The 20th anniversary of Chris Hani's death was supposed to be a solemn and dignified event. Instead various organisations and political parties sought to use the commemoration events to score points and settle political scores. Due to these saddening developments one had to be reminded and dig deep into some of the prophetic statements said by leaders then in 1993 during his funeral.
Immediately the words that come to my mind were from Harry Gwala and Joe Slovo respectively. During the night vigil of Chris Hani held in FNB Stadium, Harry Gwala, the "Lion of Midlands" as he was known at the time; arrived at 12h00 in the night and delivered what has become a classical, rhetorical and frank speech. The speech was candid given that there were no cameras rolling and was not even covered by media.
He said "so many people now say Chris Hani was a soldier for peace. They say this as if Chris Hani now suddenly realised and regretted having taken up arms against the apartheid regime". He went on to say this memorable words in his characteristic firebrand tone, that I will always remember as if they were said yesterday, "Chris Hani was not a saint, he was a communist".
The following day during the funeral proceedings Joe Slovo who was addressing the mourners in his capacity as Chairperson of the SACP then, also delivered another scathing speech to De Klerk who was president at the time. De Klerk had sent a message of condolences to the SACP regretting the death of Hani. Slovo replied by saying to De Klerk that ‘we do not want your crocodile tears. Keep them to yourself".
I say both comrades Gwala and Slovo delivered prophetic words based on the following brief scenarios that I will paint below, given the events of last week:
Sanctification of Chris Hani by Cosatu General Secretary, Zwelinzima Vavi
Whenever Vavi gets an opportunity to say something about Hani, he doesn't forget to drive a point home that he never sought to be in government. This he says to buttress his earlier view that the General Secretary of the SACP should be a full time office bearer. He even suggested that Cosatu can raise money equal to the minister's salary so as to "buy" Blade Nzimande out of government.
As most speakers including president Zuma said, no one knows whether Hani would have accepted to be in government or not. What we know is that he was a principled leader, a communist who will be guided by analysis of the material conditions at the time and could have most likely decided to be bound by a collective decision. Just like he did with the renouncement of the armed struggle. He didn't renounce the armed struggle because all of a sudden he had turned "Mother Theresa" but because he was a communist who was capable of adjusting to correct strategy and tactics.
The Biko-ization of Chris Hani
During the transition from apartheid to democracy some of the organisations in the liberation movement were caught off-guard by the developments. Thus they didn't have strategies to respond to the situation at the time that required negotiations skills and a detour from liberation warfare to a democratic engagement. Azapo and PAC were top among those. The PAC kept on putting a demand of the return of land "to indigenous people ‘as their pre-requisite for any engagement. They would exclaim ‘land, land and land first". When the election time came they performed dismally because people were tired of them offering no any policy alternative other than a usual land mantra.
Azapo were even worse, they even boycoted the national elections and since then they have not recovered in parliamentary politics. Their fault was that they kept on blaming each other as to who among the leaders or factions represented the best political values of Steve Biko. This is because they failed to re-define their role in changing South African political landscape. Thus they used Biko as an escape route for strategic indolence to ponder the way forward. This is a mistake that Numsa espouse in their recent statement on Chris Hani. When Numsa fails to engage assertively and fruitfully in the current political discourse they seek an easy route of blaming everyone for betraying Hani's legacy.
DA's Crocodile Tears
Again last week Numsa was left gasping for breath after it was outmanoeuvred by the DA during the 20th anniversary commemoration of Chris Hani. Whereas Numsa used the occasion to opportunistically condemn the ANC and its policies; the DA shed their crocodile tears in a solemn manner. Numsa responded with a harsh statement calling the "DA fascists who are hijacking the legacy of Hani".
Their ferocious attack on the DA had more to do with their political conscience than defending the heroic legacy of Hani. Numsa are becoming aware that they are degenerating into ideological pettiness. Their serial antagonistic utterances against the ANC government have become almost predictable.
Let's remember that central to Marxism is logic. When we miss logic in our debates or assertions we will always hit the wrong target or bark at the wrong tree.
Walter Mothapo is a member of the PEC of the SACP in the Limpopo province. These are his personal views.
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