The tragedy of liberation movements in power in Africa

Last week, driving along the Marginal, the road that winds around the beautiful bay in Maputo, I was overwhelmed with thoughts of the inseparable bonds of solidarity between the ANC and Frelimo, and between South Africa and Mozambique. I also recalled with much pride how my city, Durban, remains firmly tied to Frelimo’s struggle.

Some of the most important intellectuals in the liberation movement, figures of the standing of Ruth First and Pallo Jordan, were based in Maputo for years. Of course, this is the city where First was murdered by a parcel bomb sent by Craig Williamson. Albie Sachs survived a car bomb on the Marginal, although with life-changing injuries.

In Durban, in 1974, Muntu Myeza, from the South African Students’ Organisation, organised rallies in support of Frelimo at Curries Fountain, making this rally, along with the Durban strikes of 1973, one of the great moments in the political history of the city.

While in Mozambique, I was reminded of the oratory prowess of Samora Machel, Mozambique’s first president:

“They want to come here and commit murder. So we say: Let them come, let all the racists come… Let them come! Let us liquidate war once and for all. Then there will be true peace in the region. Not the false peace that we are now experiencing. Let the South Africans come but let them be clear that the war will end in Pretoria. The war will end in Pretoria, for the majority will take power in Pretoria.”

These were the powerful words of Samora Machel, in the wake of SA’s cross-border raids in 1981, that I remembered when I visited the Matola Raid Memorial in Mozambique.

Both Mozambique and South Africa have serious problems, but they are both free in the sense that they are not subject to external oppression.

The sacrifices that were required for liberation were not for nothing and must be remembered despite the bitter disappointments of the present. It was 58 years ago, on 25 September 1964, that the Mozambican War of Independence against the Portuguese occupation began, with independence finally achieved in 1975.

But, some 47 years later, large parts of Mozambique remain underdeveloped, masses remain in poverty and the stark inequality is comparable to South Africa. When the hugely courageous journalist Carlos Cardoso was assassinated in Maputo in 2000, South Africans began to understand how deeply gangsterism had infiltrated the economy of Mozambique. Now our own city is in the grip of mafias in a range of sectors including trucking, transport, construction and even at some hospitals and universities.

Compared with big cities in South Africa,