Nkosana Sibuyi

Posted by Nkosana Sibuyi: 30 October 2011

“Nature is only a part of what we can imagine; everything, real or imagined, can be appraised by us, and there is no outside standard to show that our valuation is wrong. We are ourselves the ultimate and irrefutable arbiters of value, and in the world of value Nature is only a part. Thus in this world we are greater than Nature. In the world of values, Nature in itself is neutral, neither good nor bad deserving of neither admiration nor censure. It is we who create value and our desires which confer value. In this realm we are kings, and we debase our kingship if we bow down to Nature. It is for us to determine our good life, not for Nature-not even for Nature personified as God” Bertrand Russel, What I Believe

Bertrand Russel’s defining work, What I Believe, combines religion, beliefs, value systems, practical criticism, politics, philosophy, intellectual reflection and scholarship. Russel, a thinker of note, spoke the truth based on the balance of evidence with respect to religion, morality, ethics and science. Consciously, he was adept at creating a fair, balanced understanding or appreciation of Nature and human desires. The role of religion, politics and ethics cannot thus be perceived and understood in isolation without acknowledging the role each plays in complementing the other. For each is much sacred based on its dependence each can spawn in the historical narrative and how it is intertwined with the consciousness of South Africa, “in the world of value Nature is only a part.” Russel’s quotation underscores his deep gnostic understanding of sophisticated science matters.

There is a myriad of phenomenon whose evolution and existence transcends the rudimentary stage. The occurrence some of which are indelible marks of history and historiography. It can raise the bar of human centred development. More broadly, it is significant to unravel the complexity immanent with panache in governance and democracy in South Africa. The oddity inherent in democratic change and implementation does not impose an obligation to make obiter comments. South Africa, as a reference point does offer a perfect template for socio-political, cultural, economic, philosophical and intellectual engagement.

This understanding lays a basis for broader appreciation of John Courtney Murray, who was silenced by the Vatican Council (Roman Catholic Church) for advocating freedom of religion and the separation of Church and State. However, Murray was finally invited to attend the Second Vatican Council and the rigorous research and conclusions he reached were eventually shaped into the Council’s degree called Dignitatis-On Human Dignity. The Vatican Council approached this question on two levels: (1) personal freedom and responsibility; and (2) the role of the state and society in safeguarding religious freedom.

As such, in a manner that will deepen the true nature of the discourse, it is instructive to disabuse people of the notion that South Africa has arrived at our nirvana. An impression ought not to be created that the country has hook, line and sinker reached levels unimaginable. The odyssey of South Africa’s destination proffered to the country with ebbs and flows in the public, academic, intellectual, political, socio-economic and geo-strategic motif to establish a either a trough or a comfortable place. Undoubtedly, it is for us to determine our good life as the ultimate and irrefutable arbiters of value.

The month October means different things to different people. Quite correctly, some amongst us regard it as nothing else but the tenth month of the year. Meanwhile, others will unapologetically and unashamedly attach immense value to the Black Wednesday derived from 19 October 1977, the 1917 October Revolution, Social Development Month or Transport Month. During the October month, we have also witnessed posters, billboards, t-shirts and newspaper advertisements of Oliver Reginald Tambo inscribed with the core message Be Inspired by his Legacy. In the service of humanity, what does this mean in practice and essence? The following worldviews about Tambo captures the substance and essence of who he was, what he stood for and meaning of his contribution to the ushering in of a democratic epoch in South Africa.

Former President Thabo Mbeki, writing in a foreword to Luli Callinicos’ book, Oliver Tambo: Beyond the Engeli Mountains notes that “Oliver Tambo’s life and character are a metaphor of our struggle for freedom and democracy”.

Married to the above, Dr Mongane Wally Serote, writes: “I often think about OR and I have great joy in my heart about him. I hope that in whatever work we do, we will respect his integrity, dignity, sacrifices and his love for South Africa, Africa and humanity.”

O.R Tambo’s speeches were characterised by substance and content required to propel the national liberation struggle onto a higher arc. Judge Albie Sachs writing about Tambo adds that when OR spoke, “we needed to feel our courage soar, to be reassured not only of the justness of our cause, but of our collective invincibility.”

Reflecting on Tambo’s lifetime, Chris van Wyk and Luli Callinicos on They fought for freedom: Oliver Tambo write: “Unity, he thought, is the most important thing to keep in mind. We must always strive to keep our movement united and to unite as many of our people as possible around our main goal: the destruction of apartheid and the establishment of democracy in South Africa. This theme of unity always remained central to Tambo’s thinking”

Mbeki, Serote, Sachs, van Wyk and Callinicos above bespeaks the humanist and rationalist values that Tambo upheld, meaning and implications, possibilities and constraints as constituting strategic realities in gravitating towards a common nationhood and democratic future.

One has had the distinct honour and privilege to attend the Wreath Laying Ceremony of the late Oliver Reginald and Adelaide Frances Tambo, the Official opening of the Oliver Tambo Cultural Precinct and the Narrative Centre at the exhibition centre on 27 October 2011 at Wattville, Benoni, Gauteng Province. The event was organised by the Oliver and Adelaide Tambo Foundation and the City of Ekurhuleni well-defined by the messages of support from Councillor Mondli Gungubele, the O.R. Tambo District Municipality, Councillor Patricia Kumalo, Councillor Zeni Tshongweni, Councillor Bennet Nikani, Dali Tambo and key note address by Mr Paul Mashatile, Minister of Arts and Culture.

Out of such a historic celebration, it was remarkable that the occasion was attended by two former Executive Mayors of the City of Ekurhuleni, Mr Duma Nkosi and City of Johannesburg, Mr Amos Masondo. Appreciably, Mr Duma Nkosi was publicly acknowledged as the one who skippered the project at the time when he was the Executive Mayor. Encouragingly, the maximum contribution that he made was neither minimised nor downplayed in the programme. This is a concrete reflection of the maturity of governance at the municipality which is devoid of excitement and triumphalism by the new administration. The current Executive Mayor of the City of Ekurhuleni, Councillor Mondli Gungubele must be commended for recognising the contribution made by the erstwhile mayor without being captured by the narrow political interest of minimising the maximum created before his tenure. At the risk of oversimplification, it can be postulated that it is this mature and commendable political demeanour that goes into the kernel of the development logic for the construction of a developmental state in South Africa. Out of such an experience, we will be able to appreciate, understand and learn that it is ill-advised to reinvent the wheel or scrapping the barrel when assigned onto a new leadership position.

It is encouraging that continuity of change can, as Russel intimated, “be appraised by us, deserving of neither admiration nor censure” in a manner that promotes loathsome interests. Experience in governance and leadership since 1994 has taught us that new political appointees such as Mayors, Members of the Executive Council, Ministers, Portfolio Committee members, Members of the Provincial Legislators have had the temerity to create an impression that nothing was done before their appointment. In a sense, they have the gumption or chutzpah to affirm that they are in charge by conceptualising new policy directions anti-thetical to those of the previous incumbents. What one finds incomprehensible is that this is done by people who are members of the same political party.

In terms of governance, there is a lot that the whole government can learn from the experience of the Wreath Laying Ceremony of the late Oliver Reginald and Adelaide Frances Tambo and the Official opening of the Oliver Tambo Cultural Precinct. It cannot be about optics. When chaperoned to the high office, it does not afford one a possibility to be supercilious. To the contrary, it affords one a propitious opportunity to be humble, unassuming in the midst of greatness. As an aside, like fire and ice, the two cannot coexist forever.

This historic occasion coincided with the birthday celebration of O.R. as he is affectionately known. He was born on 27 October 1917, in Nkantolo, Mbizana, Pondoland in the Eastern Cape. From 1977 to 1990 he was president of the African National Congress (ANC) followed by the position of the chairperson until his death of a stroke on 24 April 1993. Out of a noble history, OR carried South Africa’s hopes, dreams, desires, aspirations, selflessness, sacrifice, diplomacy, sobriety, robustness, suffering, honesty, discipline, statesmanship, unassuming nature, unity of purpose, unity in action and political clarity in the context of the revolution.

What did OR Tambo bequeath to us as a country, continent, diaspora and the world? This question arises because of the myriad contemporary challenges facing the country.

Consciously, we need to draw inspiration from Tambo’s call for unity. This include unity of purpose, sense of strategic direction premised on determination and the ability.

The challenge of leadership and self-interest remains key challenges facing the current administration. Creative ways must be found to address the emergence of the approval addition syndrome, in which leaders strive for acceptance at the expense of matters improving the quality of lives of the people. Deployment of people on the bases of loyalty as opposed to merit, credentials and capacity, conflicts of interest, corruption, assassinations of political leaders and officials bears testimony to the bankruptcy leadership the country faces in the current conjuncture.

Foreign policy, organisational discipline and the aspirations to construct the Developmental State in South Africa calls for strategic focus, courage, persistence, hope, unmistakable clarity and insight.

Humankind is shaped by history, conditions and circumstances cognisant of the constraints and possibilities. The meaning and implications of human evolution in the gestation of societal change, continuity and ideational possibilities constitute our guide to action on how to shape the future. To be in order to be, in all intents and purposes, does not embrace a sloven approach to political maturity and unity in action. Neither does it call for the suspension of critical, dialectical and intellectual thinking to celebrate the beliefs of an idle mind.

These challenges constitute the natural and permanent order of things for the national liberation movement’s role as the ruling party. As Serote, intimated the OR Tambo legacy imposes an obligation in whatever work we do, we will respect his integrity, dignity, sacrifices and his love for South Africa, Africa and humanity.

Accordingly, nature is only a part of what we can imagine; everything, real or imagined, can be appraised by us, united in our diversity.

References
1. Betrand Russel. 2004. What I Believe. Routledge Classics: London and New York
2. Chris van Wyk and Luli Callinicos. 1994. They fought for freedom. Oliver Tambo. Maskew Miller Longman: Cape Town
3. Will Hutton.2002. The World We’re In. Abacus:Lancaster House, UK
4. Luli Callinicos.2004. Oliver Tambo. Beyond the Engeli Mountains.David Phillip:Cape Town
5. Z. Pallo Jordan. 2007. Oliver Tambo Remembered. Macmillan:Johannesburg
6. Catholic Link, Religious Freedom and Human Dignity. 30 October 2011

Posted by Nkosana Sibuyi: 30 September 2011

The utility of knowledge, power and truth in society’s development remains contested and contestable. The domains and hierarchy of the three contribute to the emergence of contradictions in society. The contradictions could be antagonistic, non-antagonistic or a combination of both. The battle of ideas, dominant worldviews and their consequences open up a wisp of opportunities and possibilities in a given moment. Out of this experience has also emerged dimensional conditions and dimensional circumstances that shape who, how and why society becomes. The manifestation of thesis, anti-thesis and synthesis owe their existence and survival to the dynamism of human development, anatomy, civilisation, paradigm of thought and thought leadership. Undoubtedly, it is through an appreciation of the contemporary objective and subjective realities that could help satisfy our human conscience and the dawn of sanity in the midst of adversity.

The edifice of right captured above also finds resonance in the late Helen Suzman’s autobiography, In No Uncertain Terms Memoirs. Chapter Six entitled The Years Alone: 1961-74 provides a vivid thinking and genuine reflection of the fight against the apartheid laws and for the rule of law. The book unashamedly and unapologetically chronicles the defining steps that she took to deplore and bemoan the recklessness of the National Party government primarily because she “felt giddy observing their gyrations” which found expression to its everlasting shame.

At the core of Ms Suzman’s struggle to “try bring about which will satisfy changes our human conscience” were her fierce opposition to absence of democracy in the Ninety-Day Detention Law (General Laws Amendment Bill), the notorious Sobukwe Clause inherent in section 4 of the bill, 1962 Bill to amend the 1950 Population Registration Act commonly known as the Race Classification Act, Pass Laws, Bantu Laws Amendment Bill, Bantu Urban Areas Act, and Influx Control amongst others. Ms Suzman was a lone voice of conscience not on behalf of the Progressive Party but also on behalf of the entire oppressed nation against the National Party regime.

Consequently, Chief Albert Luthuli wrote her a letter and said: “I take this opportunity to express my deep appreciation and admiration of your heroic and lone stand against a most reactionary Parliament. I most heartily congratulate you for your untiring efforts in a situation that would frustrate and benumb many. For ever remember, you are a bright Star in dark Chamber, where lights of liberty of what is left, are going out one by one. This appreciation covers your contribution since you entered Parliament as member of the Progressive Party. This meritorious record has been climaxed by your fittingly uncompromising stand in the rape against democracy by Parliament in the debate that made law, which was one of the most diabolic bills ever to come before Parliament. Not only ourselves-will your contemporaries, but also posterity, hold you in high esteem”

Ms Suzman records in Chapter Six that “the normal process of the law maintains law and order only when the majority of the people to whom the laws apply accept and approve them. Powers which circumvented the courts, due process and habeas corpus followed in quick succession.”

This allegory highlighted above is a concrete reflection of the craven attitude that informs the extemporaneous approach to governance in the current conjuncture What by contrast, should always be kept in the radar, is that the complexity of governance, domination and its consequences do not only impact on us and contemporaries but also posterity. Notably, when the pusillanimous approach takes lead, it becomes capillary or passageway towards the construction of a state which none will celebrate. From this standpoint, this is a clarion call for a quicker normalisation of South Africa.

There is a welter of issues that are crying out for scientific interrogation and analysis. The issues include amongst others, interest is to interrogate the rationale for the failed attempts to extend the term of the former Chief Justice Sandile Ngcobo, appointment of Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng, the disciplinary hearing of the ANCYL President Julius Malema and some members of the youth league. The current discourse revolves around the battle of the soul, heart and liver of the ANC prior to Mangaung 2012. By all accounts, some of these developments reflect the challenge and vulnerabilities to enhance the credibility, integrity and legitimacy of the government, state institutions and the ruling party.

Social change and transformation in a young democratic society such as South Africa informs the multiplicity of dynamics that complicate the questions. Former Chief Justice Pius Langa, in his address Judging in a Changing Society: The South African Context intimates that, “the reason for that is because what is has not always been, and what is not has not always not been.” By all accounts, knowledge, power and truth before 1994 prior to the ushering in of constitutional democracy, administration of justice and transformation of the criminal justice system constituted an external visage oblivious of democratic change.

The cornerstone of democracy following the adoption of the Constitution in 1996 was power based, value driven with the separation of powers and touchstone of a new South Africa. The defining aspects of constitutional democracy include respect for the independence of the judiciary based on the solid, well-reasoned and appropriately grounded principles. This restores public trust, confidence, integrity and legitimacy of jurisprudence.

Knowledge, power and truth are in or of themselves, instruments of cohesion, coercion or a hybrid of both. That is, they can co-exist in a manner that is either antagonistic or non-antagonistic. The antagonistic and non-antagonistic contradictions lay a basis for the emergence of both the centripetal and centrifugal forces in human development. This goes into the kernel or complexity of governance and leadership from time immemorial. Married to the above, they create a possibility for the emergence of dispersed and discontinuous offensives. The ebbs and flows inherent in any country, to a notable degree, do shape the defencelessness to criticisms of effects, societies, practices and discourses.

We are a people opulent with aspirations. We are a people of yesterday. Yesterday shaped who we became today. Today create a human creature we become tomorrow. Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow and a day after Tomorrow contribute to the future we create. In a sense, they enrich the knowledge, power and truth that becomes immanent in human evolution and development. It is a defining moment to recreate ourselves. With all else being equal, they create a possibility for theses, nemesis and synthesis in the study of society.

The creation and sustenance of the country remains dynamic and cyclical based on the decisive management of society’s ebbs and flows. For a country to box above its own weight requires of it to be equipped with leaders of the right frame of mind. Despite its unique selling point, South Africa cannot be absolved from this. South Africa cannot afford to sit on its hands, whose role it is to build a remarkable society that all of us could be proud of. She needs leaders with profundity, intuition, intellectual capabilities and capacity.

Michael Foucault, in his tome, Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings 1972-1977, reveals popular knowledge, subjugated knowledge, erudite knowledge, historical knowledge, illegitimate knowledge, local knowledge, discontinuous knowledge, disqualified knowledge, clinical knowledge, apparatuses of knowledge, margins of knowledge and hierarchisation of knowledge’s. Accordingly, Foucault, in the parlance of times, noted that “we have a triangle: power, right and truth.”

The acknowledgement and recognition of power and knowledge as enumerated by Foucault will help in the articulation of the current issues that are dominant in the national discourse as alluded to earlier. The issues include amongst others, the envisaged appointment of a commission of inquiry to investigate allegations of wrongdoing in the Strategic Arms Procurement Packages in accordance with section 84 (2) (f) of the Constitution. Once the terms of reference, scope and composition of the Commission of enquiry have been released, they will serve as a compass to point the country onto what Suzman calls the “dawn of sanity”. The appointment of the chairman who will preside over the commission requires of the process to be characterised by credibility, integrity and legitimacy. Fair-mindedness in dealing with this matter is both meaningful and crucial to help the country get into grips with the complexity and draw lessons in the national interest.

The general line of analysis drawn from the late Helen Suzman, Chief Albert Luthuli’s letter, Former Chief Justice Pius Langa and Michael Foucault is that the return to sanity will help bring about decisive changes which will satisfy our human conscience. The effective use of Foucaultian power, right and truth will explain the meaning of what he calls a “society of normalisation.”

For that very reason, the organising principle, instruments, state apparatus and even as justification have not necessarily been injected with urgency and radicalism biased in favour of all. The supremacy of the Constitution is not depended on party domination and its consequences as a locomotive for social change and transformation to be upheld by all. The utility of knowledge, power and truth are the touchstones of change and fundamental to the affirmation of constitutional democracy. Much still remains to be done, pursued and achieved.