Khaye Nkwanyana, Lecture on the 31st Anniversary Commemoration of the assassination of Ruth First,  University of KwaZulu Natal, Pietermaritzburg. YCL Branch, August 30 2013

One of the British great young poet by the name of John Keats [ 1795-1821], upon his realisation that death was in sight as his health had failed him, he asked that his gravestone must have an epitaph that says " Here lies one whose name was writ in water". John Keats died in his mid- 20s and knew very well that his departure from the living will not signal the death of his contribution in poetry in transcending generations to come. And so, his name even today sits in a special place of history in poetry.

You have today, by way of having this memorial lecture, taken upon yourselves that even in the 31 years of Ruth First's permanent absence from our space of the living, that her memories and the contribution she had made in the struggle of South Africa and Africa is not entombed but instead reincarnated to the very base levels of our minds, vivified, cemented and treasured.

Like John Keats, the poet, Ruth First's name was writ in water.

As I have said before, Ruth Heloise First was one of the rare species, a piece of work so difficult to compare and a Galahad of extreme. Indeed comrade Pallo Jordan was correct in 2000 when addressing the SACP Ruth First Lecture when he said:

 "The full weight of blow struck against us when apartheid regime ordered the assassination of Ruth First and is felt in moments like the present. Her incisive, analytical mind would have greatly enriched the national debate both inside and outside the liberation movement and helped to define the way forward. Comrade Ruth First was outstanding because she had taken to heart Marx's eleventh Thesis of Feuerbach:

Philosophers have only describe the World in different ways, the point however is to change it"

Ruth First's name was writ in water.

Comrade Ruth First was born by immigrants white Jews parents who came as working class; his father Julius, was a furniture manufacturer. Ruth was the first child to have gone to Jeppe High school girls in Johannesburg and proceeded to study in Witwatersrand University and obtained a BA in Sociology. She studied Anthropology, Economic history and Native administration. She got it in 1946. Her parents were one of the founders of the Communist party of South Africa [CPSA] in 1921 which later after 1950 banning therefore became the SACP. And so, she grew up exposed to Marxist literature such that at 14 years, she was a member of "Young Left book club". She was one of the leading cadres of the Young Communist League which she later became its Secretary. She emerge as a leader at a time where, within the YCL then, there were currents that created some competition between the cadres who were students and those who were young workers in terms of intellectualism. Joe Slovo was a young worker and Ruth a student. Ruth and Slovo relationship started from this phase where internally in the YCL were from different corners of intellectual jests [Slovo recorded interview with in 1992 about Ruth First].

She married to Joe Slovo in 1949.

At university she was the founder of "Federation of Progressive Students", she was with fellow renowned students in campus such as Eduardo Mondlane (later the founder and leader of FRELIMO in Mozambique), Ishmael Meer, Nelson Mandela and Joe Slovo (their first contact was there).

Her first job was as researcher assistance for social welfare division in Johannesburg City Council. Her role increased in the Communist party during the wave of mine strikes of late 40s to 1950s. Leaders such as JB Marks, Moses Kotane and many others were arrested by the regime for being at the forefront of mine strikes. This was a difficult period and the entry of apartheid regime under the National Party which immediately banned the Communist Party under the suppression of Communism Act as part of showing force.

Ruth became an editor in -Chief of "The Guardian" which she exposed a lot of injustices apartheid was committing against blacks; the major one being the Bethal potatoe Farms migrant workers. This paper was banned by the regime. She then edited another fighting paper "fight back" it was banned, she edited "Clarion call", the "spark" and "Advance" all were banned by the Apartheid regime.

These were the times of defiance campaigns after ANC conference of 1949 adopted this program advanced by ANCYL. And so, the regime raised its hand in quelling any convulsion including using the detentions.

She was part of the drafting committee of Freedom charter with Govan Mbeki and other comrades for the 1955 Congress of the people. In the 156 treason trialists that took about four [4] years, Ruth First was amongst those leaders although she was acquitted but had to be arrested under the 90 days detention law without trial for 117 days in solitary confinement in 1963.

Her life in exile was committed to the liberation of South Africa and the African continent that was colonized. She published a lot of Marxist material and wrote academic books. She wrote:

• The politics of coup d' etat in Africa [1970]
•  Libya: the elusive revolution [1974]
• The Mozambican miner: A study in the export of Labour [1977]
• She edited Mandela " No easy road to freedom [1967]
• Helped worked on Govan Mbeki book whom they were journalist colleagues
• "Peasants revolt [1967]
• Edited the Kenyan Oginda Onda's not yet uhuru

In Britain, she lectured in Durham University on Sociology of underdevelopment. And later in 1977 relocated to Mozambique, Maputo, as a Professor and a researcher at the Eduardo Mondlane University on African studies working with Marxists researchers. Her worked here was posthumously published under "Black gold: the Mozambique miner".

The message by the SACP General Secretary then, Moses Mabhida, in Ruth's funeral is relevant:

"Comrade Ruth will always be for us, one of the first citizens of a liberated South Africa. We cover her with flowers and honour while her killers live in secrecy and will die in shame. And one day in the not so distant future, we pledge that the bodies of all who died shall be returned to the soil of the liberated South Africa"

We are making a call that South African government must repatriate Ruth First from Mozambique to her country of birth, a country she fought for to be liberated so that she becomes part of us as Moses Mabhida said in his eulogy.

The meaning of emulating Ruth First

One of the spectre confronting us as progressive forces [or the Left] is the noticeable decline of thought leadership and revolutionary strategic leadership. The movement and the alliance as a whole are producing less than required by the tasks of the revolution in the current conjuncture. Of cause the production of this layer within the Left is not a mere organisational mechanical processing. Revolutionary Left thinkers themselves are a product of an on-going revolutionary process in the terrain of the revolution; their production is an outcome of the interaction between the politico-organisational and the revolutionary terrain within which the revolution is prosecuted. And so, the production of revolutionary thinkers is not an outgrowth independently nurtured in the vacuum of the revolution itself but interlaced.

A revolutionary movement must be an enabler by way of rekindling existing potentialities within itself for such a production of thoughtful and theoretical advanced cadreship. Ruth First represented all the hallmarks of such a cadre.

The ANC in part has recognised this and the Polokwane Conference had to impress upon the establishment of the political school. The Party has always been known historically as an important contributor to the development of key Left intellectuals steeped in the theory of Marxism-Leninism and therefore possesses these tools of analysis in nuancing and dissecting any political, social and economic situation from the class perspective. The art of summing up every situation from a zenith scientific class clarity has been a characteristic feature of Communists.

The entire movement is on a decline in this front. This state of affairs in part, is a sequel of the overflows associated with the post 1994 terrain whereby as the movement had to be preoccupied with details of governance and management of the state. Advanced cadres who would have been of critical resource to the young emerging cadres, had to assume leadership in the running of our government.

We need an organisational multiplying effect, a cooking pot, for the sake of the national democratic revolution. We need cadres who can reflect and theorise broad and long term strategic trajectories, provision of correct analysis and projection of balance of forces and provide the revolution with theories of tactical options and strategic options in the ever elastic terrain that is impacted upon by a hostile global environment.

I am particularly worried about the lack of national coherence within the progressive forces on the most urgent tasks of the revolution both in the short and medium term. Whether we are dealing with National Development plan, Growth path and the approach in the infrastructure development, youth wage subsidy and job creation. there is no coherence also on approaches with regard to education and skills development.

The approaches to the job creation for the youth is but one critical area of strategic differences. The NEDLAC process on youth wage subsidy all parties engagement has been too outdrawn because as alliance we don't agree.

And so, because of this disjuncture in the progressive forces on many key national imperatives, there exist a void in the discourse. Such a void in discourse from the Left forces has permeated the liberals and right wing elements to populate this space in leading some key discourses, setting tone for society and in the process striving for moral high ground. They even legitimise their perspectives by using various sorts of measures including courts.

The case in point is what is now popularly known as information bill. Another one has been the Youth wage subsidy; the DA hijacked internal differences in us that have been so outdrawn in being addressed politically. The DA noticed the void and therefore became champions for it and even marched to COSATU. We also remain Worlds apart in e-tolling as alliance and therefore liberal white elements have crowded the space created by this alliance disjuncture. Therefore we are pitted against each other.

These are issues of strategic leadership within ourselves so that we provide firm and cogent leadership to the country. The alliance, of cause, will not find consensus on everything because at the base level are issues of ideological strands, but possession of strategic leadership means frank engagement, processing of issues of strategic differences and therefore arrived into mutually beneficial compromises that unites and therefore locates the Left forces on the driving seat in setting national discourses and thereby leading society. Leading society is not historically bestowed but is earned, serviced and recharged, always.

The other killer punch in our movement is the emergence of tabular rasa mentality. Comrades are afraid to frankly debate issues without checking the side they direct issues against lest they offend the most powerful and therefore suffer from career-pathing opportunities. It is easy today to be advised that arguing that issue, correct as it may be, that it is suicidingly career-limiting. You will be told by comrades privately: Hey Chief! Uzolamba. The net effect of this is withdrawal syndrome in engaging in a manner assisting the movement on key questions. Unwittingly the bar get lowered. 

The renewal of the movement must mean debunking conservatism and be impatient to ill-discipline, impatience and brutality to corrupt elements at all levels where there is usage of the state as milking cow for self-gain. We must encourage young comrades to be formally educated and must subscribed to the doctrine of life-long learning. We need the movement and the left in general that will inspire patriotism and a sense of pride and a defence of our motherland whilst working for the better and peaceful World free from any form of exploitation of man by man.

The above becomes all the more important because a stronger alliance and its leadership will translate into stronger leadership in government and therefore strong government and its institutions. The weak political leadership translate the same to government.

And so, as I have said before in one political school, the organisational renewal must mean: Building the new house within the old house BUT without destroying the old house.

That political and organisational interlacing that is dialectical is instructive if we are to open new terraces.

Ruth First would have not been averse to these modern requirements in this phase of the revolution. The era we have arrived at and the increasing of younger population of South Africa gradually collapses the relevance of commanding and appealing to the hearts and minds of people on the basis of history and struggle credentials. The young and middle age of today places less premium on what during struggle the movement and the Party did as sacrifices. For them they assess us on the basis of today, on the basis of government delivery and on the basis of the quality of leadership we exhibit.

This crop of our generation is amenable to switch political loyalty at the wink of an eye to parties that 10 years ago was unimaginable. They are not married to us and to the revolution but to the magnanimity that they observe today. Any disappointment result in going back to the political market for another better party they can vote. That's competitive politics that requires agility and adaptation with time for purposes of relevance. Conservatism may result into progressive forces losing the foothold of power and the revolution going to dogs!

We remember Ruth at a critical time in COSATU where the spectre self-consumption seems in sight. The internal and unhelpful inner fights will have a halo-effect to the entire alliance and weaken it from within. As the Party and ANC, we are duty bound to intervene and assist in saving the federation. A special appeal is that despite the enormity of enmity within and amongst affiliates, but any resolve to march out of COSATU by any affiliate is ill-advised and must not be allowed. A revolutionary organisation does not run away from problems but confront and resolve them. There should be a cooling off of tempers from all directions and locate to the centrality the COSATU salvation.

Ruth First's name was writ in water.

Ruth First was a progressive journalist who lived by principle than mere strivings for her by-line prominence in newspapers. She exposed many apartheid sordid acts for the World to see in a fearless manner. Where are those journalists today? Journalist like Nat Nakasa, Aggrey Klaaste, Can Themba, Zwelakhe Sisulu, Charles Nqakula and many others showed us that the power of a pen in directing society to a bigger picture is important than narrow career comfortability.

Conclusion

As we marvel together into this immeasurable larger life of Ruth First we need to pronounce ourselves, individually and collectively, as would henceforth strive to be selfless in building a prosperous South Africa, studying very hard and fight all forms of injustices that are besieging our society, confront social ills ravaging our youth.

If we commit in doing so, Ruth the communist to the end, will smile and say, the sun did not dropped behind mountains in me for the dark to set in. The cause is still pursued!

Khaye Nkwanyana is the PEC and PWC member of the SACP in KwaZulu Natal.

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