“History influences our future”-YCLSA

Lebohang Pita
@LeboPita 

Buti Manamela

The Young Communists League of South Africa (YCLSA) hosted its ‘Bua Thursday’ educational programme at the Tshwane University of Technology’s Soshanguve south campus on Thursday 25 October 2012.

The YCLSA started the programme to open space for a discussion on the legacy of apartheid and its impact on the present-day South Africa.

YCL national secretary and Member of Parliament, Buti Manamela said it was important for South Africans to know their history because history formed people into the individuals they are today.

“It is what happened in the past which informs our current way of life,” said Manamela.

He said although the architects of apartheid and colonialism are dead, their legacy was still visible.

He said its visibility had manifested itself in political and educational institutions and these institutions were designed to favour certain class of people in society.

“The fact that a white child has a better chance to enrol at a university and ultimately get employment opportunities as compared to a black child is a reflection of what happened in the past and its impact today,” he said.

Manamela further said that historic class divisions were the root cause of the high unemployment rate amongst black people.

“There was reserved employment for white South Africans while black South Africans were forced into slave wage employment,” said Manamela

Manamela reiterated that the apartheid era designed so-called white universities in such a manner that they would still favour white students in a democratic South Africa.

Collins Chabane

He further said South Africans should stop pretending to be non-racial because access to basic services and employment was still defined racially and black people inherited poverty from the apartheid system.

“If we do not break the cycle of inequality, we would continue to live in a pretentious non-racial society where we just try to get along yet we are a society that is divided by poverty and unemployment,” he said.

Minister of Performance and Monitoring in the Presidency, Collins Chabane said South Africans adopted violent behaviour from the apartheid system.

He said the reason South Africans always resort to violence to raise their concerns was because of the violence they had to endure during the apartheid era.

He claimed that the reversal of apartheid was going to take a long time as long as there are socio-economic challenges in South Africa.

Chabane said it would be a crime against humanity if society was to forget the legacy of apartheid just because the country has celebrated 18 years of democracy.

“Anyone who does not know his or her history will not know where he or she is going. It is important for the nation to keep reminding ourselves that never in our history should we return to that programme (apartheid),” he said.

Responding to whether the renaming of street and town names was not an obliteration of history, Chabane said: “All these places had their names that were changed to celebrate the Boer’s triumph over the natives. Some of the changes in some places are the restoration of the original name.”

Spar loses business due to strike

Courtesy:Google

Lebohang Pita
@LeboPita

The three week long truck drivers’ strike ended after the Road Freight Employers’ Association (RFEA) and unions reached a settlement on Friday.

The strike affected many retail outlets in the country. There was a halt in the delivery of goods as truck drivers downed tools for a 12% wage increase.

The three big supermarkets in Soshanguve namely Shoprite, Spar and PicknPay were amongst the affected.

Soshanguve PicknPay public relations officer, Mike Mabiletsa conceded that most PicknPay truck drivers are not unionised but could not deliver goods, fearing that their trucks might be torched.

Mabiletsa said they used alternative trucks to collect goods from suppliers so that they could have ample stock.

Essential foods that consumers needed every day were available. If they ran out of stock, Mabiletsa said they would communicate with their customers.

“We made it a point that people received what they required. If not we took their details and delivered it to them within 24 hours after we had located the specific item.”

Shoprite was also affected partially.

Courtesy:Google

Fresh food manager Jane Modise, said the only challenge they faced was when their suppliers ran out of stock.
She said suppliers might have feared to release their trucks to get goods from producers in fear that their trucks might be torched.
The worst affected by the strike was the Maluleke Spar.

The supermarket lost business due to slow deliveries.

Store manager Lungelo Nkosi said Tops lost approximately R300 000 due to the strike.

“Most of the lines (beverages) are sourced from wine. They come from Cape Town so we lost a lot of money.”

The other affected departments were the fresh produce and dairy sections.

Nkosi said employers need to be honest with employees about salary issues.

“If truck drivers or any employess are educated in terms of what is happening with business, it is going to be much easier," said Nkosi. “Businesses should be open to employees and tell them by how much the business is growing each year," he said.

Truck drivers downed tools three weeks ago, demanding a 12% wage increase. On Friday Unions and the RFEA agreed to a three year deal which entails a 10% wage increase in the first year, 8% in the second and 9% in 2014.

Power mongering breaks PYA

A makeshif coffin by the Pan Africanist Students Movement

of Azania.

Lebohang Pita
@LeboPita

The African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) TUT Soshanguve campus branch has broke away from the Progressive Youth Alliance (PYA) after a fierce leadership battle.

The PYA, which comprises the Young Communists League (YCL), South African Student Congress (SASCO) and the ANCYL, is the equivalent of the tripartite alliance. The YCL and ANCYL are supposed to mobilise students to vote for SASCO during the Student Representative Council (SRC) elections.

In 2009, the PYA adopted a policy of rotating leadership every year to create equality in the alliance and that both the YCL and ANCYL would be under the umbrella of SASCO.

However, the Youth League felt marginalised and accused SASCO of ruling with an iron fist as it only deploys its members to strategic positions.

“SASCO imposes leadership. It does not allow students to vote for the people they want. Comrades of the ANCYL do not find space in governance as SASCO only elects its members,” said ANCYL branch chairperson Sipho Njokweni.

Njokweni said the ANCYL’s reason to leave the PYA was because of SASCO’s constant debates of leadership succession in taverns.

“If you are a leader, you must lead by example. SASCO discusses leadership in shebeens and we are not invited in the discussions as the ANCYL.

According to a 2009 PYA report, the ANCYL’s role in an institution of higher learning is to mobilise students for SASCO but Njokweni claimed that the PYA, which consists of three structures, is beaten by one structure-PASMA-during SRC elections because SASCO executive has dented the PYA’s image as they come to meetings intoxicated and then insult members as a result.

However, SASCO refuted these claims and launched a scathing attack on the executive council of the ANCYL.

Chairperson, Sipho Mbatha, said in a statement: “SASCO would like to categorically dismiss the group of clowns who are using the name of our good ally, the ANCYL, to discredit SASCO.”

Mbatha lambasted some people in the Youth League whom he believes caused the break-up because they want to be deployed to the SRC.

“These are the people who have been contesting leadership in SASCO and lost because members of SASCO do not make mistakes of electing people without leadership qualities.”

He further said: “SASCO is going to combat, expose and defeat this tendency which seeks to divert the PYA from its historical mission.”

Mbatha alluded that the ANCYL has no capacity to contest elections in an institution of higher learning as it deals with issues concerning the youth and not students.

The YCL, which has stood firm behind SASCO, echoed Mbatha’s sentiments.

Chairman Freddy Khoza said: “The Branch Executive Council (BEC) in the ANCYL does not understand the principles of the existence of the ANCYL on the campus.”

Khoza claimed that power mongering is the root cause of the split.

“The reason that led to the ANCYL to break-away from the PYA is because they lost in the Branch General Meeting (BGM) of SASCO. This (sudden rivalry) between SASCO and the ANCYL is a power mongering feature.”

SASCO commended the YCL for throwing its weight behind the PYA.

The ANCYL contested in the October 10 SRC elections and won 613 votes for the local SRC, better than SASCO’s 553 while it also managed to surpass both SASCO and PASMA in the Central SRC.

The Muslim Holy Shrine



The Moturu Gramat.

Lebohang Pita
@LeboPita

The holy shrine built in 1969 to honour Abdurahman Moturu.

The Gramat is a sacred site for Muslim pilgrimage. It was built in 1969 to pay homage to Sayed Abdurahman Moturu, prince of Madura in Indonesia. Moturu was one of the first men to serve time on the Island for resisting Dutch rule in Indonesia.

He died on the Island in 1754 and it is believe the Holy Shrine was built on top of his grave. Moturu together with Hajji Matarin was one of the first Imams of Cape Town. Political prisoners like Ahmed Kathrada would go there to pray while some paid their last respects when they leave the Island.

Robben Island: The house of pain



A painting depicting the first man to be imprisoned at

Robben Island, Autshomato

Lebohang Pita
@LeboPita

A great inhabitant for sea mammals like penguins and seals, Robben Island is the original African colony for penguins.

The Island was a peaceful place until it was seized by Dutch settlers in the mid-1600s. In the late 17^th century, Jan Van Riebeeck and his men used Robben Island for the isolation of people who resisted Dutch authority in the Cape of Good Hope and the East Indies in Asia.

The first prisoners to be dropped on the Island were slaves who were regarded as failures by the Portuguese in 1625. But Autshomato, an interpreter for Europeans, was the first man to be imprisoned on Robben Island for political reasons after protesting against the Dutch’s unfair treatment of Sans in the Cape in 1658.

There is a Gramat or holy shrine on the Island-a sacred place for Muslims- which is believed to have been built on top of the graves of Islam pioneers in South Africa, Haji Matarin and Abdurahman Moturu. Matarin and Moturu were religious leaders from Indonesia who were sent to the Island for protesting against Dutch rule in the East Indies.

The Island was continued to be used to muzzle anti-apartheid politicians such as Robert Sobukwe and Nelson Mandela by apartheid authorities. Many prisoners spent years of hardship on the Island for resisting an authority that deprived them of their basic human rights.



The leper grave yard at the Robben Island Museum.

People with leprosy were kept on the Island in the 1800s.



The Island did not only serve as a prison but was also used for the isolation of people with leprosy. In the 1800s it was still believed that leprosy was incurable and contagious. Authorities wanted to remove these people from the mainland by forcing them to live in isolation on the Island. Their aim was to let them live and die on the Island.

Lepers lived on Robben Island from 1856 until 1931.

A safement where you could feed on the birds, penguins and seals used to cause people pain. It is believed that for 300 hundred years penguins were extinct on the Island but were reinstated in 1998. The penguins were extinct on the Island because political prisoners hunted them and finished the last species of these sea mammals.

Robben Island was a safe haven until it was misused by cruel and greedy people. The Island deprived Africans of their right to freedom while the natural species of the Island were chased away from their natural inhabitant.

Factional battles ravage break-away parties



Professor Farouk Cassim says ANC

 members created problems in the COPE

and then left.



Lebohang Pita

@LeboPita

Power struggle and infightings in many political parties do not only lead to discontent members defecting to other parties or creating factions but often prompt them to form break-away parties. These parties do not come up with their own ideologies but continue with those of parties which they broke-away from, and this does not create an exciting political environment as all parties will have a similar manifesto and are poised to face the same societal problems.

The United Democratic Front (UDM) and Congress of the People (COPE) are break-away parties from the African National Congress (ANC) and they both resemble the ruling party in many ways as manifested in their respective mission statements.

Both parties (COPE and UDM) were vocal and flamboyant initially. Lack of resources and factional battles ravaged and has led to their abrupt failure to challenge the ANC.

The UDM, formed in 1997 by General Bantu Holomisa after he was expelled from the ANC, was radical and amassed huge support across the country prior to the 1999 general elections but today the party has failed to maintain what it stood for years ago.

Member of Parliament, Nqabayomzi Kwankwa, attributed the UDM’s failures to bad-blood with the media and lack of resources in a press conference with TUT students in parliament on 12 September 2012.

He claimed that the UDM had a good relationship with journalists but somewhere things turned sour and it affected the party’s politics.

“In the past we had a good relationship (with journalists) and then somewhere along the line something went wrong. We had to spend the last 2 to 3 years trying to make amends because it has become difficult for us to reach out (to the people).”

Kwankwa said lack of resources halted their progress in making change and they failed to communicate with their supporters as they focused more on trying to control their constituencies.

In relation to break-away parties, Kwankwa believes South Africa need to realize that to make politics in the country more exciting; only two opposition parties are needed.

Nqabayomzi Kwankwa blames the media for

the UDM's failures

“I don’t like this notion of creating 60 or 70 opposition parties. We should get to a point where we realize that we need two opposition parties. If you check the UDM and COPE’s manifestos, it is the same content written in a different way therefore we need two parties like in the USA.”

COPE, started in 2008 by struggle veteran Mosiuoa Lekota and Mbhazima Shilowa after leaving the ANC amid a bitter succession battle between the then president of SA Thabo Mbeki and incumbent Jacob Zuma, has been mired in a factional battle between Lekota and Shilowa since its inception.





The infighting has seen the party’s membership decline with former ANC members who left with Lekota in 2008 returning back to the ruling party.

Farouk Kasim, lead researcher in Lekota’s office, said the party’s problems were created by ANC members who did not want to see COPE succeed.

“Many people who created problems in the Congress of the People never really belonged to the party. They belonged to the ruling party. They came here to merely create problems and leave.”

COPE acquired 1.3 million votes in the 2009 general elections, four months after it was formed. But power-mongering between Lekota and Shilowa resulted in the loss of prominent members and a vast majority of its supporters.

Kasim reiterated that the party is in a rebuilding process and it is also recruiting new members.

“We have started from scratch and the number of people who have applied to be COPE members appear to be telling us that COPE is taken seriously by South Africans.”

The party was believed to be a failed attempt by Lekota to revive his political career but Kasim believes COPE still has a point to prove.

“We believe we have a place and we are going to grow and if we can get our house in order then we will be an important political formation in South Africa.”

 “We would like to promote an activist state where people will become active in their own course and where they will have the financial, administrative and technical resources to be able to argue their case.”

Both the UDM and COPE were poised to be strong political foes of the ANC but the leaders who formed both parties have succumbed to pressure brought on by the ruling party. They have resorted to being critical while the ideology of the ANC still runs deep in their veins.