Motala ‘uncelebrated hero’
LATE Struggle stalwart Chota Motala was one of the unsung heroes of South Africa’s efforts to achieve liberation from the apartheid regime, a person who deserved recognition and honour.
Delivering the 5th Annual Dr Chota Motala Memorial Lecture at the Management College of SA in Durban, Public Administration Minister Ayanda Dlodlo said Motala, who spent most of his adult life trying to alleviate the plight of the vulnerable and oppressed, stood out as one of the uncelebrated heroes who helped usher in democracy.
“He understood and experienced the yoke of colonial oppression even beyond the borders of our country, which made him the selfless revolutionary he became in the fight against colonial bondage and racial oppression,” she said.
“His conviction, to serve struggling communities of Indian, African and coloured descent, underscored his disdain for racial discrimination.”
Dlodlo said Motala had followed in the footsteps of giants like Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru in helping to develop a sturdy bond between the struggling masses of India and South Africa in the countries’ fight against British colonial rule.
She said that this resilient bond gave rise to the strategic alliance between the Indian Congress and the African National Congress in the 1950s.
“The gallant generations of Mandela, Sisulu, Chetty, Motala and many others became the midwives of this collective front (that led to) the defeat of a racial apartheid system, which condemned... our people into misery and abject poverty.
“The declaration in the Freedom Charter that South Africa belongs to all who live in it was not just a hollow statement of political expediency but a product of conviction made concrete by his (Motala’s) own efforts to unite the people of our country.”
She added that the freedom the country attained in 1994 was a giant milestone towards consolidating the vision of the democratic movement to attain a non-racial, non-sexist and democratic society.
“Twenty-four years into our democracy, we have to confront the question, whether the vision of Chota Motala and his generation is alive and practised in our society.
“I am posing this question because in recent months we have experienced a peculiar kind of protest especially from the coloured communities.”.
She said these kinds of protests created the impression that the country’s democratic government was not fully non-racial in both its orientation and practice.
“The charge is that despite the attainment of democracy in 1994, the coloured communities remain marginalised and neglected on the basis only of the fact that they are coloured. The prosperous future of our country depends on the collective effort of all of us who are committed to the achievement of the democratic ideals of our forebears, such as Dr Chota Motala.”