Carl Niehaus

Ambassador

OPEN LETTER TO THOSE COMRADES AND FRIENDS WHO HAVE ENGAGED ME ABOUT MY DECISION TO RESIGN FROM THE ANC

Date: Wednesday, 28th of December 2022

My dear fellow comrades and friends,

I turned 63 on Christmas day, and just two days earlier I announced my resignation from the African National Congress (ANC). I did so after 43 years of uninterrupted membership of the ANC, which entitled me to being called an ANC veteran. Why would one take such a drastic step at my age?

I gathered that this question was asked by many of you, and it solicited a mixed bag of responses. I have received overwhelming expressions of support, understanding and sympathy. To such an extent that I had to write and ask that I be given the space to first celebrate my birthday and Christmas with my family, and then respond. I am encouraged and truly humbled by these expressions of acknowledgement of my contribution to the liberation struggle, and your expressions of concern and true comradeship.

This Open Letter is now my response, and it comes with humility and gratefulness for the overwhelming love, care, and acknowledgement with which so many of you approached me.

The most prevailing emotion/sentiment that was expressed, was one of shock and pain that I have taken such a decision. This I understand very well, because the agony with which I took the decision is truly indescribable.

The ANC has been my daily life for over 43 years, since when I joined at the tender age of 19, I certainly did not join to leave, but with every intention to stay. I joined with the intention of making a life commitment, and to stay, and to give it my all in every respect. Those of you who know me, know that I place the highest value on commitment and loyalty, both in my personal relations, and political life. I live by the maxim, that one soldier does not leave another behind on the battlefield.

I joined the ANC despite the very serious consequences that the decision held for me in terms of being rejected by my Afrikaner family, and by many other people. I stuck to that decision despite arrest, detention without trial, severe torture and imprisonment - with all the physical and psychological scars that were inflicted - and which I still carry with me up to this very day.

Like so many liberation soldiers, I am a walking wounded, and I will continue to suffer the severe consequences of what I have experienced until my very last breath in this world.

However, I have never seen this as a burden, I have always been humbled, and deeply grateful, that I - especially as a white South African - had been given the immense privilege by my fellow black brothers and sisters to be part of the liberation struggle. In a country with our terrible apartheid racist history, that should never be taken for granted and is nothing short of a miracle. It testifies to the incredible spirit of Ubuntu in African people.

I have never for one moment in the 43 years of my ANC membership forgotten how privileged I am, as a white South African of colonial descent, to be given the opportunity to fight apartheid and injustice alongside my fellow African compatriots, as a member of the ANC, and a soldier of Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK).

This knowledge remained foremost in my mind as I contemplated my enforced resignation from the ANC.

I think I should explain why I refer to it as an enforced resignation: The most obvious reason is that I have, on Monday the 12th of December, learnt from social media that the ANC National Disciplinary Committee (NDC) decided to take the draconian decision to expel me from the ANC.

Although I immediately appealed this entirely illegal expulsion, which as a consequence meant that my expulsion should have been suspended until the ANC National Disciplinary Committee of Appeals (NDCA) adjudicated on it. This did not happen, and I was illegally, and in contravention of the ANC Constitution, prevented from attending the ANC 55th National Conference as a delegate. I actually went to the Conference Accreditation Centre to demand my legitimate accreditation, and was humiliated and chased away like a dog, with threats of calling the police to arrest me.

I was not only told that I will not be allowed my legitimate branch delegate accreditation, but that I would neither receive accreditation as a former member of the ANC NEC, which all former NEC members are entitled to. My whole lifelong history in the ANC was viciously denied, as if it never existed.

I have in one of my live YouTube broadcasts spoken about the pain that all of this caused me. This was the first time since the ANC was unbanned, and I was released from prison, that I was not able to attend a National Conference of the ANC as a delegate. The manner in which it was done, inflicted deep and very painful insult to injury...

Of course this was only the latest of numerous other painful insults, and acts of severe abuse, by a callous and triumphalist ANC leadership.

Let's not forget how I was, in flagrant contravention of labour law, fired within less than 4 hours from my employment as a Senior Manager, in the Office of the Secretary General (SGO) of the ANC, because I blew the whistle on the crimes of the Senior Management of the ANC regarding tax evasion, the failure to pay provident fund contributions, and the salaries of ANC staff, as they are contractually obliged to do.

As a consequence I have now been unemployed for more than 18 months. Over these 18 months, up to this very day, my attempts to get the matter adjudicated through the CCMA, and opening a Labour Court case, I have been frustrated by one deliberately engineered delay after the other.

Although it is an act of blatant illegality to have stopped my salary, while I am appealing my dismissal, Paul Mashatile, the then Treasurer General (TG) of the ANC (now the Deputy President), gave the staff in the ANC Treasurer General's Office the instruction to stop paying me with immediate effect.

When a shocked member of his staff pointed out to him that what he was instructing them to do was illegal, he responded by saying that he knows, but does not care. Mashatile stated that by the time I succeed to successfully challenge it, I will be homeless and out on the streets begging, which is exactly what his intention is, and where he wants to see me. This is the kind of callous monster, with a mafiosi like disregard for the law, who has now emerged from the 55th National Conference as the Deputy President of the ANC …

May I also remind you of how I was arrested live on national television, on the 8th of July 2021, while I was doing an SABC TV News interview in front of the Estcourt Prison, where President Jacob Zuma, was incarcerated after he had been sentenced to an illegal 15 months of imprisonment by the Constitutional Court (CC). While I was doing the interview, the Minister of Police, Bheki Cele, became irritated with what he saw me saying on television, and he personally called the police deployed at Estcourt Prison, and instructed them to arrest and charge me.

After this dramatic, and entirely illegal, arrest followed a 13 month period of constantly delayed and postponed court appearances at the Estcourt Magistrate Court. I appeared for no less than six times, with all the travelling and legal costs associated with it (which I had to carry despite being unemployed), until the Magistrate eventually agreed with my application to have the case dismissed, and thrown out of court.

In her ruling of dismissal the Magistrate was scathing in her assessment that the State never had a case, and that my prosecution was in fact persecution, and was targeted and selective abuse of the law by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) for factional political reasons. I am still in the process of suing the Minister of Police and the NPA, for wrongful arrest and malicious prosecution.

Let me now return to the farcical ANC National Disciplinary Committee (NDC) disciplinary process that led to my expulsion from the ANC. The NDC charged me more than 18 months ago for having criticised the Constitutional Court's illegal imprisonment of President Zuma, and having complained that there are glaring and serious indications that our judiciary are captured.

In the charges against me the NDC claimed that these comments, which I made in my capacity as National Spokesperson of MKMVA, were in contravention of ANC Resolutions and NEC decisions, which supposedly expressed support for the judiciary. However, they failed throughout to present any shred of evidence that there are such formal NEC decisions, nor could they explain why they decided to target me with such charges. This while other senior members of the ANC, among them Gwede Mantashe, Blade Nzimande, Fikile Mbalula and Lindiwe Sisulu have expressed far more strident and scathing criticisms of the judiciary, than the comments that I was charged for.

Furthermore, as I have said, my case dragged on for over 18th months, in direct contravention of the ANC Constitution that stipulates that disciplinary matters must be concluded expeditionsly, and must lapse if not concluded within 6 months.

This did not happen, and thus the whole case was entirely illegal. The concerns in this regard expressed by my legal representative, comrade Mathews Phosa, were simply overruled, and in the face of all odds, and illegality, the disciplinary case was forced through.

Evidently they were acting under direct instruction from Ramaphosa, and the decision to expel me was predetermined, and taken long in advance. This was certainly no legitimate disciplinary hearing, it was an inquisition-like kangaroo court!

While I am narrating all of the above, I should not omit to refer to the most vicious attacks, and character assassination that I have been subjected to in both social media, and the mainstream media.

I do not think I need to relate these in detail, because anyone with even a superficial political interest and media awareness, can attest to the truth of this statement. It is simply a statement of fact. However, one example of the most vicious character assassination deserves more detailed attention: I refer to the so often repeated blatant lie, that I have claimed that my Mother passed on, in order to claim her life unsurance.

This was an outrageous lie, and blatant Stratcom propaganda story that was published by the Sunday Times in December 2017. As always not a single shred of evidence had ever been presented to back up this story. The person who according to the Sunday Times had made this outrageous claim against me remains anonymous. No charge had ever been laid against me.

I have instructed my attorney friend, Ian Smallmith, to write to the NPA, and asked them if they were investigating anything akin to such a charge, or in fact any other criminal charges against me. The NPA responded that they were not. I released that letter from the NPA to the media, but it was ignored, and not reported on, because it did not suit their propaganda narrative against me.

Regardless of the facts to the contrary, this slanderous lie about me having claimed that my Mom died, continued to be repeated numerous times in both the social- and mainstream media. I have done several interviews denying that I have ever done anything of the kind, but up to this day that propaganda lie continues to be told and repeated at every opportunity that presents itself.

This has caused much pain and anxiety to my family, especially to my 93 years old Mother. Those who peddle this terrible lie, know very well that I cannot drag my very frail 93 year old mother into a court in order to disprove their lies.

What hurts me deeply is that even some of you, who say that you share my political ideas, have ended up believing this terrible lie, and some of you even write on social media that 'despite' this 'terrible thing/mistake' that I have made, you support my views. I know that this demonstrates the insidious power of media propaganda, but do you have any idea how much it hurts me when this is done?

I love my family, and if there is anything that I believe in as much as I believe in my political ideals, it is family. To have been rejected and outcasted by my Afrikaner family for having stood up against apartheid, was never an easy matter. Up to this day it pains me, but I have stood firmly against them, and accepted that is the price I had to pay for my repugnance of racism/apartheid, and my overall political ideals.

However, what I find difficult to forgive myself for is that my political ideals and dedication to the ANC led me to neglecting my wonderful, beautiful, oldest daughter Helen, and costed me three marriages.

As I grew older, I did a lot of introspection about this, and although words can not always make things right that went wrong, I continue to apologise to Helen about this. I have promised myself that if I am lucky enough to get back into a caring and loving relationship/ marriage again, I will not make the same mistake.

By the Grace of God, I met my amazing wife, Noluthando, and our son Nkanyezi. At my age one does not easily get such a preciously beautiful further chance in life again. Since Noluthando and I fell in love, and I paid lobola a while ago, I have been celebrating the joy and strength of our relationship.

I have been telling the world, and all of you, about the miracle of this love, and the strength and encouragement that it gives me. The battles that I have been able to fight during the last while, would not have been possible without the love and support of Noluthando.

However, what hurts me and saddens me is how my political enemies have targeted my wife and our child. Noluthando has been abused, and called terrible names. Instead of celebrating her youthful strength and beauty, she has been called every name from ‘gold digger’ to ‘whore', and worse.

The age gap between Noluthando and me had been weaponised, and used viciously against us individually, and jointly. My parental relationship to Nkanyezi has been questioned in the most vile and un-African ways, as if the obvious fact that he is not my biological child actually matters!

These are deeply hurtful things, and inevitably put awful, unnecessary, strain - on our beautiful, young, relationship. Again, even some of you who say that you share my political ideals, have entertained some of these prejudices, and have even in social media and behind our backs engaged in this vile talk and gossip.

When I complain about this, the most prevalent response (also from fellow comrades) is that I must hide my family away, and not talk about them. What nonsense is this? So now I must hide the most special part of my life, and the greatest source of my joy and strength? Instead of standing up to defend me and my loved ones, I am told to put them and myself back into a new even more insidious prison, than the apartheid one that I was released from. The underlying prejudice that comes with this is vile, and truly disturbing!

However, heavy as these matters that I have just referred to weigh on my shoulders, they are not the most important reason why I have decided to resign from the ANC. The decisive reasons for me are of a political and ideological nature, and I have referred to these in the media statement that I issued on Friday the 23rd of December.

I have made it clear that the reason why I joined the ANC in the first instance was because of my commitment to the full liberation of black, and especially African, South Africans. That set of ideals encapsulate my very strong belief that true liberation cannot only be liberation from racism, but must specifically go hand-in-hand with full economic liberation from White Monopoly Capital (WMC) and imperialism, in order to to ensure that the majority of black South Africans can control their own economic destiny, and collectively as a people can scale the controlling economic heights of our economy.

The selling out of these ideals during the CODESA negotiations, and the resultant deeply flawed Constitution, and especially as I have explained in my media statement, the ANC leadership's increasing (eventually wholesale) acceptance of neoliberal economic policies - especially under Ramaphosa - destroyed any liberation impulse that still remained in the ANC.

I furthermore argued that the disasterous outcomes of the 55th National Conference of the ANC, both in terms of the leadership election results and the utter lack of serious policy engagement that simply confirmed that the sell out neoliberal economic policy programme of the ANC is not going to change, means that the ANC, that myself and many other comrades joined is no longer - it has died. I am firmly of the belief that the ANC that I have joined has deliberately been killed off, and in fact that it no longer exists. As I have stated in my media statement: "I have not left the ANC, the ANC has left me".

I have noted the diversity of views that my resignation, and the reasons that I advanced, resulted in. There are those comrades who agree with me, and who declared that they have also decided to resign from the ANC, However, there are also those who responded with disappointment, and sometimes even with anger, and insisted that I have made a mistake, and should reverse my resignation. Notably among those are comrades such as Lucky Montana and others, whose views I respect, and who had penned a thoughtful, and well written article, calling on me to reverse my decision.

Let me say to these comrades that you certainly know that I have not easily, nor in haste, taken my decision to resign from the ANC. I do not make rash - spur of the moment - decisions, without due consideration, and once I have made a decision I do not easily change my mind.

Without being arrogant, I can say without fear of contradiction, that I fought with all my available energy and effort to challenge the neoliberal sell out project in the ANC. I did so for many long years - in fact decades -, and I have never been simply a theorist, a ‘coach revolutionary’, or ‘social media (WhatsApp/Twitter/Facebook) warrior’.

I have truly been on the ground, in the ANC branches, on the streets, among the people of our nation, engaging, marching and sharing in the fundamental challenges of poverty and the pain of our people. During every election campaign - even the last Local Government elections - I have campaigned tirelessly for the ANC.

Many a comrade can attest to how I walked the streets of the towns and villages of our country, day after day, campaigning with them, and calling on fellow South Africans to vote for the ANC. I did so despite my deep and fundamental reservations and objections to Ramaphosa, and his fellow sell out acolytes in the ANC NEC leadership.

The crux of all the arguments of those who urged me to reconsider my decision to finally not proceed with the appeal against expulsion, and to resign from the ANC, is that the ANC can still be changed, and revert again back to being the leader of the liberation ideals of the majority of black, and especially African South Africans, and can still again become the vehicle for full liberation, especially economic liberation, from White Monopoly Capitalism.

In all honesty, I wish I could say that I believe that this possible, but sadly I do not believe that this is any longer possible.

Many of us who share the ideals that I hold have done everything possible to achieve this, and in all honesty we have sadly failed dismally.

The approaches that very well-meaning comrades are making to me is that we must again continue to work within the ANC structures, from the branches up, in order to resuscitate the radical economic transformation (RET) ideals that are essential for the implementation of the Second Phase of our National Democratic Revolution (NDR). My response to this approach is that the ultimate definition of failure, and being stuck in a rut, is to keep on repeating the same failed actions/approaches, and to hope for a different outcome/result.

The original saying is that, the definition of idiocy is to keep on hitting one’s head against the same brick wall, but I am refraining from stating it as bluntly as that, because I share the deep emotional love of my fellow comrades for the original ANC, that we have joined because of our liberation ideals.

What I am arguing, with deep sadness - certainly not with any joy or triumphalism - is that the erstwhile ANC that we have joined with so many ideals and high hopes, no longer exists. If there was any doubt about this, the disastrous outcomes of the 55th National Conference unequivocally confirmed that. As I have said the ANC is now finally dead and buried, and all that remains is to erect the tombstone.

If there are fellow comrades who still want to disagree with me about this conclusion, they must in all honesty answer me about what actually happened in the ANC branches, and the Branch General Meetings (BGM’s), in the run up to this recently held National Conference.

Can they please confirm to me how many BGM’s were actually genuinely constituted, and correctly convened and run in terms of the ANC Constitution and Rules? Are most of the ANC branches actually alive and active, or were they simply convened for purposes of nominating candidates, and electing delegates, to the National Conference?

If you are honest my dear comrades, you know what the answers are, and they are not good ones …

Can all of you please tell me, was bribing and paying branch members to nominate certain people as candidates, and delegates, not rife in almost every branch? Did many of you, who share the same liberation ideals, not argue with me and criticized me for having insisted that the only proper position that we had to take was to totally oppose the use of money, and the paying of bribes, as a matter of unwavering principle? Remember the nonsensical approach that some of you took, calling on branch members to take the money, but then “to do the right thing”?

In the process you lost moral authority, and only contributed in the most cynical of ways to the destruction of our beloved Liberation Movement. Remember, how some of you ridiculed me when I opposed this? How you thought it was ‘silly’ and ‘simplistic’ of me to say that two wrongs cannot make a right? One simply cannot say that bribing and vote buying is wrong, and unconstitutional, but none-the-less take the money. What despicable utalitarian, morally debased, nonsense was that?

Just look at the terrible information that is now contained in the letter that comrade Thabang Mdletshe wrote to the ANC Electoral Commission, about wide spread vote buying by Cyril Ramaphosa and Benjani Chauke at the 55th National Conference. Something which Gwede Mantashe acknowledged that he carries knowledge of, in a recent live eNCA interview, Yet, the persistent silence of the Electoral Commission about these extremely serious admissions, screams to the heavens! It only underlines, and confirms, the point I am making about the total rot and destruction of the ANC.

No wonder, that I was constantly approached by comrades who promised to nominate me as a candidate for the ANC NEC, but then I must bribe them, and give them money. One particular conversation with a prominent ANC Youth League leader in Ekurhuleni is engraved in my mind. He called on the last weekend before the deadline for Branch General Meetings (BGM’s) and demanded a substantial amount of money to ensure that my name will be put forward by branches as a candidate for the ANC NEC.

When I refused, he became abusive and swore at me, saying that I am an ‘idiot’, and that he will go out of his way to de-campaign me, and make sure that I am not nominated. I am tempted to name and shame him (and I may still do so when the right opportunity presents itself), but let me be generous to him for now and not do so, because that is not the purpose of this open letter.

However, the point I am making is to challenge those comrades who tell me that the answer is to go back and ‘work the branches’ and ANC structures. Exactly how do you suggest that we do that, with the rot having gone as deep and far as this? I challenge you to counter what I am narrating here, as not the unadulterated truth.

Let me ask further, how we ended up - despite all the plans to raise the farcical, and illegally re-written ‘Step Aside Resolution’ - not raising it properly in the Policy Conference, and subsequently even in the National Conference, and failing to make it a ‘make or break issue’, despite all the dramatic and bravado-like promises beforehand to do so?

You know the hard answer my dear comrades, and it is certainly not only about us not having had the numbers, the main reason is because there were not enough comrades among us who had the guts, and backbone, to challenge it, and to push the matter to breaking point as was so much talked about, and promised ourselves that it would have been done.

Instead most among us were more interested in keeping our options open, and making sure that we will not be targeted and victimized. Fear and self-preservation were the prevailing currencies/emotions, NOT conviction and courage.

This was true for the Policy Conference, and for the National Conference, and it was certainly true for the pathetic jellyfish-like performance of those ANC Members of Parliament (MP’s), who with so much empty bravado were telling me in the days before the National Assembly vote about the Report of the Independent Panel, that they were going to vote in favor of the Report. However, when the time came to show their mettle, they cared more about their jobs and salaries, and one after the other - stiff with fear - squeaked out pathetic “no’s”. I was truly to puke from!

I remember one comrade, who full of bravado told me the evening before that he was going to vote “yes”, and that he was actually driving the campaign for ‘yes votes’ among his fellow ANC MP’s. However, when the time came for him to walk the talk, he voted “no”, with wide eyed shaking fear…

My trust in that comrade is shaken for ever. With such weaklings one cannot go to war, and if the ANC was to be saved, it is a principled war by fearless and selfless ideological soldiers that was required!

I had to come to the reluctant, sad, conclusion that we just do not have those soldiers to fight such a war. Instead we have ‘stomachists’, and cowards, who were never prepared to fight the war, and make the sacrifices that were required. Thus, we we never even truly got out of the starting blocks to start the war, and consequently the ANC was finally buried last week at the 55th National Conference.

I want to hammer this point home further, by raising a few more issues, and questions, from my own experiences:

⁃ I have referred to my outrageously illegal dismissal from my employment at the ANC, when I blowed the whistle on the serious crimes that Paul Mashatile and the rest of the National Office Bearers committed, but where were most of my comrades?

When I was rendered unemployed - and unemployable - and I faced eviction from my apartment, and could not pay my children’s school fees, where were the comrades (and I refer specifically to those with means) to offer some assistance? Even if they could not - for whatever reason - assist, where were the phone calls to ask if I was surviving?

Those who did care to ask, I can count on less than the fingers of my one hand. However, when I did manage to keep my head above water - mainly through desperate hard work, and makeshift consultation jobs - the spiteful questions that arose were based on how I manage to survive because I was unemployed, almost as if they actually wanted me to totally go down, and end up a hobo on the street…

⁃ When I was illegally arrested in front of the Estcourt prison, and maliciously charged, where were most of the comrades who from the comfort of their coaches and living rooms were WhatsApping and Tweeting their ‘outrage’ about the illegal imprisonment of President Zuma? As I was arraigned in court for seven appearances for over a year, the few die-hard comrades who came to support me, I could once again count on my one hand.

Not one of those comrades whose court cases I have regularly attended - in some instances over years - came to attend, nor supported me, once! All of this became an embarrassment on social media, and even in the mainstream media, with my detractors mocking me that I support people who do not care to support me. It became so embarrassing, and damaging to our cause, that I even ended up devising media strategies to defend them for not supporting me! I was certainly not alone in experiencing such embarrassment and humiliation.

The comrades who were harassed and arrested on trumped charges related to the July 2021 uprisings, were similarly disregarded, and mostly left to fend for themselves and appear in court alon. (Before someone tries to misinterpret the issue that I am raising with this question, let me explain: I certainly never gave support, and attended the court cases of my fellow comrades and leaders, because I expected a quid pro quo, I did so out of outrage because of the injustices that were so selectively inflicted on them, and for the sake of supporting and promoting our just cause.

Even when they could not bother to attend my court appearances, and the court appearances of other comrades, I did not stop giving them all my support, and I continued to attend their court appearances. However, what does it say about them, and more importantly their pathetic lack of preparedness to show solidarity with fellow comrades, and make sacrifices for our cause, and the serious challenges that we are faced with?

⁃ When I started making the call that #RapaphosaMustGo!, more than a year ago, where was the backup? Especially when I started picketing at ANC Conferences and NEC meetings? Once again, I could mostly count the support on less than the fingers of my one hand … I always announced in advance on social media, and the mainstream media platforms, that I was going to picket, and I always invited fellow comrades and concerned citizens to join me, but only the very few - if any at all - did so. In order to avoid embarrassment, I casted it as if it was deliberately a one person picket, which it actually was not in the fist instance intended to be.

Where were comrades who say they support the cause that #RapaphosaMustGo, when a rent-a-crowd were brought by Benjani Chauke and his brother to abuse and assault me, and the few other courageous comrades who joined me, at the gates of NASREC? Despite promises that they were coming, they were conspicuously Missing In Action (MIA). Some who were only a few kilometers away from NASREC in Soweto, and could easily have come with a taxi, even messaged and called me (unemployed as I am) and demanded money to come to join me.

When I said that I don’t have money, and asked if the spirit of volunteerism and sacrifice had died, there were those comrades who saw it fit to insult me and swear at me, and tell me to my face that if I expect them to join the pickets without resources, “I can go to hell”, (I am not melodramatic) I quote them verbatim. Some comrades even during one of the pickets told me that they decided not to join me, because there was a slight drizzle …

⁃ The same thing happened when a few courageous MKMVA cadres and myself went to picket outside the old City Hall in Cape Town, where parliament was sitting to consider the Report of the Independent Panel. We were abused and assaulted by the SAPS, who selectively and forcefully removed us from the parliamentary precinct, while pro Ramaphosa picketers were allowed to continue picketing without any harassment.

I was so badly assaulted by the police, that I suffered a serious and painful back injury, for which I am still receiving medical treatment. While all of this was happening our fellow ANC MP’s (with the notable exception of only four courages souls), who promised that they were going to vote with their consciences in favor of the Report, betrayed our cause, because they were more worried about their stomachs, and jobs and blue lights, than to take a stand on principle!

I know that there will be those who will accuse me of being bitter for raising these issues. In doing so, they will be very wrong! No, I am not bitter, but in all honesty I must admit that I am deeply disappointed.

However, even more than my disappointment, I am making a serious point that I have not encountered the preparedness from fellow comrades to have the courage, and make the sacrifices, to fight the uncompromisingly hard battles that will have to be fought to have diverted - and turned the ANC around - from the disastrous, and self-destructive cause, it is on.

When comrade Chris Hani, and his fellow comrades through the ‘Hani Memorandum’ challenged the then wrongs of the ANC in exile, they were engaged in the Morogoro Conference by an ANC leadership that was prepared to self-correct, mainly through the wisdom and courage of President OR Tambo. Difficult as it was, the ANC avoided disaster, and made critical adjustments and proceeded on a successful recalibrated revolutionary trajectory.

Tragically today that ability to self-correct, and regain its revolutionary heart, is woefully absent in the ANC, and the cowardice and lack of backbone among many of those who claim to be opposed to Ramaphosa, and who say that they are in favor of Radical Economic Transformation (RET) (which is still actually supposed to be the official economic policy programme of the ANC), is an utter disgrace and shame.

I am asking the rhetorical question: Where were/are the committed liberation soldiers that should have had the mettle and courage to take up the war to save the true ANC, before it was killed, and it’s corpse finally turned into this hollowed out Trojan horse of neoliberal imperialism?

I understand my fellow comrades’ love for the ANC of old. I know our nation’s warm emotions and love for the colors and logo of the ANC, as the Liberation Movement that together with the sacrifices and blood sweat and tears of our communities, brought the apartheid regime to its knees.

This knowledge, and deeply felt shared emotions and love, make me even more angry about the cynical exploitation of our love, that Cyril Ramaphosa his fellow sell outs and their WMC masters, used to abuse our love for the erstwhile ANC that they have now finally killed, in order to control, use, and subjugate us.

Comrades it is very painful to say this, but the ANC that you with so much emotion and dedication still want to commit yourselves to, actually no longer exists. It is a foregone mirage of yesteryear, and we should not allow ourselves to become the victims, and be abused by mafia thugs, because of our sentimentalism - no matter how historically well- founded that sentiment may be.

You see comrade Lucky Montana, and the other comrades who have urged me to reconsider my decision, I do not believe that the ANC that you ask me to return to exists any longer. As far as I am concerned, we have sadly reached the point of no return.

I did not say so lightly, when I said that the ANC had been killed. Nor do I believe that many of you who now say that you will take up my cause, and the causes of other comrades, and even more importantly the ideals of full liberation, have the courage, backbone and commitment to actually do what would be required to save the ANC, and change it around - even if that was possible...

Where were you when it was required of you to do so? How are you now suddenly going to develop the courage, and be prepared to make the sacrifices, to do so?

Please do not take offense, I am not asking this seminal question arrogantly. However, in all honesty, on this doorstep to the New Year, I have to ask this question of each one of you. Too many of you have failed our cause … It is time to be brutally honest with each other. As those of you who know me, know very well, I am not someone for sweet-talking and euphemisms.

I note that there are many comrades who now write to me in the ‘past tense’. I. e., we are grateful for the contribution that you have made … This is informed by the entirely misplaced notion that one can only fight for liberation in the ANC. That to resign from the ANC, means that one somehow must also have ‘retired’ from the liberation struggle, and that you are no longer committed to the ideals that in the first instance informed your decision to join the ANC.

NOTHING can be further from the truth! I still remain committed to exactly the same liberation ideals, and I have absolutely no intention to stop fighting for them. The ANC was the instrument/vehicle that I believed to be the best instrument to make my contribution in the service of those ideals.