Why no tribute for Sobukwe?

I WILL never understand the mentality of some South Africans, especially those in the ANC. On Mondayformer president Thabo Mbeki was inaugurated as chancellor of the University of South Africa (Unisa), a day that coincided with the 39th anniversary of the death of PAC founding president and academic, Mangaliso Robert Sobukwe.

I listened to the speech by Unisa’s Principal and Vice-Chancellor, Professor Mandla Makhanya. As usual, he mentioned those “icons” and “stalwarts of the liberation struggle”. He then appropriately mentioned that this year will mark the 40th anniversary of the death of Black Consciousness Movement leader Steve Biko.

Because he mentioned Biko, I thought he would mention or pay tribute to Sobukwe. Wasn’t I wrong!

Moreover, Sobukwe was an academic and delivered the best speech at Fort Hare at the 1949 graduations.

There were also graduations at Unisa on Monday. I saw Minister of Science and Technology Naledi Pandor among the guests. I thought seeing Pandor, Makhanya would be reminded of what her grandmother, Mrs Frieda Matthews, said about Sobukwe’s 1949 speech. Matthews is quoted as having said that Sobukwe’s graduation speech was quoted for years by students.

During that time, Pandor’s grandfather, Professor ZK Matthews, was a lecturer at Fort Hare. Makhanya is well aware of Sobukwe’s 1949 Fort Hare graduation speech because in his speech, he used Sobukwe’s line when he said education means service to humanity.

After Makhanya’s speech, I stopped watching proceedings on TV. When Mbeki spoke I wasn’t watching. However, I checked his speech later. I wasn’t surprised that he also didn’t pay tribute to Sobukwe. He instead mentioned what Julius Nyerere said 53 years ago, which is similar to what Sobukwe said 68 years ago.

I am asking Mr Mbeki for the second time: why is he craning his neck and looking for people to quote in faraway countries, instead of quoting what his fellow countryman said?

Mbeki knows very well that the renaissance or rebirth that he spoke about, Sobukwe spoke about in the late 1940s.

The second president of the PAC, Zeph Mothopeng, graduated from Unisa in 1946, but he was never mentioned. Nothing at Unisa is named after him, but there is a building named after the late Walter Sisulu who never attended at Unisa.

This month also marked the 43rd anniversary of the brutal killing by the apartheid government agents of another Black Consciousness Movement leader, Onkgopotse Tiro, who in 1972 delivered one of the best graduation speeches attacking the government and the Bantu Education system. Makhanya and Mbeki didn’t pay tribute.

Makhanya and Mbeki are intellectually dishonest and partisan.

The ideas of Sobukwe, Mothopeng and Tiro must form the kernel of the curriculum of this country’s universities, and Sobukwe’s ideas must be acknowledged. It must also be acknowledged that Sobukwe blazed the trail for the destruction of the colonial system of education.

Makhanya and Mbeki are partisan

Kagiso