A big piece of news in the last few weeks is that Kader Asmal, an African National Congress stalwart and veteran of the anti-Apartheid struggle has come under fire from left, right and centre. Fikile Mbalula, former leader of the ANC Youth League and now Deputy Minister of Police called him another ‘Don Quixote’ and a ‘lunatic.’ The Umkhonto weSizwe Military Veterans Association told Asmal to go to the nearest cemetery and die. Gwede Mantashe, the ANC Secretary-General warned Asmal, “self-destruction can bleed you to death.” Why? Because Asmal committed the cardinal sin of criticising the government, and by proxy, the ANC.
At a press club function, Asmal said that government proposals to turn the South African Police into a paramilitary organisation, in order to better fight crime, were ‘crazy.’ He also accused Mbalula of ‘low-level political opportunism’ for making statements to that effect. After the shit hit the fan, Asmal reiterated that he was merely exercising his constitutional right to free speech. He warned of the creeping intolerance for dissent within the ANC. And herein lies the big problem.
The ANC is increasingly becoming an authoritarian organisation whereby debate and difference of opinion is quashed. It speaks volumes that Asmal, whose credentials include helping to start up anti-Apartheid movements both in the UK and the Republic of Ireland, drafting the South African constitution and helping to write the bill of rights, has been so viciously attacked. If a struggle stalwart like Asmal has his mouth shut like that for speaking his mind, then can the ANC honestly call itself a democratic organisation? Can an organisation that is either apathetic or ignorant to its members making statements such as “kill for Zuma” and calling for a shoot-to-kill policy on criminals honestly call itself democratic? Asmal himself made these same lamentations, and those of us who remember the old ANC are lamenting with him. We're lamenting that the democratic ethics that were upheld by greats like Oliver Tambo, Walter Sisulu, Chief Albert Luthuli, and Nelson Mandela are being forgotten. These men didn't hold democracy just as a policy. They held it as an attitude and a way of life.
Of course it’s too much to ask of Nelson Mandela himself to speak up in his frail state and old age. Doctors within the last two years have warned him to stay away from political controversy because of the stress involved. That’s why we need struggle heroes like Asmal to make sure that the true values and ethics of the old ANC are upheld and aren’t lost to the new ANC of people like Mbalula, Julius Malema and the Umkhonto weSizwe Military Veterans Association.
At a press club function, Asmal said that government proposals to turn the South African Police into a paramilitary organisation, in order to better fight crime, were ‘crazy.’ He also accused Mbalula of ‘low-level political opportunism’ for making statements to that effect. After the shit hit the fan, Asmal reiterated that he was merely exercising his constitutional right to free speech. He warned of the creeping intolerance for dissent within the ANC. And herein lies the big problem.
The ANC is increasingly becoming an authoritarian organisation whereby debate and difference of opinion is quashed. It speaks volumes that Asmal, whose credentials include helping to start up anti-Apartheid movements both in the UK and the Republic of Ireland, drafting the South African constitution and helping to write the bill of rights, has been so viciously attacked. If a struggle stalwart like Asmal has his mouth shut like that for speaking his mind, then can the ANC honestly call itself a democratic organisation? Can an organisation that is either apathetic or ignorant to its members making statements such as “kill for Zuma” and calling for a shoot-to-kill policy on criminals honestly call itself democratic? Asmal himself made these same lamentations, and those of us who remember the old ANC are lamenting with him. We're lamenting that the democratic ethics that were upheld by greats like Oliver Tambo, Walter Sisulu, Chief Albert Luthuli, and Nelson Mandela are being forgotten. These men didn't hold democracy just as a policy. They held it as an attitude and a way of life.
Of course it’s too much to ask of Nelson Mandela himself to speak up in his frail state and old age. Doctors within the last two years have warned him to stay away from political controversy because of the stress involved. That’s why we need struggle heroes like Asmal to make sure that the true values and ethics of the old ANC are upheld and aren’t lost to the new ANC of people like Mbalula, Julius Malema and the Umkhonto weSizwe Military Veterans Association.
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