SA of today not the SA Oliver Tambo wanted
WHEN the ANC celebrated its centenary in 2012, the national executive committee members of the party delivered memorial speeches for all the former presidents.
The late Oliver Reginald Tambo is remembered as the longest-serving president of the ANC.
He advocated a democratic South Africa, a transformed South Africa.
He said South Africa would be transformed into a nation of all races, regardless of skin colour.
He declared that the transformation of the country was unescapable.
Nyawuza (his clan name) kept the ANC strong.
He mobilised external forces to help the people of South Africa in their quest for transformation.
His role in the fight against apartheid will never be forgotten.
His tenure as the leader of the ANC came at a very crucial time.
The struggle in South Africa around the 1960s was tense, and the country needed someone to take control of the struggle on the ground.
His immense mobilisation skills assisted our country.
Shortly after the Sharpeville massacre, Tambo went into exile to mobilise international support.
In all the countries he visited, he articulated the objectives of the ANC.
He also became an advocate for women’s rights within the ANC.
In the 1980s, he was recognised by the Organisation for African Unity.
Tambo led a group of leaders who formulated the Harare Declaration in 1991.
It set out the Commonwealth’s core principles and values, detailing membership criteria, and redefining and reinforcing its purpose.
When the ANC held its first national consultative conference in Tanzania in 1969, Tambo summed up the conference with these words: “Close ranks! This is the order to our people; our youth; the army; to each Umkhonto we Sizwe militant; to all our many supporters the world over. This is the order to our leaders; to all of us. The order that comes from this conference is: close ranks and intensify the armed struggle.”
The current state of South Africa is not the South Africa he wanted.
It is not the transformed South Africa he had hoped for during his quest for a united South Africa.
“The fight for freedom must go on until it is won; until our country is free and happy and peaceful as part of the community of man, we cannot rest.”
Happy birthday, Nyawuza.