We have forgotten the man, Mabhida
A proud communist, the man after which Durban’s landmark soccer stadium is named was central to the establishment of one of the country’s biggest trade unions
“MEN who die fighting, who refuse to surrender, who serve the people and the ideals to the last breath, are victors. (Moses) Mabhida is a victorious combatant” – Samora Machel, the late president of Mozambique.
THE glorious history of the struggle for liberation in South Africa has given us formidable giants and stalwarts, one among many who stand out like a cathedral in a citadel being Moses Mncane Mabhida. Of course, there is always an element of danger involved in seeing history through contemporary lenses.
These might provide an exciting kaleidoscope of perspectives, but may also discolour, distort or jaundice our viewpoint, as we are not immersed in the existential conditions of the era that we are trying to dissect and analyse.
If we are to avoid errors of judgement and be fair and just to history, we must try to see Mabhida in his own context, not ours. Even within that context, he was an outstanding human being.
It is, however, sad that history has lost its memory of Mabhida. He remains largely obscured in the shadow of other eminent members of the Communist Party. Yet his career distinguishes him as one of the venerable leaders of the South African Communist Party.
He was a committed freedom fighter who was not seduced by the trappings of celebrity and populism, but was imbued with the resolve of attaining freedom for his people at whatever the cost to his life. It is time to rescue Mabhida from history’s amnesia and political anonymity and restore him to his deserved position in public esteem.
The planned memorial lecture and the unveiling of his statue at Moses Mabhida Stadium later this year would help educate the majority of South Africans, who hardly know who Mabhida was and what he stood for.
In a eulogy at his state funeral, Oliver Tambo observed that Mabhida had been educated in “the stern university of mass struggle.
“It is rarely given to a people that they should produce a single person who epitomises their hopes and express their common resolve as Mabhida did.
“In simple language, he could convey the aspirations of all our people in their magnificent variety, explain the fears and prejudices of the unorganised, and sense the feelings of even the most humble among our people.”
Mabhida is one of the most ardent yet poorly remembered leaders in the vanguard of the struggle for liberation in South Africa.
Sadly, though, like many of his compatriots, known for their role in the struggle against apartheid, the name Moses Mabhida has faded from the collective memory of the public and political discourse in South Africa – other than with a political leader like Tambo and communist leaders like Chris Hani and many other struggle heroes.
Mabhida is not often, if at all, remembered in public life as one of the icons in the struggle against apartheid.
Except for the occasional mention of his name, Mabhida has become a forgotten political and esteemed figure.
As a well-known political figure then, his immense contribution to the struggle against apartheid, is being elected almost completely in the collective memory.
There is no doubt that Mabhida’s steely determination and activism helped determine the course of history in South Africa and contributed in no small feat to the downfall of the apartheid system. His contributions as a freedom fighter have generally been forgotten. In fact, there has been a paucity of written records on Mabhida’s history.
One reason he may have been relegated to relative obscurity is that he was not particularly outspoken or controversial.
Could this be the reason why he is often omitted in the roll of freedom fighters, and remained almost virtually unrecognised? This piece attempts to correct this oversight by portraying the complete man, Mabhida – the father, freedom fighter and son of the soil.
Who exactly is Moses Mncane Mabhida? A selfless, dedicated and committed leader whose motive to join the struggle for freedom was to improve the quality of life of the downtrodden rather than personal aggrandisement.
Mabhida was an outstanding leader of humble origins who became a dominant figure in the trade union movement, the ANC, Sactu, uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK) Commissar and the Communist Party.
He could not pursue his studies because of financial constraints experienced by his family. His formal education was perpetually interrupted and ended when he finished the ninth grade in 1942. After leaving school, he worked as a waiter and manual labourer.
Mabhida’s two early political motivators were his father, a dedicated member of Clements Kadalie’s Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU), and Harry Gwala, a young teacher in Mabhida’s last year of school, who introduced his students to socialist ideas.
Mabhida was drawn to trade unionism and joined the Communist Party in 1942.
After many unionists were banned in 1952-1953, his colleagues in the newly revived underground party urged Mabhida to undertake full-time union work. In the next decade, he organised scores of workers in Natal.
He was a central participant in the development of Sactu and was elected a vice-president at its first congress in 1955.
He also served as secretary of the ANC’s Pietermaritzburg branch in the mid-1950s, and had a close working relationship with Chief Albert Luthuli. Mabhida became a member of the ANC’s national executive committee (NEC) around 1956, and in 1958-1959 was acting chairperson of the Natal ANC.
A week after the declaration of the 1960 state of emergency, Mabhida was sent abroad by Sactu to represent the organisation internationally. For the next three years, he organised international solidarity activities in Prague with the World Federation of Trade Unions, and with the developing African trade union federations.
In 1963, however, following his re-election to the NEC at the ANC’s Lobatse conference in October 1962, he was asked by Tambo to devote himself to the development of the ANC’s armed wing, MK.
Mabhida then underwent military training, as MK commissar he became the chief political instructor of new military recruits, and later served as the commander of MK Mabhida’s repeated re-election to the NEC, his appointment to the Revolutionary Council on its creation in 1969, and later to the Politico-Military Council which replaced it, reflected his popularity among ANC members and his close friendship with Tambo.
Throughout his years in exile, Mabhida enjoyed wide respect for his practical wisdom and earthy style. Mabhida was a practical and visionary leader who championed the struggle for a liberated South Africa with great aplomb.
Unlike those who joined the struggle for personal gratification, Mabhida’s fight against the apartheid system was not driven by ambition but by service to his country.
After Morogoro he was instrumental in setting up the ANC’s department of Intelligence and Security, and in 1979 he served on the elite Politico-Military Strategy Commission that produced the Green Book, a landmark policy document.
A strict Marxist-Leninist and loyal supporter of the Soviet Union, he was elected general secretary of the Communist Party in November 1979, replacing Moses Kotane who had died the previous year.
In his travels across Africa, Mabhida came into contact with Frelimo leader Samora Machel at Kongwa, the first training camp that the Tanzanian authorities allocated to Frelimo and the ANC. Both were leaders in the camps of their respective movements.
In the 1980s, Mabhida continued his work of political and logistical planning for MK, based at various times in Lesotho, Mozambique and Swaziland, where his strong attachment to Zulu culture and history is said to have earned him the affection of the aged King Sobhuza.
Sadly, Mabhida would not live to see the dream of a liberated South Africa. In 1985, while on a mission to Havana, Mabhida suffered a stroke, and after a year of illness, died of a heart attack in Maputo and was buried there in March 1986.
So revered was Mabhida that Machel decided to embalm his body with the hope that one day it would be transferred to the liberated South Africa to be reburied.
This hope was realised when his body was exhumed from Maputo’s Lhanguene cemetery and repatriated to a liberated South Africa in November 2006, 20 years after his death in 2002.
Former president Thabo Mbeki deservedly and posthumously awarded the Order of the Baobab to Mabhida, for having played a significant role in the liberation struggle as an exiled leader of the SACP.
One of the rare famous quotes attributed to Mabhida is that in difficult moments one should always “radiate calmness, and breathe hope and certainty of victory”.
Leaders are advised to always remain calm and focused regardless of circumstances or situations. As the Latin scribe Publilius Syrus wrote in the first century BC, “anyone can hold a helm when the sea is calm”.
The challenge, of course, is to hold your grip firm when the storm comes. The ability to remain calm and focused, to hold a firm grip, is what the leadership of the tripartite alliance would have to arm themselves with to navigate the increasingly tempestuous political terrains.
If he was still alive, Mabhida would be proud that the free South Africa he patriotically and courageously fought for has been realised. He would be proud and humbled that the Moses Mabhida Stadium is named after him.
He would, however, decry the present era where the moral compass that characterised our liberation struggle has lost its bearings – where an avowed distaste for individual possession of wealth has been replaced by a vision of our existence as a merciless contest in conspicuous consumption.
An era best known as the era of the politics of the stomach or to use Michela Wrong’s words, the “our turn to eat era”.
An era where some people pursue narrow and parochial concerns at the expense of the greater South African humanity. Equally, he would be disappointed to see the relations among the tripartite at its lowest ebb. He would urge the leaders of the ANC and SACP to ask tough and even uncomfortable questions to restore the once vibrant relationship between the two parties.
Above all, he would be pleased with the spirit of renewal and unity among the tripartite alliance that is being championed by President Cyril Ramaphosa.
We owe Mabhida and many other unknown freedom fighters a debt we can never pay and above all we owe them their deserved remembrance.
In making sure that Mabhida is always remembered, a French Canadian Architect, Eugene-Etienne Tache’s motto, which he devised for Quebec, a province in Canada, is worth quoting. The motto, Je Me Souviens, translated literally into English means “I remember”.
It may be paraphrased as conveying the meaning “we do not forget, and will never forget, our ancient lineage, traditions and memories of all the past”. It therefore behoves all South Africans not to forget and never to forget who Moses Mabhida was.
Dr Shongwe works in the KZN Office of the Premier and writes in his personal capacity