It was on this day, one hundred and fourteen years ago, that the then South African Native National Congress (SANNC) was formed and which was later in 1923 renamed African National Congress (ANC). We must also recall that it was in August 1911 in Johannesburg that a special meeting of the Executive Committee of the Native Convention (NC) was convened by Pixley Ka Isaka Seme a former ANC Leader and others to brainstorm ideas and prospects of forming an organisation that would serve as a spear of the suffering Africans, that would also unite and cater for the interests and plight of the marginalised Africans.
This gathering of the Executive Committee of the NC served as a precursor to the November 1911 caucus (meeting) and later the 1912 gathering in Mangaung (Free State Province), which resulted in the formation of the organisation now known as the ANC. In November 1911, a caucus was convened in Johannesburg to determine the date and other strategic arrangements. The date of January 8, 1912 was agreed upon. Apparently, this caucus lasted until 2.30am.
Delegates to these gatherings had to request donations for transport and food, especially from the kings and chiefs of different tribes who were then prominent and respected in their respective communities. There was no tender process for accommodation, transportation, or food. This was before the ANC became a governing party; it was before it attracted tenderpreneurs who have captured it and some of its leaders today.
This generation of 1912 and those that followed were driven by a strong desire to serve humanity rather than seek personal gain. Speculatively, I doubt many of those who are members at this time could have joined the ANC during such difficult periods, because today the majority have joined the movement (ANC) solely to advance their business interests at the expense of the people’s movement, particularly the working class.
In his opening speech in 1912 on January 8, former Treasurer, President and founding leader of the ANC, Pixley Ka Seme, understood that the delegation of the conference was chiefly drawn from inter-faith-based leaders, the kings and chiefs who were wearing their diverse traditional attire and who fought each other for land. Therefore, he focused his speech mainly on urging delegates to never allow tribalism to dominate the inaugural conference of the South African Native National Congress, known as the African National Congress today. Former President Seme was always vocal about the importance of unity and declared tribalism as a serious threat to the unity of Africans.
This clearly gives evidence that tribalism and factionalism have never been tolerated in the ANC, and even at its founding conference, they were rejected. As the ANC strives to renew, rebuild and unite, it must fight the emergence of tribalism, factionalism, election and deployment of weak leadership and corruption wherever they raise their ugly heads within the mass democratic movement and society.
Barely three years after the ANC ascended to state power as a governing party, in 1997 at the ANC’s National Conference, the former President Nelson Mandela warned the delegates about the emergence of corrupt leaders and members within the ranks and files of the ANC and society in general; he posited that:
“If we have learnt nothing else during these past three years, we have grown to appreciate the extent of the corrosion of the moral fibre of our society… we have to take all necessary measures to purge ourselves of such members (and leaders) and organise ourselves in a way that will make it difficult for corrupt elements to gain entry into our movement…These (members and leaders) have sought either to steal public resources or to export financial tributes from the people in return for services to which the people are entitled and which those in authority are legally and morally obliged to provide…” the reality is that because of the rampant and glaring corruption within the state, one may argue that, the state has been systematically repurposed to serve as an instrument that is administering tenders for the benefit of the elites and their associates as oppose to an instrument of power that should be used to liberate the working class and drive a developmental agenda for the benefit of all the people.
It has to be noted that in the past three decades, a lot has been achieved to liberate and ameliorate the living conditions of the poor; this breakthrough could not be sustained because of the failure of the ANC to decisively deal with corrupt elements within its ranks and files and its continuous elections and deployment of weak leadership to drive developmental agenda that needs sophisticated minds to deal with complex matters that confront humanity and developmental trajectory.
Interestingly, in a book titled “Sol Plaatje: a life of Solomon Tshekisho Plaatje”, Brian Willan states that in fact the 1912 inaugural conference nominated and supported Dr Walter Rubusana from Eastern London to be the first President of the ANC. Apparently, he declined. Willan says Dr Rubusana might have declined due to his various responsibilities. He was serving as a congregational Minister and a member of the Cape Provincial Council. He states that “Rev John Dube, who was not actually present at the meeting, being represented instead by his brother Charles Dube”, was elected the first president of the ANC. This generation of leaders understood that position in the organisation is not an entitlement nor status but a responsibility to serve the people without expecting anything in return. Today, it is unfortunate because those with no capacity are elected and deployed into the state for the mere purpose of serving the interests of a particular dominant faction.
Even beyond the 1912 inaugural conference Seme continued to send strong messages to the delegates and leadership collective, he said: “The great work we have taken upon ourselves as Natives of South Africa is to unite and give up old differences and racial hatreds and tribal quarrels to stand as one man, to speak as a voice of one person, for the interest of all”
Looking at how the first and inaugural Secretary-General of the ANC, Solomon Plaatje, struggled with resources to execute his organisational responsibilities, I reiterate that many could have long resigned as leaders because leading the ANC at that time was difficult, because the ANC was not the governing party in charge of the state apparatus, and there were no prospects of using any influence to get a tender. It was difficult because there were not enough resources for the secretary of the ANC to ensure that the resolutions of the conference were effectively implemented. The office of the Secretary General is central and critical for the effective implementation of the conference resolutions.
The same happened to the former Secretary General Walter Sisulu. After he was elected in 1949, the ANC was not able to pay him a salary and fund his office; his wife, Albertina Thethiwe, sacrificed and used her monthly salary as a nurse to fund the organisational trips of her husband; and their house was used as a venue for the organisational meetings. They were the epitome of selflessness and serving without material benefits.
As the ANC celebrates its 114th anniversary in the North West this coming weekend, it must commend and salute Kgosi Lekoko Montshiwa, Silas Thelesho Molema and many others for their selfless contribution towards the formation of and support to the ANC; their history must never be written as a footnote in the pages of history or shelved in archives to gather dust. They funded delegates from the North West when it was still partitioned as homelands to the 1912 conference of the then SANNC, and further continued to fund the activities and Programmes of the office of the first Secretary General of the ANC, Solomon Plaatje. They even assisted in fundraising for the ANC delegation that visited Great Britain in 1914 and 1919 to protest against the provisions of the Natives Land Act of 1913 and other unjust laws.
The ANC should use this momentous occasion to reposition itself as a true leader of society through utterances and actions.
* Orapeleng Matshediso is a Masters graduate of Pan African Development Studies and Research Fellow at the University of Johannesburg (Institute for Pan African Thought and Conversation) and a member of the ANC in North West.
** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of or Independent Media.
