Tribute to Cde Kgotso Motloung by Ronald Lamola Leaders of the ANC Current and former leaders of the ANCYL Leaders of the YCL, COSAS and SASCO Leaders of the SACP and COSATU Leaders of the ANCWL Leaders of organized structures in business, churches and various sectors of society Members of all MDM structures Members of the community of Sakhile and the society in general To summarize a life well lived, may I with your permission summon from the grave, an eminent writer by the name of Charles Dickens in his book, ”the tale of two cities “ to bring back to life commander Kgotso Motloung. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was an age of wisdom, it was an age of foolishness, it was an epoch of belief, it was an epoch of incredulity, it was a season of Light, it was a season of Darkness, it was a spring of hope, it was a winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way-in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on it being received, for good or for evil, in superlative degree of comparison only.” We are a generation in mourning. Our pain and anger is real. A part of us is gone with him passing. Our paths first crossed at a sub-regional meeting in Govern Mbeki when he was Gert Sibande RTT member. I think it was in 2006 if I`m not mistaken. I was introduced to him by Cde Themba Mtlakana. He was a bridge between me and student politics. He taught me the politics of the YL in practical and simple terms. We shared ideas, disagreements, bruises; we picked each other when the chips were down as they always have been, especially lately. We are here today to remember a life well lived. A life of a man who dedicated almost his entire life to the service of the people, a man who grew in the ranks of COSAS and the ANCYL. He sacrificed the privilege of being with his family every day to fight for youth development and the empowerment of the youth of South Africa. This is a man who was irked by the economic exclusion of the youth of South Africa from the main stream of the economy. I did not know what to say as I was preparing myself to remember his life here and today, I decided to tell the truth as I know it about his life not to dishonour his memory. Who was Cde Kgotso Motloung? • Cde Kgotso was a community activist, a local government practitioner, a well-travelled young man. • Cde Kgotso was a youth development activist • Cde Kgotso was part of a generation that declared themselves economic freedom fighters at the YL congress in Gallagher • He was an economic freedom fighter • Cde Kgotso was fearless and courageous • He was a selfless young man who did not participate in the struggle for personal gain. • He always opened room for engagement with all people including those that he disagreed with. • He was indeed a young lion as articulated by President OR many years ago • He was a dedicated family man • He loved his wife and children. • He will always pray with his farther on the phone during difficult and trying times. • Unlike some of us he was soft spoken, always smiling and focus even on the face of extreme provocation. • When we wanted to cause anarchy and mayhem, he will always calm us down and tell us to remain focus in our strategic goal. • He was our teacher in the politics of the YL. • He was ready to draw others into leadership, and he never asked of others what he was not prepared to do himself. • Rivalries within comrades of the YL were always to be expected. Many amongst us were perceived to be leaders of some groupings but all saw Cde Kgotso as a leader of the organization. • His greatness as a leader derived from his humility and his ingrained belief in and respect of collective leadership. He knew and taught us that wisdom comes from sharing insights and listening to and learning from each other. He was always the unifier, never a divider where others of us would speak hasty words or act in anger, he was the patient one, seeking to help and bring together. • This you could feel even in his own family, he loved his wife and children, he will sometimes come with his child to meetings, he was not ashamed of his in-laws at Hill Crest in KZN, we were taken there several times. • He never derived his authority from a position but the ability to influence and persuade others. His understanding of the twin task of the ANCYL is unparalleled. He was not a member of the SACP and the YCL but was not anti-communist. He understood that it is through unity of purpose that the objectives of the NDR will be achieved. Cde Kgotso like all of us was not perfect, he was neither saint nor a purist, he committed mistakes, he made wrong choices but was willing to be corrected and engaged on his views. Cde Kgotso understood that as a leader of the Youth you are licenced to make mistakes. Cde Kgotso suffered for us, we suffered for him. Cde Kgotso understood that the strategic task of the revolution is to dismantle the legacy of Apartheid not comrades. He knew that the enemy is not within us. He will always say while we are busy butchering each other, the privileged minority is continuing to flourish in our society at the expense of our people. The gap between the poor and the rich is continuing to widen. Recent statistics show that two people are richer than the entire black community combined. 95 % of the richest people in the country are white males. Economic Freedom in Our Lifetime Cde Kgotso is part of a generation that declared as its mission ‘’Economic freedom in our life time”. We said the generation of Nelson Mandela had a battle cry ‘’ freedom in our life time and they set a goal to achieve it in their life time. Some within that generation did not achieve it in their life time as they were killed by the apartheid regime, some died in exile, some died after they returned in the country like Oliver Tambo and Chris Hani but others like Walter Sisulu, Nelson Mandela, and Joe Slovo did live to see their generational mission accomplished. It saddened me that cde Kgotso has left us before we achieve our generational mission. Our generational mission will be achieved when all the economic clauses of the Freedom Charter have been implemented in totality and not in a reformist manner. Cde Kgotso believed that the ANC is the vehicle through which economic freedom will be achieved. It pained him to see our resolutions on economic freedom being hijacked by other organizations that preyed on the suffering of the youth of South Africa. The unsuspecting youth of the country. Cde Kgotso understood that no modern day revolutionary has invented the struggle for economic freedom but the ANC since its formation was formed to fight an economic struggle. The formation of the ANC was in response to the bill that led to the adoption of the Land act of 1913.The ANC spoke about the economic emancipation of the black majority in 1912. It is the letter authored by Pixley ka Seme that led to the formation of the ANC in 1912 that first spoke about the economic emancipation of the African majority. His generation oversaw the appointment of youth development officers in various municipalities in Gert Sibande. He was in the fore front of advocating for adoption of the youth development policies in various Municipalities of Gert Sibande and later on in the Province of Mpumalanga. He was in the fore front of eternalising that thirty percent of economic activities at a local government level and provincial government must go to young people. He was also in the fore front of a number of campaigns to ensure that the private sector empower the youth of Mpumalanga and the local communities. We held marches and meetings together against SASOL in Secunda to empower the Local communities. We held meetings in Emjindini with the local community on economic empowerment of the community by the surrounding mines. We did the same in Phola, Ogies and Emashishini in Lydenburg. Cdes, mines are bound by the laws of this country to empower local communities. The mineral and petroleum development act and the mining charter demands that mines must use 65 percent of black service providers. Cde kgotso did not only speak about nationalization of mines and expropriation of land without compensation without taking practical action to realise it. Cde Kgotso understood that the youth league has a role to bring new and fresh ideas into the life of the ANC. With regard to the land program Cde Kgotso took us to Dagakraalhis community was ridiculed by the Afrikaners and called their place Daggakraal because they believed no serious farming can take place in a black community.. A symbol of resistance by a black community. This community was assisted to buy land by Pixley Ka Seme, it’s a community that survived all the apartheid laws that took land from our people. It is the first African farmers who strived for the economic emancipation of our people. This is a community that lost its son Sole Mkhize who was killed by a police constable in a meeting to evict the community. The community still remains today with their land. Ours is to assist them to achieve commercial farming status. Cde Kgotso wanted to see black professionals empowered. He wanted to see them participate in the mainstream of the economy. Working and acting for listed companies in the Johannesburg stock exchange with equal opportunities with their white counter parts. The generation of economic freedom fighters achieved to persuade the ANC to intervene in the mining sector and to reconsider the willing buyer willing seller policy. To date the ANC government is the process of amending the Mineral and petroleum development act to benefit local community and the black people in particular. The land claims processes have been reopened and the laws governing land are in the process of review. Cde kgotso was in the fore front to fight against land evictions in the Gert Sibande Region. This is a region which the highest statistics of farm evictions in the whole country. Cde Kgotso supported the campaign of both the YCL and the SACP against this barbaric and inhuman conduct. Cde Kgotso was a human rights activist. The times prior to the Gallagher congress of the YL was characterised by enormous challenges. Perhaps the first among these was the challenge to overcome fear, as members of the YL were threatened and coerced into abandoning crucial processes towards the 24th National Conference. The political climate of fear and intimidation sought to imprison everybody within the environment of fear. He stood shoulders above all of us and said no retreat no surrender, forward we go with our generational mission. To be eminent economic freedom fighters we had to overcome fear. He was a compatriot who could not dishonour the cause of economic freedom struggle. As early as 1961 Chief Albert Luthuli had said of our heroes and heroine, that: Beneath the surface of political repression, there is a spirit of defiance. The people of South Africa have never been a docile lot. We have a long tradition of struggle for our national rights, reaching back to the very beginnings of white settlements and conquest 300 years ago. We call him a martyr of our economic freedom struggle because he suffered for refusing to abandon the economic freedom resolutions of the ANCYL. He defended the autonomy of the ANCYL to the bitter end. He was humiliated and degraded by his comrades for his beliefs. Cde Kgotso wanted a better life like all of us but was not consumed by patronage. He refused to be patronised. Despite this he did no begrudge anyone, he persevered and soldiered on. He used to say to me that Cde Lamola the struggle for the liberation of the people of South Africa was not easy and abo Mandela were not sure if the will achieve it or not. Even the struggle for economic freedom will not be easy; it is bound to receive both internal and external resistance. Autonomy of the Youth League This is a man who led a generation of economic freedom fighters with unmatched courage and fearlessness. He sacrificed personal happiness to defend resolutions of the ANCYL and to protect its autonomy. He defended the autonomy of the YL with all he had. For the first time in the history of the ANC and that of the ANCYL the YL PEC in MP was pronounced disbanded by the PEC of the ANC. They did this full aware that a PEC of the ANC does not have such powers. This happened after 11 members of the PEC of the YL in MP where told to resign with an intention to collapse the incumbent structure. We said you join the YL alone and if you resign in mass it’s a clear program to collapse the structure and its factionalism. With his deep understanding of the constitution of the YL and that of the ANC cde Kgotso refused to be disbanded by an ANC PEC and said he will only be disbanded by the YL NEC. This was neither defiance nor ill-discipline but an act of a man who understood the autonomy of the YL. Our NEC affirmed the position that only the NEC of the YL can disband a PEC and not the ANC PEC. This became a source of great hostility between the ANC MP and the YL NEC. It was also the catalyst for the disbandment of the YL national as the strong voice and so it later happened and came directly from Mpumalanga, at the ANC National Conference in Mangaung. As the whole country should be aware many other factors were considered for the disbandment. While we disagreed with the decision alongside cde Kgotso we agreed to respect it. We said we submitted our self for correction by the ANC where we committed mistakes and were ready to receive political support for the renewal of the YL. It was our view that a decision to disband the YL will act as a permanent threat to all future leaders of the YL to be scared to bring new ideas and experimental revolutionary activities. Further to the above it will also permanently encroach the autonomy of the YL. Cde Kgotso`s experience as a former Regional Chairperson of Gert Sibande, PEC member in MP and subsequently Chairperson became a source of education to all YL of the Province. It also became a source of wisdom and strength to all of us; we could turn to him anytime for political advice. In this regard he was the person one will turn to for advice during the most difficult times in my history as an activist of the organization, the period leading to Mangaung. Cleansing of various generations in the YL in MP Cde Kgotso is one of the people who bemoaned the cleansing out from structures of the ANC, graduates of the YL. We had a common agreement that all graduates of the YL in our Province are graduating to the streets and not to structures of the ANC. Why does the ANC have a political school if all its graduates will not be intergraded in the ANC.? A generation of Cde Screamer Skosana, Sipho Shongwe, Jomo Nyambi, Lassy Chiwayo,Madala Masuku, Isaac Mahlangu, Steven Ngubeni, and many other generations are not in any ANC structures. Members of the YL must know that no generation will hand over power voluntary to us, we must fight for our space in the ANC. Cde Kgotso never led the ANC but understood that in the ANC you don’t have a birth right to lead but it is a problem if there is a deliberate and concerted effort to block the young ones from growing. Cde Kgotso is one of the people who embraced social networks to engage on topical issues of the day political and social. He is one of the people who will always say to me if they are gate keeping us from speaking in the structure of the organization where else do they want us to speak. When you raise a view on face book or twitter or a radio station, you are told to raise it internal where you are not allowed to participate. In other words you being told to shut up and never raise any view as there is no platform you are allowed to speak in. The YL and the ANC are no longer underground organizations. Our discussions documents for conferences are published for everyone to engage. The public at large is allowed to engage on our draft policy proposals. Patronage The YL Mthandazo Ngobeni predicted the challenges we face today some years ago through the document is the revolution safe in our hands, it spoke about the power of patronage and the abandonment of principle in the prosecution of the struggle. It warned about the dangers of state power to a liberation movement. These dangers are not unique to our country. One of the leaders of MPLA, Paolo Jorge, said that when an Angolan Government Decree of 1992 allowed Government Ministers to engage in business on their individual accounts: “That brought a change in mentality-moral values disappeared, replaced by material values”. Yet another principal leader of the MPLA, at one point in the history of the MPLA the immensely popular deputy to the outstanding African and Angolan leader, Aghostino Neto, Lucio Lara,said: We (did not pay) a great deal of attention to the ideological problem , I speak of honest, sticking to ones principles, above all, kindness, generosity. A natural militant (of the national democratic revolution), by definition, is generous because he or she is doing what he and she can for the people, without taking personal interest into account. We should have been able to prevent, personal interests, gradually, the little egos, from taking over from the generosity which should be defining characteristics of militants in a party like ours. Cde Kgotso was a selfless revolutionary and lived his life to safeguard the values of the YL and the ANC. Local Government Cde Kgotso was an experienced local government practitioner. When we fought for his appointment as a Mayor of the District, we were not only informed by the struggle for generational mix but he had been an ordinary councillor, MMC for more than five years. He had what was required to be a Mayor of any municipality including the district. He was removed on the basis of unproven allegations by the REC which had no powers to do so as deployment and redeployment of Mayors is a prerogative of the PEC.This decision was later ratified by the PEC but it is supposed to be confirmed first before it is implemented by the region. We went to all ANC offices up until Luthuli house and our cry was never heard. What pained us the most is that Kgotso was removed on unproven allegations which were not tested by any hearing and he is given a chance to testify and cross examined. Members of the ANCYL and some ANC members ran mass protests against this decision. We thought of going to court but decided against it as we said it will look like we are taking the ANC to court. We said just for cde Kgotso to clear his name we must go to the public protector. He told me somewhere in June that the office of the public protector informed him that they are done with investigation, they are just compiling their findings. To date we have not yet received the findings of the public protector in this regard. If the family still wants to pursue the matter we will assist them to find closure on this matter. Renewal of the YL Despite all that Cde Kgotso has gone through, he continued to love the ANC and the ANCYL. He encouraged all of us to do the same. To honour Cde Kgotso we need to get rid of the prejudices we have in our minds about each other. It is only then that we will enter the task of renewing the YL that Cde Kgotso loved so much. Both disbanded and current structures of the YL have a role to play in its renewal. It is not an exclusive terrain of the current leadership. We cannot continue to exclude people from participating in the structures of the YL on the basis of prejudices. The YL branches of Govan Mbeki must be launched, the Chrissemeer branch of the YL must be launched and the various branches in the Province that were not launched. We must use this occasion to bury the demon of gate keeping. We must renew a radical and militant YL where dissent is allowed and tolerated and not a structure that operates through fear and intimidation. The YL must be a festival of ideas and debates. Do not stop us from raising our views but engage and contradict our view and raise your own perspective in opposition to mine. It is only then that we can build a strong youth league. The political climate has to be open up to get new and fresh ideas from the young minds of the YL; you will not get fresh ideas in an environment of fear and intimidation. We need to build a radical Youth league that will continue with the struggle for economic freedom. A youth league that will speak for the empowerment of the youth of Sakhile and the whole country. A youth league that will ensure that the private sector empowers the youth of South Africa The enemy is not within but the legacy of Apartheid that continues to gate-keep the people of South Africa from participating in the main stream economy. As a parting shot, let me say the following. “On the Death of Kgotso Motloung” There’s little joy in life for me, And little terror in the grave; I’ve lived the parting hour to see Of one I would have died to save. Calmly to watch the failing breath, Wishing each sigh might be the last; Longing to see the shade of death O’er those belovèd features cast. The cloud, the stillness that must part The darling of my life from me; And then to thank God from my heart, To thank Him well and fervently; Although I knew that we had lost The hope and glory of our life; And now, benighted, tempest-tossed, Must bear alone the weary strife. Together we are invisible. We shall overcome. I thank you.
Posted on: Sun, 21 Dec 2014 11:15:09 +0000
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