A letter to O.R. Tambo
Dear Mdala
Having observed the developments in our country we thought it proper to petition you and other esteemed elders in the yond for advice on how to process and understand the developments in our body politic, especially within the African National Congress. In the difficult conversations we have as friends, about leadership and the state of our country and other related matters, we always ask the question, ngubani onokusinika umkhomba ndlela kule ngxuba kaxaka sikuyo?
By accident of birth we never had the privilege and honour to interact directly with you. However, from what we hear from your fellow comrades as well as reading archived documents and watching footage of the liberation struggle, there is no disputing that you are the man who always rose above everything else, provided leadership and gave direction.
In our zeal to understand the current dynamics we had to go back to the basics and search our archives for the theory of our revolution as well as the trajectory which we ought to follow. In this regard we were moved by this excerpt:
"In our country - more than in any other part of the oppressed world - it is inconceivable for liberation to have meaning without a return of the wealth of the land to the people as a whole. It is therefore a fundamental feature of our strategy that victory must embrace more than formal political democracy. To allow the existing economic forces to retain their interests intact is to feed the root of racial supremacy and does not represent even the shadow of liberation. Our drive towards national emancipation is therefore in a very real way bound up with economic emancipation.....The correction of these centuries-old economic injustices lies at the very core of our national aspirations... In our land this cannot be tackled unless the basic wealth and the basic resources are at the disposal of the people as a whole and are not manipulated by sections or individuals be they White or Black". Strategy and tactics 1969