- DR SNUKI ZIKALALA: PURSUING OUR NATIONAL INTERESTS IN A VOLATILE AND COMPLEX GEOPOLITICAL ENVIRONMENT.
– AN ADDRESS TO THE 3RD ANNUAL LAWRENCE PHOKANOKA LECTURE HELD AT THE UNIVERSITY OF LIMPOPO ON 26 JULY 2026
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.
It is a profound honour to stand before you today, entrusted with the opportunity to reflect on a question that sits at the very heart of our collective future: How do we pursue our national interests in a world that grows more volatile and complex by the day?
Yet, to chart a path forward, we must first anchor ourselves in the soil from which we have grown. We do so today by honouring a life that embodied resilience, intellect, and an unwavering commitment to the liberation of our people.
On the 10th of June, the late Cde Lawrence Madimetja Phokanoka would have turned 98 years old.
He was born in the dusty village of Raphahla in Sekhukhuneland, in the Middelburg District—a place where running water was a distant dream, where the community relied on pit latrines, and where basic infrastructure was non-existent. It was a sparsely populated, underdeveloped rural area, deliberately neglected by a system that saw its people merely as a reservoir of cheap labour.
That system was apartheid — rooted in white supremacy and Afrikaner nationalism, codified in 1948. It mandated the physical, political, and social separation of racial groups to preserve minority rule. It disempowered the Black majority in their own land, not because of any failing of their own, but simply because of the colour of their skin. Under colonialism and apartheid, the Bantustans and townships were designed as reservoirs of cheap labour — a constant, ready supply for factories and farms.
This spatial development programme was no accident. It was deliberate, and its legacy endures today. The village of Raphahla, even now, still struggles with water scarcity, lacks piped sewerage, and its people still rely on pit latrines.
The Early Years & Formative Education
When Cde Madimetja was just seven years old, his family made a sacrifice that so many Black families were forced to make: they sent him to live with his aunt in Alexandra, seeking a better education for their son. He began his schooling at a Lutheran Church in that overcrowded township.
But schools for Black children were starved of resources. Hendrik Verwoerd, the architect of Bantu Education, declared that there was no place for Black people in the European community above the level of certain forms of labour. The curriculum was deliberately stripped of subjects that might ignite intellectual curiosity or political ambition.
So, like every Black child under apartheid, Cde Madimetja encountered racial oppression at a tender age.
Alexandra, in many ways, was no different from Raphahla — overcrowded, neglected, a township reliant on communal taps, pit latrines, and candles for light. Yet it sat in the shadow of Johannesburg, the heart of mining capital, drawing Black families seeking opportunity. They became the cheap labour that built the city.
Cde Madimetja moved from school to school until he settled at Kilnerton High School in 1954, completing his matric in 1958. He then registered to study Physics at Fort Hare University — a nine-hour train journey from Johannesburg.
Fort Hare was the most advanced institution of higher learning for Black South Africans, founded in 1916 as the South African Native College precisely because Black people were excluded by law from white universities. It is not every individual who studies physics; it requires a naturally curious, mathematically inclined mind — a problem-solver who seeks to understand the very workings of the universe.
Despite having been educated under Bantu Education, Cde Madimetja possessed a sharp ability to grasp the political landscape and seek solutions to overthrow the racist regime.
As Karl Marx wrote: “It is not the consciousness of men that determines their being, but, on the contrary, their social being that determines their consciousness.”
The oppressive conditions under which Cde Madimetja grew up shaped his character and his outlook.
Political Awakening and the Armed Struggle
It was at Fort Hare that he became politically active — first joining the South African Communist Party (SACP), and later the African National Congress (ANC).
He was active in resolving student disputes with the university administration. As a mathematically inclined problem-solver and a student of physics, every move he made was calculated, designed to yield results that would hasten the destruction of apartheid.
He was organisational by nature, elected to represent Fort Hare at the launch of the African Students Association — a student body affiliated with the ANC.
Cde Madimetja was not impulsive. Like a chess player, he measured every step.
He took time to internalise the painful transition from peaceful protest to armed action — a shift precipitated by the Sharpeville Massacre on 21 March 1960, when police opened fire on peaceful pass-law protesters, killing 69 and wounding 180.
On 8 April 1960, the apartheid regime banned all political parties and liberation movements through the enactment of the Unlawful Organisations Act No. 34 of 1960. After the banning of these political organisations, organising and challenging the regime’s laws through peaceful means became nearly impossible.
In December 1961, the ANC established uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK) as the military wing of the organization. Its leaders included Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo,
Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki, and Joe Slovo. The primary objective of uMkhonto we Sizwe was to exert armed pressure on the racist apartheid government to abandon its policies of racial segregation by carrying out attacks on military and industrial installations. After several coordinated operations, uMkhonto we Sizwe was likewise banned by the regime.
When the police caught wind of Cde Madimetja’s political activities, he was advised to leave the country as arrest was imminent. He joined his comrades in Botswana and was flown to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Together with his comrades, he spent a year in military training in Moscow before returning to Tanzania to await deployment back into the country.
As a committed and brave MK cadre of the Luthuli Detachment, he participated in the joint Wankie-Sipolilo Operation alongside the Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) in former Rhodesia. This operation was designed to establish routes for MK guerrillas to cross Rhodesia into South Africa, allowing the ANC to send trained freedom fighters home to mobilise South African society.
Cde Madimetja was captured during the operation and sent to Pretoria Central Prison, where he spent over a year awaiting trial. He was subsequently sentenced to 18 years’ imprisonment, serving his full sentence on Robben Island.
Rebuilding, Transition and Public Service
Like a true student of physics, Phokanoka remained a logical thinker and a builder.
Following his release from prison, he was deployed to lead peace and reconciliation efforts in the former Northern Transvaal, bridging the gap between uMkhonto we Sizwe forces and the former regime’s security apparatus. This assignment was no small feat.
He had to bring together two antagonistic forces — including the Northern Transvaal Security Branch, which had operated as a highly militarised mechanism of state terror, torture, and extrajudicial executions. Evidence presented at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) detailed how the regional Security Branch, military intelligence, and local riot squads acted with complete impunity.
Yet, as a humble cadre, Cde Madimetja declined an offer to serve in Parliament, preferring instead to work directly on the ground as a junior official in the Northern Province Department of Safety and Security. Like a true soldier of uMkhonto we Sizwe, he worked tirelessly to transform the country and bring about meaningful social change.
In his later years, Cde Madimetja lost his sight and retired.
Rooted in his political and social convictions, he insisted on retiring in his home village in Sekhukhuneland. It was there that he passed away in July 2005 at the age of 67.
As a revolutionary movement, we honour his legacy by defending the values, principles, and traditions of his movement, the ANC. As members of the ANC Veterans League (ANCVL), we remain committed to advancing and defending the constitutional democracy for which he fought so dearly.
Democratic Progress and Global Volatility
Over the last three decades, the ANC government has transformed a racist state into a thriving constitutional democracy. Under apartheid, South Africa practiced parliamentary sovereignty, giving a minority parliament the power to pass any law without judicial interference.
The 1996 Constitution reversed this completely. Section 2 establishes that the Constitution is the supreme law of the Republic, and any law or conduct inconsistent with it is invalid.
The ANC government did not only dismantle apartheid; it established a democratic, constitutional state backed by significant social progress:
· Social Safety Net: A welfare system providing grants to over 18 million vulnerable citizens.
· Education: A no-fee schooling system for millions of children and the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) for lower-income students.
· Healthcare & Housing: Expanded free access to primary healthcare, built new clinics and hospitals, and delivered over 4 million housing opportunities.
· Basic Utilities: Expanded access to the national electricity grid from 36% to 89%.
· South Africa’s democratic era has seen the Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs) facilitate millions of learnerships, internships, and apprenticeships, helping to integrate historically marginalised groups into the workforce.
Cde Madimetja would be proud to know that while many Sekhukhune villages still lack yard taps or dignified sanitation, they now have access to electricity. But we acknowledge that this is still not enough.
As a student of physics, Cde Madimetja understood complex and volatile systems, utilising logic to extract positive solutions. Today, our non-aligned foreign policy allows South Africa to navigate global volatility with strategic autonomy, refusing to be drawn into superpower geopolitical rivalries while maintaining diplomatic and economic ties with both the East and the West.
This third Lawrence Madimetja Phokanoka lecture takes place during a hostile global climate marked by sanctions, tariffs, and intense trade competition.
The recent conflict involving the United States, Israel, and Iran has triggered global economic instability. The blockade of the Strait of Hormuz on 13 April 2026 caused severe economic ripples worldwide, directly impacting South Africa.
Surging fuel and food costs pushed inflation up from 4.0% in April to 4.5% in May, forcing the Reserve Bank to hike the repo rate to 7.0%. As a net importer of fuel, fertilisers, and liquefied natural gas, South Africa remains structurally vulnerable to global energy shocks. Rising prices at the pump and food inflation directly strain household budgets, exposing systemic vulnerabilities.
The Existential Crisis and Electoral Reality
This important third lecture is taking place at a time when the revolutionary movement of Cde Phokanoka, the African National Congress, is on the back foot and faces an existential crisis.
For the first time since the dawn of democracy, no single party won an absolute majority. Having lost its majority in the recent National Elections, the ANC entered into coalition agreements to form a Government of National Unity (GNU) Nationally — partnering with liberal parties such as the Democratic Alliance (DA) and other smaller parties — and Government of Provincial Unity (GPU) arrangements provincially.
Cde Phokanoka, the factors behind this electoral decline include the emergence of the breakaway MK Party led by former President Jacob Zuma, as well as public frustration over the ANC’s delayed action regarding those implicated by the Zondo Commission.
The Electoral Commission recorded a 58.64% voter turnout from a 27.7 million voter roll, meaning approximately 41.3% of registered citizens chose not to vote.
Political analysts note that unemployment, crime, and non-action on state capture drove many loyal ANC supporters to stay home rather than vote for opposition parties.
The official results recorded:
· ANC: 40.18% (6.4 million votes)
· DA: 21.81%
· MK Party: 14.58%
· EFF: 9.52%
· IFP: 3.85%
· PA: 2.06%
· FF+: 1.36%
The decision to enter into a coalition was strategic, yet these political dynamics remain inherently delicate.
Looking at this downward trend, Cde Phokanoka — with his analytical mind — would ask: What must be done to rebuild our structures and restore the movement’s integrity?
In 1902, when faced with economic and social crises, Vladimir Lenin famously posed the question:
“What is to be done?”
He observed that the strength of a movement lies in the awakening of the masses, while its weakness lies in a lack of initiative and consciousness among its leadership.
Cde Phokanoka would ask the same: What happened to the revolutionary morality and consciousness of our cadres?
Some have amassed wealth through dubious means, bringing the organization into disrepute. Certain officials deployed in municipalities have failed to deliver quality services, becoming entangled with water-tanker mafias, extortion networks, and tender irregularities.
A comprehensive study by the Stellenbosch University Centre for Complex Systems in Transition estimated that South Africa lost R1.5 trillion to systemic corruption and state capture between 2014 and 2019 alone, with broader historical estimates since 1994 exceeding R700 billion.
Think of the jobs that could have been created, the rural schools built, and the clean water systems installed in Sekhukhuneland and across the country if corruption had been decisively confronted. While many dedicated public servants continue to serve with honesty, the actions of those who have failed the public trust severely damage the image of our movement.
Organisational Renewal and Strategic Tasks
To address this, ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa mandated the ANC Veterans League to lead the organisation’s Renewal Process. Addressing the ANCVL at Birchwood in July 2023, President Ramaphosa noted that because veterans do not seek political office, they possess the moral authority to speak truth to power.
He endorsed our five-point renewal programme centered on mandatory political education, stricter membership criteria, and uncompromising ethics.
The ANCVL immediately developed a comprehensive Foundation Course on the core principles of the ANC, structured around five key modules:
1. Achieving National Liberation and Building Democracy
2. Promoting Social Justice and Equality
3. Nation Building
4. Social and Economic Transformation
5. People-Centred Governance.
The Foundation course was made compulsory across all 4,429 potential branches. Prior to Branch Biennial General Meetings (BBGMs), members must complete this foundational education. Furthermore, during the 5th National General Council (NGC) held in Ekurhuleni from December 8–11, 2025, over 1,500 delegates participated in these political education sessions.
While critics may dismiss compulsory courses as compliance exercises, we firmly disagree. The ANC has planted a crucial seed, and those dedicated to building an ethical, disciplined movement are actively participating in our online political education platforms.
Additionally, the NGC adopted key internal electoral reforms:
· One Member, One Vote: Tabled by the ANCVL and MKLWV, this system aims to eliminate vote-buying at conferences by empowering individual branch members to vote directly for dedicated, incorruptible candidates based on personal conviction.
· Strengthening the Integrity Commission: The NGC recommended that Integrity Commission findings be implemented directly, rather than being subjected to prior National Executive Committee (NEC) political deliberations, ensuring wrongdoers are not protected.
Local Government and Economic Priorities
As South Africa prepares for the local government elections on 4 November 2026, citizens will vote in 4 488 wards, across 257 municipalities — comprising 8 Metros, 44 District Municipalities, and 205 Local Municipalities. The ANC aims to nominate candidates in every ward across the country.
While the ANC currently controls 63% of municipal councils, reports from the Auditor-General and National Treasury highlight that many municipalities continue to struggle with financial management, governance, and service delivery.
The ANC declared 2026 as: “The Year of Decisive Action to Fix Local Government and Transform the Economy”.
Our six strategic tasks for the year are:
1. Fix local government and improve basic service delivery.
2. Speed up economic transformation.
3. Drive inclusive growth and job creation.
4. Wage war on crime, corruption, and Gender-Based Violence and Femicide (GBVF).
5. Build national unity through the National Dialogue and the 30th Anniversary of the Constitution.
6. Make organisational renewal irreversible while contributing to a better Africa and world.
To support these goals, ANCVL members serve on Local Government Intervention Task Teams across 160 ANC-controlled municipalities. However, persistent challenges include political interference, poor administrative management, and the appointment of unqualified personnel.
As we face the forthcoming elections, getting people to register and then vote is key.
A conservative estimate is that more than 10 million qualifying voters are not registered, and many of these will be young people whose futures will be shaped by decisions taken in municipal councils. Equally concerning is voter apathy. A vibrant democracy reflecting the will of the people requires everyone who qualifies to register and to vote.
Thus, comrades, the urgent and immediate task before every ANC branch, region, province and volunteer is clear.
· Reach every household.
· Encourage every eligible citizen to register.
· Help first-time voters understand the importance of their voice.
· Assist those who have relocated to update their addresses.
· Where wards have been demarcated, make sure voters check where they are registered to vote.
So, when election day arrives on 4 November, let every eligible South African honour those who fought for our democracy by exercising the most powerful right we possess — the right to vote. The future of our communities, and indeed the strength of our democracy, depends on it.
To confront systemic wrongdoing, President Ramaphosa appointed the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry on 21 July 2025 to investigate criminality, political interference, and corruption within the criminal justice system and local government. Its interim findings have already led to swift suspensions, disciplinary actions, and criminal referrals. The ANCVL fully supports expanding this mandate.
Learning from Global Models & Leveraging Our Wealth
As a former member of the SACP and ANC, Cde Madimetja understood that a strong government requires a disciplined, self-correcting movement. A movement that does not tolerate individuals who are involved in corruption and who are self-serving.
In describing party discipline, President Xi Jinping observed that a strong political party is forged through continuous self-reform, strict internal discipline, and unbreakable bonds with the people. China’s deliberate development strategy and firm stance against corruption helped lift nearly 800 million people out of extreme poverty over four decades — accounting for three-quarters of global poverty reduction.
While the ANC is a broad liberation movement rather than a cadre-only party, we must draw clear lessons on enforcing strict accountability and expelling corrupt elements without compromise, through ANC Disciplinary processes South Africa remains one of the most resource-rich nations on earth, holding 16 major mineral commodities ranked in the global top 10:
· Platinum Group Metals (PGMs): Holding roughly 88% of world reserves, centered in the Bushveld Complex.
· Manganese: Holding 80% of global reserves, primarily in the Transvaal Supergroup.
· Gold & Coal: Significant historical reserves in the Witwatersrand Basin and extensive coal reserves in the Karoo Basin.
· Industrial Minerals: Leading global producer of chrome, vanadium, titanium, zirconium, and diamonds.
With such immense natural wealth, the government and the private sector must collaborate on actionable economic policies that prioritise local mineral beneficiation and long-term job creation.
Conclusion: Repositioning the Movement
As we look toward the 2026 Local Government Elections, the ANCVL and the ANC have outlined a clear ground campaign focused on restoring public trust:
· Rapid service delivery interventions
· Direct community house meetings and local cleaning campaigns
· Establishing community food gardens
· Targeted voter registration drives to register 4 million young voters and 4 million supporters
· Assisting the elderly and vulnerable with special vote registrations and home visits.
As we reflect on the life and legacy of Cde Madimetja Lawrence Phokanoka, we are reminded that the path to liberation was never easy, and the journey to build a just, prosperous society is equally demanding.
His life teaches us that resilience, intellectual rigour, and unwavering principle are essential. In his honour, let us recommit ourselves to the renewal of our movement and the advancement of the National Democratic Revolution. Let us confront the challenges of our time with the same clarity, vigour, and courage that he demonstrated throughout his life.
The question is not whether we can overcome, but whether we have the collective will to do what must be done.
The answer lies in our hands.
I thank you.
***
Dr Snuki Zikalala is the President of the African National Congress Veterans’ League (ANCVL)
REFERENCES:
1. If We Must Die: An Autobiography of a Former Commander of UMkhonto We Sizwe by Stanley Manong
2. The Governance of China: Xi Jinping
3. What Is to Be Done? Burning Questions of Our Movement – a political pamphlet written by Vladimir Lenin in 1901 and published in March 1902.
4. Biography record Madimetja Lawrence Phokanoka
https://sahistory.org.za/people/madimetja-lawrence-phokanoka
5. Unlawful Organizations Act, 1960
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UnlawfulOrganizations_Act,_1960
6. The Luthuli Detachment carried out the joint Wankie and Sipolilo campaigns alongside ZIPRA from July 1967 through 1968. Detailed historical context is recorded by the South African History Online and SADET Document Archive . [ 1 ,2 , 3 ]
7. Cde Madimetja Lawrence Phokanoka spent about 10 months (rather than over a year) awaiting trial at [Pretoria Central Prison] (www.southafrica.net) before being sent to Robben Island, where details of his [South African History Online] (https://sahistory.org.za/people/madimetja-lawrence-phokanoka)
8. ANC Veterans League | ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa closes the conference
9. The role of Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs) in facilitating workplace-based training and post-apartheid skills development is detailed in the Skills Development Legislation Report via Parliament of South Africa and further analysed in the ERSA Working Paper on the SETA System.
2. JOEL NETITSHENDZE – CELEBRATING THE LIFE AND TIMES OF LAWRENCE PHOKANOKA: REFLECTIONS ON THEORY AND PRAXIS IN THE CURRENT CONJUNCTURE
– AN ADDRESS TO THE 2nd ANNUAL LAWRENCE PHOKANOKA LECTURE HELD AT THE UNIVERSITY OF LIMPOPO 27 JULY 2026
It is a truly an honour to reflect on theory and praxis in the current conjuncture, especially in this month, exactly 20 years after the passing of Lawrence Madimetja Phokanoka. The links and threads of history, both visible and invisible, that characterise the life of this hero of our struggle are many and varied.
And so, we discover that, like OR Tambo and Duma Nokwe, comrade Phokes had a special disposition and capacity for Mathematics and Natural Sciences; and he was enrolled for a Bachelor of Science Degree in Applied Mathematics and Physics at the University of Fort Hare. Like Tambo and Nokwe, he recognised that the language and logic of Mathematics are incomplete without the mastery of social sciences, honing his skills in transdisciplinarity.
The visible and invisible threads in Phokanoka’s life find expression in mentorship and struggle peerage: academically educated at Kilnerton High School under Sefako Makgato, a teacher and former President of the ANC; politically trained under the leadership of the likes of OR Tambo, Moses Kotane, Joe Slovo, Florence Mophosho and Yusuf Dadoo; and then all the way to 18 years of tutelage under Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu and other leaders on Robben Island.
With him as Deputy Commissar, members of the Luthuli Detachment such as Chris Hani, Flag Boshielo, James April, Patrick Molaoa, Mavuso Msimang and Basil February made their mark in MK and ZIPRA battles with enemy forces at Wankie and Sipolilo.
It is in recognition of his service to the people of South Africa that his chest was adorned with many awards, including the Party’s highest honour, the Moses Kotane Award and South Africa’s Order of Luthuli.
This appreciation extended beyond the political elite: he was elected top of the list to go to parliament in 1994; but he declined, and later served as community liaison officer in the provincial Department of Safety and Security – where he had to be persuaded to accept his new government salary which he felt was too high.
Many of us still feel a sense of sadness not to have met him after he lost his sight, what is ordinarily a debilitating affliction. Why? Because I’m certain that physical blindness would have sharpened his vision even further. It would have galvanised the width and depth of his already exceptional memory; and perfected his analytical and communication skills.
Lawrence Phokanoka had a penchant for establishing connections among seemingly unconnected phenomena in the social and natural world; understanding life in its multiple dimensions. As many of his peers and associates have observed, he was hard-working, self-effacing, persistent, erudite and a master of polemics.
This made him a political education officer par excellence. To quote former Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe: [Phokanoka] was always eager and ready to explain and simplify concepts … He would explain the laws of motion, which [apply] with equal force both in society as well as in nature. This law …specifically states that: ‘a thing is, and a thing is not, but always in a state of becoming’…” (Motlanthe: 2023)
Let us conduct our conversation with Bra Phokes today guided by this profound observation: ‘a thing is, and a thing is not, but always in a state of becoming’. This is about the permanence of change: change that can lead to a new form (or transformation of quantity into quality); to co-existence or rapture between contending forces (or unity and struggle of opposites), and to movement from low to higher forms of complexity in a system (or negation of the negation).
This appreciation of permanent dynamism challenges the tendency in our society especially among so-called analysts and commentators, with dumbing down becoming a badge of honour. Complexities of social life are simplified to crudity, an insidious scourge in our body politic; which can be as destructive as the material realities of poverty and inequality.
Before elaborating on the global and domestic conjuncture, let me give a simple illustration.
There is this study called PIRLS – the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study – which in 2021 came up with the shocking result that 81% of our Grade 4 learners are unable to read for meaning.
This then is repeated everywhere as a mantra – you have to regurgitate this if you wish to be the longitudinal trend: that percentage was higher at 87% in 2006; it then came down to 82% in 2011 and further down to 78% in 2016. (Metelerkamp: 2023)
And so, in South Africa’s famous sport of self-flagellation we miss the mega-trend of gradual improvement before Covid-19, and thus the possibility of rising from the trough. We ignore the ‘state of becoming’ that Phokanoka taught us about.
Let us now examine that ‘state of becoming’ in relation to the cause of social change. In doing so, we’ll try to use Phokanoka’s methodology, emulate his analysis, and even venture to debate with him in his absence!
Lawrence Phokanoka understood that humans, as social beings, advance their lives by constantly transforming the natural world through ever-evolving means of production. As humanity advances, social life and production processes have to be organised and regulated.
In the course of such advancement, specialisation, division of labour and inequitable appropriation of assets and products of labour takes root. Thus, the observation by David Ricardo (1817): The produce of the earth – all that is derived from its surface by the united application of labour, machinery, and capital, is divided among … classes of the community … To determine the laws which regulate this distribution, is the principal problem in Political Economy…
The classics of social science which inspired Phokanoka teach us that the history of humanity is one of class struggle around this fundamental question of political economy. The state, ideological discourse, religious beliefs, education – in other words, the superstructure – are shaped to promote and defend existing social relations.
Phokanoka chose to pursue the ideal of freeing humans from toil towards the joy of a comfortable and fulfilling life. He joined the Communist Party because he sought a global society in which, to quote Karl Marx (1845), “…nobody has one exclusive sphere of activity but each can become accomplished in any branch [he or she] wishes. This is a society without classes, and even without the need for an overlord in the form of a state.
Many have characterised Marxism as an ideology of dictatorship. However, Phokes knew that, in celebrating the Paris Commune, Marx and Engels cited its implementation of elections and popular democracy; the right to recall public representatives; and correlation between the lifestyle of the political leadership and that of the working people. (Marx: 1871)
Whence, then, does the issue of dictatorship of the proletariat arise and why is it associated with a socialist revolution? There are two elements to this. The first one is about managing a transition after such a revolution given the internal and external resistance to popular power, which would be a transitional imperative conditional on the nature of counter-revolution. The second one is about the very notion of dictatorship as conceptualised by Marx, Engels and other social scientists. In all class-divided societies, they argued, the dominant class assumes pre-eminence and it uses ideational capacity and state power to assert its authority. In their conception, this applies to all class-based societies.
Indeed, in analysing the collapse of ‘living socialism’ in Eastern Europe, Joe Slovo in 1990 argued that even in the transition, the great divide which developed between socialism and political democracy should not be treated as flowing naturally from key aspects of socialist doctrine… Marxism clearly projects a system anchored in deep-seated political democracy and the rights of the individual which can only be truly attained when society as a whole assumes control and direction of all its riches and resources. (Slovo: 1990)
But was that experiment itself viable? Francis Fukuyama (1992) in his famous book, The End of History and the Last Man argued that ‘liberal democracy’ is ‘arguably free from …fundamental internal contradictions’. (Fukuyama: 1992) While acknowledging ‘injustice’ and ‘serious social problems’, these ‘were ones of incomplete implementation of the twin principles of liberty and equality on which modern democracy is founded, rather than of flaws in the principles themselves’.
US with corruption and crony capitalism or plutocracy, his argument about ‘liberal democracy’ is not dissimilar to Slovo’s critique of ‘living socialism’.
Fukuyama made these assertions because capitalism has shown a remarkable capacity for self-renewal and regeneration. It has led to major advances in science and technology and today, it has given birth to the so-called 4th industrial revolution including artificial intelligence, combining human and machine capabilities in a manner that has the potential massively to improve the human condition (or even the opposite). Artificial Intelligence, to quote Prof Tshilidzi Marwala has become an integral part of our daily existence, influencing fields as diverse as healthcare, education, finance, and entertainment….[making] decisions or predictions that affect individuals and communities… with profound social and ethical implications. (Marwala: 2023)
So, if capitalism has this potential, was Phokanoka wrong in envisioning a more humane society? What about the advances being attained in China, with its penchant to embrace and domesticate the best in scientific advances, to generate new forms of knowledge, and to reduce poverty in a manner hardly seen in human history – a China emerging once more as a pre-eminent economic power that it once was some two to three centuries ago?
I think Bra Phokes would have argued that the system of capitalism has now generated fundamental contradictions which seem to have reached a confluence of irresolution. Liberal democracy is giving birth to unashamed rule by the rich and openly corrupt. With social inequality worsening, the ruling class and political elites have defaulted to the politics of narrow identity.
At the same time, the world seems to be galloping towards the so-called Thucydides Trap where a rising power in the form of China, is seen as an existential threat. In the Middle East, impunity is celebrated as genocide plays out ever again and unprovoked wars are initiated. Direct and proxy conflicts are being waged in Eastern Europe, and in Central and Eastern Africa. In the Maghreb and the Sahel, security-centred approaches to dealing with the scourge of terrorism – at the expense of the social issues that generate such conflicts – are not producing desired results.
We use the notions of ‘ruling class’ and ‘political elites’ deliberately; for, what is meant to be the left social democratic movement seems itself to have been co-opted into the broader schema of neo-liberalism and militarism; and it is experiencing declining electoral fortunes (in countries such as Germany and France). Even in the UK where the Labour Party is in government, this movement seems to be pathetically adrift, like flotsam in an unforgiving turbulent sea. Desperately trying to stem electoral misfortune, the presumed Left itself resorts to the straws of ‘classless identity politics’, averting the eye from the fundamental question of political economy to which David Ricardo drew attention more than two hundred years ago.
In this regard, Bra Phokes would have reminded us of Lenin’s (1913) assertion: People always have have learnt to seek out the interests of some class or other behind all moral, religious, political and social phrases, declarations and promises.
Under these circumstances, who would blame Phokanoka if today he were to argue that, long as it may have taken, capitalism has now truly sown the seeds of its own destruction?
What then about the macrosocial environment in South Africa? I will select a few themes which lend themselves to Phokanoka’s articulation: ‘a thing is, and a thing is not, but always in a state of becoming’.
Theme 1 – A contextual presentism: The tendency has taken root in much of popular discourse that, because we face many challenges today as a nation, nothing has changed since 1994. It is not the purpose of our discussion today to list the many advances that have been made since the attainment of democracy, across all generations of human rights as enshrined the country’s Constitution. Many things could have been done better and faster; but to discount these advances is to question the very utility of liberation. The speed, the extent and the depth of a Freedom Charter in a state of becoming, need to be improved. But, as we celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Congress of the People and the injunction that ‘the people shall govern’ (Freedom Charter: 1955), we can say with confidence that the attainment of democracy in South Africa was not fleeting mirage.
A contextual presentism becomes even more perplexing when those in state institutions revel in explaining how terrible things are; rather than focusing on explaining what concrete interventions would be effected to improve the situation.
Theme 2 – Two Economies of the colony and the metropolis: The South African colonial economy was founded on expropriation of black people’s assets, limitations on black and women’s entrepreneurship and skills, cheap labour and provision of privileges to the white minority. Data point to some post-colonial progress in black skills acquisition, representation in management and Boards of established companies, and asset ownership. In some respects, such as skilled occupations and demographics of university enrolment (including gender), the progress is worth celebrating. Yet, in others, such as asset ownership, including land redistribution, performance has been woeful.
The advanced section of the South African economy is chugging along, though at low rates of growth, absorbing a section of the black community. Yet most black people remain excluded – and we are sometimes criticised for seeking to create employment opportunities for workers we wish we have, not the actual unemployed who are either unskilled or semi-skilled. We need to deal with inclusion critically from the point of view of the colony which, in the negation of the negation, remains largely far from a post-colonial state of becoming.
What interventions are required in this regard? Firstly, the National Development Plan asserts, based on comprehensive research, that in agriculture alone, we can create some 1-million jobs in ten to fifteen years if certain targeted interventions are made. Secondly, low-end manufacturing, including through Special Economic Zones and Industrial Parks (appropriately configured and better than what we currently have with the Musina-Makhado initiative) – premised on diverse trade especially with Africa – can absorb many unskilled and semi-skilled workers. Thirdly, directed and comprehensive focus on micro- and informal enterprises would dramatically change the way in which the marginalised pursue economic opportunities. The current debate about the size of the informal sector is interesting but largely irrelevant: the fact is that we can do more.
Theme 3 – Measures to deal with inequality: Before elaborating on these issues, let’s just underline that inequality between races is declining, while inequality within the black community is increasing.
Why does inequality matter, you may ask? In their book, The Spirit Level, Wilkinson and Pickett (2010) show that violence, prison population, drug use, mental illness, life expectancy, educational advancement, and teenage births, are much worse in societies that have high levels of income inequality – even when these societies are ranked at the same level of development. The marginalised sediment of society feels it has nothing to lose; and in politics, it is mobilised on the basis of ethnicity and targeting of migrants, and even to generate social instability, as we experienced in July 2021.
To deal with this challenge, the measures required include: economic growth and access to opportunities; education and skills development; employee and community share-ownership schemes; income policy that includes both a minimum wage and reduced income differentials within enterprises. There are the less obvious ones such as the impact of food inflation and prices of utilities such as water and electricity on the poor, on which they spend the bulk of their incomes. Added to this is the hidden apartheid tax on the poor in terms of transport costs, due to the apartheid spatial settlement patters, that our housing policies have tended to entrench. The state of becoming on spatial issues is one of the areas on which we have perhaps made the least progress.
Theme 4 – Black capitalists and construction of a national democratic society: (On this one I am not sure Bra Phokes who was uncomfortable with a mid-level civil service salary because he felt it was too high, would agree). So, let’s debate the issue! The Freedom Charter says: All people shall have equal rights to trade where they choose, to manufacture and to enter all trades, crafts and professions. Jack Simons used to make the point to us in the MK camps that, in the cut-throat dynamics of any capitalist system, when people have rights to trade, manufacture and so on, some will succeed, and others will fail. And so, you will end up with small and large enterprises even among the new entrants.
Now, the corollary of promoting equality of access to opportunity is that the democratic state has to encourage the emergence of a cohort of black capitalists (a ‘black capitalist class’, so to speak).
Yes, Broad-based Black Economic Empowerment must include skills training, positions in management and Boards, as well as employee and community share-ownership. But you cannot talk about a racially equitable capitalist system without a ‘black capitalist class’. This element of levelling up is a necessity. The problem is when this form of empowerment is projected as the totality of transformation, and when the beneficiaries do not themselves pursue broad-based empowerment. It is when those who access these opportunities do so only to acquire wealth and status, avoid the coalface of financial, trade and industrial activity, and end up cashing out their shares in order to pursue sedentary lifestyles in Dubai or the French Riviera.
Theme 4 – Race, national unity and social cohesion: The debate about the extent to which South African society has advanced towards national unity and social cohesion will fester for many years to come. What we have as a nation is a classic example of: a thing is, and a thing is not, but always in a state of becoming. The flag, the national anthem, celebration of sporting pursuits and interactions among the multi-racial elites (mainly as cultural co-option of the black middle and upper strata) are somewhat important as indicators of positive sentiment. But they will be fleeting and inconsequential if the fundamental questions of social equity are not addressed.
Quite clearly, the quarrels around issues of race derive, essentially, from material self-interest. The political compact of the early 1990s sought to encourage patience on the part of the marginalised for an orderly process of social transformation; and a commitment on the part of the privileged to contribute to healing ‘the divisions of the past’ and the establishment of ‘a society based on… social justice… (RSA Constitution: 1996) But, the ‘guts to fight back’ belligerence of what is today the Democratic Alliance (DA: 1999) sought to undermine that compact; and it continues today in challenges to transformative statutes and practices. It continues in the racist and right-wing alliances that are being forged across borders, especially with the rise of such parties in many developed countries of the North.
Theme 5 – The national question and narrow ethnic identity: Beyond matters of race, it is deeply concerning that the mobilisation of communities among Black people on the basis of ethnic and language identities seems to be finding fertile ground. This was much in evidence in the outcome of the 2024 elections with overt and covert dog-whistles among Africans in KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng and Mpumalanga; and broadly in relation to the Coloured community in some of the provinces.
How is it possible thirty years into democracy, for this kind of mobilisation to find fertile ground? Maybe it’s personality cults and loyalties, or opportunistic mobilisation; but the fact of the matter is that opportunism only thrives where there is opportunity. The state of becoming of the South African nation – at whose foundation should be the unity of the African people as enjoined more than a century ago when the ANC was formed – evinces two contradictory tendencies today.
On the one hand, and quite correctly, we have urged the erstwhile oppressed to take pride in their languages, culture and traditions.
On the other, we seek, again quite correctly, to promote the overarching identity of being South African. The multi-ethnic Limpopo Province – particularly localities such as Thulamela and Vuwani and Malamulele – has been trying to manage these seemingly contradictory impulses. The fundamental question is whether in the dialectical negation of the negation South Africa will move towards synthesis or degenerate toward ‘the demon’, ‘the aberrations’ and ‘the animosity’ that Pixley ka Isaka Seme warned against. (Seme: 1911)
Theme 6 – State legitimacy and authority: For the state of becoming to reflect the continuing march towards the ideals of the Constitution, requires a state that is capable, ethical and developmental. It should exercise authority as the ultimate bearer of arms and as the enforcer of law and order. Of course, such authority can only be sustained if it derives from popular legitimacy – when the state is seen to pursue the popular interest. Democracy is the starting point in according such legitimacy; but it must be undergirded by the progressive pursuit of all other generations of rights enshrined in the Constitution: economic, social, gender, informational and otherwise.
Critical in the state’s right to use force is the integrity and legitimacy of state security institutions. But this is not easily attained, even in the most advanced democracies, because the warning that ‘power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely’ (Dalberg-Acton: 1887), is even more relevant in the security sector.
We have recently had strange incidents, with machinations within the South African Police Service, in particular, where the hunters become the hunted and the other way round, in a dizzying display of smoke and mirrors. We need to be vigilant as citizens because, as others have warned, we may find ourselves hoodwinked to use democracy to destroy democracy.
Theme 7 – Organisational renewal of the ANC: There are many proposals that have been made about how to renew the ANC in terms of its focus on improving the human condition, especially among the poor. The Constitution guides us about the ideals that we should pursue – and as Phokanoka would say, there can be no revolution without a revolutionary organisation. This relates to the functionality of branches, the organic links between members and communities, and the quality of leaders, cadres and members at large.
Thus, the campaign around political education and initiation of the Foundational Course are to be commended. Tens of thousands of members have gone through the modules. While there may be criticisms that the numbers in each branch still reflect a small cohort of members; that there may have been tick-box exercises in some branches; and that undergoing political instruction may not necessarily change ingrained individual faults – the fact of the matter is that the movement has embarked on one of its largest political education campaigns; and we need to build on this. The proposal that members who have not gone through the course should be barred from assuming leadership positions and from being selected as delegates to conferences at all levels, needs to be seriously considered. This would act as an important incentive.
Theme 8 – Leadership selection and challenge of ‘ultra-democracy’: Over the years, the ANC has grappled with systems of developing, career-pathing and promoting its cadres to positions of responsibility. In the recent period, we have introduced criteria for accession to these positions, including political acumen, ethical conduct and academic qualifications. The Electoral Committee has been refining these processes; but still the eye of the needle is not narrow enough to prevent miscreants from squeezing through. Ultra-democracy lends itself to the utilisation of all manner of machinations, including money, to ascend to positions of leadership. There is much that we can learn from many Social Democratic Parties and former liberation movements such as Chama Cha Mapinduzi in Tanzania and FRELIMO in Mozambique, particularly on the management of succession.
There are many missteps that can further erode popular confidence in the ANC and drag it even lower in terms of electoral support. Let me be bold to assert that, besides management of governance and socio-economic performance, the succession battles in the build-up to the 2027 National Conference will determine whether the ANC survives as the leader of the cause of transformation. The generation of the 2008 Youth League Congress is now in charge across the organisation; and we know that in internal electoral contestation, they take no prisoners and even forget to bring their belts to conference sessions. Let this not be the culture going forward.
Theme 9 – The Tri-partite Alliance and the conduct of revolution: It is instructive that Lawrence Phokanoka joined the Communist Party in 1959 and the ANC later in 1960 – a sequence that is not common among many cadres. He could have just stayed in the Party. But that generation of Party cadres fully understood that a ‘good communist’ should excel in mass movements, with the ANC being the pre-eminent mass organisation of liberation. They appreciated that the pursuit of a socialist society, should traverse the path of national liberation, a National Democratic Revolution, whose content and form they should influence. They patiently and in a disciplined manner strove to deepen the class content of the liberation struggle, and accepted that the ANC’s own creed would inject a necessary national content into the Party’s ideological posture, in bidirectional osmosis.
The Tri-partite Alliance – today constituted by ANC, the SACP and COSATU – and the broader configuration that includes SANCO, proceeds form a common analysis of the current character of struggle. Differences on matters of detail, including decision-making structures and deployment into institutions of governance, cannot override this fundamental perspective.
Many of us therefore argue that the SACP’s entry into electoral politics as a separate entity threatens to weaken both the ANC and the SACP and, by extension, COSATU and SANCO. We can refer to the experience of the recent Polokwane Ward 13 by-election and even Metsimaholo as examples of this – though it would wrong to generalise. What is clear, though, is that this stance of the Party is bound to divide the motive forces of change and confuse the electorate.
Organisationally, it can spawn a nasty and debilitating anti-communist witch-hunt in the ANC and further set progressive unionists against each other. This, at a time when the revolution is facing the most acute domestic threats; and when global extreme right-wing forces are targeting our country’s transformation agenda, spewing white racist and revanchist rhetoric.
On this score, I would not like to venture a view on what the Phokanoka methodology would have advanced as a way forward. Save to say that, all of us do hope that the engagements among the leadership of the Tripartite Alliance will find a solution to the challenge. Some hope that the resolution of the Party’s Linda Jabane District Congress which seeks creatively to interpret the National Congress resolution may signal a way out of the looming crisis. According to District alliance partners, progressive forces, and working-class [in] defending and reconfiguring the alliance and advancing the National Democratic Revolution (Jabane: 2025).
Hopefully, something good and better – a synthesis – will yet come out of what are otherwise secondary contradictions.
Let us emphasise, in conclusion, that social transformation will remain necessary even if the ANC’s electoral fortunes change; whether there are coalitions or not. What is fundamental in this fluid environment is for the movement to master all terrains of struggle, including, critically, mass mobilisation, the courts, the ‘think industry’ and platforms of the commentariat, in intensifying the struggle to attain all the ideals enshrined in the Constitution.
This then is how I thought we should celebrate the life of Lawrence Madimetja Phokanoka, by using his methodology to contribute to what should be a continuous festival of ideas.
REFERENCES
Dalberg-Alton, J. 1887. Letter to Mandell Creighton. April 1887.
Encyclopaedia Britannica. 2025. Democratic Alliance. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Democratic-
Alliance-political-party-South-Africa
Freedom Charter. 1955. Congress of the People. https://www.anc1912.org.za/
Fukuyama, F. 1992. The End of History and the Last Man.
Fukuyama, F. 2014. At the ‘End of History’ Still Stands Democracy. The Wall Street Journal. 6 June 2014
Lenin, V. 1913. The Three Sources and Three Component Parts of Marxism.
https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1913/mar/x01.htm)
Marwala, T. 2023. “Militarisation of AI has severe implications for global security and warfare”, Daily Maverick. 18 July 2023. https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2023-07-18-militarisation-of-ai-has-severe-implications-for-global-security-and-warfare/
Marx, K. 1845. A critique of the German Ideology. https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/german-ideology/ch01a.htm].
Marx, K. 1871. The Civil War in France.
Metelerkamp, T. 2023. Daily Maverick. International study shows most Grade 4s in South Africa cannot read for meaning. 16 May 2023. https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2023-05-16-international-study-shows-81-of-grade-4s-in-south-africa-cannot-read-for-meaning/
Motlanthe, K. 2023. “Address by former President Kgalema Motlanthe for the Lawrence Madimetja Phokanoka Foundation”. 3 June 2023. https://motlanthe.org/address-by-former-president-kgalema-motlanthe-for-the-lawrence-madimetja-phokanoka-foundation-on-3-june-2023-at-the-university-of-limpopo/
Ricardo, D. 1817. “On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, 1817 RSA Constitution”. 1996. https://www.justice.gov.za/constitution/SAConstitution-web-eng.pdf
Sadike, M. 2025. IOL. “SACP Linda Jabane District partners with ANC for pivotal 2026 elections”. 10 July 2025. https://iol.co.za/news/south-africa/gauteng/2025-07-10-sacp-linda-jabane-district-partners-with-anc-for-pivotal-2026-elections/#google_vignette
Seme, P. 1911. “Native Union”. Article by Pixley ka Isaka Seme. 24 October, 1911.
https://sahistory.org.za/archive/native-union-article-pixley-ka-isaka-seme-october-24-1911
Slovo, J. 1990. “Has Socialism Failed?”
Wilkinson, R and Pickett, K. 2010. The Spirit Level: Why Equality is Better for Everyone. London: Penguin
3. ADDRESS BY FORMER PRESIDENT KGALEMA MOTLANTHE AT THE LAWRENCE MADIMETJA PHOKANOKA FOUNDATION ON 3 JUNE 2024 AT THE UNIVERSITY OF LIMPOPO
Programme Director: Polly Boshielo
The Phokanoka Family: Bonaficius Phokanoka, Ngoato Moleke, Lentsoana Ivy
Premier Stanely Chupwu Mathabatha
Cde MEC Dr Poppy Ramathuba
VC Prof Mahlo Mokgalong
Rachidi Robert – interim Chairperson of the Foundation and your fellow Board Members;
Dr. Dickson Masemola;
Letshesa Tsenoli;
George Mashamba;
Joyce Moloi Moropa;
The Alliance Structures;
Comrades and Friends;
Ladies and Gentlemen.
I would like to start by thanking THE LAWRENCE MADIMETJA PHOKANOKA FOUNDATION for inviting all of you who rise and stand for the PHOKANOKA FOUNDATION’s motto: “Uplifting the Downtrodden”: through innovation and science.
It is my singular honour and privilege to gather with you all in the launch and establishment of this Foundation. This Foundation, whose time has come.
Like many of his comrades and like all of us, Comrade Phokanoka is at once a product and creator of history. A child of his environment.
Comrade Lawrence Madimetja Phokanoka was born on the 10th June 1938 at Ga-Phaahla, Makadikwe village of Sekhukhuneland, where his father Jacob Marwale Phokanoka worked as a Primary School Teacher. His mother Selinah Mamashilo was a housewife earning (making income) through dressmaking.
In 1945, at the age of seven (7), he was sent to live with his aunt in Alexandra Township, Johannesburg. One year later he commenced his primary school in Alexandra before transferring to Ga-Nchabeleng village where he continued his studies at Mankopane Tribal School.
In 1953 he was enrolled in Kilnerton High School where he was one of the best achievers and where he got first class in Arithmetic and Mathematics until he successfully completed his matric in 1958.
Kilnerton is where the 2nd President General of the ANC, Sefako Mapogo Makgatho was a teacher, and so by entering Kilnerton, Comrade Phokes joined an educational path of many illustrious leaders before him.
Sefako Mapogo Makgatho started his career as a teacher at the Kilnerton Training Institute, a Methodist School for African children living near Pretoria and Johannesburg. Kilnerton Training Institute is known for some of its illustrious students, including Miriam Makeba, Lilian Ngoyi and Moses Mphahlele. Makgatho taught there until 1906 when he, together with other teachers in the Transvaal, formed one of the first teacher unions, the Transvaal African Teachers’ Association (TATA).
Moses Mphahlele, himself was the Secretary of the African National Congress (ANC) in the Transvaal during the 1920s, and received his education at Kilnerton, where he graduated with a teacher’s certificate. He taught for some time, then became an interpreter. Mweli Skota who published the African Yearly Register, An Illustrated National Biographical Dictionary (Who’s Who) of Black Folks in Africa in 1930, describes him as a political protégé of S. M. Makgatho.
The launch of this Foundation takes place on the 81st anniversary since “Morena boloka setjhaba sa heso”, was composed by Moses Mphahlele during the middle of the 2nd World War (WWII) in 1942.
Morena boloka setjhaba sa heso, (God protect our nation)
O fedise dintwa le matshwenyeho, (End all wars and tribulations / Intervene and end all conflicts)
O se boloke, O se boloke setjhaba sa heso, (Protect us, protect our nation)
Setjhaba sa South Afrika – South Afrika. (Our nation South Africa – South Africa)
This is a call for peace. The leadership at that time felt that “Morena Boloka Setjabasa Heso” is a good companion to ‘Nkosi Sikelela’, and from thence sung them as one anthem.
Allow me to take the liberty to explain the history behind our National Anthem and how it evolved over time.
Here are the facts:
Ø Enoch Sontonga composed the first two stanzas of Nkosi Sikelel’ in 1897 for his school choir.
Ø The other stanzas to Nkosi Sikelel’, were added by renowned poet laureate Samuel E.K. Mqhayi.
Ø The Ohlange Institute choir offered a rendition of the song after a closing prayer at the South African Native National Congress meeting in January 1912.
Ø “Morena boloka setjhaba sa heso” was written by Moses Mphahlele in 1942.
Ø And the leadership of the African National Congress decided that this Sesotho composition was a good companion to Nkosi Sikelel’.
Ø And hence they are sung together as one Anthem for the struggle, representing a homology to freedom.
Ø Whereas Die Stem van Suid-Afrika is a poem written by CJ Langenhoven in May 1918. The music was composed by the Reverend ML de Villiers in 1921.
Ø The song (Die Stem) was firstly sung on the 31st of May in 1928 as an anthem of the Afrikaaners.
Ø On 20 April 1994, President Nelson Mandela proclaimed that, in terms of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, the Republic would have two National Anthems. It would be “Nkosi sikelel’ iAfrika” and Die Stem van Suid-Afrika.
Ø And so a committee was established to work out how these two anthems were going to be arranged and sung.
Ø The committee responsible for this new composition included Anna Bender, Elize Botha, Richard Cock, Dolf Havemann (Secretary), Mzilikazi Khumalo (Chairman), Masizi Kunene, John Lenake, Fatima Meer, Khabi Mngoma, Wally Serote, Johan de Villiers, and Jeanne Zaidel-Rudolph.
It was this committee that decided to start with:
Ø Nkosi sikelel’ iAfrika;
Ø Morena boloka setjhaba sa heso;
Ø Die Stem;
Ø And then added the English part, ‘Sounds the call’, by Jeanne Zaidel-Rudolph.
That is where our South African National Anthem comes from.
Let us allow Dr. Verwoed to introduce, in his own words, the Bantu Education Act, as he introduced it in Parliament in 1953:
“I want to remind honourable members that if the native in South Africa today, in any kind of school in existence, is being taught to expect that he will live his adult life under a policy of equal rights, he is making a big mistake”
Father Trevor Huddleston’s interpretation and insight of this Act was as follows:
“There can be no question that of all Apartheid legislation during the past 8 years of Nationalist rule, the Bantu Education Act is by far the most important and by far the most deadly in its effect yet in fact that act passed through both houses (of Parliament) with the greatest ease and with the minimum of opposition except for 1 or 2 of the native representatives.
Today it is being implemented efficiently and very swiftly all over the country.
Yet its consequences will be so grave for the African people that they may take a generation or more to recover from them.”
In Bantu Education, South Africa has devised a unique system,
“the only education system in the world designed to restrict the productivity of its pupils in the national economy to lowly and subservient tasks to render them non-competitive in that economy, to fix them in a tribal world…”
By Dr W.G. McConkey, Former Director of education in Natal, writing in the Natal Daily News, December 1962
A sixteen years old Phokes took part in what can be regarded as his first political activity at Kilnerton Institution when he participated in a triumphant march to the Union Building over the half-yearly examinations for the Form one students in 1954. This march was led by the likes of Joe Nhlanhla, Mandla Tshabalala and others who later became leaders of the ANC.
The 1950s ushered in a decade of rolling mass mobilisation and defiance of the apartheid system. Starting with the Defiance of Unjust Laws Campaign of 1952, the Congress of the People leading to the adoption of the Freedom Charter in 1955; the Treason Trial of 1956 to 1960; and then the Women’s March of 1956; the Alexander Bus Boycott 1957; A-Pound-a-Day National Minimum Wage Campaign is launched following the Bus boycott; and then the Potato Boycott 1959.
It is against that backdrop of mass activism that Comrade Phokanoka enrolled at the University of Forte Hare in 1959 at the age of 21, where he met a young Chris Hani who was also a fresher at the age 17.
Chris Hani formalized his interest in classics and literature when he registered for Latin Studies and English Literature whereas Comrade Phokes registered for a Bachelor of Science Degree in Applied Mathematics and Physics.
Meanwhile at Fort Hare, Phokes visited the library one afternoon and found a book titled, “The World’s Greatest Thinkers”. He paged through the book and found at the end of it, someone, in fact, the last person called Karl Marx.
Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, in 1847, founded in London the world’s First international communist organization, called the Union of Communists, and in 1848 wrote its programme, “The Communist Manifesto” in which they briefly expounded the principal ideas of communism.
He read that Manifesto over and over again. How Phokes wished he could have been introduced to these ideas earlier. He joined the Communist Party in 1959 at the age of 21 and then the ANC a year later.
People form organisations for a purpose.
Comrade Ephraim Mogale (1980s) tells the story of how as a youth he and his friend decided to form a communist party because the apartheid government propaganda expressed its fear of communists. So Ephraim Mogale reasoned that if communism is so bad for our oppressors, then it must be good for the oppressed.
The Communist Party is the vanguard for the working class, i.e. its most conscientious and organised detachment, one that leads the working people in their revolutionary class struggle.
The working class’s political party is not just one of its organisations, but the supreme form of the proletariat’s class organisation. It is called upon to achieve political leadership of all other working-class and all working people’s organisations (trade unions; cultural and educational societies; youth, women’s and other mass associations) without imposing that leadership and operating so that all of them would become convinced that the party specifies with maximum clarity their objectives and the way to implement the latter.
Already in the communist manifesto, Marx and Engels, in characterising the most essential features of communists, noted that theoretically
“they have over the great mass of the proletariat the advantage of clearly understanding the conditions, and the ultimate general results of the proletarian movement.
In 1963, Comrade Phokanoka went into exile. Later he received military and political training in the Soviet Union. He deputised Chris Hani as the Commissar for MK.
From all accounts of some of the combatants who were involved in the Hwange Campaign we learn that it took them the whole day to go down the ravine and cross the Zambezi river into Zimbabwe. Once they were in the Hwange game reserve, they ran out of water and had to shoot an elephant, open its belly to reach for its liver containing some water to quench their thirst. Hwange game park is characterised by underground rivers, hence the non availability of water on the surface. Most of the MK combatants retreated into Botswana, some fell including Basil February and Patrick Molaoa, the last ANCYL elected President before the banning of the ANC. But Comrade Phokanoka was arrested and handed over to the SA Security Branch who detained him in Compol Building, the HQ of the Security Branch in Pretoria in 1967/8.
Comrade Phokanoka together with 18 fellow freedom fighters were formally charged in January, 1969 in the Pietermaritzburg High Court. He was convicted, sentenced to 18 years and incarcerated in Robben Island Prison. For the political prisoners 18 years meant that you had to serve the full sentence to the last day, without parole or remission. In fact, if you were to die during your incarceration the prison system would feel cheated – hence you would be offered access to the best hospital treatment rather than be allowed to die before completing your sentence. In prison Comrade Phokes was driven by a deep sense of urgency. He was forever anxious to fill up every second, every minute, every hour with political education. He was always eager and ready to explain and simplify concepts using illustrative language based on the listener’s or interlocutor’s world of experience. He would explain the laws of motion, which applies with equal force both in society as well as in nature. This law entails process, and specifically states that: “a thing is, and a thing is not, but always in a state of becoming”.
For instance, Comrade Phokes would explain that motion is a function of the working out of opposites. In this regard, he would use the thumb as standing in opposition to the rest of the fingers – and yet together with any of the fingers enables human beings to hold and manipulate minute instruments. This would be one of the numerous ways in which he explains contradictions.
If Comrade Phokanoka engaged you in one of his animated discussions and before conclusion is reached by the time you are locked up in your separate cells, he would not sleep until he completes, in writing, whatever remained to be said about the subject of your discussions. The next morning when you meet he simply gives you the written text and declares that as the conclusion of your discussions of the day before so that you move on to the next and new topic.
He was industrious to a fault. He was loathe to speak about himself when the tasks of the revolution demanded urgent attention.
Comrade Phokes was released from Robben Island Prison in April, 1987, (24) twenty-four years since going into exile and been sentenced to prison.
In 1989 most of the Rivonia Trialists were released from prison after (26) twenty-six years of incarceration. Many of their peers, comrades, relatives, neighbours and friends dropped in to greet and welcome them back into the bigger prison which was the South Africa of that time.
Comrade Peter Mokaba had detailed some young marshalls to maintain order and manage the flow of visitors as well as curious crowds at Comrade Walter Sisulu’s home, in Orlando West. Among the first visitors to the Sisulu home were Professor Zeke Mphahlele, Urbania and Zeph Mothopeng and most importantly, Mrs Glanys Marks who was turned away by the young marshall on the grounds that the Sisulus were resting.
As Mrs Marks and others turned to walk away from the gate I approached the young marshall and suggested that he should first find out from those inside the house whether they would see the old lady or not. His response was curtly. I then informed him that the old lady’s late husband was a leader and mentor to Comrade Walter Sisulu and that his name was Uncle J.B. Marks. The marshall duly informed me that he knows nothing about J.B. Marks but definitely knows something about Karl Marx. Then Peter Mokaba arrived and greeted me with comradely warmth. I, in turn, shared with him what had just transpired and his response was to remind the marshall that ‘you need to know our leaders’.
Two (2) days later I observed a similar occurrence at the home of Comrade Elias Motsoaledi in Mzimhlophe where I found Comrade Phokes standing outside the gate with a suitcase in hand. The marshalls were refusing to let him in. I pleaded with the young marshalls to allow Comrade Phokes to see Comrade Motsoaledi. My motivation was simple: Comrade Phokes was a relative of the Motsoaledis and had actually spent time with Comrade Elias in Robben Island Prison. Prison Warders controlled who they would allow to see Comrade Elias and now he is being subjected to similar censorship at his home as though he is under house arrest.
The marshalls responded by telling me that Comrade Phokes had earlier on informed them that he was a visitor only for him to fetch a suitcase from the car that dropped him and they insisted that they would only let him in after searching his suitcase. I advised them to check with the family first, so they obliged and came back with the clear understanding that Comrade Phokanoka was a relative who was expected to stay for a week at the Motsoaledi home. From the first night Comrade Phokanoka started political education classes for the same marshalls and they valued and were thirsty for such content. At the end of his week-long stay as Comrade Phokes was bidding farewell to the marshalls, they were now asking him to extend his visit by one more week. Such was the impact of his classes.
In furtherance of the legacy of our dear Comrade Phokes and in pursuance of a better understanding to how we may fortify our commitment to the principles that he lived for, we must take the time to remember and we must insist on ruminating over the various levels of strain, support and success that criss-crosses the life of a freedom fighter, a cadre, an honest leader and a revolutionary democrat.
The spirit and teachings of Comrade Phokes, and indeed this launch of THE LAWRANCE MADIMETJA PHOKANOKA FOUNDATION, provides a congenial environment for succeeding generations, whether ANC and Alliance members or not, to imbibe struggle history so that they in turn will be able to avoid repeating the errors of the past.
Comrade Phokes, a symbol himself of the revolution, lived his life in the service of others, and offered an extraordinary contribution to the cause of justice side-by-side with many of the greatest leaders of his generation. Remembered as a giant amongst giants, Comrade Phokes was a leader of our struggle who embodied the very core of what our struggle represented and stood for. He was an elder on whose counsel one could rely, not only for his earnest and dependable moral guidance, but even more so for his extensive, detailed knowledge of political education and his masterful dexterity of modes of discourse.
He was generous of thought and adroit in all things polemic.
Pleasant and passionate, he shone through us, his faculty of followers, who to this day still feed from the fruit of his mind and his fellowship.
Such potent memories of this erudite comrade, noble of character, present to us a void left behind that is possibly less about filling and more about rising to Comrade Phoke’s challenge to all of us. A duty and responsibility to make real, a world worthy of his sentiment of self-effacing humanitarianism. This should be our daily bread.
And so, Programme Director,
May we be upfront, impatient and direct with our sense of urgency when we gather in the name of Comrade Phokes, to pledge to each other, for the sake of all people, that we will not only remember his contribution, but that we will live up to his example, and that we will continue with determination to complete and improve the task to which he and his peers dedicated their lives. Our pledge, right here and right now, no later, must be a call to action for every citizen to be vigilant.
This is a chance for the nation to examine the continuing inequities that are highlighted and exacerbated by evolving crises, relook at fundamental changes that need to be addressed, and what opportunities exist to rebuild our political, economic and our social structures.
More than just a political leader, Comrade Phokes was a teacher – a positive role model who understood the power of dialogue and the impact of education to mould and guide the potential of his students and South Africa’s contemporary leaders.
Therefore, this launch of THE LAWRANCE MADIMETJA PHOKANOKA FOUNDATION, offers us a substantial platform to reflect on the progression of ideology and fortify our collective goals in achieving a better South Africa for all.
Comrade Phokes was shaped and lived his life by the precept in the last paragraph of the Communist Manifesto:
“The Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions. Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communistic revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win.”
Engels once wrote that Marx and himself remained all their lives in the minority and “felt fine” about it. Periods when the movement of the oppressed class rises to the level of the general tasks of the revolution represent the rarest exceptions in history. For more frequent than victories are the defeats of the oppressed. Following each defeat comes a long period of reaction, which throws the revolutionists back into a state of cruel isolation.
Let each and every set-back or defeat serve as a lesson to never despair but to be resilient and tenacious.
Comrade Phokes saw African nationalism as an important wave within a greater revolutionary current that transcended race, gender and national affiliation. This greater current was communism.
The socialist revolution, which would yield socialism and ultimately communism, was in Comrade Phokes’ formulation, the essence of revolution in the South African context.
In his own words, he asserted that a revolution is the highest form of class struggles and he warned us all of a revolution at the peril of being led by the unled.
For Comrade Phokes, political education generated heightened political consciousness, which, in turn, serves as the surest way to build a complete cadre armed with the necessary revolutionary philosophy to play a proper role in changing their own conditions.
In his own words he would teach that:
“A political education school is like a factory of production, it is like a kitchen where the new is born, and is the most precious task of our revolution. Development of an all-round revolutionary cadre is a key to the success of any revolutionary movement’.”
We learn, from the book entitled, “The Autobiography of an Unknown South African” by
Comrade Naboth Mokgatle who in 1941 attended the CPSA’s Political Education classes for a month, with his contemporary Comrade Harry Gwala, that this political education was a life changing experience. The following will show that, properly approached, political education has a consequential impact on the growth and development of comrades.
“On Saturdays and Sunday, when we were not at school, Harry Gwala and I moved about together, studying or testing each other whether we understood what we had been taught at the party school.
“At school a long range of subjects were taught; political economy, socialism in general, trade unionism, the difference between the Communist Party and the Labour Party, social democracy and communism, the origin of man and society, civics, the meaning of democracy, dictatorship, capitalism and its functions, the workings of markets, monarchy, capitalist republicanism, proletarianism, the meaning of proletariat, the state and people, the rights of people in society and state, the state’s functions towards the people, colonialism, direct and indirect rule, the pricing of manufactured articles, class conflicts and interests in society, just and unjust wars, public speaking, administration, running of offices, drawing up of reports, taking of minutes, filing systems, the rights of people to self-government and self-determination, health, education, revolutions and people’s republics.
We were also taught the meanings of chauvinism, anarchism and anarchists, and discussed national liberatory movements.”
This description helps to shed light on why their generation tended to possess a deep understanding of theory and practice of revolution. In Comrade Phokes’ case, as we shall see shortly, the sharp grasp of revolutionary theory would later help him develop up and coming comrades into giants like himself.
So, today as we strive for political education we need to understand the breadth of the curriculum needed to meet objectives of cadreship development capable of making the necessary and required contribution to the development and growth of both our movement and country. For this we need to put more thought into making enough time available for the effectual political education commensurate with demands of current historical stage in our revolution.
It is even more instructive to note that this education was not just meant for an individual to be politically prepared. It was the aim of the political education to arm individuals with such education so that they in turn could use it to further help with the development of their fellow comrades and thus enhance the aggregate impact on the organisation.
Comrade Mokgatle had this to say about the completion of the political education classes, when the educators wanted to know what they had learnt:
“On the closing day, I don’t know why, I was asked to address the students, and my theme was what I had gained from the school. I remember telling my fellow-students that when I came to the school, I thought I knew half of all we had been taught. But now, I said, the school has helped me to know that I knew only a quarter of it.”
He goes on to say:
“I reminded my fellow-students what one of our teachers had said, that we were there to learn, not only for ourselves but for others who would come to us for advice and help.I said, ‘that when we are back at our homes, we shall remember those words of our teacher and adopt them as a guide in all our endeavours.”
From the above excerpts we learn a great deal about how Comrade Phokes and his peers were formed. We can see the potential of quality education to cover a remarkable range of areas of learning that would turn an ordinary comrade into an effective agent for change. Imperatively, they received the type of education that was not just comprehensive in scope but qualitatively different, enabling sharpening of thought and conception and with that, their effective application to the external world.
Indeed Comrade Phokes went on to carry out the instructions of the teacher that “we were there to learn, not only for ourselves but for others”.
We can observe that Comrade Phokes clearly understood the purpose of political education as being, at once, to comprehend and change the world for the better, to create a critical mass within the organisation so that all cadres emerge equipped with the tools to enable them to dissect the essence of their world in proper ways.
But such was the nature of his teaching that the products of his education would themselves develop into sharp political activists in their own right, using the tools he gave them to develop independent thought and analysis.
This level of theoretical maturation reflected his upbringing in the ANC and the SACP that put a premium on political education and theoretical clarity. Even back then the ANC understood that for democracy to take root in the soil of South Africa the ANC would have to first comprehend the need for internal democracy within its ranks.
Comrade Phokes was no stranger to hardship and therefore his radical perspective and fierce determination, in this context, should be understood to mean a man of fine mettle. Even a world-renowned leader such as Ho Chi Min shared this same understanding of hard conditions:
From Ho Chi Minh’s Prison Diary, “Advice To Myself” (pg 52)
“Without the cold and bleakness of winter
The warmth and splendour of spring could never be.
Misfortunes have steeled and tempered me
And even more strengthened my resolve.”
These are the conditions which he asserted gave rise to his own revolutionary consciousness. To this end, we may cite the Preface to the Introduction to the Critique of Political Economy, to gain deeper insight into the world of Comrade Phokes, where it states:
“It is not the consciousness of men that determines their being. On the contrary, it is their social being that determines their consciousness (Marx and Engels).”
The material conditions of his people is what Comrade Phokes claimed to be the basis of his militancy, which he was famously, or as some would say notoriously, known for. To him foresight and rebelliousness are equivalent.
Comrade Phokes was the embodiment of the dual membership of the SACP and the ANC and he understood the role of the SACP members in mass organisations as practised by leaders such as Moses Kotane, J.B. Marks, Dan Tloome, Flag Boshielo, Mark Shope, Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki, Raymond Mhlaba, Andrew Mlangeni, Elias Motsoaledi, Chris Hani, Peter Nchabeleng, John Kgoana Nkadimeng, to name a few.
In prison a lesson on the universe in which it was explained that the sun does not move, but it is the stars including the earth and the moon, that rotate around the sun, left the attendees incredulous and resolute against attending any more literary classes conducted by the same facilitator. They dubbed the facilitator as a liar with a straight face and vowed never to go back to his classes. They said; ‘the very evidence of their eyes is the sunrise and sunset’. And that their homes never changed direction to confirm rotation around the sun. Of course, all the misunderstanding was cleared once it was explained that they are part of the rotation and there is no way in which they may “step outside” to observe such rotation.
Similarly the Renewal of the ANC cannot be achieved in isolation and apart from the renewal of the SACP and COSATU.
Historically, elections in the ANC serve as a mechanism for strengthening and renewing the organisation in the context of the challenges and tasks that would have been identified through this democratic decision-making process. Elective conferences provide an opportunity to elect a leadership best suited to the historical epoch. Thus when leadership is elected, it is based on the tasks that lie ahead. It is not the predetermined result of slates, as has been the case in recent history.
Yet slates have become one of the harmful post-1994 viruses that have crept into the bloodstream of the ANC. Slates steal away the voice of members through buying of votes and treating the ordinary membership as voting fodder, serving no other purpose than to corrupt the organisation.
Slates represent a deformed character of the organisation in which factions and groups motivated by personal gain scramble with no holds barred for leadership positions.
Taken to its conclusion, we cannot but infer that slates serve to push away members from the ANC and to disorganise it, destroying the unity that has stood it in good stead for more than one hundred years.
Members should remain loyal to the organisation, not to individuals, and should seek to enhance its prestige among the people. This prestige is a function of and it depends on what we do and/or what we say as individual members. This is all the more reason we always guard against the pernicious habit of – no matter how well-intended at first – allowing a cult of personality to develop in our midst, characterised by the practice of idolising leadership. Leadership is a reflection of an organisation and must not be personalised.
We must appreciate and understand the role of individuals in the organisation, but must always bear in mind that the organisation is more than the sum total of its individual members. As such slates are also antithetical to the principle of open and free debate and represent a degenerate version of the organisation in which factions and groups less motivated by what the ANC stands for use all manner of surreptitious means to gain leadership positions.
Slates are odious because the victorious factions spend time after conferences meting out a victor’s justice; while those seen to have been on the opposite side during the conference are made to pay the price in many ways, including marginalisation. In the process, organisational work suffers.
Governance in the public sector also suffers because the winning slates invariably overlook individuals perceived to be sympathetic to the losing ones. Part of punishing such individuals is removing them from work or depriving them of opportunities irrespective of their ability to excel in their duties; an act that ultimately undermines transformation and development.
In spite of voting in our conferences being by secret ballot there are those who pretend to know how delegates voted and on the basis of this single out certain individuals for marginalisation.
One of the irreparably harmful effects of slates is the hollowing out of the principle of non-racialism. After a hundred years of existence the composition of the ANC’s membership seems to give the lie to its principle of non-racialism.
Slates have eaten away at the heart of the organisation, leaving a trail of divisions, vengeance, internecine feuds and mutual mistrust, much to the mortal detriment of the ANC as an organic whole.
The great Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping reminds us that “the arch enemy to unity is complacency and conceit”. Closer to home within the Tri-Partite Alliance the enemy to unity is the ease with which factions form and mutate over time.
Factions are intolerant of dissent and tend to suppress debates. There can never be anything dubbed a “good faction”. This is a label adopted by factions that appropriate the President of the ANC and claim to have his ears and back. This is utter nonsense. All comrades must strive to be in the ANC and not in a faction because if one is in a faction and persuades another comrade to quit his faction, it simply means one is recruiting for a faction rather than the ANC.
History records that following his release from prison and the 1994 democratic elections Comrade Phokanoka was employed by the Limpopo Department of Safety and Security as a community liaison officer. Advocate Seth Nthai served as the MEC for the same Department, and narrates the story of how Comrade Phokes refused to accept his first salary on the grounds that it was too much and that he did not join MK for a salary.
Eventually he reluctantly accepted the cheque and later bought himself a motorbike model that he had seen and rode in the Soviet Union. Of course, he was to be involved in an accident the first day he took delivery of the motorbike. Following pleas from a number of comrades Phokanoka was persuaded to sell the motorbike.
In 1993 Comrade Phokes received most votes to top the Limpopo list of Province to National candidates or nominees. Comrade Phokanoka withdrew his candidature to Parliament and elected to serve as the first Political Education Officer for the ANC in Limpopo.
Comrade Phokes lived by Rule 4.15 of the ANC Constitution:
‘I … solemnly declare that I will abide by the aims and objectives of the ANC as set out in the Constitution, the Freedom Charter and other duly adopted policy positions, that I am joining the organisation voluntarily and without motives of material advantage or personal gain that I agree to respect the Constitution and the structures and to work as a loyal member of the organisation, that I will place my energies and skills at the disposal of the organisation and carry out tasks given to me, that I will work towards making the ANC an even more effective instrument of liberation in the hands of the people, and that I will defend the unity and integrity of the organisation and its principles, and combat any tendency towards disruption and factionalism’.
As I conclude, let me leave you with the words of Randall Swingler when he said:
“It is easy to lead in the open when the issue is clear:
These things are the rewards, that rarely appear.
What is not so easy is to lead in the dark,
From moment to moment knowing just where the spark
And just how strong, may be struck. For the real work
Is the work that no one sees, and earns no remark”.
And I thank you for your attention.