I found this post on the COPE Facebook DB and it is too valuable to get lost ...
It was posted by Zandisile Mabuya on December 7, 2008 at 10:49pm
http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?topic=6538&post=42015&uid=60462886256#post42015-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I have often questioned the reason for my existence: do I owe my being to the consummation of love or had my existence been pre-determined by a higher order. If my existence was preordained then the consummation of love is just a conduit through which destiny is brought to life and is thus the foundation of one’s pre-determined fate. The answer to my question may appear to be inconsequential to some, but it is actually this answer that has the potential to dislodge the very foundations on which life is based. It dawned on me that the reason for origination determines purpose (destination and continued relevance) or the lack thereof.
The answer to this fundamental question is applicable to all facets of life: a cause precedes and fuels purpose. If you believe in God, then the reason for your creation (birth) was sparked by a cause, which then established your purpose (mission) in life. If the idea of a ‘Creator’ fails to find a home in your psyche, then your purpose is determined as you ransack through life. I do not know why but I am somewhat unsettled by the idea of a mission statement that gets written and re-drafted on a daily basis. I suppose, if you believe that life is a lesson then this would hold true. Whatever is amassed from this lesson should be of use somewhere. If life is a lesson, then where/when do I get to apply what I have learnt? Learning can never be one’s purpose unless the after-life is one big exam.
The change in the local political environment and the arrogant way the ruling party has dealt with this change has led me to ask: which came first: the ANC or the struggle? In essence, I am asking which of the two is the cause? For it is the cause we must stay true to, for it is non-evolving, albeit finite in its existence. The latter is the most pertinent to our discussion, but not superior. When a cause ceases to exist the vehicle through which such a cause was advanced loses relevance and must therefore also cease to exist. Such vehicles are normally created for only one purpose: to further a specific cause. So why should they outlive the cause?
I am not one to dwell too much on the past as I believe it is forward thinking that propels life. But at times where you lose sight of the vision you need to trace the premise, for it is in the origination that destination is determined. I may have taken a long path to illustrate what many have known all your lives that the oppression a people is the cause that led to resistance movements, in various forms. The formation of liberation movements is one such form. If the formation of one-of-many liberation movements is a just a type of resistance, then such a liberation movement cannot lay sole claim to the cause. Even though our struggle gave birth to liberation movements, such formations have many other siblings, and all these other siblings should be allowed to cuddle up to their bearer, the cause. Most importantly the cause should not be used to hold its missionaries (and its beneficiaries) at ransom. That is like a brother using the death of a parent as a control mechanism over his siblings.
COPE owes its name to a historic event, the coming together of people from different organization for one common cause. It was a congregation of the people of South Africa in Kliptown, as represented by the various liberation movements, the Congress Alliance (ANC, Coloured People’s Congress, South African Indian Congress and the Congress of the Democrats). From this convention the Freedom Charter was born, which became the spine with which many of our institutions of democracy are strengthened. One such institution is our constitution. The ANC was not the sole constituent of the Congress Alliance, why should it then use this collective effort of soolidarity (being the congregation that gave birth to the spine of our freedom) to stifle the magnification of one of the most important revolutionary gains: democracy. Formation of new political homes should be celebrated, for nothing entrenches democracy than the enhancement of choice.
The unwavering resistance against apartheid led to the emancipation of a people. It was not only the card carrying members of a movement that advanced the cause, but all those that were courageous enough to depose a master imposed on them. Because it was the collective effort of sometimes dissenting opinions that ‘freed’ us, we owe it to them to be tolerant of each other. For a solidified and unified approach to the deliverance of ‘a better life for all’ we must allow for differing ideas, which can be morphed into a cohesive force.
The cause has been fulfilled
The ANC is a liberation movement, whose sole purpose was to be the banner under which apartheid would be annihilated. The collective effort of those who were opposed to apartheid (including foreign support) succeeded in the obliteration of the divisive and oppressive apartheid system, therefore the cause was fulfilled. Shouldn’t the liberation movements cease to exist and make way for new formations with a new mandate, which is governance? Discarding liberation movements does not equate to the betrayal of the cause (and our history), especially where the cause has run its full course. Those who perceive my question to be counter-revolutionary are probably asking: should we just discard all the heritage and goodwill of the ANC brand?
The age of compromise, which we now find ourselves in, would suggest that the goodwill of the liberation movements be preserved by transforming these organizations into modern and governance-inclined formations. The revolutionary, and sometimes militant, rhetoric spewed by cadres of the ANC suggests that the beleaguered ruling party has failed to transform into these modern organizations.
More importantly, the organization’s insistence in holding on to an archaic, yet understandably sentimental cause has resulted in the ANC losing touch with the populace (which has moved on to embrace its aspirations). The age of non-accountability, mediocrity and exclusivity in power is no more. The somewhat miraculous election of Barack Husain Obama into the ‘highest office in the world’ is a display by the world that change is needed all over. The continent’s tolerance of mediocrity and ‘hypnotic’ populist rhetoric has seen it descend into the pits of shame.
Instead of focusing on the deliverance of ‘a better life for all’ liberation movements all over Africa, ANC included, use the yesteryear struggle to emotionally blackmail people to turn a blind eye to the plunder of state resources, corruption in other words. It is for this reason that in Africa it is not the best sportsmen or best business pioneers that are the wealthiest, but it is those with influence in the highest of echelons of ruling party.
Then there is also the matter of rewarding incompetent (unqualified) comrades with critical government positions or ‘lucrative’ service delivery tenders. Those in the know, where wildlife is concerned, profess that a herd of buffaloes can only move as fast as its slowest buffalo (The Buffalo Theory). Therefore if this reward system, as elicited by the party list system, leaves incompetent comrades in of charge of the development of our country, then the rate of development will be as slow as they think. Why? Because the slowest ‘buffaloes’, not the best ones, are running the show. This is not surprising. Liberation movements were never formed to govern or, better yet, they were never formed to improve the lives of the masses. They were formed to eradicate oppression (in all its forms). Governance and service delivery are new causes, which require new organizations to effect them.
The ANC and COPE have at least one thing in common
The Congress of the People (COPE) has been labeled a formation of sore losers, with the founders’ faction having lost at the Polokwane ANC conference to the ‘once disciplined’ militia. The labeling insinuates that COPE is a party formed out of frustration and anger. To this I ask: which liberation movement was not formed out of these emotions or state of mind? The establishment/formation of all liberation movements was catalysed by anger and frustration. To advise the people otherwise is an insult to, not only their intelligence, but also to the collective efforts of many to restore the people’s dignity. Dignity cannot be restored without acknowledging the anger and aggravation experienced during the debasing of such dignity.
People’s guilt is played on by trashing their loyalty of those who leave the ANC to the fulfilled cause. They are called (disloyal) ill-disciplined cadres. What is a disciplined cadre? I thought membership of the ANC was voluntary; therefore one is free to terminate such membership (without fear of intimidation or persecution).
The new ANC leadership’s tactics are a betrayal of the cause, therefore are counter-revolutionary. by opportunistically using the ignorance of its followers (and those blinded by a need for salvation) the ANC has displayed great disregard for the sensibility of man. There will come a time when we will no longer be able to tolerate the drivel and a new revolution will have been spawned. This one will not only be televised, it will be quick and painful. The unruly cannot be allowed to define us.
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