of the movement and improve your own contribution- so that when you go outside your policity, your decisions are fool-proof and they cannot be criticised by anybody successfully. Nobody in this organisation understands that principle better than my president Comrade Thabo Mbeki. The time has come to hand over the baton.
The time has come to affirm and celebrate the decisions that you have taken to put in place a national leadership collective that will take the ANC into the new millennium. You the delegates have spoken, in the true spirit of the ANC.
But you have spoken in more than just your own name and right. As your voices carried beyond the confines of this hall to every home in the village, township and suburb, you were echoing the will of the hundreds of thousands of ANC members; you were expressing the views of the millions of South Africans who see the ANC as the custodian of their deepest hopes for a better life.
The time has come to take leave.
The time has come to hand over the baton in a relay that started more than 87 years ago in Mangaung; nay more, centuries ago when the warriors of Autshumayo, referred to by white historians in this country as Harry the Strandloper, a contemptuous term, Autshumayo, Makhanda, Mzilikazi, Moshweshwe, Khama, Sekhukhune, Lobatsibeni, Cetshwayo, Nghunghunyane, Uithalder and Ramabulana, laid down their lives to defend the dignity and integrity of their being as a people.
When we ourselves received the baton from Dube, Sol Platje, Gandhi, Abdul Abdurrahman, Charlotte Maxeke, Gumede, Mahabane and others, we might not have fully appreciated the significance of the occasion, preoccupied as we were by the detail of the moment. Yet, in their mysterious ways, history and fate were about to dictate to us that we should walk the valley of death again and again before we reached the mountain-tops of the people's desires.
And so the time has come to make way for a new generation, secure in the knowledge that despite our numerous mistakes, we sought to serve the cause of freedom; if we stumbled on occasion, the bruises sustained were the mark of the lessons that we had to learn to make our humble contribution to the birth of our nation; so our people can start, after the interregnum of defeat and humiliation, to build their lives afresh as masters of their own collective destiny.
I am certain that I speak on behalf of the veterans who graced this historic Conference, and many others, when I say that, if we were fortunate to smell the sweet scent of freedom, there are many more who deserved, perhaps more than us, to be here to witness the rise of a generation that they nurtured. But the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Oliver Tambo, Moses Kotane, Yusuf Dadoo, JB Marks, Lilian Ngoyi, Florence Mophosho, Kate Molale, Alex La Guma, Helen Joseph, Joe Slovo, Bram Fischer, Moses Mabhida, Ruth First and others would have been witness to the end of a lap in a relay that they ran with such energy and devotion.
It is in their name that we say to you: 'here are the reins of the movement - protect and guide its precious legacy; defend its unity and integrity as committed disciples of change; pursue its popular objectives like true revolutionaries who seek only to serve the nation'.
If we make these demands on you, it is because you accepted the burden of responsibility when you decided to enter the ranks of this leading movement of fundamental change. You responded to the call of destiny to bring into reality the day when the people can indeed govern.
If we make these demands on you, it is because you have run such a successful Conference - demonstrating for all to see, the quality of the ANC as the principal agent of social change. In the content of our resolutions, in the spirit of comradeship which characterised our communion over the last five days, this 50th National Conference of the ANC has demonstrated once more the strength of internal democracy in our organisation, inspired by the search for answers to the challenges that face us.
In this regard, I wish to thank all the delegates and guests, the ANC, our colleagues in the Tri-partite Alliance, other democratic organisations and our friends from abroad ensuring that we have had such a memorable event. I will remember this experience fondly for as long as I live. I have said before and I want to repeat it again here: That one of the dangers of being in government, is that as a result of association with powerful and influential individuals who have far more resources than all of us put together have, is to forget those who were with us when we were all alone during the difficult times. You are aware that many influential individuals have said 'we can't understand why you should keep relations with Cuba, why you should go to Libya, what are you doing, why should you have relations with Iran?' Now people who are saying so are those who, as a government - I'm not talking now about an individual head of state, I'm talking about the government of a country. These are the people who were helping our enemy, apartheid. Who are now advising us, now that we have fought along and in spite of having provided our enemy with resources, we defeated the enemy with the assistance of many countries including Cuba and Libya. Of course, many countries have assisted us, especially the anti-apartheid forces, and in some areas governors. Now this occasion reminds us that these foreign guests are those who made is possible for us to win. Our victory is their victory.
Running like a golden thread through the decisions that we have taken is a reaffirmation of what the ANC has always stood for:
to bring fundamental change to the lives of all South Africans, especially the poor;
to recognise the actual contradictions in our society and to state them boldly, the better to search for their resolution;
to avoid steps that further worsen social conflict; and
to build our new nation by continually and consciously exorcising the demon of tribalism, racism and religious intolerance.
I just hope that the fellow who mimicked me last night is not here. If these objectives are themselves not new; the circumstances in which they have to be pursued are different: we operate in a world which is searching for a better life - without the imprisonment of dogma. In this sense, therefore, you have started along a new path into the new century.
The response of some political parties and sectors of society, including the media to my Political Report was not unexpected; and, if anything, it confirms everything that we said.
Comrades and friends;
More often than not, an epoch creates and nurtures the individuals which are associated with its twist and turns. And so a name becomes the symbol of an era.
As we hand over the baton, it is appropriate that I should thank the ANC for shaping me as such a symbol of what it stands for. I know that the love and respect that I have enjoyed is love and respect for the ANC and its ideals. I know that the world-wide appreciation of South Africa's miracle and the dignity of its people is appreciation, first and foremost, of the work of the ANC.
In the early years when I was all green and raw in the movement's ranks, Constantine Ramohanoe, the Transvaal President of the ANC took me by train and on foot to visit villages, cities and dorpies, and taught me and my generation never to lose touch with the people.
During that period, Moses Kotane, in his curt and disciplinarian manner, you know he was once a teacher, showed us ways of nurturing people's thinking and commitment to the poor. Yusuf Dadoo brought to the fore the importance of united action among all the oppressed and democratic forces. Bram Fischer and Michael Harmel brought us into the debates of the Communist Party and assisted us to appreciate that problems need to be approached from different angles. Chief Albert Luthuli taught us that reconciliation is not an antithesis to revolutionary struggle and transformation.
And Oliver Tambo, was like no one else a brother and a friend to me. He enriched my own life and intellect; and neither I nor indeed this country can forget this colossus of our history.
All these giants and more - the living and the dead - were the band of comrades who not only compensated for my own weaknesses; but they also assigned me tasks where my strengths could grow and thrive. What I am today is I am because of them; it is because of the ANC; it is because of the Tri-partite Alliance.
But I think that this experience transcends my own life and touches on the very issue of cadre policy which we deliberated on in the past few days. I say so because I know that among you there are many who have such great potential - revolutionaries suited to the new age: organisers, intellectuals, mass leaders, activists and strategists at all levels of the movement. We must nurture you all, and let your strengths shine through. It is not because we were infallible, we were not. Now we have had difficulties in the past, like any other organisations. We had a leader who also was returned unopposed but we were then arrested together with him. But he was wealthy bu the standards of thsoe days and we were very poor and the security police went to him with a copy of the Suppression of Communism Act, and they say 'now look here, you have got farms, here is a provision that if you are found guilty you will lose those properties. Your associates here are poor people, they have got nothing to lose.' He then told us when we were arrested that 'look, I'm going to have my own lawyer. I'm not going to be jointly defended with you.' We tried to persuade him, he refused. Then his lawyer leading him said "Now look you people here, there are many documents before this court where you are demanding equality with whites, what do you believe? What is your opinion?' He said, 'there will never be anything like that.' And the lawyers said 'But do your colleagues here accepted this?' He was beginning to point to Walter Sisulu when the judge says 'no, no, no, no, no you speak for yourself.' But that experience of being arrested, jailed was too much for him. Now we nevertheless appreciated the role that he had played because he had played, during the days before we were arrested, he had done very well. I'm saying this because if one day, I myself should cave in and say 'I have been misled by these young chaps' just remember that I was once your colleague.
The time has come to hand over the baton. And I personally relish the moment when my fellow veterans, whom you have seen here, and I shall be able to observe from near and judge from afar. As 1999 approaches, I will endeavour as State President to delegate more and more responsibility, so as to ensure a smooth transition to the new Presidency.
Thus I will be able to have that opportunity in my last years to spoil my grandchildren and try in various ways to assist all South African children, especially those who have been the hapless victims of a system that did not care. I will also have more time to continue the debates with Tyopho, that is Walter Sisulu, Uncle Govan, Govan Mbeki and others, which the 20 years of umrabulo on the Island could not resolve.
Let me assure you and the people of our country that, in my humble way, I shall continue to be of service to transformation, and to the ANC, the only movement that is capable of bringing about that transformation. As an ordinary member of the ANC I suppose that I will also have many privileges that I have been deprived of over the years: to be as critical as I can be; to challenge any signs of "autocracy from Shell House"; and to lobby for my preferred candidates from the branch level upwards.
On a more serious note though, I wish to reiterate that I will remain a disciplined member of the ANC; and in my last months in government office, I will always be guided by the ANC's policies, and find mechanisms that will allow you to rap me over the knuckles for any indiscretions. I promise never to do anything or to say anything outside the structures of this organisation which will put the organisation in disrepute.
Our generation traversed a century that was characterised by conflict, bloodshed, hatred and intolerance; a century which tried but could not fully resolve the problems of disparity between the rich and the poor, between developing and developed countries.
I hope that our endeavours as the ANC have contributed and will continue to contribute to this search for a just world order.
Today marks the completion of one more lap in that relay race - still to continue for many more decades - when we take leave so that the competent, generation of lawyers, computer experts, economists, financiers, industrialists, doctors, lawyers, engineers and above all ordinary workers and peasants can take the ANC into the new millennium.
I look forward to that period when I will be able to wake up with the sun; to walk the hills and valleys of Qunu in peace and tranquillity. And I am confident that this will certainly be the case because, as I do so, and see the smiles on the faces of children which reflect the sunshine in their hearts, I will know, comrade Thabo and your team, that you are on the right track; you are succeeding.
I will know that the ANC lives - it continues to lead!
Lastly I just want to comment on something which a comrade, a remark which a comrade made in this podium I sometimes wish that my colleagues would check their facts with the leadership before they come to a meeting of this nature to make statements which are based on lack of information. There was a hint that the ANC is neglecting its veterans- nothing could be further from the truth. I don't think there is any organisation in this country which has taken so much care of its veterans, especially those of MK who are largely responsible for the victory that we have achieved. Those who worked underground, inside the country, underwent persecution, torture and those who spent long years in jail. We raised, at first, a sum of R4 million and divided it amongst our veterans. Then we raised the sum of R10 million and I felt here that let me call all the veterans for them to tell me what we should do with this money. I suggested that let us put this money in projects in al the provinces so that there should be a project which will look after the interests of the veterans. They said 'no limali sifuna ukuyitya. We want to eat this money.' We pointed out that look 'we have already given you R11 million- it has disappeared. We know that this money should be invested so that each one of you should get an allowance'. 'No no no, sifuna ukuyitya, si nikimali.' Well we are democrats and we had to agree to that but now some of them were integrated in to the South African Defence Force others into the Police Force, some of them from the Defence Force wanted to take a severance package and they were given, they have now used it and finished and they are coming back to us and say 'give us money'. We have raised a fairly large amount but this time nobody is going to get even a cent in his hands, we are going to invest that money and each one is going to get an allowance from that. And I want to say therefore, if there is anything the ANC and this leadership you see here, worries about, it is veterans because the ANC does not forget those men and women who have brought about these far-reaching changes in our country. It is in that spirit that I bid you goodbye.
Thank you.
Note
TRANSCRIPT
Prepared Speech:
My President, Comrade Thabo Mbeki;
My leaders: the Officials, members of the NEC, PEC's, and BEC's;
Colleagues and comrades;
Dear Guests.
The time has come to hand over the baton.
The time has come to affirm and celebrate the decisions that you have taken to put in place a national leadership collective that will take the ANC into the new millennium. You delegates have spoken, in the true spirit of the ANC.
But you have spoken in more than just your own name and right. As your voices carried beyond the confines of this hall to every home in the village, township and suburb, you were echoing the will of the hundreds of thousand of ANC members; you were expressing the views of the millions of South Africans who see the ANC as the custodian of their deepest hopes for a better life.
The time has come for me to take leave.
The time has come to hand over the baton in a relay that started more than 85 years ago in Mangaung; nay more, centuries ago when the warriors of Autshumato, Makana, Mzilikazi, Moshoeshoe, Khama, Sekhukhune, Lobatsibeni, Cetshwayo, Nghunghunyane, Uithalder and Ramabulana, laid down their lives to defend the dignity and integrity of their being as a people.
When we ourselves received the baton from Dube, Sol Plaatje, Gandhi, Abdullah Abdurrahman, Charlotte Maxeke, Gumede, Mahabane and others, we might not have fully appreciated the significance of the occasion, preoccupied as we were by the detail of the moment. Yet, in their mysterious ways, history and fate were about to dictate to us that we should walk the valley of death again and again before we reached the mountain-tops of the people's desires.
And so the time has come to make way for a new generation, secure in the knowledge that despite our numerous mistakes, we sought to serve the cause of freedom; if we stumbled on occasion, the bruises sustained were the mark of the lessons that we had to learn to make our humble contribution to the birth of our nation; so our people can start, after the interregnum of defeat and humiliation, to build their lives afresh as masters of their own collective destiny.
I am certain that I speak on behalf of the veterans who graced this historic Conference, and many others, when I say that, if we were fortunate to smell the sweet scent of freedom, there are many more who deserved, perhaps more than us, to be here to witness the rise of a generation that they nurtured. But for the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Oliver Tambo, Moses Kotane, Yusuf Dadoo, JB Marks, Lilian Ngoyi, Florence Mophosho, Kate Molale, Alex La Guma, Helen Joseph, Joe Slovo, Bram Fischer, Moses Mabhida, Ruth First and others would have been witness to the end of a lap in a relay that they ran with such energy and devotion.
It is in their name that we say to you: here are the reins of the movement - protect and guard its precious legacy; defend its unity and integrity as committed disciples of change; pursue its popular objectives like true revolutionaries who seek only to serve the nation.
If we make these demands on you, it is because you accepted the burden of responsibility when you decided to enter the ranks of this leading movement of fundamental change. You responded to the call of destiny to bring into reality the day when the people can indeed govern.
If we make these demands on you, it is because you have run such a successful Conference - demonstrating for all to see, the quality of the ANC as the principal agent of social change. In the content of our resolutions, in the spirit of comradeship which characterised our communion over the last five days, this 50th National Conference of the ANC has demonstrated once more the strength of internal democracy in our organisation, inspired by the search for answers to the challenges that face us.
In this regard, I wish to thank all the delegates and guests, the ANC, our colleagues in the Tri-partite Alliance, other democratic organisations and our friends from abroad for ensuring that we have had such a memorable event. I will remember this experience fondly for as long as I live.
Running like a golden thread through the decisions that we have taken is a reaffirmation of what the ANC has always stood for:
to bring fundamental change to the lives of all South Africans, especially the poor;
to recognise the actual contradictions in our society and to state them boldly, the better to search for their resolution;
to avoid steps that further worsen social conflict; and
to build our new nation by continually and consciously exorcising the demon of tribalism, racism and religious intolerance.
If these objectives are themselves not new; the circumstances in which they have to be pursued are different: we operate in a world which is searching for a better life - without the imprisonment of dogma. In this sense, therefore, you have started along a new path into the new century.
The response of some political parties and sectors of society, including the media to my Political Report was not unexpected; and, if anything, it confirms everything that we said.
Comrades and friends;
More often than not, an epoch creates and nurtures the individuals which are associated with its twist and turns. And so a name becomes the symbol of an era.
As we hand over the baton, it is appropriate that I should thank the ANC for shaping me as such a symbol of what it stands for. I know that the love and respect that I have enjoyed is love and respect for the ANC and its ideals. I know that the world-wide appreciation of South Africa's miracle and the dignity of its people is appreciation, first and foremost, of the work of the ANC.
In the early years when I was all green and raw in the movement's ranks, Constantine Ramohanoe, the Transvaal President of the ANC took me by train and on foot to visit villages, cities and dorpies, and taught me and my generation never to lose touch with the people.
During that period, Moses Kotane, in his curt and disciplinarian manner showed us ways of nurturing people's thinking and commitment to the poor. Yusuf Dadoo brought to the fore the importance of united action among all the oppressed and democratic forces. Bram Fischer and Michael Harmel brought us into the debates of the Communist Party and assisted us to appreciate that problems need to be approached from different angles. Chief Albert Luthuli taught us that reconciliation is not an antithesis to revolutionary struggle and transformation.
And Oliver Tambo, was like no one else a brother and a friend to me. He enriched my own life and intellect; and neither I nor indeed this country can forget this colossus of our history.
All these giants and more - the living and the dead - were the band of comrades who not only compensated for my own weaknesses; but they also assigned me tasks where my strengths could grow and thrive. What I am today is because of them; it is because of the ANC; it is because of the Tri-partite Alliance.
But I think that this experience transcends my own life and touches on the very issue of cadre policy which we deliberated on in the past few days. I say so because I know that among you there are many who have such great potential - revolutionaries suited to the new age: organisers, intellectuals, mass leaders, activists and strategists at all levels of the movement. We must nurture you all, and let your strengths shine through.
The time has come to hand over the baton. And I personally relish the moment when my fellow veterans and I shall be able to observe from near and judge from afar. As 1999 approaches, I will endeavour as State President to delegate more and more responsibility, so as to ensure a smooth transition to the new Presidency.
Thus I will be able to have that opportunity in my last years to spoil my grandchildren and try in various ways to assist all South African children, especially those who have been the hapless victims of a system that did not care. I will also have more time to continue the debates with Chopo, Zizi and others, which the 20 years of umrabulo on the Island could not resolve.
Let me assure you and the people of our country that, in my humble way, I shall continue to be of service to transformation, and to the ANC, the only movement that is capable of bringing about that transformation. As an ordinary member of the ANC I suppose that I will also have many privileges that I have been deprived of over the years: to be as critical as I can be; to challenge any signs of "autocracy from Shell House"; and to lobby for my preferred candidates from the branch level upwards.
On a more serious note though, I wish to reiterate that I will remain a disciplined member of the ANC; and in my last months in government office, I will always be guided by the ANC's policies, and find mechanisms that will allow you to rap me over the knuckles for any indiscretions.
Our generation traversed a century that was characterised by conflict, bloodshed, hatred and intolerance; a century which tried but could not fully resolve the problems of disparity between the rich and the poor, between developing and developed countries.
I hope that our endeavours as the ANC have contributed and will continue to contribute to this search for a just world order.
Today marks the completion of one more lap in that relay race - still to continue for many more decades - when we take leave so that the competent, generation of lawyers, computer experts, economists, financiers, industrialists, doctors, lawyers, engineers and above all ordinary workers and peasants can take the ANC into the new millennium.
I look forward to that period when I will be able to wake up with the sun; to walk the hills and valleys of Qunu in peace and tranquillity. And I am confident that this will certainly be the case because, as I do so, and see the smiles on the faces of children which reflect the sunshine in their hearts, I will know, comrade Thabo and your team, that you are on the right track; you are succeeding.
I will know that the ANC lives - it continues to lead!
Note
RELATED INOFRMATION
Nelson Mandela departed from his prepared speech. Both the verbatim and prepared speeches are reproduced.
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- African National Congress (ANC) (Subject)