Honest revolutionaries are the first to respect the laws of our democratic
state
Phatse Justice Piitso, Communist University, Johannesburg, 30 August 2016
One is deeply worried by the growing wave of opportunism which has in the
past few years became the main characteristic feature of the South African
political terrain. Political pandemonium of the art of the possible is
tearing our movement apart before our eyes.
The enemy of our national democratic revolution is disrupting the unity of
our movement under cover of outcries for unity. Such political posture
outside the parameters of our organizational discipline is the highest forms
of counter revolution.
Revolutionaries are duty bound to be the best embodiment of the culture and
traditions of our liberation movement. History has witnessed the demise of
many of our best revolutionary moments because of the squalor of
opportunism.
The glorious moment of a soldier of a revolutionary movement is the day in
which he appears before the judge. This is a day to tell the masses of our
people the truth about the revolution.
The episode we are witnessing of our Minister of Finance carrying our
national liberation movement like a trophy to the doorsteps of imperialism
cannot be allowed. At the end he must bear the consequences if the rating
agencies downgrade our economy into a junk status.
Therefore his decision to undermine the authority of the law enforcement
agencies has tremendous political consequences to the future of our country.
Time has come that we liberate our society from the consciousness of
personality cult.
Mbeki
History reminds us of the most difficult times when one of the best sons of
our continent, in fact the architect of the framework of the post South
African colonial state, former President Mbeki, had to choose between his
selfish interest and that of the country. When the movement instructed him
to do so, he resigned with the highest forms of discipline as a President of
the South African state.
I am quite certain that it was going to be a spiral anarchy should he have
chosen the path of confronting our movement through the courts of law and
other parliamentary processes. But without doubt he adhered to the principle
of democratic centralism.
Recently he again voluntarily appeared before the Seriti Judicial Commission
of inquiry into the investigation of the arms deal. He did so precisely
because he understands that the plethora of commissions and investigations
goes to the heart of the leadership and accountability in South Africa.
Cde Mbeki was also incandescent with rage when advocate Paul Hoffman was
cross examining him on his involvement in the processes of the procurement
during the arms deal. The point here is that Mbeki cooperated and appeared
before the commission despite his reservations and belief that the
proceedings were not fair.
Gordhan
It is nauseating to observe the hypocrisy of those who have championed the
independence of the Chapter 9 institutions actively undermining institutions
such as the Hawks which are constitutionally required to be independent. Cde
Pravin Gordhan is the first to instil confidence and trust of the
institutions of our democracy to our people.
On 17 March 2011 the Constitutional Court ruled in favour of Mr Glenister
and made two key findings. Firstly, that the Constitution imposed a duty on
the State to establish and maintain an independent body (the Hawks) to
combat corruption and organised crime. Secondly, that the creation of the
Hawks did not meet the constitutional requirement of adequate independence.
Parliament was handed the task of amending the laws to ensure that the Hawks
had the requisite level of independence. With regard to concerns about
corruption the Court held at paragraph 166 that:
"There can be no gainsaying that corruption threatens to fell at the knees
virtually everything we hold dear and precious in our hard-won
constitutional order. It blatantly undermines the democratic ethos, the
institutions of democracy, the rule of law and the foundational values of
our nascent constitutional project. It fuels maladministration and public
fraudulence and imperils the capacity of the state to fulfil its obligations
to respect, protect, promote and fulfil all the rights enshrined in the Bill
of Rights. When corruption and organised crime flourish, sustainable
development and economic growth are stunted. And in turn, the stability and
security of society is put at risk."
One must poignantly ask whether the refusal by the minister of finance to
appear before the Hawks is not undermining the independence of the Hawks,
violating his oath of office, particularly his duty to uphold and protect
the constitution, and also undermining the institutions of a constitutional
democracy and their independence. Is it enough for me to do so under the
guise of ' doing his job'.
It does not serve the good path of our revolution for our minister to
mobilise some of the segments of our society, particularly of the most
conservative of the white community such as Judge Kriegler. It is untold in
history that a revolutionary can mobilise such elements of our society to
undermine our democratic ethos, the rule of law and the foundations of our
democratic dispensation.
Gordhan is oblivious of the Concourt's pronouncement that:
"When corruption and organised crime flourish, sustainable development and
economic growth are stunted. And in turn, the stability and security of
society is put at risk."
The lousy excuse that his refusal is justified because he is just doing his
job is absolutely deplorable and dishonest.
Mandela
Those who have made it their mantra to praise the dead in order to condemn
the living will remember the following when they invoke the name of our
international icon former President Nelson Mandela. He is the measure of
discipline in the history of our movement.
In the year 1998, he appeared before the Pretoria high court in the case
instigated by the former rugby boss Dr Louis Luyt. Our former stalwart of
our liberation movement was incensed and even stated before taking the stand
that his blood was boiling for having being dragged into court to explain
his decision to set up a commission to investigate racism, corruption and
nepotism in rugby.
He also said he had grave reservations about the unprecedented order for him
to appear in court because it might open floodgates by which all
presidential decisions might be challenged and government undermined. What
mattered is that he did not pull out the procedural sideshows we are now
witnessing from Gordhan.
He blasted Luyt in his testimony: "The feeling is that Louis is a pitiless
dictator. No one can stand up to him." He made known his hurt, anger and
frustration: "I would never have imagined that Louis would be so
insensitive, ungrateful and disrespectful to say when I gave my affidavit I
was lying."
The apartheid-era judge agreed with Luyt and ruled against Mandela. In his
ruling, Mr de Villiers stopped just short of calling the president a liar,
saying that Mr Mandela's testimony lacked credibility on a number of issues.
"His overall demeanour is, to my mind, subject to material criticism," the
judge said of the president. That ruling was later overturned.
The constitutional court ruled that the judge had made key errors of law and
in fact in compelling Mr Mandela to testify in court and then all but
calling him a liar. The Concourt also ruled that Judge de Villiers had no
right to take the unprecedented step of compelling Mr Mandela to testify.
The state's lawyers argued that the order requiring him to do so was an
insult and a manifestation of bias by the judge. What matters here is the
principle that Mandela did not defy the institutions of the judiciary - he
subjected himself to the law and then filed an appeal like an ordinary
citizen.
The moral of the story is that honest and ethical leaders and politicians
such as Mandela have endured the unpalatable experience of testifying in
cases where they felt the odds were stacked against them. They put aside
their reservations and cooperated fully.
Playing to the enemy gallery
The minister of finance is setting up a dangerous precedent of allowing
politicians to pick and choose which independent institutions they want to
cooperate with is inimical to the rule of law. Moreover, it undermines the
effectiveness of the Hawks, an anti-corruption agency whose independence
they are constitutionally obligated to respect, uphold and protect.
Therefore it cannot be that our own minister plays in the gallery of the
enemy of our revolution to wrench our economy into a junk status. We know
this is the strategy of imperialism and apartheid post colonial forces to
obliterate our movement in the next coming national general elections.
The biggest enemy of our national democratic revolution is the British
monopoly capital which is collaborating with the local white bourgeoisie to
undermine the pace of transformation in our country. It is true that in
class struggle victory is sweet but defeat is bitter.
Therefore the posture by some of our leaders today demonstrate the validity
of the theoretical exposition that to be a revolutionary is not a permanent
feature. But that cannot be at the expense of suffocating our country into a
banana republic.
Our minister must stop bringing all these confusion and divisions within our
democratic state and our movement in general and do the honorable duty. He
has all the moral responsibility to subject himself to the laws of our
country.
. Phatse Justice Piitso is the former Ambassador to the republic of Cuba
and the former provincial secretary of the SACP writing this article on his
personal capacity.
__________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature
database 14045 (20160831) __________
The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus.
http://www.eset.com
--
--
You are subscribed. This footer can help you.
Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this
message.
You can visit the group WEB SITE at
http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options,
pages, files and membership.
To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You
don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put
anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this
address (repeat): [email protected] .
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"YCLSA Discussion Forum" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email
to [email protected].
To post to this group, send an email to [email protected].
Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum.
To view this discussion on the web, visit
https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/yclsa-eom-forum/000c01d20348%243f644430%24be2ccc90%24%40com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
