WATCH: ‘Black man, you are on your own’, warns Magashule

Suspended ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule has implored for Africa to “awake” in a cryptic video recently shared on social media.

Suspended uMkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans Association spokesperson Carl Niehaus uploaded the clip, featuring a despondent-looking Magashule.

Suspension

Magashule was suspended in May 2021, in line with the ANC’s Rule 25.70, which requires all party members criminally charged to step aside pending the conclusion of their cases.

He was dealt a huge blow this year when the Constitutional Court dismissed his application to appeal his suspension, ruling that there were no prospects of success.

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‘The struggle’

In the video, Magashule speaks about the struggles of the black man, and that Africa needs to “awake”.

“Black man, you are on your own. Democrats, you are on your own. Freedom fighters, you are in your own. Africa awake, so are the days of our lives in South Africa.

“Africa awake, life or death, victory is certain.”

Ace Magashule’s words echo sentiments of the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM), a grassroots anti-apartheid activist movement that emerged in South Africa in the mid-1960s out of the political vacuum created by jailing the ANC and PAC leadership after the Sharpeville Massacre in 1960.

‘Black man, you are on your own’

“Black man, you are on your own” became the rallying cry as mushrooming activity committees implemented what was to become a relentless campaign of challenge to what was then referred to by the Black Consciousness Movement as “the system”.

It eventually sparked a confrontation on 16 June 1976 in the Soweto uprising, when 176 people were killed mainly by the South African Security Forces, as students marched to protest the use of the Afrikaans language in African schools.

The book ‘Black man, you are on your own’ was commissioned by the Biko Foundation, a text revised to make public the ideas and activities of the Black Consciousness Movement.

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Magashule’s video comes shortly after the Constitutional Court ruled that South African Communist Party (SACP) leader Chris Hani’s assassin, Janusz Waluś, would be released from jail within 10 days.

In a unanimous judgment delivered by Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, the ConCourt found that the decision by Justice Minister Ronald Ramola not to grant Waluś parole in 2020 was irrational.

Chris Hani’s widow, Limpho Hani, reacted with anger on Monday, branding the judgement “diabolical”.

“Waluś has lost all his [previous] cases. Now he comes here (to the ConCourt) and whatever they say goes.

“I wish them all the best. Do you know about karma? Watch this space, all of them,” she told the media after the ruling.