COMMEMORATION RELEASE OF COMRADE GOVAN MBEKI FROM ROBBEN ISLAND @KASIBCNEWS
The African National Congress (ANC) commemorates the release of Isithwalandwe, the late Comrade Govan Mbeki, famously known as Oom Gov, a communist, a stalwart of the South African revolution, Umkhonto we Sizwe High Commander, and a Rivonia Trialist who spent 24 years on Robben Island for treason and terrorism against the unjust apartheid state before his release on the 5th of November 1987.
Today, as we remember Oom Gov, we honour him as a revolutionary intellectual dedicated to the struggle for freedom and liberation for all South Africans. His hatred for poverty and racial oppression is clear in his seminal work, “The Peasants Revolt,” which analysed peasant struggles in the Transkei and exposed apartheid injustices, serving as a guide for freedom fighters. Oom Gov consistently placed the people’s needs and security above his own, working fulltime as a political reporter and editor for New Age, exposing colonial-apartheid evils in the movement’s newspaper until its ban in 1962 by John Vorster.
We reflect on the commitment to education transformation and access to learning today through the historical lens of the Freedom Charter, which Oom Gov believed in and how it symbolises our advance towards a South Africa where “The Doors of Learning and Culture Shall Be Opened” for all. Yet, on this day that must celebrate a giant of our struggle who gave his all for freedom and equality in South Africa, we witness the Democratic Alliance (DA), Freedom Front Plus, and Afriforum holding a socalled protest rally at the Voortrekker Monument.
This gathering signals their intent to further consolidate and revive the divisive system of our dark past under the pretence of opposing the progressive Basic Education Laws Amendment (BELA) Act, which has been signed into law by President Ramaphosa. Their protest against the implementation of the BELA Act, which seeks to promote social cohesion and provide dual mediums of instruction, is emblematic of their commitment to preserving apartheid-era policy thinking.
The Voortrekker Monument was completed in 1949 and inaugurated as apartheid's symbol of Afrikaner supremacy just after the National Party adopted its system of apartheid, and this protest symbolically represents a painful era of exclusion, dispossession, and oppression. Their choice to protest there is not coincidental; it is a calculated move that aligns itself with the values of a South Africa we fought against and are consistent in dismantling and burying in our efforts for a true united non-racial South Africa that has no place for discrimination and exclusions of any form.
As we reflect on this protest, we cannot deliberately ignore or imagine away the historical connection of the evil John Vorster, whose oppressive system of apartheid unjustly threw Oom Gov and other Rivonia Trialists into jail during his tenure as Minister of Justice. Vorster’s strong influence and direction in the apartheid regime’s language policies was significant, exemplified by his declaration of 1975 as Language Year when he was President.
This immoral and heartless apartheid head diametrically opposed the progress of a black child and his government forcefully imposed Afrikaans as a medium of instruction in black schools, to deeply entrench historic inequality and cultural hegemony. The intensification of oppressive policies sharpened contradictions ultimately pushing student struggles to a point of no return against his reactionary policies that ended in the bloody, tragic and painful 1976 student massacre.
His rhetoric then during the unveiling of the Language Monument reflected a desperate attempt to assert a false Afrikaner identity over others, dismissing the rightful claims of the black majority to their languages and cultures, as well as their right to a South Africa that allows all to learn without limitations.
Today’s protest at the Voortrekker Monument symbolises the ongoing resistance against the struggle for language equality by the masses, representing a continuation of that oppressive legacy that created exclusivity and superiority. It fails to recognise that inclusion does not demean or diminish any language. Instead, it clearly stands as a refusal to acknowledge past injustices and undermines efforts to address inequalities and improve access to quality education.
The ANC will never support any restrictions to limit a single language against another as such actions are against the freedoms and rights in the Constitution that was established through blood and painful sacrifices of our people and this is inconsistent with the values of Oom Gov’s organisation, which opposed Vorster’s apartheid policies. Afrikaans is a South African language spoken by many across society including Coloured compatriots in the townships across South Africa where dual language policies are not an issue.
The Act stipulates that if a school has a single language of instruction and an additional language is needed, discussions will be held to address this barrier to access. This is important to ensure there are no exclusions based on language, especially in rural schools. Opposing the Act derails and delays the progress we are making on social cohesion and transformation of education, and seeks to maintain privilege at the cost of equality, denying African children equal access to quality education and recognition of their language heritage that Oom Gov and the people’s movement fought for. In contrast, the ANC has always stood unwavering in its commitment to a South Africa that belongs to all who live in it, black and white.
The Freedom Charter, which is our guiding document and a foundational anchor of the South African Constitution was once denounced as “high treason” which Oom Gov was charged and condemned for by the apartheid state, yet it is precisely this vision of a just and equal society that the ANC has fought tirelessly to uphold. Today, we continue to defend this vision against those who would drag us back to a shameful past.
We call on all South Africans to support the BELA Act and reject the DA’s agenda to undermine the hard fought unity of the people of South Africa. In honouring Oom Gov’s legacy, let us all reaffirm our shared commitment to building a South Africa that belongs to all who champion equality and seek to open the doors of learning and opportunity to every South African.
The ANC remains committed to building a society that embodies the dreams of our freedom fighters and fulfils the aspirations of the millions who sacrificed their lives for this South Africa we live in and share.
