Open letter by ANC stalwarts -- Sent to Secretary General

Gwede Mantashe with a request that it be given to the

ANC NEC
The veterans and stalwarts of the African National Congress (ANC) who are
signatories to the document, For the Sake of our Future, came together
due to our serious concern about the trajectory the ANC is taking under the
current leadership. As stated in our documents we believe the present
practices deviate from the historical mission and revolutionary task of our
movement to gain power for and with the people and to radically change
the conditions of life of all the people of South Africa, especially those who
were historically oppressed and exploited by the racist apartheid regime.
To quote Comrade Andrew Mlangeni, Our hearts are broken as we watch
some in the leadership of our movement undoubtedly a dominant group
within the leadership abrogate to themselves the power of the State to
serve their own self-interests rather than the interests of the people of South
Africa.
The historical ANC we know (as veterans and stalwarts of the movement)
believed that power is not for individuals in the leadership to use the
institutions of the State for self-interest; for families of individual leaders;
and for friends or factions. The seizure of power as enunciated by our
leadership throughout the history of our struggle for liberation, particularly
by OR Tambo, was always understood as Power to the People and not
power for individuals who used it for counter-revolutionary activities which
are an antithesis of what the ANC should be about.
At the meeting held on Tuesday, 23 May 2017, the veterans and stalwarts
who are signatories to the document, For the Sake of Our Future,
expressed alarm at the overwhelming body of information about the
capture of our government to serve individual and particular commercial
interests. There was original evidence in the State of Capture Report and
this has been expanded by the report of the Unburdening Panel of the
South African Council of Churches (SACC).
The report presents in a coherent and systematic way that there has been
and continues to be a project of the capture of the government by members
of the ANC in government and some elements within business. The report
shows, in a succinct and comprehensive manner, that both the state and
government are compromised to facilitate the project which is more than
just corruption. This renders meaningless the very fundamental democratic
objective that The People Shall Govern as clearly stated in the Freedom
Charter.
Given the seriousness of this capture of the state by our own leaders within
the ANC, we as the veterans and stalwarts of the movement call on the
National Executive Committee (NEC) as it meets this weekend to show
leadership to our members, supporters and the nation and exercise its
executive power in terms of the Constitution of the ANC to remove from
government all those who are party to this project of state capture. In
particular, the ANC should seriously consider recalling the President as
Head of State and of Government.
As the NEC sits to deliberate on the crisis and challenges facing our
movement it is pertinent and appropriate at this critical juncture to recall
the words of Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng when he delivered his
judgment on Nkandla on 31 March 2016.
With regard to the president of the Republic he said, Only upon him has the
constitutional obligation to uphold defend and respect the Constitution as
the supreme law of the Republic been expressly imposed the nation pins
its hopes on him to steer the country in the right direction and accelerate our
journey towards a peaceful just and prosperous destination. He is a
constitutional being by design a national pathfinder the quintessential
commander-in-chief of State affairs and the personification of this nations
constitutional project.
In the same vein his comments on the conduct of Parliament were equally
scathing. He reminded parliamentarians of the sacred and sacrosanct
responsibility that rests of their shoulders the National Assembly and by
extension Parliament is the embodiment of the centuries-old dreams and
legitimate aspirations of all our people. It is the voice of all South Africans
especially the poor the voiceless and the least remembered. It is the
watchdog of state resources the enforcer of fiscal discipline and cost-
effectiveness for the common good of all our people. It also bears the
responsibility to play an oversight role over the Executive and state organs
and ensure that constitutional and statutory obligations are properly
executed.
It is therefore imperative for the members of the NEC to think long and hard
and with all honestly about whether Members of Parliament have, by
absolving the president, lived up to the expectations of the people of South
Africa. This is all the more reason as the nation waits with bated breath
about the outcome of the vote of no confidence that has been tabled in
Parliament. Ordinarily, it should not even be a debatable matter how ANC
parliamentarians, as representative of the the voice of all South Africans
especially the poor the voiceless and the least remembered the watchdog
of State resources the enforcer of fiscal discipline and cost-effectiveness for
the common good of all our people should vote.
The people of South Africa expect them to redeem themselves and rise up to
the occasion and the challenge that Justice Mogoeng has thrown at them
and ask themselves, has the president by his conduct lived up to the high
standards of a constitutional being by design a national pathfinder the
quintessential commander-in-chief of State affairs and the personification of
this nations constitutional project. It is their conscience individually and
collectively that will demonstrate to the nation that the ANC remains still the
leader of society by voting to preserve, protect, defend and uphold the
Constitution of the Republic.
This should be done as a precursor to an honest reflection and exposure of
those who are involved in such illegal and unconstitutional projects. This is
clearly counter-revolutionary and against the national strategic objectives of
the ANC. It is a betrayal of our national democratic revolution (in favour of a
Mafia style government). As the ANC we surely cannot have a government
which is deployed there by the ANC in terms of the Constitution of the
Republic, to pursue interests which are contrary to what the Constitution of
the Republic requires them to do. No member of the ANC who falls prey to
the dictates of commercial and self-interest must be allowed to remain in
government in the name of or act on behalf of the African National
Congress.
The NEC must unequivocally condemn projects that seek to undermine our
government by creating parallel governance structures, like a shadow
government that is not accountable to the people to serve the interests of
individuals. We are particularly concerned about actions that compromise
the security and justice cluster, particularly the police, the Hawks, the
National Prosecution Authority (NPA), and the intelligence services.
We call on the NEC to heed the warning of the SACC that the capture of the
state and the development of parallel governance structures outside the
official and constitutional structures of government will leave them with no
option but to declare such a government illegitimate.
We once more appeal to the National Executive Committee of the ANC to
ensure that the National Consultative Conference (NCC) - as described in
our document For the sake of our future) and agreed to by the NEC
November 2016 - is organized together with the Veterans and Stalwarts of
the Movement and the MK Council in way that will make it (the NCC) as
effective as possible to resolve the crisis the Movement is facing. The
conference must be seen as an extra-ordinary conference where the
leadership of the Movement together with the Veterans and Stalwarts of the
ANC and MK Council will have the opportunity to critically analyse all the
ills that plague our Movement; develop and agree on corrective measures to
turn the Movement around and implement strategies to ensure that the ANC
regains its credibility and assume, again, its leadership role of society.
It is the considered view of the veterans and stalwarts that a back-to-back
NCC with the policy conference which includes delegates to the policy
conference who have not been prepared and mandated to deal with this
matter by their branches is an exercise in futility which may leave our
movement come out of such an NCC in a worse state than it is now. An NCC
with representatives of branches of the ANC can only be meaningful if the
issues raised by the veterans and stalwarts of the ANC (contained mainly in
the For the Sake of South Africa Document) were discussed in the
branches of the ANC before coming to participate in such a consultative
conference. Further, the outcomes of the NCC need to be widely discussed
within the ANC and especially by branches to enable these outcomes to
inform policy; the identification of leaders that will steer the ANC back to
what the masses of our people know it to be; and, the electoral processes
leading to the elective conference the end of the year.
The meeting of stalwarts and veterans today agreed unanimously that we
can only proceed to a national consultative conference on the terms that we
have repeatedly stated in the many meetings with the ANC leadership and as
enunciated in our document. The ANC, dear comrades, is falling apart as
you meet and the country, supporters and members of the ANC are looking
for leadership that must and should take us out of this nightmare. As
stalwarts and veterans we are also stating categorically that if the NEC does
not make a clear and unambiguous statement on the NCC and there is no
agreement to have such a NCC, the 101+ will consider calling for a national
"dialogue" (name to be determined) to discuss the crisis in the ANC and the
country and what is to be done.
We also appeal to the rest of the leadership of the ANC throughout all its
structure from branches throughout the country, to all the regions and
provinces to take a stand and defend our revolution, our organisation, and
our democratically elected government from those in leadership positions
who are part of state capture project in their own interests. We all have an
obligation to ensure that our movement continues its commitment to serve
the people of South Africa, consistent with the objectives of the ANC as
represented by the leaders under whom many of us (veterans and stalwarts
of the ANC) served, such as Inkosi Albert Luthuli, Oliver Tambo and Nelson
Mandela.
As members of the NEC it is in your power, collectively, to ensure that all
members of the ANC are part of a movement that is a servant of the people
and not an instrument for self-enrichment and corrupt practices. We must
ensure that all members of the ANC and civil servants within our
democratically elected government, and in all spheres of government, act
consistently to address the challenges of the eradication of the legacy of
apartheid colonialism and therefore such ills as poverty, underdevelopment,
unemployment, and racial and gender inequality as well as ensuring that
there is zero tolerance to self-interest and corruption. In particular we call
on all civil servants and other professionals in all sectors of our society to
resist the project of state capture and expose it wherever it manifests itself.
In this regard the stalwarts and veterans plan to interact with all levels of the
movement countrywide to ensure that, together, we can defend the gains of
our revolution and the right of our people to govern themselves rather than
be governed by those who are intent on capturing the state to serve their
own interests. We also call on all veterans and stalwarts to work with all
ANC structures to organise consultative conferences in all the regions and
provinces of the country to enable genuine members of the ANC who stand
for the tested values and traditions of the movement and the oath we all took
on joining the ANC to facilitate a return to our historical values.
Lastly, we appeal to the NEC to join with the people of South Africa (the last
line of the defence of our democracy) to take a stand against those elements
who have betrayed the historical values of our movement by getting involved
in the implementation of the counter-revolutionary activities of state capture
which robs the people of the national resources meant to radically change
their conditions of life as elaborated in the Freedom Charter.
As veterans and stalwarts of the revolutionary movement we are obliged to
oppose the counter-revolution which is being promoted by some of the key
leaders of our movement, in the name of the ANC and our government. We
restate our commitment to save the ANC from the clutches of those who are
bent on destroying our movement and discrediting it in the face of the
people of South Africa and the world. It must be emphasised that the turn of
events does not in any way imply that we are trying or even attempting to
form a new organisation. We remain completely committed to the ANC and
want the ANC to return to its values and principles and to a leadership that
is ethical, places integrity foremost and truly committed to the people and
constitution of South Africa.
Together with OR Tambo and all the tested leaders of the Movement, A luta
Continua, and Power to the People!
In solidarity and struggle,
Wally Mongane Serote,
On behalf of the Stalwarts and Veterans