South African History Online

KaNyamazane, 13 April 1990

...You, who are present here today. and the millions you represent. are the
pride of all our people. Your contribution to the struggle, to our irreversible
advance towards liberation, has been truly enormous. The sacrifices you have
made, and will still be called upon to make, cannot but evoke our greatest
admiration for your courage and determination.

You have been in the forward ranks of all our fighting formations. Regardless
of the kind of struggle, and regardless of the challenges the struggle posed,
you have been the backbone of the struggle for a people's education. You have
been at the heart of the heroic efforts of the oppressed and exploited workers
of our country. You have played a leading role in the glorious reawakening of
our downtrodden rural masses. It is you who are the combatants and commanders of
our beloved people's army, Umkhonto weSizwe. The people's movement, the ANC,
belongs to you in the same way that you belong to it.

Therefore it is clear, dear comrades, that your place and role in society and
the struggle impose the responsibility on you to act in unison as one of the
principal motor forces of our struggle. This requires of you political maturity,
strong and soundly democratic organisations, smooth running of all your
activities, and united, determined action for the victory of the national,
democratic struggle.

All of this must be carried out in the context of our ongoing struggle for
the sharing of power with the people. Accordingly, we must answer the question:
What stage has the struggle reached and what are the tasks that we have
forthcoming in order to advance to victory?

Negotiations, a continuation of struggle

We must therefore be clear that negotiations do not mean the end of the
struggle. They are a continuation of the struggle and become possible because of
the advances that we have scored in the course of our general offensive against
the apartheid system....

As a result of the heroic struggles you and most of the masses of the people
have carried out on many fronts. combined with the international offensive for
the total isolation of apartheid South Africa. we have arrived at a point where
the Pretoria Government has understood and accepted that the system of white
minority domination can no longer be maintained. It has to go and has to go now!

Accordingly, the government has accepted that it must negotiate with the
genuine representatives of our people to bring into being a new political,
economic and social order. Needless to say, this regime has its own view, which
it will fight for, as to what this new order should be. We, too, have our own
perspective of what we mean when we say that the people shall govern and that
the wealth of our country shall be shared by all our people.

These sets of different views today confront one another in struggle as they
have done over the decades. The confrontation has expressed itself through the
various forms of struggle which we have waged. At present there is an additional
theatre of struggle-the theatre of negotiations.

Democratic front

It is also of central importance that the bloc which represents the
perspective of a non-racial democracy should participate in the negotiations as
a bloc.

During the course of our struggle we have viewed it as a strategic imperative
that we should build a broad democratic front to challenge the apartheid regime
in united action. The front found an expression in the Conference for a
Democratic Future held last December. There is a continuing strategic need to
further build and strengthen this front as a vital instrument of mass struggle
to destroy the apartheid system and to defend and advance the democracy when
victory has been achieved.

These forces must continue to act in unity during this stage of the struggle,
which includes a negotiated resolution of the apartheid issue.

We have to bear in mind, all the time, that we have as one of our primary
responsibilities the task of organising the masses of our people into the
struggle.

The building of a broad democratic front is part of the process of
organisation. It therefore must be approached with all due seriousness. A good
organiser knows that there is no such thing as a readymade member of any
organisation. To organise means to go out and convince those who were not
convinced before. It means that the organiser has to exercise patience and
display understanding even for the views with which he or she may not agree.

These remarks are relevant, for instance, with regard to the work all of us
are carrying out in the rural areas. Here we find, among others, people who are
serving in homeland structures as well as the traditional chiefs. Through
persuasion and without any harassment, we must draw these compatriots--who also
belong among the oppressed people--into the common struggle for liberation. We
should observe this manner of operation wherever we go out to organise.

Build ANC structures

We have spoken of the broad democratic front. But of central importance as
well is the need for us to build the ANC, the ANC Youth League, and the ANC
Women's League. Without these sectoral structures it will be impossible to
construct the broad front. As the South African Youth Congress, most if not all
of whose members see themselves as part of the ANC, you have a historic
responsibility to join hands with the ANC Youth Section to rebuild that central
component of our struggling forces in our country - the ANC Youth League.

You will of course also have to attend to the question of the mobilisation of
those sections of the youth who may not wish to be members of the ANC into the
broad democratic movement so that they too can make a contribution to the
abolition of the apartheid system and the transformation of our country....

Need for discipline

I must point out that the youth of our country have a special responsibility
as far as discipline is concerned. You, as has often been said, are the leaders
of this community of the future. As future leaders there are certain
responsibilities which we expect you to observe. One of these is utmost
discipline. If you are not disciplined, you can never win our confidence. If you
do not respect the leadership of the ANC, we can never rely on you....

We expect far more from you than that. We expect you to respect other freedom
fighters outside our organisation. We expect you to have the spirit of comrades,
of being able to allow those who disagree with you to propagate their own views
and their own methods of struggle. We do not wish to force people into our own
organisation, into our own thinking. What we want to do is to persuade our
people to join us and share our point of view.

Any form of violence, any form of coercion, any form of harassment is against
the policy of the ANC.... I appeal to you to behave with the dignity which
members of the ANC and other democratic organisations in the country deserve.
And I sincerely hope that this appeal will not fall on deaf ears....

Police violence

Recently the government has let loose the South African police against our
people. We were disturbed yesterday to hear that the police have used force and
violence in breaking up a peaceful demonstration. The police seem also, in some
areas, to be working with armed right-wing vigilantes, who themselves are
shooting innocent people....

We are not going to allow the situation to arise where the government talks
about negotiations and peace and at the same time conducts a war against us.
President de Klerk, please take notice: If people are becoming angry and
intolerant. whatever you say. it must be measured against the activities of your
police and your troops. As far as we are concerned, the government is doing very
little to rein in its wild police force, which has been trained to look at every
grievance and demand by blacks as a declaration of war.

How different their attitude when they deal with demonstrations by whites. I
have said to Mr. de Klerk the last time I met him that I am not aware of a
single instance in which police ever opened fire against white demonstrators....

I repeat that President de Klerk must be aware we will not tolerate the
situation where on the eve of negotiations it allows his policemen to shoot our
people at random.

Traditional chiefs

I have touched on the question of homeland leaders and traditional chiefs. It
is not the policy of the ANC to condemn the chiefs as such. These are our
traditional leaders, some of whom have an impressive record in the fight against
apartheid. We say we must give them the respect that they deserve as traditional
leaders.

You must remember that it is going to be difficult for our organisation to
take root and be strong in the countryside unless we are able to work together
with them in their respective areas. And those who feel that we have nothing to
with the chiefs do not know the policy of the ANC and have no idea how to
strengthen the organisation in the countryside.

In fact, the National Party detected this weakness on our part, of not having
strong organisation in the countryside. That is how they succeeded in forcing
the homeland policy on the masses of our people....

In our custom and history. the chief is the mouthpiece of his people. He must
listen to the complaints of his people. He is the custodian of their hopes and
desires. And if any chief decides to be a tyrant. to take decisions for his
people, he will come to a tragic end in the sense that we will deal with him....

Finally, I wanted to appeal to you not to be unnecessarily hostile against
the homeland leaders. These men are our flesh and blood and we want them to join
the struggle. We know that some of them went into this system honestly, thinking
that it was an effective option for us. But those who have discovered their
mistakes and are prepared to come over to the liberation movement, let us
welcome them with open arms. There is no need to say because a man has made a
mistake before, we should no longer work with him....

Those who confess their mistakes, those who are prepared to listen to the
people now must go to the people in their areas and settle their problems. When
they do that, we will welcome them with open arms....