S’bu Ndebele is set to quit political life
In his most candid interview since resigning as South Africa’s high commissioner to Australia in November, the erstwhile premier of KZN, S’bu Ndebele, spoke to Lungani Zungu about life after politics
SBU NDEBELE, a member of the ANC’S national executive committee (the party’s highest decision making body) since the 90s, will quit politics after the ANC national elective conference scheduled for December.
Speaking from his farm in Pietermaritzburg, Ndebele, 69, said he wanted to focus on farming when he retired from politics.
His political career has spanned 45 years, 26 years of those in the government since 1994.
“You just become a creature of the public, that is why I want to retire now. I have been lucky to have the kind of wife and kids I have. I am old now and must be at home. There must be a cut-off point.”
Ndebele is facing a corruption charge stemming from an alleged bribe of R10 million for the illegal extension of the electronic National Traffic Information System in 2010 when he was transport minister.
He is out on R10 000 bail and is expected back in court later this month. The charge prompted his resignation as high commissioner to Australia.
He wouldn’t be drawn to comment on the case.
Ndebele’s political awakening, in the 1960s, prompted a tug-of-war between his father, Reverend Moses Ndebele, a devout Christian who backed him, and his mother, Esther, who disapproved of his activities.
When his parents eventually died (Moses in 1981 and Esther in 1976) he could not attend their funerals as he was jailed on Robben Island.
“I have no regrets because it was a worthy cause,” he said.
Recounting his parents’ deaths, he said: “When I was in jail, I decided to write to my mother, but I did not know that I was writing to a person who was already dead. I wanted to explain to her why I joined politics because she disapproved. That was bad and heavy for me,” he sighed.
In 1981, when he had served five years of his ten-year sentence, Ndebele heard his father had died.
“My father was scheduled to come and see me in jail but he decided to send my brother because he was not feeling well. He said he would come next time. There was no next time.”
It was a heavy burden for Ndebele, who was 33 at the time. It was senior political prisoners, including former president Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Ahmed Kathrada and Raymond Mhlaba, who consoled him in jail.
“Those men were a different breed. Those comrades cared a lot. And I asked myself then: ‘Why do I matter so much?’ It was an amazing thing.”
Ndebele said his father’s death left a wound that had never healed.
“Part of the reason… is that I only got to know about his death two weeks after he died. They (the prison authorities) kept the telegram that alerted me to his death.
“It was sad because we were playing cards and tennis in prison while there was a funeral at home. That makes me feel so bad. I hope this humane government that we have created will never do that to anyone,” he said.
Ndebele is writing a book to have the title These Eyes. He said the book would shed light on what he had seen and endured in his nearly five decades in politics.
As the ANC commemorated the life of President Oliver Tambo, who would have turned 100 this year, Ndebele said, the longest-serving ANC president had predicted the crisis that currently plagued the party.
But Ndebele was confident that the ANC would emerge unscathed and even stronger from the setbacks.
“Oliver Tambo once said to us: ‘You guys think it is difficult to overthrow apartheid. Wait until you have overthrown apartheid then you will see how difficult it is to fulfil the wants and the needs of the people.”
On the squabbling that has dogged the ANC in Kwazulunatal, a province he once chaired, he said unity had to prevail because the province was influential.
Ndebele, who founded the African Renaissance Trust, said xenophobia needed a long-term solution. “We need a society that is cohesive, that is truly national and I think that we are achieving that, but we need a broader approach.”
The thorny issue of land and the resurgent calls for radical economic transformation were legitimate, he said, adding that the government was making strides.
“I’m actually quite enthusiastic about the issue of land and agriculture because that is what I’m going to do now. There are fantastic chances out there,” he said.
About the much-awaited elective conference in December, Ndebele said: “We really want a good outcome of that thing. That’s all I can say.”