ANC meeting snub a relief, says Turok

AFRICAN National Congress (ANC) stalwart Ben Turok has not been invited to the party’s threeday midterm conference that gets under way in Midrand today, a development that has left one of the liberation movement’s silent heroes with mixed feelings.

The snub will probably send shock waves through a party that has already been accused of elbowing out its intellectuals and moral standard bearers.

Yesterday Prof Turok said while he was not personally worried about being snubbed, he and many veterans were concerned about the manner in which the ANC had lost its way, with rampant corruption and the death of internal democracy. His remarks come in the wake of sensational comments by Frank Chikane, also a veteran of the ANC, who recently warned of the demise of the party.

Prof Turok wrote the Freedom Charter clause that has been at the centre of the nationalisation debate in recent years.

As a fellow detainee, he also wrote down Solomon Mahlangu’s last words as the death row prisoner went to the gallows singing.

In 2011, Prof Turok angered ANC MPs when he abstained from voting on the so-called secrecy bill, opting instead to walk out of the National Assembly.

Former president Thabo Mbeki will also not attend the national general council (NGC) as he is on an African Union assignment in Nigeria and former deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe is on his way to India.

“It makes me feel quite relieved (the snub). I am not happy with some of the developments in the movement. I think that this NGC may not be as open to discussion as it ought to be. At the last one (Mangaung conference in 2012), they put me in the front row as a stalwart and the veterans were behind me. Stalwart is a higher status than veteran,” he said.

“I have not received an invitation and I have not sought one…. I find that the ANC is so beset with problems that I am not sure I would at all be that comfortable at the NGC. I am not the only one. There are many stalwarts who are saying the same thing,” he said, referring to the feeling of disquiet expressed by some ANC leaders.

The rise in perceptions of corruption and “inexplicable” state appointments were an example of the symptoms of the rot in the ruling party.

Prof Toruk was critical of President Jacob Zuma, whom he said was an embodiment of the rise of dangerous populism and the “cult of personality” that had detracted from the revolutions in China and the Soviet Union.

He said this growth of the “cult of personality” began with Mr Zuma’s rape trial in the 2000s, with supporters demonstrating fiercely outside court.

“What was that all about? If a court is giving a judgment on somebody, you go into the court and you hear the evidence. You don’t demonstrate outside as if you are better than the judge inside. What kind of behaviour is that?

“The cult of the individual destroyed Mao Zedong and Stalin. We don’t want the cult of the individual in SA. I am afraid we are going to (party) elections with Tshirts with photographs of somebody. I don’t like that.

“We should be pursuing policies and not individual personalities. Personalities can make big mistakes and things can go very wrong,” he said.