Hamba Kahle ‘backroom boy’

The death of the last of the Rivonia trialists, Andrew Mokete Mlangeni, has been described as the end of an era. Beneath this clichéd refrain are multiple truisms whose import merits some meditation.

What were the features of the era in passing; what should we internalise and discard and what kind of an epoch are we entering? The end of apartheid represented one of humanity’s greatest achievements of the 20th century.

As one of the leaders of the struggle against apartheid, Mlangeni’s name – and those of his fellow travellers – is permanently embossed in the pages of history. He is part of a revered legion of liberators who were driven by the singular objective of freeing South Africa from apartheid colonialism and the construction of a non-racial, non-sexist and prosperous democracy.

The self-confessed “backroom boy” of the ANC leadership during the decades of struggle, saw himself as but a volunteer and servant of the people. That self-descriptor – “backroom boy” – came from an unassuming place of humility which was the hallmark of many of Mlangeni’s generation. For the altruistically inclined, humility seems to be a vital attribute whereas for the showy and self-absorbed, the cost of obscurity with which it attaches is way too onerous.

In his statement from the dock, Mlangeni told presiding Judge Quartus de Wet that he joined the ANC “because I want to work for my people”. He added that: “What I did was not for myself but for my people.” So, from the beginning of his activism, Mlangeni understood that you lead your country by serving it and the people by serving them. This outlook would remain his guide well into his twilight years.

Reflecting on the goings on in the ANC in 2017, Mlangeni lamentedt: “Today, the ANC is deeply divided. Everybody wants a position. People no longer do things on a voluntary basis – they want to be paid for everything that they do. That was not the ANC position.”

In the ’50s and beyond, the hazards that came with involvement in the struggle such as imprisonment, torture, betrayal and the threat of death did not deter Mlangeni. During the eight months from October 1963 to June 1964 when they appeared before Judge De Wet in a process that was nothing more than a grotesque mockery of justice at the so-called Palace of Justice in Pretoria, the Rivonia trialists lived under the threat of a possible death penalty. The uncertainty would have been unnerving to all but the most steel-willed.

Believing that it would deliver a lasting blow on the liberation movement, the regime hoped for a death penalty verdict on the accused. De Wet himself said as much in his sentencing statement. A case such as the Rivonia Trial, he said, usually carried the “supreme penalty”. He, however, had ostensibly elected “leniency” by sentencing the accused to life imprisonment.

Unsurprisingly for an apartheid court, De Wet dismissed the “grievances of the non-white population” as a factor in the accused’s political posture: “People who organise a revolution usually plan to take over the government, and personal ambition cannot be excluded as a motive.”

It was a statement reminiscent of Mr Bumble in Charles Dickens’s novel, Oliver Twist: “The law is an ass – an idiot.” The state also presented a series of state witnesses, including former Natal uMkhonto we Sizwe regional command member Bruno Mtolo, who betrayed his former comrades.

Many years later, during the exile years, Mlangeni’s former teacher at St Peter’s School in Rosettenville, Johannesburg, the former ANC president Oliver Tambo, remarked that: “The ANC must continue to make sure that our revolutionary struggle is revolutionary in every respect and obeys the rules of any revolution, follows definitely defined rules. A revolutionary behaves in a certain kind of way and he’s distinguished and distinguishable from the criminal, from the vigilante, from the enemy agent and he doesn’t have to debase himself.”

There can be no gainsaying the fact that much of what makes Mlangeni’s passing the end of an era is the seeming break, a severing of ties between what Mlangeni and Tambo represented and what the ANC’s record today.

Reflecting in 2017 on what he undoubtedly regarded as a second betrayal, Mlangeni also said: “My heart is bleeding when I see what is happening in the country. People have become so greedy that money is the most important thing. They have lost the values the ANC stood for.

“People have died for this revolution, this freedom. Some went into exile and died there. Others died here during the apartheid years, fighting for freedom. They were shot and killed by the apartheid regime. It is sad. Very sad. You know the story of the Guptas and state capture. People have sold their souls, their humanity.”

Posterity will record Mlangeni’s importance not only for standing on the right side of history but for being party to the making of history. He helped to steer history towards the liberation of the oppressed. As one of the testimonies to his integrity, he did not hesitate to speak openly and frankly against the excesses of his own party.

As his 2017 remarks show, Mlangeni was deeply concerned about people who join the ANC with no civic spirit while the party is burdened by the no mean feat task of transforming a hugely unequal society into an equitable polity. Sadly, the factory that produced the Andrew Mlangenis of our country seems to have long shut down. Or have the differently predisposed become hegemonic over time?

As inheritors of a future whose foundation Mlangeni and his comrades laid with their sweat and blood, current generations cannot but be concerned about where the country is going. That concern should also be mindful of the fact that every system of power requires critical appraisal from within and without but grows unreceptive the more it veers off course, even as critical voices may in essence be complimentary.

Yet, this is one of the critical ways through which to honour a national hero such as Mlangeni. Otherwise, the coming era may be nothing short of a nightmare.

Ratshitanga is a consultant, social and political commentator

Mukoni Ratshitanga. Picture: Neil McCartney

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