When we completed our Secondary Teachers Diploma, together with two cohorts that followed us, at the Transvaal College of Education, and we later realised many other colleges, in 1986, we vowed to become force multipliers of the liberation struggle through the power of the chalk and chalkboard. We left the college with a battle song ‘sesi bona nge sigci somoya, sesi bona nga madol’nkomo, Siyaya siyaya’. We left the college with a battle song' sesi bona nge sigci somoya, sesi bona nga madol'nkomo, Siyaya siyaya'. This song, a call to war with anyone, system, or force that sought to stop us from becoming a critical exponent and multiplier to the struggle for liberation, was a powerful symbol of our commitment. We understood the influence we were going to have on society.
I was fortunate to find
a teaching post in Mamelodi. Mamelodi was the bedrock of the ANC underground.
At one point, it had a significantly larger number of MK operatives than several
other townships. Save for its heightened mobilisation structures, its proximity
to the offices of diplomatic missions made it a good site to disseminate
anti-apartheid and liberation movement literature through the advantage of
diplomatic immunity. Our parents were domestic servants and gardeners of expatriates,
who became nodes of distribution; this advantage expanded even to the jazz
music prowess of several elders in the township. Being in the capital also
meant the acuteness of apartheid as well as its softening landed first on us,
whence an unfair advantage compared to other townships.
When the unionisation of
teachers was mooted as a terrain of struggle, Mamelodi became the first
township to establish a Teachers' Union. The then leadership of Mpendulo
“Squire” Khumalo, Bomba Nzimande, Nomalizo Malefo, Nelson Letsiri, Phofedi, and
several others resolved to be courageous and establish it as a Union as opposed
to the traditional professional association route. When we arrived in Mamelodi
as young teachers, our great commission oath at college was curated, nurtured,
and allowed to blossom in MATU. The post-1995 make-South-Africa-ungovernable
call by the ANC mission in exile, whose direction required structure and
direction, opened up space for the nodes of the teacher training college’s
activists and cadres to regroup and establish multiple teacher unions within
the COSATU’s principle of industry-based teachers’ unions.
Together with Mpendulo
and other MATU comrades, as well as the Atteridgeville contingent, we were
charged with establishing teacher Unions all over the country. MATU, by being
recognised in the National Teacher Unions Unity Talks, assumed, together with
NEUSA of Elmon Mathonsi, Angie Motshekga, Curtis Nkondo, and Thulas Nxesi, the
role of coordinating all the Teacher Trade Unions. This is where I met for the
first time Former Deputy President David Mabuza, DD. We were in Kwa-Ndebele,
Kwa-Mhlanga, where we had just established Kwa-Ndebele Teachers Union (KWANTU).
We were in a debriefing by Mpendulo Khumalo and Shine Ndau from Atteridgeville,
where the comrades from Kwa-Ndebele were assigned to make inroads in the
entirety of the Eastern Transvaal (Today Mpumalanga). Willie Kutumela, from
Atteridgeville, but stationed in further deep areas of Kwa-Ndebele, including
Moutse, Siphosezwe, who hosted the meeting, and a very quiet and reserved, yet
insightful DD Mabuza, were assigned to be the nodal persons to establish other
Unions as we were finalising the establishment of a National Teachers Union
under the meticulous guidance of Jay Naidoo and Mbhazima Shilowa as General
Secretary and Deputy of COSATU. The strategic decision was to create a
federation of these Teacher Unions under the auspices of NEUSA Eastern
Transvaal, which became the bedrock of SADTU Eastern Transvaal, today called
Mpumalanga.
History, and maybe in a
different narration or rendition, will record how this history of David Mabuza
and arguably Chupu Mathabathe became decisive in determining their political
paths. The natural appeal of teachers as nodes of knowledge and fountains of
learning positioned them, as we had declared when we left college, as makers
and breakers of the National Democratic Revolution. Statistically, teachers run
the largest human custodial institution for eight hours a day, twenty-two days
a month, and about 195 days of the 365 days a year. It became apparent to us,
and the foresighted leaders of the ANC, that the strategic influence of
teachers in the management of political power will be key to sustaining the
hegemonic hold of the liberation promises once universal franchise equalises
the playing field. David Mabuza is a product of SADTU. He marshalled the entry
of many teachers into the traditions and ways of the ANC, which he learnt at
its various centres of learning, including Robben Island and Exile.
David Mabuza's
contribution to the ANC's mission for a better life for all and the liberation
of the South African people is undeniable. His pinnacle moment came when the
country faced the potential threat of division due to an ambitious political
family dynasty building. He orchestrated a unity slate that reshaped the
country's history. He established the ANC of national unity, which began a journey towards moderate politics. He introduced the growing
Make South Africa Great Again (MSAGA) movement within the historic mass
democratic movement forces. New alliances have since emerged after the landmark
2017 ANC Conference in NASREC. By subjecting himself to the ANC’s integrity
management system, leading with Cyril Ramaphosa without a sign of contesting
for the glory of being President, stepping down to allow the democratic process
to have a dialogue with a future he gave signs he might not be part of, David
Mabuza bequeathed to the nation the stability it needed to manage succession.
These leadership lessons
—putting the ANC first, understanding the relationship between posterity and
the present, bowing to the demands of the future on the current leadership, and
understanding when to leave the stage for your dance to be remembered—define
the leader and teacher that DD Mabuza was. Mabuza warned of the encroachment of
money in the succession battles of the ANC. He is on record as having asked how
the ANC will stop some of its billionaires, who were funding some of the
internal leadership battles in the ANC, when their ambitions start to include
being President of the ANC and, by default, the country. They would have
mastered the patronage system, established their independent networks, bought
their branches, and sat on a voter manipulation juggernaut that few would
afford to disentangle.
As a tribute to David
Mabuza, his party must commit itself to nurturing a societal leadership brigade. “This brigade should refuse to mask the difficulties of reconciling the
exigencies of political power contestations and the mission of the ANC being a
leader of society. A true leader of society will, as non-negotiables, pursue a
South Africa,
· Which
belongs to all who live in it, albeit within defined citizen rights and
accommodating to national grievance-related restitution issues,
· That
has a government that can justly claim that its authority is based on the will
of all the people. This might also mean accepting that the will of all the
people does not include the ANC,
· That
will not veer from protecting what the Freedom Charter professed as minimum
demands of society at all material times.
· That
will defend the rights of all South Africans to the liberation promise written
into its constitutional settlement, particularly the Bill of Rights.
· Which
guarantees that our country will never be prosperous or free until all its
people live in brotherhood, enjoying equal rights and opportunities,
· Which
ensures that the democratic nature of our nation-state is based on the will of
all the people and secures all their birthrights without distinction of colour,
race, sex or belief
These ideals should be
what we remember Mabuza with. Like any human being, his fallibility is not an
abnormality in a country still tormented by its past. Mabuza tormented disunity
and factionalism. Let his death be about tormenting these demons for posterity’s
sake.
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