NO, MARGARET THATCHER DID NOT FREE MANDELA AND THE ANC - The Attempted Whitewash of Pan-African Liberation Movement History

Due to the recent the overexposure and proliferation of pictures of uTata Nelson Mandela with Margaret Thatcher. It is now widely believed that The Iron Lady was a champion of Mandela and the African National Congress. The fact is she was the total opposite and a pillar of support for PW Botha and his Apartheid regime. It seams appearances can be deceiving in this world of social media. The truth can be reinterpreted too easily. We need to be vigilant. Hence this post.

Anger, impatience, frustration and hysterical propaganda of the "Free Press" cannot allow us to ever forget that The Struggle Continues. We did not overthrow Apartheid and the Colonial infrastructure that created a Market Dominant Minority over the indigenous majority. We negotiated with this powerfully backed racist phenomenon and came to a compromise. Meaning we did not win.

The Struggle has taken another form. It is now hemmed in by our Constitutional Democracy and the laws of South Africa.  The overwhelming majority of these Laws were created before 1994. In other words we inherited Colonial Oppression, Apartheid  and got saddled with all its consequences. Getting the Market Dominant White Minority to where it is today in South Africa took centuries of combined efforts from countless administrations and governments. Unravelling such biased architecture is gonna take, "way", more than a mere 20 years. We are not a homogeneous nation like China or Japan. For heaven sake, we  have 11 official languages. It's more than complicated.

The way this country runs, is configured and was created;  was for the benefit of what is now termed a Market Dominant Minority at the expense of Indigenous Majority. The entire infrastructure  and economy of South Africa was built to service roughly 10% of the population. Getting  this minority to acknowledge this fact has been an uphill battle of resistance. Because in order to move forward we all need to accept and comprehend the consequences of our history. By doing so we will have greater capacity to reconcile this nation.

At the height of the Industrial Revolution and just after the South African War (Anglo-Boer War) in 1910 the state we call South Africa was formed under the Union of South Africa.

 There was no negotiations with any of the "natives" or the inclusion of this vast majority in any part of  the discussions and decisions. These began with the Peace Settlement for the war and culminated with the creation of South Africa as we know it.

The birth of the ANC in 1912 came as a direct result of this exclusion of the Indigenous Majority in the creation of this new country whose laws came to govern us.  Among the new laws passed by this new State's government was the 1913 Natives' Land Act, whose sole purpose was to dispossess all Native's of their birth rights, property and land, to be banished to what would later become "homelands".

One of the corner stones of our Constitution is property rights in defense of the Market Dominant Minority which profited directly from a slew of inhuman laws like the 1913 Natives' Land Act and the renowned Group Areas Act.

Lets be clear Black Africans were robbed of all profit sharing of this nation we call South Africa. We were systematically turned from peoples with self determination to a slave wage  work force for the benefit of Market Dominant White Minority.

 In other words, its by no mistake the new democratic government occupies the buildings of our very oppressors. We agreed to maintain the very oppressive system we fought against working within the strict parameters of a negotiated compromise.

Remember that for the first time ever in some 300 years the wants and needs of the Black Majority are being adhered to.  Unlike our predecessors we cannot fast track transformation at the blatant expense of the minority. We are legally and most importantly morally bound by our very own Constitution and Century old ethos.

"South Africa belongs to all who live in it" says the Freedom Charter, to name an example.

What we require is that the Market Dominant White Minority buy-in,  into our Struggle for equality and justice and own it, as their own, as fellow Africans of South Africa. The most most vivid example of this kind of assimilation is the South African National Anthem. Only once this ownership and assimilation of one true Struggle for human dignity,  equality and justice is attained, will  the correction of past injustices and the building of a common future be made easier.

 There will be no need to point out:

 "We also did our part  in the fight Against Apartheid"

because we all will be doing it, sharing one national consciousness.

This is why  I use the pronouns "We" instead of "They" and  "Them" my identification with the Pan-African Liberation Movement is that I  belong to it, it is me and I am it. There is no identity politics in this, simply put:

"I AM AN AFRICAN"

We know the true history and the true nature of the land that became South Africa. South Africa was designed and built as a Satellite of the United Kingdom and Europe. The industrial pillars of our economy, our top corporations are headquartered in London and listed on London Stock Exchange. This is where we fit into the global economy. Our chief market is the UK and the EU so, as they are struggling to grow, we grow minimally.

Peugeot/Citroen and Fiat aren't selling in Europe  due to the crippling effects of EU Economic Crisis. These two giant automobile producers are downgrading and closing factories. The majority of cars are made of Platinum. Lack of demand for the mineral goes down as a result. This leads to South African mining giant ,ironically called, Anglo Platinum  mothballing mines and retrenching workers.

The African National Congress was a founding member if not the leader of the Pan-African Liberation Movement. The Struggle was not against Apartheid as popularly quoted. It was for the emancipation of Africa and Africans over  the oppressive systems that orchestrated and administered Colonialism. These systems left artificiallly created States  with Social and Economic infrastructure biased against the prosperity of the majority of these populations.

Thabo Mbeki's presidential legacy of "The African Renaissance" along with his vast efforts toward pan African stability and democracy, was a renewal and a continuation of THE STRUGGLE by the ANC and the Pan-African Libertaion Movement. This is why The 21st Century  African Millenium ideology of the Mbeki administration  seemed to synchronise  so seamlessly  with the reinvention of the OAU into the AU.

A full  knowledge  and understanding of the work and achievements of the ANC in exile, headquartered in Lusaka, under the Statesmanship of Oliver. R. Tambo, sheds light on this symbiosis. The ANC in exile was intrisically affliated to the newly independent  African nations. The Liberation Movements of these nations modelled themselves on the ANC. Many studied with the leadership of the ANC at the then black University of Fort Hare in South Africa, coming face to face with our oppression.

The strength of the shared roots and bonds  is revealed in that several African states adopted, "Nkosi Sikelela iAfrika" as their national anthem. Our Struggle was Their Struggle. For many the ANC in Lusaka was the true seat of the South African Government. This resulted in diplomatic missionaries and auxiliary facilities being created all over Africa. From there  under Oliver Tambo's stewardship a sophisticated globetrotting  campaign was devised  to win the hearts and minds of the world. Initially taking shape in Scandanavia and The Netherlands, The Free Mandela and STOP APARTHEID  and similar campaigns by the youth and like minded peoples of the Western World ultimately coerced governments to turn against the Apartheid state. We gained the moral upper hand against the oppression of the black majority in South Africa.

umZabalazo, the Revolution continues for the systems of oppression still exists.  In the words of Letta Mbuli,

"NOT YET UHURU"

Those who think they are oppressed under a democratically elected regime that brought about the very Constitutional Democracy they live in, clearly have no sense of the meaning of freedoms and liberty.

Maybe they have no memories of Pass Laws, Geen Blankes signs, Forced Removals or the Violent Crackdowns of the State of Emergency. Maybe they have no family members who dissappeared, died or were exiled for  daring to challenge Dictatorship. Maybe they have no idea that black people live in Townships because they were forced to by law. Maybe they have forgotten they are children of heros and heroines who gave their lives so they could have freedoms and liberty.

Thandiswa Mazwai asked us, "Nizilebele ukuba Nizalwa ngobani?"

The answer, I believe, has come back a resounding "No We Have Not Forgotten"

Why do young blacks believe the DA will bring back Apartheid? I don't know. But its a damning indictment of a perception of being the proverbial Wolf in Sheeps Clothing. The DA is ovewhelmingly supported by the Market Dominant White Minority a fact that is not lost on even "Born Frees". Declaration of acknowledgement of ill gotten gains and the assimilation of the minority into the ideology of  Pan-African Liberation Movement is the missing link that is fighting our reconciliation, transformation and ascension.

The problem with the official opposition and most opposition parties in South Africa is an emotional and ideological connection with constituents. The buy in, for them, is usually  as a reaction to the ANC. But in principal the DA's machine feels like a hybrid of American & British politics. In many ways its anti-Affirmative Action stance and resistance to transformation ideals and programmes apes the political ideology of the right wing Republican Party in the US and Margaret Thatcher's Conservative Party in the UK.

The DA appears high on media presence and spin, lacking in an ideological pull beyond anti-corruption, anti- this or that. Everything seems to try and be better and cleaner than The Joneses. But the Joneses have the "People's Touch" talking at every level in every language adapting to every cultural or social occassion. It's alot more nuanced than just  singing and dancing, and speaking the language.

The impeccable  historical credentials of the ANC are emotionally binding, as are  the new world order ideologies like BRICS and the African Renaissance add value to a comprehensive political platform that is the antithesis of Afro-pessimissm. It looks to core ideals that can destroy the crippling inferiority complex of African self esteem. That kind of pull and complexity comes from being "a broad church" developed over a century.

The ANC is a giant of the Liberation Movement of Pan African Emancipation. This is an indisputable fact.  Mandela, is a loyal cadre of this collossus, who did  our bidding on our behalf. The heaps of praise, reverence and admiration for Mandela is  in fact  due to the policies and directives Manifested by the African National Congress  for South Africa and the African continent and diaspora.  Mandela is the ANC and the ANC is Mandela.

As the government and leading political party of South Africa today we cannot lie a pretend like nothing has been done in 20years. Creating the impression there is a magic formula to  our challenges is hubris. To say the ANC has failed to deliver is inaccurate. The statistics of South Africa's Census of the past 20 years floor this falsehood. The improvements,changes and growth is pulpable and tangible to everyone, even though it doesn't reach everyone the same.

Can they do better? Hell yes! Do we deserve better? Hell Yes!

But unless you have a policy of "Regime Change", demonising the ruling party and the government like some " Axis of Evil", does no one any favours.  Julius Malema has left the arena. Only Helen Zille and the DA are left to scream and tantrem.  Perhaps  they need to learn to build (Agang).

"NKOSI SIKELELA IAFRIKA - AMANDLA NGAWETHU - ALUTA CONTINUA"