Work in progress, No. 70/71

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Page 1 of 65 Alternative title Work In Progress Author/Creator University of Witwatersrand (Johannesburg) Publisher University of Witwatersrand (Johannesburg) Date 1990-11 - 1990-12 Resource type Journals (Periodicals) Language English Subject Coverage (spatial) South Africa Coverage (temporal) 1990 Source Digital Imaging South Africa (DISA) Rights By kind permission of Hein Marais, Julian May, and the Southern Africa Report. Format extent 63 page(s) (length/size)

Page 2 of 65 WORK IN PROGRESS WIP 70/71 November - December 1990The ANC Consultative ConferenceCan it blow some life into the movement?

Page 3 of 65 SUBSCRIPTION RATES 1991Rates for 8 issuesSOUTH AFRICA Please send subscriptions for South Africa, Southern Africa,USA, Canada, New Zealand and Australia to:Ilndividuals, trade unions and Southern African Research Servicecommunityorganisations R38 PO Box 32716Companies, libraries and Braamfonteininstitutions 8104 2017Donor subscriptions 8104Please send subscriptions for United Kingdom and WestemSOUTHERN AFRICA Europe to:Central BooksIndividuals, trade unions and Att: Bill Norriscommunityorganisations R50 99 Wallis RoadCompanies, libraries and London E9 5LNinstitutions 8115Donor subscriptions 8115 Cheques should be crossed and made payable to:Southern African Research ServiceUSA, CANADA, AUSTRALASIA Enclose payment with order. Subscriptions beginwith current issue unless otherwise specified.Individuals, trade unions andcommunity organisations $57.50Companies, libraries and Enclosed find payment of for 8 issues of WIP.institutions $115Donor subscriptions $115 NAME:UK and WESTERN EUROPE ADDRESS:Individuals, trade unions andcommunity organisations 23Companies, libraries andinstitutions 46Donor subscriptions 46

Page 4 of 65 WORK IN PROGRESSNovember/DecemberNo 70/71Published by theSouthern AfricanResearch ServicePO Box 32716Braamfontein2017South Africa2nd FloorAuckland Housecorer Smit and BiccardStreetsBracxnfontein2017JohannesburgPhone: (011) 403-1912Fax: (011) 403-2534Picture credits:Afrapix: Pages 1, 9, 10, 13,15, 16, 23, 25, 28, 30, 33, 35,37, 43, 44, 47, 49, 50Alex Groan: Page 41William Matlala: Page 20, 55The Star: Pages 4, 6, 7, 8, 13,18, 24EditorialThe ANC has long been 'A Good Idea'. Many South Africanshave experienced it as little more than that - as the majorsource of usually serious perspectives for the unity of all inSouth Africa around a common commitment to democracy.But the challenge of the moment is that the ANC become agreat deal more than that. That something is an efficientorganisation , actually organising people on a large scale, aggregatingtheir interests, thrusting the demands of the most dispossessed andoppressed to the forefront, and seizing the political initiative in theprocess.The progress the ANC has made since February 2 is only a start. It is onlya bridgehead - only phase one. Its activists must now fan out into thenation and bring the ANC's huge support into a democraticallydisciplined relationship with skeleton headquarters and regionalstructures.There is no sense in which the ANC can be satisfied with membershipfigures, which are only a fraction of its polled support. There is no way inwhich it can continue to accept communications breakdowns betweenhead office and the regions and branches. There is no way that memberscan continue to tolerate what often seems to them a cavalier decision-making process at top level. Even less can members be expected to floatin limbo without a clear formulation of strategy and tactics for the crucialmonths ahead.If there are people in the leadership who prefer that the ANC remain onlya good idea rather than an efficient and democratic organisation, integritydemands that they prepare to step down or move aside. Since the NationalConference and elections to the national executive committee have beenpostponed to June next year, such people have the time to makealternative arrangements.But major challenges confront the membership and leadership of the ANCat the December consultative conference. The first challenge is strategyand tactics for the months ahead. The second is to develop structures toserve strategy and tactics. The third is to ensure these structures arefilledby people who actually can and will do the work. The fourth is to ensurethat greater internal answerability and democracy are entrenched in theANC, with allowance made for the kind of flexibility the leadership willneed to employ in the months ahead.We on this magazine consider the time has come for plain speaking.Criticism, for us, is an act of loyalty - a paradox all but the mostpolitically insecure can understand. Our loyalty is to the actualachievement in South Africa of those democratic values with which theANC has been most closely associated. We are aware that it has becomequite fashionable in some circles merely to knock the ANC. Ours,however, is intended as a serious intervention.For this reason, we concentrate in this edition on the major issuesconfronting delegates at the forthcoming ANC national consultativeconference.In the latter half of the magazine we also isolate several areas begging forcoherent address from the ANC: the need for wider political organisationin the townships, education, control over land, health, media and others.We are confident the ANC, particularly given the determination and richtalent on which it can now draw inside South Africa, is capable ofovercoming the shortcomings evident in its record so far. That potentialmust now be transformed into reality.Owing to rising costs of production, WIP has reluctantly concluded it hasno option but to increase subscription costs with immediate effect.

Page 5 of 65 What kindof ANCdoes theSACP want?'If the ANC is not sufficientlydemocratised, if it fails to leadactive mass struggles, if theworking class is not massivelypresent within the structures of theANC, then the ANC and ouralliance are in serious dilficulty'An otherwise generally well-informcd foreign corre-spondent in Johannesburgis hcltingacascoFwhiskicsthat the ANC and SACPwill he splitting from eachother by the end of thin year. The corre-spondent is going to lose his whiskies.But there is, of course., more thanwhisky at stake in thin matter. Il is notclear whether the chief governmentnegotiator, Constitutional Affairs Min-istcrGcrril Viljocn, isyuitr asoptirnistic(and therefore quite as mistaken) as thecorrespondent in question. But Viljoen,too, is publicly speculating on an ANC-SACP divorce --- at least over die nextfew years.To ruminate openly about an impend-ing rift in the way Viljcxn has been doingis, obviously, primarily intended as in-citement to the act.In the context of this growing specu-lation, what exactly it the perspective onPage 10 - WIP 70/71the future of the alliance now emergingfrom the side of die SACP''This question is intimately Mated toasecond question: What kind of ANC doesthe party hope tosec evolve over the nextmonths, in the course ofUte crucial build-ing of ANC branches and regions, throughDecember's ConsultativcConFcrcncc andinto next year's ANC Congress'?I:vcr u;nsitivc to accusations of mcd-dling and manipulation in the affairs ofthe ANC, SACP official statements andpublic pronouncements about the ANChave always tended to he somewhatcircumspect. Interestingly, in the periodafter 2 February these statements have:become slightly less circumspect. Thissuggests that, while the party is clearlynot many state of alarm or panic, it is slutnot simply taking the alliance or theeharaclerofthe ANCin the new situationfor granted.Appearing a month alter the unhan-ning of the ANC anti SACP, the Marchlr)r)() edition of the party organ, (!mco-hcnzi, carried an editorial which notedamong other things: '1'h a ANC willundoubtedly remain the over-all head ofthe broad liberation front. The need toconsolidate and advance the liberationprocess in the immediate aftermath ofthe people's victory may also justify awidening of the democratic camp in avariety of alliances.' We can look forward to an ANC ofmassive strength and every militant musthelp to make thin a real ity. In tire process,some strata wilts their own agenda willundoubtedly find it self-serving to flockinto its ranks and try to steer it away fromits working-c lass bias. All in all we shouldhe ready for an inevitable sharpening ofinter-class ideological contest in the run-up to victory and in its immediate aflcr-math. It follows that the consolidationand growth of our party and the tradeunion movement - as independent con-tingents and as part of the liberation

Page 6 of 65 THE ANCalliance - is more imperative than ever.'This perspective is certainly moreforthright about the ANC than anythingappearing publicly from the aide of the:lady in previous years.In the most recent issue of (lrnsebenzi(October 1990), under the headline `NoRetreat Now', the leader article takes theforthrightness several steps further. !texpresses a clear concern that the strate-gic initiative is being lost to Dc Klerk.Although the article is carelirl to be self-crrtical of the tripartite alliance (ANC-SACP-Cosatu) as a whole, its criticismsobviously relate most especially to theover-all head of the alliance, the ANC.The article goes beyond the earlierconcern that the necessary t>roadcning ofthe ANC may dilute its working-classbias. It addresses itself', by strong impli-cation, to the current ANC leadership. Itis critical of the fact that in the periodalicr '' February no 'cfFcuaivc formula'has been found for relating mass struggleto the negotiations process.It singles out three styles or modeswhich it says arc coming to dominatealliance politics - working group techni-cal discussions with the regime; an end-less round of 'post-apartheid' future-garing conferences; and the technicalbuilding of ANC structures (regionallaunc hes, branch launches, elections andAGMs). While aIlofUrcscactivilicsmighthe important in themselves, what hasmore or less totally disappeared, accord-ing to Unwebenzi, is ANC-led massstruggle.This disappearance is all the moreserious as it corresponds to the regime'sprimary objective in the present situ-ation. Having lien forced finally to rec-ognise the ANC as its principal and incs-capahlc antagonist, the regime is tryingto change the character of the ANC bydivorcing it from its militant mass base.The implicit message in the October(lnr.sebenzi in regard to the kind of ANCthe S ACPwould like to sec developing isfairly evident. There is an obvious con-cern that too much time and effort isbeing expended on grooming the ANCas a future government, while too littleeffort is accorded to making it a demo-cratically based organ of active massparticipation and struggle. `We need tobalance all the talk about "when we arc inpower", "when we have an ANC govcrn-ment", with solid strategic planning abouthow we arc going to get there in the firstplace'.SACP leadership sources arc quick toqualify some of this implied criticism.According to one member of the party'snational Interim Leadership Group:`Many of the difficulties and challengesthe ANC is encountering relate to objec-tive realities not of the ANC's ownmaking. Organisational building and theconsolidation of ANC cadres involvesthe welding together of exiles, releasedprisoners, comrades who have emergedout of the last 15 years of mass demo-cratic struggle, and total newcomers. Theparty, in a smaller way, is encounteringthe same difficult challenge.`For the ANC, in particular, thiscomplex organisational task is made allthe more difficult by the extraordinarypressures of time and profile to which itis exposed. The regime has learnt fromZimbabwe and Namibia shat liberationmovements have inevitable difficultiescoming out of the bush or coming out ofthe underground into a new open politi-cal role. And so De Klerk is putting onthe pressure. I f the ANC fails to respondquickly to initiatives from the other sideit is presented, at home and internation-ally, as dragging its feet, as not beingsu ffic is nll y com rn i fled to the peace proc-ess.`But if it moves too quickly it runs theconstant danger of outstripping fits or-ganised maw base, which is still onlyemerging. Democracy, consultation,mass involvement in negotiations, alltend to fall by the wayside. While weneed to be vigilant and self-critical, wealso need to be realistic about the objec-tive pressures we arc al I confronted with,but which touch the ANC in particular'.SACP representatives also insist thattheir concern about the unfolding char-acter of the ANC is not narrowly a con-cern with the future of socialism and ofthe party in South Africa. As the samespokesperson puts it: `When Viljoenincites an ANC-SACP break he is notonly trying to frustrate a longer-termtransition to socialism. He is trying toWIP 70/71 Page 11

Page 7 of 65 THE ANCThe fight for afighting alliancelip-service to the process of con-sultation Is causing strains betweenthe ANC and its partners in the'revo.lutionary alliance' - the SACP andCosatu.Thealllance, to rmallyestablishedat a meeting between the generalsecretaries of the three organisa-tions on 27 June, Is based on thefollowing principles:-The overall objective Is mass-basedorganleatlon around a common pro-gramme based o n the Freedom Char-ter; the ANC Is the leader of the alli-ance;-the alliance will be a consensus al-liance based on mandates from thecomponent parts; and- each component should be Inde-pendent.It was also agreed that a politicalcommittee consisting of represen-tatives of each organisation wouldbe responsible for overseeing theaffairs of the alliance. The fact thatthe committee has not yet met Is In-dicative of the difficulties plaguingthe alliance.Jackie Selebl, a member of theANC's national executive commit-tee, acknowledges that there areproblems: 'So for the alliance hasonly manifested Itself In meetingsbetween the general secretaries. Aconcrete alliance on local and re-gional level has not yet been built',he told WIP.Why Is this so? Selebi explains:'At present, the alliance, like the or-ganisations from which it Is com-posed, is In a transitional phase. Inexile, when the alliance consisted ofthe ANC, SACP and the SA Con-gross of Trade Unions (Sactu), meet-ing togetherwaseasy. Now the ANCand SACP are busy establishingthemselves Inside the country andwe are dealing with so many thingson a daily basis that we have simplynot had time to give attention to allthe things that we need to'.Cosatu press officer Nell Cole-man agrees that there Is discontentwithin the federation at the lack ofprogress of the alliance. But, he says,then Is also a recognition that it Isnot only up to the ANC to make thealliance work.'The questions rotating to the aill-ancedon't simply Involvequestionsof one-way consultation by the ANC.It Is e reciprocal problem which needsto be discussed with the ANC andthe patty', he says.'The key question Is a question ofa structured relationship - In otherwords, howpeople bellevethe prob-lems are going to be Ironed out. If theanswers come up from the local andregional level the problems will begreatly reduced'.There Is also an acknowledge-ment, says Coleman, of the need forconsu itationswithl n Cosatu itself onthe all lance. 'Several Issues have tobe resolved', he says. These In-cludes- The question of Independencewithin the alliance; what form the alliance should takeat a national, regional and local level;- what should happen If there Is noconsensus within Cosatu on a par-ticutar Issue;- the overlap of leadership betweenthe organisations;-whatthe relationship of theallianceshould betootherorganisationslikethe United Democratic Front, youthand civic organisations; and how the federation sees the alli-ance developing In a post-apartheidSouth Africa.What of the third partner in the al-Ilance,the SACP? Party spokesmanJeremy Cronin admits then Is con-cern within the SACP about lack ofconsultation bythe ANC.'But I mustqualify that', he adds. 'There Is anundOrstanding of the pressuresoperating on the ANC: the party Isfacing similar problems, althoughless sharply. The answer Is less toshout attheANCthantobuildtheor-ganisation up so that It functionssolidly on the ground'. - RobynRafel -change the character of the ANC itself.'Nevermind a future socialist project,Viljoen is trying to undercut the qualityand depth of the impending nationaldemocratic transition. An ANC deprivedof a mobilised mass base, and stripped ofits SACP alliance, is not an ANC thatwill spearhead a meaningful democratictransformation of our country. Viljocnknows this'.These comments, like the impliedcriticism in the October Umsebenzi arc,of course, not saying anything that is notbeing whispered incorridors, mini-buses,and informally in the offices of a thou-sand and one popular organisations. Butthe fact that these views are now beingvoiced publicly and officially by partyrepresentatives and in official party or-gans is significant.Part of their significance lies not justin the question of what the party hopes tosee the ANC become, but to the relatedquestion of what the party's own futurerole and identity might be. And there arenot easy nor obvious answers to thislatter question. The SACP is having tocome to terms with new realities after40years in the underground, and in a worldwhere many of the received Marxist-Leninist orthodoxies are now openlyquestioned. Yet, despite disadvantages,the Communist Party is also launchingitself publicly into the paradoxical situ-ation where it has never been more popu-lar, and where the mass support for so-cialism is riding relatively high.At its launch rally on 29 July, theSACP set itself the dual task of beingboth a relatively mass party (generalsecretary, Joe Slovo mentions a figure of`several tens of thousands by July 1991'),as well as being a vanguard party. Tradi-tionally, at least in much Marxist writ-ing, the concepts 'mass' and 'vanguard'party have been countcrposed as alterna-tive organisational options.This is a point conceded by variousparty representatives. But they point tothe particular situation in South Africa,and most especially to the existence ofthe ANC-SACPalliance. There is strongrelatively large worker-based support forsocialism, and, at the same time, there isa broader, revolutionary national libera-tion movement, the ANC, with over-whelming mass popularity. The strate-gic role of the SACP has to be carved outwithin the parameters of this relativelyunique situation.Apart from its obviously distinct,longer-term socialist perspective theSACP has set itself a number of presentPage 12 - WIP 70/71

Page 8 of 65 THE ANCtask, which relate to its endeavours tocontinue to pla)- something of a %,an-s:uard role. In the first place, it is clearthat the new fordtrightncss, ;t relativedegree of independence of perspectivewithin the context of ate alliance, anti ahigher public profile than the part). hashad for tour decades are part of'a ncwl~defined vanguard part, role.Another aspect of its vanguard rolerelates to cadre development. Spokes-intcwicw:'Thcrc'sauniyuc relationshipbetween our party anti the A\(', whichallow a certain division of labour ... theparty can ftxus more on cadre develop-ment, more on building quality, anti inthin way, although we hope tc he reht-tively large we also hope to continue toflay a vanguard role'.'['his cadre tiwchrpmrnt is intended tostrengthen not just the part', but die:1\CaawrlLThcSA('E'conlinurstourthe W(' as the major organisationalvehicle for change in the present situ-atit>n. In party publications and in inter-views the nercvaitv of ensuring themaximum working-clans participationwithin the ANC recurs constantly as atheme.John Conutnut, an SA(.'I', ANC antiCosatu leader, recently said: 'Struylin~lire maximum worker involvement in the:1N(.', and the struggle to build a demo-cratic, mass-based AANC are the hc,t euar-antccs Itx a,trong AN(' anti fur a strong,ongoing alliance between the .1\(.', thelamp and ('os;uu'.Increasingly, at least in nmdia alxcu-latitrn, the SAC'1'', attitude towards theA\(.' i, related to the yucstion of futurenon-racial national elections for a con-Uitucnt assembly or rite it parliament.Would the SACP stand in opposition tothe AN("?'It's a question we've been asked .E:reattical in the last month a',,ay Slow.'1 have tend f to saw that it's too soon,and too speculative at phi, point.'But there are two basic points of tlc-larturc that could guide us. In the I'inlplace it is obvious that it is fundantcn-lal Iv entire the :1\(' umhn Ila that do mo-cr;ttic elections will haw to he I-txtgltt,anti it would he short-sighted For thepart\. to split the writ. ()It the Whirr hand,SACPgeneral secretary Joe Slovowith Nelson and Winnie Mandela atthe SACP launch earlier this year(top), and standard-bearing partysupporters at an SACP rally (below)WIP 70/71 - Page 13

Page 9 of 65 THE ANCI believe it is desirable for the SACP toactually test, democratically, its supporton the ground. W e need to look at variouspossible formulas. For instance, multi-member constituencies as in the Irishsystem'.SACP Political Bureau and ANC NECmember Chris Hani recently expressed asimilar perspective: `We (ie the ANCand the SACP) could have the same can-didates at elections. It might be decidedthat I should contest a particular seatunder the banner of the S ACP. However,I am sure there will be a common pro-gramme between the ANC and SACPbecauseof shared priorities after ademo-cratic transformation'.But if the SACP needs the ANC atelections, does the converse apply?Viljoen, for one, thinks not: `...almost byway of divine dispensation, the discred-iting of communism as an economic,political and social system has happenedworldwide. I think the ANC must havenoticed that they are becoming discred-ited internationally by being virtually theonly alleged pro-democratic organisa-tion which is still in the anachronisticstance of supporting what was a verystrong Stalinist Communist Party'.Well, the SACP can derive somecomfort from the fact that (dare we sayit?) `almost by way of divine dispensa-tion' the party's popularity on the groundin South Africa is uniquely high. More-over, in the words of one leading marketresearcher, `the .... pattern of cross- alle-giances between the ANC on the onehand, and the SACP on the other indicatethat considerable voter confusion couldarise if the public association betweenthese organisations broke down'. It mightrun against the grain of world trends, buthere in South Africa, the ANC appears toneed the SACP.What about the longer term? SACPrepresentatives and publications consis-tently note that the ANC is not a socialistorganisation, and that it should be anorganisational home for all democratic,FIVE ESSENTIAL INGREDIENTSUNDER ONE COVER -THAT'S INFORMATION!9A,,!(WHEN YOU NEED DATA,ANALYSIS, TRENDS, IN-DEPTHRESEARCH AND RELIABLESTATISTICSWHEN YOU DON'T HAVE THETIME TO WADE THROUGHRESEARCH REPORTS, READ PILESOF NEWSPAPERS OR SITTHROUGH ENDLESS SEMINARSYOU NEEDG Pa ~,~HP0 % vilsQUARTERLY REPORTS AND SPECIAL ISSUESINDICA'COR SA IS AVAILABLE 81' SUBSCRIPTION AND FROM SELECTED BOOKSHOPSFor more information contactIndicator SA subscriptions at (031) 816 2525/6 or by direct mail fromIndicator SA,Room 262 MTB, University of Natal, King George V Avene, Durban 4001, SouthAfricaPage 14 - WIP 70/71patriotic elements who accept its broadprogramme in the present, whether theyare socialists or not. So what happens inthe event of a longer-term transition tosocialism?The Sowetan recently posed this ques-tion to Hani: `Surely at some point therewill be a logical split between the two,even if they remain allies?' Hani's replywas typically direct: `Correct. Those arcthe dynamics of the struggle'.Other SACP spokespersons have of-fered a different potential outcome,Cronin points to the Cuban example:'Fidel Castro and the band of guerillaswho launched the Cuban revolution didnot necessarily start out as socialists.They were essentially patriots and demo-crats. At first, the Cuban communistswere rather peripheral to the guerillastruggle... After the successful seizure ofpower, led by Castro's July 26 Move-ment, a new dynamic set in. The defenceof the national democratic revolution,the deepening of its patriotic and demo-cratic content led, in a straight line, to-wards a socialist transition. This in turncreated the conditions for a successfulmerger of the July 26 Movement and theparty'.According to Cronin, a similar dy-namic could develop in South Africaafter a democratic transformation. `Onemight find the evolution of the ANC intoabroad mass socialistparty, within whichthe party merges. This is rather specula-tive, but it is a possibility which I wouldfavour'.Whether they are speaking of thelonger term, or of the more immediatesituation ofadeveloping ANC as itmovestowards its national congress, one thingis striking: SACP representatives showvery little interest in the kind of red headcount that seems most to preoccupy muchof the commercial press. One senior partymember comments: `Frankly, from anSACP perspective, it's largely irrelevantif we have S or 35 party members on thenew ANC NEC due to be elected in Junenext year. The alliance between our partyand congress was not built on board-room manoeuvres in Lusaka, but on theground over decades in mass struggle'.`If the ANC is not sufficiently democ-ratised, if it fails to lead active massstruggles, if the working class is not mas-sively present within the structures of theANC, then the ANC and our alliance arein serious difficulty - whether or notthere is a high proportion of party mem-bers to non-party members on the incom-ing ANC NEC'.

Page 10 of 65 Adelaide Tambo leads delegates in the singing at the national launch of theANC's Women's LeaguettcmpLs to organise theLooking for the ANC Women's Leaguearc being hampered by alack of coherent leader-ship, a scarcity of rc-go sources and minimalsupport and interest from ANC headoffice.The league, which still has to hold afully representative conference, needsurgently to address how it is going toharness women in the tasks it has setitself.At the level of rhetoric, the ANC na-tional executive committee has made aremarkably progressive statement onwomen, saying: `The emancipation ofwomen is not a by-product of a strugglefor democracy, national liberation, orsocialism. It has to be addressed in itsown right.'The statement recognises that womenin South Africa have experienced genderLeave a message...The problems facing the ANC Women's League are similar to thosewhich have dogged women's organisations in the past - inparticular, reports Sheila Meintjes, a lack of interest from the ANCleadershipWIP 70171 - Page 1

Page 11 of 65 THE ANCoppression, and that their subjugationhas occurred culturally, legally and eco-nomically as a result of patriarchaldomination.This has prevented women from par-ticipating fully in the political process,and this is true even for the ANC.The ANC pledges itself to giving pri-ority to programmes of education andadvancement for women, and claimsgender equality as one of its central ob-jectives.To achieve this, `women must takethe lead in creating a non-sexist SouthAfrica'.And so, a historic role has been cre-ated for the ANC Women's League.The aimsof the new Women's Leagueare spelled out in the draft constitution:to mobilise and organise South Africanwomen to participate in the liberationstruggle, through their membership ofthe ANC.Within the ANC, the league's role isto `spearhead the emancipation ofwomen', as well as to 'promote the all-round development of women and helpin building their own confidence'.Since the national launch at Currie'sFountain on August 9th, there has been aregionally varied response to the call tojoin the league. Areas which have a Lra-dition of strong women's organisation,like the Western and Eastern Cape, havesuccessfully drawn women into theirbranches.In Natal and the Transvaal, wherewomen's organisation has always beenweaker, women have been slow to join,although a Sowcto branch exists. On 1 RNovember, a Central Johannesburgbranch is to be, launched.To whatex tent has die league in an -aged to initiate programmes to..achieve its objectives')It has not been able to establish cfl'ec-tive women's lobbies within ANCbranches. Although women arc beingelected to branch executives, albeit insmall numbers, and many women arcjoining the ANC, this does not mean thatwomen's particular problems and needsare being addressed.Women holdofficc in theirown right.and arc not there to implement theleague's policies.Moreover, local league initiatives arcseverely hampered by the lack of supportfrom the Women's League national taskforce.Symbolic rallying points have yet tobe mobilised in the organisation.Page 16 - WIP 70/71Delegates at the national launch of the ANC Women's LeagueThis is reflected in the absence of asuitable logo.The interim lcadcr;hipofthcVVomcn',League is largely comprised of exiles,who arc ;till adjusting to the radicallychanged modus operandi since 2 Febru-ary.There arc only eight members of thenational tank force, whose resources areomrstrrtch cd. To organise effectively,they should be mobile, vet they lacktransport. There is no phone connected molhi ~ w of interim leadership fthe m the 0the :ANC VVonren's League in downtownJohannesburg _._. ;ANC head olficc, inanother building, has to take messages.These arc only sonic of the manydifficulties the national task force facessince the league's relaunch.As yet, the organisation lacks coher-ent co-ordination. Campaigns emanat-ing from the task force, such as the na-tionwide Women's Charter campaign,haw: not got offthe ground.In part, this relates to the difficul ties incommunication. But there is also a needto face die problem of the lack of aguiding programme of anion.The Icagu c needs urgently to addresshow. it is going to harness women to thevery important tasks it has set itself.More sericu sly, little Support has beenforthcoming from the ANC itself.The Department of Political f:duca-tion has not prioritised a programrrn: topromote either an understanding of thecentrality of women's oppression and itsoverall social effects, or to encourageANC women to join the league.This has implications both for theleague arid for the future of women'sissues in the ANC.But it is not surprising in view of thej ntassivc task the ANC faces in estahlish-inga=. ccount. Ic lcal and w national ;-

Page 12 of 65 THE ANCDemocracy forbeginners:A guide toConsultativeConferencesBased on interviews with participants in previous ANCconferences, Howard Barrell provides the following guidelines todelegates to the ANC consultative conferenceon't be in awe of the occa-sion or of those personali-ties temporarily occupyingleadership positions.Myths are only myths andin the ANC also usuallyhave two arms, two legs and only onebrain. Problems need to be ironed out. Make absolutely certain that confer-ence devises a procedure so that youyourself can deal with issues of policyand detail; otherwise, you will merely bevoting fodder easily manipulated bypersonalities and rhetoric. This means allbranches must get position and optionpapers plus resolutions at least threeweeks before the conference starts toallow forfull discussion by members. Ifthe conference organising committeecan't getihat together after several monthsof preparation, the first question to ask is:Why not? And the second question is:Does this committee, or sections of theleadership, want a manipulable confer-ence? Level criticism whereverand wheneveryou genuinely feel it is necessary. Don'tget caught up in the ritual celebration ofunity for unity's sake. Serious criticismWIP 70/71 - Page 17

Page 13 of 65 THE ANCis an act of loyalty; appearances of unitybuilt on brainless conformity are worth-less, and they will not improve the ANC'sability to confront the enormous tasksbefore it. Talk straight. Don't imagine that someone sontc-wherc has a master plan for the futuresitting in some desk drawer or hiddenbehind their apparently confident smile.And don't believe them if they say orimply they have such a plan. You, as adelegate, will be at the conference pre-cisely to help devise the way forward;that is your mandate from ANC mem-hcrs in your branch. If anyone tries to silence you on thebasis that he/she has been in the ANCsine c 'before you were born', or because/he was in exile, or because s/he prc-tcncis tohca'massivc intcllcctttal',don'tbe intimidated. Continue to speak outand listen to others until you arc satis-fied. Note his/her arrogance, and askyourself if s/he is suitahlc for any leader-ship position. The best leaders in theANC arc the best listeners. Deciding strategy and tactics for dienext six months and beyond is the keytask before the December conference.Prepare yourself thoroughly for thisdebate. At the Kabwe conference, about twohours was set aside to discuss strategyand tactics. This was ridiculous. Theresult was that a strategy and tacticsdocument prepared by a conferencecommission could not be decided upon.The conference then appointed a com-rnittec to prepare a revised strategy antitactics document for adoption after dieconference following consultations withmembership. Five years later, that corn-rnittce has still not reported. The crucialpoint is this: Immediately amend dieagenda of the conference if not enoughtime has been set aside to discuss strat-egy and tactics; it is the kcv issue onwhich many other decisions will depend. This strategy must clearly spell out howthe ANC would like the different cle-mcnts of the alliance to relate to oneanother: the ANC, SACP, Cosatu, civ-ics, professional organisations, and oth-ers. Only once you have decided on strategyand tactics can you decide on what struc-tures you need to create to take forwardyour aims. So don't let anyone try to foolyou into deciding structures and whoshould be on them before you know whatyour strategy and tactics are going to he. Although the December conferencewill not be electing a n,cw National I_x-Page 18 - WIP 70171'Make sure the conference sets outccutivc Committee, there will undouht-et11y be changes to some structures. TheANC has suffered much in the past tk-cause some people have been elected orappointed to john largely as rcward. fortheir pant loyalty or because they werebig names. Long-term loyalty is in)luor-tauU,ofcouru.l3utlhcrcatrcothcrmluallyimportant qualities. At this confcrcnm,make sure that those who are elected orappointed to bodies are people who cando the job, will ham: the time todo it.andindeed will do lhcji)h. So find out aboutpeople's actual capacity for hard workknot big talk) by talking to people whoknow them.ThmAN('isgoodatmakingfine-sc)untl-Ing 1!ultel)tullLi of ill le r1llVrl. -l1)l vi 11a1e-nlcnts will be nmaningless unlras theyarc carried out. '['he state of the ANC'snwabrrshipclriwanciintcrnalors;anisa-tlon is thus a basic issue. Simple strut-lures that can communicate easily witheach other and actually work arc crucialDeveloping these requires the involve-mcnt of nrguni.cor.~, not his; names. Ifnecessary, dcntand that a suitable con-sultant on organisational structures bebrought in from outside to advise on howthe ANC should h.: restructured. Internal .ANC.' organisation must bedemocratic. Eivcry delegate will be awarethatwhocveriscntrustcdwishloadcrshipill the difficult negotiating process willhave to be able W employ a certain tir-grcc of flexibility in dealings wiih thegovernment and others. So the par;lmc-clear tasks for people and structures'tees of their mandate and where they canbe flexible must be clearly .spelt nut.ltonw~cr, there must be functioninvmcchanisn-is by which they report bacit,to branches and by which thy can actu-ally be betel accountable for their action,. stake sure the conference sets out cleartasks for people and structures. Th:conlrrcnce should not write blankcheques. C.'onli:rence must also set up ;Ibody or procedure by which branch,,acan ensure that decisions of die conl'monce oil what is to be done organisationally can lx: monitored and so that actioncan be taken if people don't perform thctasks they have been given. f lonle-based branches must ensure r; ~lkthat the leadership demands of the _go\rnuucnt anti actually gets clearance frrn~;the government for a large, properlyelected and properly representative deh-gation from exile, particularly frc~o,l:mklu)nto we Sirwe, to attend the De-cember conference. This is vital so th.;the December conference can get th:benefit of their experience in the AN(',their knowledge of sonic personalities,and in order to assert a realistic basis ti)rthe unity of the ANC and the stratcgi,road ahead. Use the con lcrcnce to ensure thecruciadecisiom arc taken for the next six numlhsand more. But also use it as a dressrehearsal for the big one, the nationalconference in June. Keep your bullshit-detecting radar crlfull alert at all times.

Page 14 of 65 Everyone mustenj oyhumanWIP 70/71 - Page 1

Page 15 of 65 HOSTEL WAROrganiseor dieWhatever the role o/'a mm-sterinus 'third,fnrcc' atiti the lcguc.')' c~/apartheid irt the rec-eat carnage in Transvaal townships, dernncraticcnntrnnnit.). org'Qrltsatlons and trade unions truest also hear part o/'the responsihilitY. Greg Ruiters and Rupert Taylor argue that thesenrgariisations have allowed migrant tvorkers and squatters to~become alienated front the mainstream o/' the Bern ocraticnuov'errtent, so making tftent casv,/odderjor reactinnar)' partiesFROM THE third week of Julyto lltc end of September, con-flict in Reef tow.n`hips saw.more than h()0 people killed inan intense and unexpected'civil war'. Many more were injured andle l't homeless. The communities worsthit were Schokcng, Kagiso, Thokora,Katlchong, Voslcxorus, Tenthisa andSoweto. Why''The favoured interpretation of theSABC and Afrikaans- and English-spcaking press has been to talk in termsof 'black-on-black' (Xhosa-lulu) vio-lencc rooted in inherent forces of'ethnicor 'tribal' identity.This, however, fails to recognise thatetftnicity has hecn manipulated by theideology of apartheid to give Separate-ness philosophical credence. Moreover,the majority of people reject such label-ling. Nelson %lande la has declared: 'Thisviolence is not, as alleged by the massmedia, a conflict between Xhosas andZulus. This is not a tribal conflict at all'.So what are the causes"One answer, suggested by AndrewMalxtho in WIP fir), is that 'it is clearthere is a sinister and organised planbehind this violence'. There can he littledoubt that a 'third force' has been opera-tive in significant ways. It would, how-ever. be dangerous - both politically andPage 20 WIP 70/71from the point of view of analysis -nterely to assert a conspiracy theory.C'onspirac y Iheorim strc ss individual andnot social factors.They leave unexplainedwhy the violence tcx)l: a mass groupterm, why events happened when theydid and do not assess the role of apartheidstructures in generating division.An adequate explanation of the con-flict must seek out the hidden dynamicsbehind the events. It must attempt toidentity the triggering mechanisms,immediate causes and pertinent undcrly-ing sociological and political conditions.Events sparking the contlicthave beenacts of physical violence. At Sctx>kengon ?'' July the trigger was, allcgcctly, anassault on out-of-town Inkatha membersby ANC.' supporters. On the East Rand,the initial spark, in laic July, was over a(lamhlinF; argument in the Crossroadssquatter camp at Katkhong which saw aZul u-six aker s4thtx d to death by a X ho,a-spcaker. Both events unleashed a spiralof retztliatory killings that spread to otherareas.The immediate causes, which explainwhy the conflict escalated so rapidly, liein the increasing politicisation of thetcnvnships over recent months. This isgcncrally due to rising expectationsgenerated by the National Party's reformmoves.More specifically, it is a result of theA'BC's move to marginalise Inkathaleader Gatsha Buthelcri by calling forthe dismantling of KwaZulu. A furtherFactor is Inkatha's launch, on 1.1 July, asa national political party. The weekspreceding the conflict saw a strong re-cruiuncnt campaign by Inkatha amongZulu-speakers and other hostel dwellers.It also saw a number of acts of harass-ment and intimidation by unruly town-ship youth, often acting; under ANC col-ours, against Lulu-speaking hostel dwcll-e n.These developments, which played acrucial role in sharpening dill"erences,have to he seen in the context of underly-ing material conditions which reveal apicture of widesprcad depri vation amongthe main social groups involved in theconflict. What is distinctive about thepattern of conflict between mainly Zulu-slxaking hostel dwellers and largelyXhosa-slxaking squatter carne inhabi-tants is not the ethnic lines of division,but that the participants and victims ofthe violence arc those who have beenamong the most severely exploited ariddisadvantaged by the apartheid system.Whilst hostels - the cpiccntrcs of theconflict - house the aunt degraded sec-tion of the working-class, die squattercamps arc home to a predominantly

Page 16 of 65 jobless under-class caught in a culture of'poverty. Both environments are charac-terised by a lack uF any personal privacyor recreational Facilities, and by severeovercrowding. Hostel dwellers havearound three square nWrc, ul the it ownliving s[rice. ()it average the number ofpeople living in one shack is six.( ndrr the migrant tabour SVMCIII,'Lulu-speaking workers, living in middark ,inglc-sex hostels, are separatedfrom family life arid forced to [xrlorntthe wont kind of dirty work in foundries,other heavy industry and municipalities.Their escape is to return to the increasinginyxwuri,hntent uF the rural areas A 'hichlily call tuner.The position of squatters is \\orsc:living in a state of constant, [xwert~ antiin:ecuriU, witlunU basic scrvi,:cs andsanitation, these people lack Iunclanmn-tal human rights.The laUrial conditions of hulk hosteldwellers and ,quitters arc a direct resultctFth a Hctrkingsctfc;tpit;tlism undera[)art-h e id. Big business was quick to denouncethe violence as carnage and barbarism. Itm, however, guilty of complicity in it,creation. If the migrant latxturay:Unt clifftit exist. would tile violence have ui-mncd.' Would biL hwinuss havc suchhigh prolits'.)In ctnHr to yplain the mmnt of thcviolence, attention must be given tounderlying tensions within communitypolitics and the union movement. Inparticular, NO ho;tc l dwellers and squat-ters have nut been integrated into formalorganisational structures. Both groupsare perceived as outsiders, politicallyntarglnal to local struggles.Witliin community politics, par-ticularly in the case of hosteldwellers, there has been a his-tory of 'conflict. In Suwetu, fur example,there were riots at Dube hostel in 1957and, during die 1976 Uprising, 1lcaduw_lands hostel dwellers were actively en-couraged by the police to attack tetwn-ahi[t residents. Suffering under a semi-[)ariah status. hostel dwellers have ulUnfaced attic k; I rum lc>v'mln[) yuulft - Umul-aclves affected by endemic school boy-cult: and massive uncm[tluyntent.To township people, hostel dwellersare regarded as `mogu;' or `amaguduka'(fouls or wanderers). Zoned in buildingsoilers situated un the edges of establishedcommunities, they du nut have strongsucialneW ork,whichlinkthcrntutuwn-ahi[w.Thu Dart that many hostels, such asthose in Suwetu, arc situated mar rail-v awt:ltion; ntcans hostel dN'ellen rare lyne:H m enter townships.lutv'whi[) resident;' auilucds m syual-Another day, another death:Have mass organisations addressedthe challenges raised by the recentviolence?to camps arc influenced by their fear ofthe many social problenisa.sociated withthese settlements. Feelings of hostilityhave expressed themselves in calls fromtownship residents for the eviction ofsquatters and the use of U)cir land forformal housing.The result is that, in many townships,migrant workers and squatters have beenlargely marginalised within or excludedfrom civic associations. UDF politics ofthe 1980s focused on national issues andntubilisation politics which at some pointssaw sections of youth resort to coercivetactics in enforcing stayaways and con-surncr boycotts. Political and social is-sues were not formulated or taken up ina way that drew in hostel and squatterresidents. Influx control, for example,was largely ignored as an issue. Thismeant migrants and squatters were notsufficiently defined as part of the emerg-ing political community.Although some hostels have independ-ently evolved hostel committees, only inLanga in the Western Cape were seriousefforts made to organize hostel dwellers- in the Western Cape Hostel Dwellers.W scx:iation (WCHDA).In squatter camps, the transient natureof the population poses problems for or-gani,ation. But the democratic movc-nlent has tended to concentrate only onthose who arc formally housed. It is onlyin recent months that the UDF has movedto fcx;uson thcdcfcncc ofsquattcrcamps.It is true that the pros[acts for moreclTccaivc democratic community organi-sation were constrained by repressivemeasures, such as the the stairs of emer-gency and the banning of organisationsin early 1988. But the significant point isthat there arc too few attempts actually tobuild a strong grass-rcx)ts presence inhostels and squatter camps.Lacking adequate resources for inde-pendent mobilisation, hostel dwcllersandsquatters consequently remained on theedge of community struggles and foundno meaningful peaceful channels forexpressing and resolving grievances.A similar pattern emerges within theunion movcmcnt.Zulu-speaking migrantworkers in Fatal and on the Earl RandWIP 70/71 - Page 21

Page 17 of 65 HOSTEL WARproved easy to organise and were thebackbone of the early unions in the 1970s.In recent years, however, migrants havefound themselves displaced in industrialunion structures by younger and morepoliticised shopstewards.Central to this has been the rise ofCosatu and its challenge to Fosatu's syn-dical ist policy of cocx istcnce of all work-ers. Fosatu tended to emphasise work-ers' factory unity rather than politicalunity. Since Cosatu's emergence, hos-tels have no longer been central to unionorganisation as was the case earlier, andmigrants who are unionised have experi-enced a degree of alienation.Union strategies have failed to ade-quately address hostel dwellers' griev-ances and the increasing insecurity of thelowest paid workers who arc largelydisqualified from reform initiatives re-lating to housing, pensions and medicalaid schemes. Unions have noteffectivelyblocked retrenchments which affect theunskilled disproportionately, and Cosaturecently undersigned a proposed LabourRelations Act which compromises do-mestic and farm workers.One pattern highlighting the increas-ing economic deprivation, insecurity andpolitical alienation of migrant workers istheir reluctance to support mass actionsand strikes. The 1988 three-day stay-away illustrates this. Zulu-speaking hosteldwellers went home for that period. ANumsa national strike set for July 1990,just before the violence, drew a 53%`yes' ballot. But a percentage of migrantworkers opted for caution and this fedtensions which played a role in the con-flict.It is also significant that industrialviolence has increased dramatically.Clashes between strikers and non-strik-ers who arc often members of Inkatha'sUwusa have increased - such as at Hag-gie Rand and National Springs on theEast Rand. Strikes have seen scabs thrownoff trains and employers organise vig-ilante attacks.The consequences of all this fragmen-tation have been dire. When the events ofJuly occurred, there were no all-embrac-ing community structures operating inaffected areas to resolve the provocativecalls for rcvcngcandjustice,andtochcck iwild rumours. People were left to resortto informal organisational structures andopen confrontation. And a cycle of vio-lence erupted.Clearly the primary causes of massivesocial disorganisation are apartheid poli-cies rooted in supportipg a form of colo-Page 22 WIP 70/71The key point isthat, within thehostels, Inkathafound the spaceto mobilisenial exploitation. Apart from the effectsof draconian security legislation, ethnicand class divisions have been fuelled byincreasing competition for scarce re-sources and the state's selective upgrad-ing strategy. This strategy focuses onprivate home-ownership and leaves hos-tel dwellers and squatters out of account.The lifting of influx control in 1986 hasdramatically increased competition forhousing and jobs in urban areas - espe-cially in a recessionary economic cli-mate.Since the 1980s, township populationdensities have risen rapidly but with nocorresponding growth in housing and in-frastructure. In Katlehong, for example,shacks have mushroomed from just afew thousand in 1980 to over 35 000. In1989 Tembisa residents started to en-croach on hostels for accommodation.Planact's report on the Sow(to rent boy-cott showed that there is a `mammothbacklog of housing', with a quarter of amillion people on the Soweto city coun-cil wailing list while many more sec nopoint in adding their name.Divisions have also been engineeredby big business through housing,pension and share ownershipschemes. Through its strategy of 'flex-ible specialisation', big business haspromoted division between temporarylabour which is used flexibly - that is interms of the oscillation of supply anddemand - and a core skilled labour force.All this, however, does not totally ab-solve the democratic movement. Greaterattention could have been given to ac-commodating the political interests ofmigrants in civics and unions. Instead ofbeing channelled into progressive poli-tics they were left open to reactionarytendencies. Crucially, the ability ofInkatha to expand outwardly from itsbase has been directly proportional to theomissions and mistakes of UDF, Cosatuand the ANC.The key point is that, on the Reef,within the hostels, Inkatha found thespace within which to mobilise. In thepost-February 2 situation the ANC'sslowness to take full advantage of thenew openings created by the state en-hanced Inkatha's position. The processof the conflict polarised people into dis-tinct camps, forcing some middle groundelements into Inkatha by default. Astronger and more democratic urbanpolitical umbrella might have preventedthe ensuing factionalism which led toviolent conflict.The conflict represents a setback forthe democratic movement. The extent ofthe ANC's assumed support in theTransvaal has been questioned and thestate's security measures under `Opera-tion Iron Fist' have worked to disruptorganisation and instill a sense of futility.Furthermore, Cosatu unions with mi-grant workers are now facing seriousorganisational problems. Numsa, for ex-ample, is having to cope with disruptionon the shopfloor and a breakdown oflocal structures.Accepting that the conflict is relatedto organisational shortcomings, the wayforward for the democratic movement isto forge debate on the following: organising hostel dwellers and squat-ters around their specific material prob-lems; how civics or other democratic forma-tions could incorporate hostel dwellersand squatters in their structures whichadequately reflect their interests; how, in conjunction with hostel dwell-ersandsquattcrs,campaignsfortheaboli-tion of the hostel system and the defenceof squatter camps can be elaborated; giving greater weight to material issuessuch as housing, jobs and living wageswhich could serve to strengthen a collec-tive working-class identity; building broad working-class struc-tures so as to include all workers; and linking national political issues withgrass-rootsconcerns, at the same time re-assessing the current style of leadershippolitics. In sum, there is need to developdebate on building wider democraticcommunity structures, a more inclusiveunion movement and finding ways ofcentralising and unifying local and na-tional struggles. The danger is that, in-stead of promoting united action, thedemocratic movement will lose groundto factionalism, threatening the hopes ofa democratic South Africa. The authors thank Themba Mthetwa jor help-ful suggestions and for allowing them to use histhird-year sociology project at Wits University,'Urban Community, migrant workers & popu-lar struggles; a case study of Alexandra'.

Page 18 of 65 HOSTEL WARSINCE the -violence on the Reef'there have been several im-passioned calls for single-sexhostels for migrant workersto be abolished. The se nti-merits behind these calls are understand-able - the carnage cannot be repeated.1?,utgetting rid of hostels is notas straight-forward as it might seem.I lostcls arc the product of the migrantlabour system and the pass laws. Influxcontrol, of course, no longer applies,having been scrapped in the middle of1986. But - and this is the point - largeparts of die economy are still based onthe migrant labour system and will con-tinue to he so for the foreseeable future.There arc two categories of migrant -foreign migrants and migrants from in-side South Africa (including the bantus-tans).Analysing the changing patterns of'foreign migration in a forthcoming book.Apartheid's1losiages: Foreign Migrantsin South Africa, University of Nataleconomist Alan Whiteside makes fourpoints: overall numbers have dropped signifi-cantly in the last two decades. In the post-war period over half a million AfricansSearchingfor analternativeto helllnflttr control was .scrapped four P,ars ago ---but the shabby dwellings created to housetnigrant labourers are still there. In the lightof the recent clashes between hostel-dwellersand township residents, Robyn Rafel looks atwhat alternativefrom outside the country were employedin South Africa. By 1973 the figure hadfallen to :175 968. In 1982 it reached anall-time low of 279 760. By 1986, the lastNear for which accurate information isavailable, there had been a slight recov-ery: the figure rose to 302 685. Accord-ing to Whiteside, the downward trend islikely to continue; the sexual make-up of the foreignmigrant labour work force has altered con-siderably. Women accounted for 17,5%r,of foreign migrants in 1960. In 1970 thefigure had dropped to 9,5rL. In 1985 itstood at 2,1%. This is unlikely to bereversed; there have been major changes in thesectors in which foreign labour is em-ployed. In 19645817( of foreign migrantswere employed in the mining industry.The next biggest employer was the agri-cultural sector, employing 30%0 of allforeign workers. By 1970 the numbersemployed on the mines had reached77,4%r,. In 1986 the figure stood at 81 %,the total for agriculture had nose-divedto-1,6%, while the manufacturing sectoremployed only 317( of foreign migrants.It is cxpectedthattfrcmineswillcontinucto be the greatest users of foreign labourin the future; there have also been major shifts inrecruitment patterns, the most importantof which arc steep declines in recruit-ment from Malawi and Mozambique.The mines arc the largest employer offorcign migrants, but even there thenumber of foreigners employed hasdeclined draunatically in recent years. In1972, for example, 78%0 of workerscmploycdatmincsaftiliatc

Page 19 of 65 HOSTEL WARso unattractive to rural - if not urban -black South Africans.Because this made black labour moreexpensive, however, the mining house`required black labourers to he more pro-ductive so they began to mechanise. Thismeant blacks would have to performmore scrni-skilled and unskilled jobs andthe mining house had their doubts that itlabour force consisting mostly of nti-grants would give the desired result.The mining houses therefore startedpromoting; the concept of 'career' min-ing,: instead of workers working out theircontracts and then returning; home, the,were given incentives to return to tiremines within a period which would notneccssiuttc thcirbcing retrained. Againstthe background of rising unemployment,this policy has drastically reduced thenumber of' newcotncrs to the industry.Improved accommodation was alsome attt to be part and parcel of the promo-tion of 'career' mining,. But this side ofthe equation remains decidedly unbal-anccd.Today,the vast majority of blackson the mines still live in hostels situatedon mine property.n the past the mining houses haveI justified lack of change by putting dieblame on an order issued by the latellcndrik Verwocrd stipulating that netmore than 311. of and, mine's blackworkforce would bex allowed to live inmarried accommodation on mines. Thisrule was eased slightly in 1975, when thegovcrnmcnt allowed trines to build ac-contntcxfation for workers who weremarried and qualified for urban residencein terms of the Black (Urban Areas) Act.Applications b) individual mines want-ing to go over the 301r.. limit would also becountenanced. Highly-mechanised col-lieries and diamond mines could alsoexceed the limit.In 198-1-1,-1~,i ofworkcrsoncollicricswere living in married accommodation.But by 1996, when the 3% rule wasdropped, none of the gold mines hadeven got anywhere near the ceiling.1t has hoe n c laime.d that even if the 3rlembargo had lifted earlier, influx controllaws would have prevented the minesfrom doing anything; much about hous-ing, workers on mine property. But itstatement made by fonncrAnglo Ameri-can chairman flarry Oppenheimer putsthe issue into its proper pcrspcctivc. Intcr-vicwed in October 1 988 on his 80th hirth-day.Oppe nhe imer said: 'There are ntanythings I wish I had done. Although wewere reasonably in the forefront of im-proventent in South Africa, I feel thefore front should have been further alte ad.We thought we were doing as much itswe could, but in fact we were doing asmuch as was practical. I have one par-ticular regret concerning housing forblack m incrs. We got a long way towardsgetting them housed on the mines, butVcrwocrd stopped us. We then preenedourselves on having made the effort.Instead of keeping up the pressure - Ithink we missed out there'.Given that irtig:rancy will not endVengeance from the hostels: Kagiso resident Willem Stemper surveysthe damage caused by hostel dwellers at the height of the conflictin Reel townshipsPage 24 WIP 70171overnight, what arc the mining housedoing to improve the living conditions oftheir employers''Ol- the various mining houses andtheir various division, Anglo Ameri-can's gold division has tern the mostactive. I is approach to ac c om mcxlation i sbased onastudyconductedin 1986 whichrevealed that many migrants were keento bring their families to live with themon the mine, in housing that they wouldeither buy or rent. A significant number,however, opted for continued migration.The latter were mostly forcigncrs ormigrants from within South Africa whohad dependent-s in the hantustans or tiesthey did not want to abandon.Armed with this information, thedivision established a home-ownershipscheme. According to gold divisionspokesman Adrian du I'lessis, the homeownership will assist a process of 'or-derly urbanisation.' The division assistslocal communities in securing, servicedland - either in extensions to existingtownships or completely new towns -and also helps employees secure accessto finance for home ownership. Angloheavily suhsidiscs both deposits forhomes (instead of paying a 51'~r( deposit,workers are only required to pay 2,S(h )as well as bond repayments - workerspay only 5`.7( interest on '_'()-year loans.As for hostels, the division continu-ally reviews standards for die physicalcondition of hostels, administrative pro-cedures and hostel management. glow-cver, it has Stressed that financial con-straints mean that rapid progress in alter-ing all the hostels to achieve ct uniformstandard throughout is ttnlikcly.Notwitlistan(iiiig die results of' die1986 study, gold division cmploy-ces have not responded xto the homeownership scheme with its much enthu-siasm as management anticipated. InApril this year only' 4h() of the approxi-tnatcly 2c)() (xx) workers in the divisionwere living in theirown homes. Of these,the vast majority were skilled workers.Clearly, although the lowest-paidworkers can in theory participate in thehome ownership scheme, in practicalterms they find the houses text expensive.Du Plcssisconccdcs this point, but adds:' We do, however, have further proposalsto acf just dtc remuneration structure whichwill allow even the lowest-paid workersa real and practical choice to live inaccommodation they can afford. We areno longer going to impose standards onourentployceshecause it directly affects

Page 20 of 65 HOSTEL WARaffordability.'Gcnmin, the second largest mininghouse, has tackled the accommodationissue from a different perspective. Ac-cording to Dawid Groenewald, seniorhuman resources manager, the group'spolicy has been to adopt a `clean wage'approach and to encourage home owner-ship off mine property. By 'clean wage'he means an all-inclusive wage as op-posed to a system whereby a worker'sremuneration consists of a wage compo-nent and additional components for food,accommodation and the like.The `clean wage' policy was intro-duced at Genmin head office in October1987. The target date for all employeesto go on to the system is July 1992.Says Groenewald: `Instead of subsi-dising workers, you pay them more sothat they can c hoose where to live. I f theywant to live in their own homes, they can.I f they opt to live in a hostel they also can:they will have to pay for this, though.Look at the total cost to the company. Itis cheaper. Building means huge capitalexpenditure'.At Khuma near Stilfontein Gcmninhas given developers the go-ahead w ith aresidential development on mine landadjacent to the existing township. Pricesfor homes there vary from R30 OM up toR85 000.Employee response to Gemnin'shome-ownership scheme has been luke-wann. 'The whole question of housing isa new concept to our workers. Rural ticsare stronger than we anticipated. Thescheme won't catch on until workers secthe advantages of the secondary housingmarket', says Grocnewald.As with Anglo's gold division scheme,however, not all Gcnmin employees willearn enough to participate in the home-owncrship scheme. Like Anglo, Gro-enewald says Genmin is looking at theSA Housing Trust to supply the solutionfor lower-paid workers.The schemes described above havebeen instituted with little, if any,consultation with the NationalUnion of Mineworkers (NUM). What(toes the union make of than? Accordingto NUM spokesman Jerry Majatladi, theunion's policy on migrant labour is con-tinually evolving. Nevertheless, he didmake some observations.`You cannot address ending migrantlabour without addressing the questionof housing. Therefore, we say that in thelong run the compound system should bespeedily dismantled as it constitutes aThe hostel he once called home: a burnt-out hostel in Ackerville, Witbank,after clashes between hostel-dwellers and township residents7VicLife on the inside: a hostel 'room' in New Canada, SowetoWIP 70/71 - Page 25

Page 21 of 65 HOSTEL WARgross violation of human rights,' he toldW IP.`We think the foundation for doingaway with this lies in finding alternateaccommodation which will have to be inthe form of family units. But peopleshould not be forced to own these units,they must be able to rent them just aswhite miners do. Another alternative wesee is that the state should take the re-sponsibility and work together with themine owners to build mine villages orsuburbs with decent houses with rentalsthat black mineworkers can pay easily'.Majatladi is dismissive of Anglo'sgold division scheme. `Miners are notinterested in it because the houses arebeyond their means', he says. He isequally unimpressed by Genmin's `cleanwage' philosophy. `Normally, when wenegotiate wages at the chamber, the minebosses tell us they pay for accommoda-tion and food and that is the equivalent ofan extra 8200. Genmin now wants tomake this a cash payment. But it does notmean workers get anything extra. Allthat happens is that Genmin washes itshands of any responsibility for housingand feeding workers'.ntemal' migrancy is not restrictedto the mining industry alone. Count-less companies still employ `inter-nal' migrants, as do many municipali-ties.There are three options for hostelaccommodation for' internal' migrants: hostels operated by black local authori-ties; hostels catering for municipal workers;or company-owned hostels.It is the hostels run by the black localauthorities that have been at the centre ofthe Reef violence. Within these hostelsbed spaces may be rented out to individ-ual migrants, but it is also common forcompanies to reserve blocks of beds.Black local authorities have never hadadequate sources of revenue. On its own,this factor has militated against any sig-nificant improvements to the hostels theyrun. But what with rent boycotts in theTransvaal and the general breakdown oflocal government in the townships, con-ditions in many hostels have deterioratedsignificantly and there is little, if any,control. For example, according to theSoweto City Council, there are 9 000empty bedspaces in its hostels. Visit thehostels, however, and no empty beds willbe found.What can we conclude from this?Page 26 WIP 70/71The Soweto Councilsays there are 9 000empty bedspaces in itshostels. Visit the hostels,however, and no emptybeds will be foundPeople are living in the hostels withoutpaying and the council is either unawareof this or reluctant or incapable of doinganything to change the situation.According to Petros Mashishi, presi-dent of Cosatu'sSouth African Munici-pal Workers' Union (Samwu), all themunicipalities make use of migrant la-bour because black urbanites have tradi-tionally regarded their jobs as work 6tonly for uneducated people. Hostel con-ditions for these workers vary enor-mously, he says.The Johannesburg City Council'shostels, for example, have been signifi-cantly upgraded. Many other municipalworker hostels are, however, `not suchnice places', says Mashishi.Conditions in company-owned hos-tels also vary enormously. Generallyspeaking, the smaller the company theworse the conditions.According to worker housing con-sultant Ian Bernhardt, many major cor-porations such as Sasol, Iscor, Sentra-chem and AECI have made in-principledecisions to abandon the use of migrantlabour. In practical germs, however, thisis not always possible as it is the workersthemselves who wish to continue mi-grating.There area multitude of reasons forthis. As with the miners, some havedependents beyond their immediatenuclear family who they cannot desert.Others don't want their children to beexposed to evils of township life. Yetothers are concerned that the educationstandards in the townships are inade-quate. Some simply fear falling victim totownship violence. The companies willhave to cater to these workers' needs.But they are not recruiting any newmigrant labour. In future they will recruitlocal labour.If Bernhardt is right, it is quite con-ceivable that `internal' migrancy for non-mining companies will end in anythingfrom 10 to 15 years. Mashishi is con-vinced that the same will apply regardingmigrant municipal workers because thepressure for jobs in the cities will be sogreat.What about the mines? Will there evercome a time that they won't use migrantlabour? Although present recruitmentpatterns will almost certainly change,this seems less likely. At present foreignmigrants tend to be more skilled than`internal' migrants. With time, however,this profile will change. That will proba-bly result in a reduction in the recruit-ment of foreigners. Nevertheless, migra-tion from Lesotho seems set to continueindefinitely. The same is probably true ofMozambique.As for `internal' migrancy, the indus-try has had little success in recruitingfrom the urban areas or urban concentra-tions near mines. If this trend persists,`internal' migrancy will continue. Butthis also depends on what kind of landreforms are introduced in the future andwhether attempts at decentralisation willbe successful.The wild card in the pack is Aids. Ifthe killer disease assumes the propor-tions that have been prophesied, all thesepredictions will be wide of the mark.Three into one might goREELING from deep rifts amongst its membership sparked by the Reef violence,Cosatu's National Union of Metalworkers (Numsa) is working on an ambitiousscheme to scrap single-sex migrant worker hostels in urban areas andreplace themwith housing units that are integrated with the communities around them.No details were available at the time WIP went to press. But in broad termsthescheme calls for Cosatu, Jan Steyn's Independent Development Trust and thestateto each contribute R1-billion to bankroll the endeavour. It is envisagedthat thefinancing would be guaranteed by a consortium of financial institutions,possiblyunder the SA Perm.Numsa has undertaken to bear the major responsibility for raising Cosatu'sshare with funds from the metal industry's pension and provident funds.

Page 22 of 65 HEALTHPost-apartheidhealth policiesThe right to decent health careis enshrined in the FreedomCharter-but, surprisingly, thequestion of health services isabsent from the ANC'sconstitutional guidelines. TheSA Health Workers' Congress isfighting to put that right,according to a WIPCorrespondentThere is an urgent need forwide debate on the formu-lation of a clause in theANC's constitutionalguidelines on health andhealth care for all.Debate around the constitutionalguidelines has tended to focus on themore obvious aspects of a post-apartheidSouth Africa, such as the future form ofgovernment and the economy. The ANCitself has organised local, regional andnational workshops to discuss these ar-eas. Cosatu has organised a worker char-ter campaign to address the issue of whatright and protection workers should havein a post-apartheid South Africa.But there is a relative silence on thequestion of health and health care, amatter of concern to all.At a South African Health Workers'Congress (Sahwco) conference in 1989at which the ANC participated through atelephonic link-up, ANC National Ex-ecutive Committee memberPallo Jordanwas questioned about this omission fromthe guidelines.Jordan, a member of the ANC com-mittee which drafted the guidelines, threwthe ball back into Sahwco's court. Hereplied that the responsibility for devel-oping such a clause was not that of theANC alone. All democratic forces con-cerned with health care and social ser-vices had to take on this task.Sahwco responded to this challengeby presenting for public debate theirargument for such a clause. In a bookletcalled Health and the ConstitutionalGuidelines for a democratic South Af-rica, the organisation argues that such aclause should be formulated now.Since its production, the booklet hasbegun to initiate debate. It was receivedwith great interest by the ANC, which isdue to release a second draft set ofconstitutional guidelines for discussion.This second draft is likely to include aclause on health and health care. In addi-tion, the ANC has also released a discus-sion document on health policy.The demands on health in the Free-dom Charter and those that have beenbrought forward by more recent healthcampaigns should guide thinking in theformulation of health clause for the newSouth African constitution, says Sahwco.It argues that the health clause shouldinclude the principles upon which healthcare in a post-apartheid South Africawould be based. From these principles,would flow a particular health policy andhealth strategy to give practical effect tothe principles and policy.From the Freedom Charter and recenthealth campaigns, Sahwco draws out thefollowing principles: health care is a basic human right; provision of health care is the responsi-bility of the state; health care must be comprehensive; the health of workers must be protected; there must be commitment to preven-tive and primary health care; there must be mass participation andconsultation on health care and healthissues; privatisation of health care should end; health services should be centrallyplanned and democratically controlledunder a national health service; health care must be free, and; there must be equal and accessiblehealth care for all.Similar principles are likely to emergefrom continuing campaigns aroundhealth, such as the Health Charter Cam-paign, adopted at the Conference for aDemocratic Future in 1989.Given the present gross imbalances inSouth Africa's health care system, thenew constitution mustat leastcontain theprinciple of equal health care, arguesSahwco. Equal health care can only re-ally be possible if there is a single, non-racial health department.Although a constitution is unable toaddress the question of removing presentWIP 70171 - Page 27

Page 23 of 65 HEALTHHealth care for all.. Amobile clinic inCrossroads, CapeTown (right) and animmunisationcampaign in Alexandra(below)Page 28 - WIP 70/71obstacles to equal health cart, it mustcomm it the new government to this prin-ciple. It might also be useful, saysSahwco, for the new constitution to pro-vide for the role of mass grassroots healthstructures in a future health system.Upon examination of how health isdeals with in the constitutions of othercountries, Sahwco found that of the 50countries they researched, there werefour basic ways in which health wastackled: there were those countries which madeno reference to health or health care atall. Examples here included South Af-rica, Australia and Finland; in some constitutions health care wassetoutas a rightamong other health prin-ciples and there was a guiding principlefor social and economic policy. Sweden,Spain and Guinea-Bissau fall into thiscategory; some constitutions went beyond a state-ment of health principles and includedaspects of health policy such as financ-ing and the structure of health cart.Nicaragua, Cuba and Portugal are ex-amples of this; health care was also used as a means ofsocial control in El Salvador, it was found.Although the impact of constitutional

Page 24 of 65 HEALTHreference to health and health care on theactual health system yet remains to beexamined, Sahwco emphasises that it isbeyond doubt that a good constitutionalclause on health can be a basis of soundhealth policy.Although health is not seen as a prior-ity area among most mass organisationsin South Africa, the issue of health andhealth care has been receiving more at-tention in recent years.In the wake of the 1986 Kinross min-ing disaster, the National Union of Mine-workers (NUM) focussed attention onhealth and safety at the workplace. Underthe slogan `Organise Or Die', the unionbegan a campaign to raise awareness ofhealth hazards on the mines and howthese could be dealt with. They drew upa safety code and demanded the right tosafety stewards and independent unioninvestigations when accident occurcd.0utside the workplace, long-standing grievances about theavailability of health care werealso being voiced more consistently anddeterminedly.In 1988, more than 25 (XX) people inNatal signed a petition calling for freehealth care. This was in response to adecision by the Natal Provincial Admini-stration to increase hospital fees. For thefirst time, pensioners, disabled peopleand the unemployed were expected topay for health care.The campaign against the increasesalso raised demands for a national healthservice, decentralisation of health serv-ices and equal health care for allThe defiance campaign of 1989 beganwith the campaign to desegregate hospi-tals. Thousands of black patients pre-sented themsclvesatwhitehospitalswitha clear demand: `Open all hospitals to allpeople!'In March 1990, Johannesburg healthworkers marched to the 1G StrydomHospital, renamed it the Yusuf DadooMemorial Hospital (after the South Afri-can Communist Party veteran who diedin 1976) and handed a petition to thehospital superintendent.The petition called for, among others: a unitary health service, centrallyplanned and democratically controlled,adequate and accessible to all; immediate suspension of own and gen-eral affairs legislation applying to healthservices and immediate desegregation ofall health facilities; an end to privatisation as a way to solvethe health care crisis, since this wouldplace such care further beyond the reachof those who needed it most; a moratorium on all hospital tariffs untilan in-depth investigation into these hadbeen concluded; any and all considerations of proposedamendments to health legislation bcdoncin consultation with democratic and pro-gressive structures that exist outside thestate fold.A march by Durban health workers inApril had similar demands.Some of these demands have beennurtured by the people of South Africafor more than 35 years. Enshrined in theFreedom Charter is the vision that thehealth system in anon-rat ial, democratic,unitary South Africa will have: `sick leave for all workers, and mater-nity leave on- full pay for all workingmothers', and; `a preventive health system run by thestate. Free medical care and hospitalisa-tion shall be provided for all with specialcare for all mothers and young children.The aged, the orphans and the sick shallbe cared for by the state. Rest, leisure andrecreation shall be the right of all'.Today, the struggle for these rightscontinues, as does the struggle to havethem constitutionally guaranteed.Healthfor all... why itisn't justa pipedreamSouth Africa has adequateresources to provide free andcomprehensive health carefor the entire population,according to research bycommunity health experts.This rebuttal of conventional wisdomon health resources has been made by DrNicky Padayachee of the Department ofCommunity Health at the University ofthe W itwatersrand, also a member of theSouth African Health Workers' Con-gress (Sahwco).His assertion is based on researchcarried out by both himself and Dr TimWilson of the Alexandra Clinic on theprovision of health care for all in theJohannesburg area. Extrapolating fromthis research, Padayachee has shown thatSouth Africa has more than the requirednumber of hospital beds, health person-nel as well as money, to provide healthfor all immediately.Padayachee cautions that the figureshe uses might not be absolutely accurate,because such accuracy would need ac-cess to official government documents.But he believes experience in the publichealth sector and checks for consistencyensure his is a fair reflection of what ispossible with existing resources.Padayachee starts from the followingassumptions: there will in future be a unitary healthsystem - all health workers will work un-der a single national department of health; the national health system (NHS) willbe based on primary health cart; the NHS will promote equity and allcitizens will have equal rights to the besthealth care the country can provide;WIP 70171 - Page 29

Page 25 of 65 health care will be accessible and therewill be points of first contact close towhere people live and work; health services will be affordable to alland no one will be denied health caresimply because of not being able to payfor it; the NHS will promote community par-ticipation and fundamental to its approachwill be decentralisation of day-to-daydecision-making the NHS will be based on existing re-sources in the health sector, althoughthere will be the need for affirmativeaction and redistribution of resources toprimary health care; the NHS will encourage innovativemanagement styles and the maximumuse of resources as well as the develop-ment of all types of health workers toachieve their full potential; and the NHS' s aims will take precedenceover that of development of the privatesector and the teaching institute.On these assumptions, Padayachecbelieves the backbone of the NHS wouldPage 30 - WIP 70/71Health for all: One of the major challenges !s to make health careaffordableAll that is needed is tobring the publicfacilities under oneauthority, reallocatesome staff, recruit somemore full-time or part-time doctors andreorganise the wayresources are usedlx: a network of community health centres(CHU). If the primary health cart ap-proach were seriously applied, the com-munity health centres and those thatcontrol them would have a major say inwhat hospitals and medical schools pro-vide and how they do so.Many of South A frica' s present healthfacilities arc already close to where peoplelive, fully staffed, owned by the govern-ment and waiting to be used properly.Such facilities would be the buildingblocks for the future national health serv-ice.According to Padayachec, the distri-bution of community health centresthroughout South Africa and their sireswould vary depending on what wasavailable, the local population density,case of transport and the distance fromother facilities.In general, however, there should beat least some health facility for every25 O(x) people and a bigger facility (plustwo or three satellites) for every commu-nity of 200 000 people. In South Africaabout I SO community health centres wereneeded and about 450-600 smaller neigh-bourhood clinics. At present there arcabout 2 424 such community healthcentres and neighbourhood clinics in thecountry.Community health centres and neigh-bourhood clinics would both need to run

Page 26 of 65 HEALTHbasic outreach, outpatient and extensionservices.Outreach services would include theimmunisation of children, environmentalhealth and control of toxic hazards, healtheducation, sexual health education, healthand welfare services for the elderly,nutritional surveillance and support andhome visits to identify those most in needof health care.Outpatient services would includeante- and post-natal care, family plan-ning, pregnancy testing and diagnosis,and management of common acute andchronic illnesses in children and adults,child abuse and sexually transmitteddiseases, including Aids.Extension services would includehealth related teaching and research andsupport for other groups and organisa-tions in the community.These services, claims Padayachee,can be provided immediately to every-Moving towards aprimary healthcare policybody in South Africa from existing fa-cilities, using the existing staffand withinthe budgets of existing services. All thatis needed is to bring the public facilitiesunderoneauthority,reallocatesomestaff,recruit some more full-time or part-timedoctors and reorganise the way resourcesare used.Training of staff will be very im-portant because the changes pro-posed by Padayachee would de-pend to a large extent on changes in theattitudes of health workers and the com-munities they serve. However, he be-lieves that with clear goals and politicalsupport, the task is not impossible.In certain areas, such as Johannes-burg, where an adequate structure al-ready exists, an embargo would have tobe placed on extension and developmentof these until rural areas with inadequateservices havedeveloped to asimilarlevel.The ANC discussion paper on health says present conditions are a threatto the health of the majority of the people in South Africa.It suggests a primary health care approach, as adopted by the WorldHealth Organisation and the United Nations Children's Fund, shouldguide the development of health policy.The underlying principles of this approach are: Health is a basic human right. In particular, the right to free healthcareshould be part of a future constitution and bill of rights and it should belegally enforceable; there should be political commitment to improve the quality of life forall South Africans, especially those who have been denied political powerand the fruits of their labour; and resources should preferentially be allocated to promote health care ofthe most vulnerable sections of the community.The goals that should guide health policy in a post-apartheid SouthAfrica are: The promotion of good health; the creation of a healthy living and working environment social and economic development; provision ofadequate living conditions,including the provision of hous-ing, clean water, sanitation and adequate public services; healthy working conditions; the creation of a comprehensive national health service thatwill be uni-fied and non -racial,accessible and affordable, give priority to those mostin need, and focus on removing and controlling the major diseases, suchas malnutrition, tuberculosis, measles, polio and AIDS.Larger community health centrescould be used to provide more cost-ef-fective services if they included in theirrange of services a maternity deliveryunit and a 24-hour casualty service.Of the current community healthcentres,only the Alexandra Health Centrehas a full casualty and maternity service.Adding these to other CHCs would takethe pressure off hospitals. Although 24-hour services are expensive, comparedto other primary health care services,they can be cheaper than most hospitalcosts.Quoting the Alexandra Health Centre,Padayachee showed that 30 000 peopleused the centre in 1989 at a cost of R50per person - cheaper than the cost perpatient at any of the teaching hospitalsand similar to the cost per outpatient attheTransvaal Provincial Administrationclinic in Soweto.Presently, he said, South Africa spentabout 8200 per person per year for healthcare. To provide a comprehensive 24-Tiour, seven-days-a-week service to thewhole population, only 25% of the pres-ent health budget would be required.There were enough hospital beds -4,8beds per 100000 people - provided thesewere complemented with an adequateand comprehensive national primaryhealth care service, health services weredesegregated and the proper class ofhospital bed ratio was established.There were also already sufficientskilled health workers employed in thepublic primary health care sector. Forevery 10 000 people in South Africathere are at present a total of 73,7 healthprofessionals. These include doctors,nurses, pharmacists, dentists and para-medics. The breakdown is as follows:Doctors 7,8Dentists 1,3Pharmacists 2,8Paramedics 7,7Nurses 54,0Total 73,7Padayachee found that in developingcountries there were about 9,9 healthprofessionals for every 10 000 peopleand in developed countries there were102. The present number of health pro-fessionals compares favourably withthese figures.If the joint staff of the universities andthe provinces working at teaching hospi-tals in South Africa were required tocommit 10% of their present staff time toproviding services and teaching at com-munity health centres, 150 communityhealth centres would be fully staffed.WIP 70/71 - Page 31

Page 27 of 65 From crisis tocatastrophe i*nthe classroomReviewing developments inblack education over the pastyear, Janet Heard arguesthat `crisis' could shortlybecome `catastrophe' unlessdemocratic organisationsintervene decisivelyWRILE 1990 has been markedby some normalisation in thepolitical arena, the crisis ineducation has deepened. Pressure ismounting for education to be given itsdue priority - whatever the demands ofthe negotiating process.Organisations are warning that unlessurgent interventions are made to halt thebreakdown in the learning process, whichthis year has been marked by a completebreakdown in authority at schools andgrowing confusion among pupils, thereference to'crisis' will be euphemistic.It will be more appropriate to talk of 'ca-tastrophe'.The deterioration has occurred de-spite efforts by the National EducationCo-ordinating Committee (NECC) andits sectoral organisations. They havesought to restore a culture of learninginto the school community - while at thesame time intensifying pressure on thestate.Exam results are oneway in which theextent of the crisis can be gauged. Alarmbells rang at the end of last year after theannouncement that only 42 percent ofmatric pupils at DET schools (excludingthe bantustans) passed. Hot on the heelsof the announcement came reports ofwidespread irregularities in the markingof exam scripts.There is general agreement that thereis no chance that pupils who are sitting atthe moment for the final year exams -which end on November 29 - will im-prove on or even meet last year's desper-ately low pass rate.The realistically gloomy forecast formatric exam results has served to worsenthe morale of pupils already battling tomotivate themselves under a discreditedand inefficient system. And their effortsarc not helped by an environment whichis not conducive to effective learning.The DET was pressured into postpon-ing the end of year exams, and has agreedthat pupils who obtain at least a 20 per-cent passcanwritesupplementary examsearly next year.A key short-term strategy of the NECCis to getasmanypupilsaspossiblethroughthe year in order to prevent even worseconditions at schools next year. It hasbeen pushing for a lowering of the mini-mum pass required to write supplemen-tary exams.Theeffects of year after year of'bantueducation' cannot be concealed whenblack pupils' exam results are comparedwith their white counterparts. In the caseof whites, all but 2 percent of pupilspassed.However, a crisis is developing in thewhite education department as well,though it is the exact reverse of ,hatoccurring in black schools. White schoolshave too many resources and decliningpupil enrolment. Last year nine whiteTransvaal schools were forced to closedown and there were 177 225 vacanciescountrywide.At DET schools, there was an officialshortage of 60 343 primary school placesand 99 506 secondary school places, anda pupil-teacher ratio of 54:1, comparedto a ratio of 20:1 in white schools. In thebantustans, the conditions are more criti-cal.he root causes of the continuingT education crisis and the steps nec-essary to begin transforming thesystem have been stated over and overagain and will not be repeated here.However, this year, there has been aheightened awareness that, in order toalleviate the present chaos which a futuregovernment will inherit, pupils shouldreturn to schools, organise themselvesand understand the important role thateducation will play in the shaping of afuture economic and political policy.A number of socio-economic criseshave weakened the call to attend classesthis year. For instance, the violence inNatal is estimated to have displaced about500 000 pupils. Moreover, the recentpower and water cuts in townships af-fected by service charge boycotts havebrought education to a standstill.Page 32 - WIP 70171

Page 28 of 65 A number of other developmeadded to the general crisis thisHeightened political expectations coprise one set. Another is an increasesense of urgency among pupils - and insignificant move this year, among teach-ers too.The success of the back-to-schoolcampaign at the start of this year encour-aged the return of large numbers of pupilswho had been forced to discontinue theireducation. This placed an added burdenon overworked and underpaid teachers,and exacerbated overcrowding.The stubborn failure of the DET, itslocal bureaucrats and the bantuswn edu-cation departments to provide additionalfacilities and a sympathetic car to pupilanti teacher grievances frustrated effortsto bring some semblance of stability tothe learning process.The unbanning of organisations inFebruary enabled. structures to beginrebuilding and developing a more open,mass-haled style. But many ofthese struc-tures lack resources, and have battled tobuild strong and accountable leaderships.Problems which have arisen centre ona lack of consultation between leader-ship and members, a lack of disciplineamong the youth, and a lack of comrnu-n ication hctwccn local and national struc-t urc s.Moreover, weak organisation anddeteriorating social conditions in thetownships have resulted in an alarmingincrease in gangsterism, rape, gambling,intimidation and absenteeism.The year has seen some change indirection and tactics within some organi-sations. If continued, these may yieldlx)sitivc results in the long term.When the NECC was still banned atthe end of 1989, it changed its name from'crisis' committee to `co-ordinating'committee. This signified, amongothers, an intention to draw up alterna-tives to the present system. One suchproject has involved setting up a com-mlittcc to investigate a future educationpolicy for South Africa.Student power: an education crisis meeting in Alexandratownship at the beginning of what has been a turbulent year forstudents, teachers and parents alikeWIP 70/71 - Page 33

Page 29 of 65 EDUCATION: THE STUDENTSto learning on to popular organisations,pupils and teachers. It was they, DETalleged, who were responsible for thedeepening crisis in education.A relauvely new development thisyear has been the assertion of sec-tional interests within black edu-cation. One of the more significant wasthe month-long Transvaal teachers'strike, which posed a strong challenge tothe system. It marked a growth in mili-tancy in teacher organisation, which hadpreviously been reluctant to directlyengage its employer, the state.As such, it was one factor stimulatingthe establishment of the giant SouthAfrican Democratic Teachers' Union inOctober.However, the strike was regional andsporadic, and it came at the height of theback-to school campaign. The NECC,representing teachers, pupils and anx-ious parents, initially backed the chalks-down. But conflict arose when the strikeshowed no signs of coming to an end andultimately brought education to a stand-The NECC has also decided that itwill not disband and merge with theANC. Instead, it will remain an inde-pendent non-party political organisation.This, it believes, will better equip it tocontinue articulating the interests of thewidest possible range of people con-cerned about education.The year also saw attempts by theNECC and affiliates to hold talks withgovernment department officials. At thesame time, defiant actions - one of themost dramatic being the hunger strike bySoweto parents during a sit-in at the DEToffices in Johannesburg - continued.The DET undertook to supply much-needed textbooks, and Education andDevelopment Aid Minister Stoffel vander Merwe talked of forming an `educa-tion compact' involving all interestgroups including parents, pupils andteachers.These undertakings have, in the viewof many, proved to be either `half-truths'or empty promises. For its part, the DETmerely sought to shift responsibility forits failure to create conditions conduciveLearning how tocook the booksSINCE the beginning of 1988 three reports have been released detailingwidespread Ir-regularities, dishonesty, nepotism and corruption within the Department ofEducationand Training. All three reports have come from the Van Den Heevercommission, underJustice Leonora van den Heever.The commission first investigated the DET's requisition of a R4,8-millioncomputervideo system through Learning Technologies. One of the main figures wasWillemFourie, son of then-DET director general Braam Fourie, and programmemanager forLearning Technologies.The commission heard that the DET had, without calling for tenders, paidmillions ofrands to the company. The commission found that Fourie senior was guilty ofirregularconduct. In 1989 the report was tabled in parliament: actingdirector-general DirkMeiring was axed and 11 officials were suspended. Since Fourie had alreadyretired, heescaped departmental action.In the second report, the commission outlined printing projects undertakenby DETdeputy director-general Jaap Strydom'sson, Thinus Strydom, who had a printcompanycalled Forma Publications.In December 1989 the commission reported claims that the DET was defraudedofmillions of rands by public servants belonging to a secret section known asGemkom.Although no figures were given, a witness testified that R 10-million couldbe the valueof the contracts obtained by Gemkom. Seven officials were named as helpingThinusStrydom secure contracts for printing.Following the release of the third report this year, it was announced thatcriminalcharges could be brought against DET officials after the revelation thatirregularitiesand dishonesty were the `order of the day' in the running of youth camps.Johannesburg DET regional director Peet Struwig, notorious for his hard-lineapproach to progressive organisations, was transferred to Pretoria headoffice immedi-ately after possibly being implicated in the theft of money from privatefunds.The commission named six other officials and former officials who could beguilty ofmisconduct, and found that control of financial matters had beenparticularly inept.Page 34 - WIP 70/71still for a month.The lengthy duration of the strike owedmuch to the intransigence of the state anda lack of unity and strong leadershipamong teachers.Nick Taylor of Wits University'sEducation Policy Unit argues that whilesectional actions by groupings in educa-tion will probably prove to have beendetrimental to matric results this year,these conflicting interests could yet yieldpositive long-term results.His view is that only once all group-ings have articulated their interests andstrengthened their organisational struc-tures will it be possible to sit down tonegotiate a future for education.There has been criticism of the ANCfor failing to tackle the education crisishead-on this year. The ANC has beenwrapped up this year with adapting tolegality inside South Africa, with build-ing structures and with broader issues.But there have recently been signs that ithas begun to address the crisis in educa-tion. Its appointment of an educationadvisory commmittee around Sachcddirector John Samuel, who is due tobecome ANC head of education in thenew year, should equip it to play a moreactive role.The NECC is mounting a number ofshort-term interventions to prevent thecomplete collapse of learning during thetransition process, and one of its primarygoals is to re-establish a learning ethos inpupils.NECC information officer Mel Hol-land summed up the difficulty of the taskahead. She explained the NECC was nottrying to give the present system credi-bility by encouraging learning, but wastrying to make learning a credible activ-ity.One of the ways to achieve this was tobuild legitimate and accountable struc-tures such as PTSAs and SRCs.As 1990 closes, it is clear that educa-tion is verging on collapse and catastro-phe. If efforts begun this year are inten-sified - such as the back-to-school cam-paign, the development of teacher andpupil organisations, there-establishmentof a culture of learning, the building ofcredible structures and the debate over afuture education policy - there is a glim-mer of hope that the crisis will not createabsolutely impossible administrative andpolitical problems for any future demo-cratic government.But this will require a concentratednational effort by all democratic organi-sations.

Page 30 of 65 Teachers' unity rally, Durban, May 1990: live months later, South Africanteachers were to see the launch of the firstunited teachers' federationThe union has arrived ...... the education arena will never be the same again!These tire the words o/ono y/the 1 iOO delegates whoconverged in .lohctnne.shttry of6 cE 7 October to launch fleeSouth African !)ernncruticTeachers' Union.The optimistic andpoliticallYassertive mood whichcharacterised the c'nn/eronre isreflected in the organisational.structure, resolutions andstrategies adopted tit the launchofthe new union.Mandy Singer reports The author would like to thank the manypeople who generously contributed to thisarticleThe structure adopted by the new 'iteachers' union differs signifi-cantly from the usually bureau-cratic.and top-heavystructurcsofprofcs-signal bodies. From the Structure of theSouth African Democratic Teachers'Union (SADTU ) it is clear that, in addi-tion to a commitment to internal dcnux-racy, accountability, membership con-trol and participation - principles absentFrom most professional bodies - the newteachers' union iv gearing itself for amilihuU defence of its members' intcr-c stx.Like any other union SADTI; has thesites in which union members gather - inthis caw the schools -asthc basic unitsofthe organisation.Unlike professional organisationswhew there is an individual approach toproblems, SADTU proposes a collec;tiv cway of resolving issues which affectteachers. Instead of approaching the prin-t ilrrl who then contacts the circuit office,a teacher who does not receive a cheklucor who has any other grievance will haveto lodge hi;/her complaint with the rep-rcscnwtives of the teachers, called theSADTU school committee - a structurethat resembles a factory shop-stewardcommittee. This style of organising teach-ers is new in this country. It shows thatSAUTU views itself as a trade unionrather than a professional body.This style of organising is not onlyreflected in the organisational strategicsand structure of the new union, but alsoemerges in the resolutions adopted at thelaunch and in the campaigns SADTUproposes to take up. The conferenceproposed as part of SADTU's progranuncofaction that the union immediately Fights;tier `recognition from the Minister ofNational Education as the only teachers'union representing teachers on a non-racial, national basis'. As a recognisedunion SADTU sees its role a>; formulat-ing and negotiating a single and accept-able contract for all teachers.The conference also decided to cam-paign fora `living wage forall educatorin South Africa'. This campaign is seenas being linked to the struggle against thetemporary status of many teachers. TheWIP 70/71 - Page 35

Page 31 of 65 EDUCATION: THE TEACHERScampaign for permanent status and jobsecurity is part of a broader 'jobs for all'campaign. Consistent with the resolve tostruggle for jobs for all teachers, the newNational Executive Committee (NEC)was given a mandate to ensure 'that allnewly qualified teachers be given postsin 1991'.But more important in SADTU's at-tempts to take up the bread and butterissues which affect teachers is the resolu-tion on women teachers. The launchconference demanded an end to discrimi-nation of women teachers, demanding: immediate full parity in salaries be-tween men and women; immediate full maternity benefits forall women teachers; and immediate fully paid accouchementleave for all women teachers.The resolution did not only focus onthe discrimination women are subjectedto in the teaching profession, but alsoraised the need for an end to sexualharassment and victimisation within theorganisation. The conference decided toencourage the full participation of womenteachers in SADTU structures and toembark on an affirmative programme toensure such participation. It was alsodecided to convene a conference thatwill focus on the plight of women teach-ers.It would have been ironical had theconference been silent on political issuessuch as the need for one education de-partment; the need for a free, equal,democratic and non-racial system, etc.Teachers, located in apolitically chargedarena, have two options: either theysupport the people or the ruling class.Clearly SADTU has chosen to be withthe people.The first myth that SADTU has at-tempted to expose is the demand bythe authorities that teachers be politi-cally inactive. In itsconferencethe unionhas resolved that '...every teacher musthave the right to be informed and politi-cally active and to express his/her per-sonal opinions in public without fear ofvictimisation'. This is a direct challengeto the'code of conduct' which the educa-tion authorities demand teachers stick to.The teachers are not only adding theirvoice to the call for the right to be politi-cally active without fear of victimisa-tion, but are asserting that they must notbe excluded from the political processesthat will emerge from the present talksabout talks between the ANC and thestate.Since timeimmemorial therehas been talk aboutthe need for teacherunity. The moresplits occurred, themore the talk ofteacher unityintensifiedAs part of its programme of action, theunion resolved `to organise a campaignfor a Teachers' Bill of Rights and Teach-ers' Charter'.In addition to the call for one educa-tion department, SADTU committeditself to developing curricula that `servethe needs of the people'. The conferencenoted that, as with the concept of people'seducation, the development of such acurriculum is not the prerogative of teach-ers, but must involve parents, studentsand community organisations. As itscontribution to attempts to resolve theeducation crisis, SADTU decided toconvene a conference to address thechaosin our schools and in the present educa-tion system.From the mood at the conference andin terms of the organising approachadopted by SADTU, it is clear that therehas been an intense radicalisation andpoliticisation of teachers in the last fewmonths. Although noLpolitically aligned,SADTU's preparedness to take politicalpositions is attested by the resolutionsadopted at the launch conference. Thestrata known for its political conserva-tism is beginning to assert itself. Theconfidence shown at the conference is aresultof the unity that has been built overthe past few months. It is theculminationof the bitter struggles fought by teachers.But this path to unity within the tea-chers sector has not been an easy one. Ithas been long, thorny and acrimonious.Given the context of organisation-building which we have witnessed in thelast two decades, the coming together of12 teacher organisations with a collec-tive membership of 100 000 - 150 000may be seen by those unfamiliar with thehistory of teacher organisations in thiscountry as just another example of dif-ferent organisations uniting to form anew body.The history of teacher organisations -characterised by divisions, factionalismand provincialism - vividly illustratesthe significance and special nature of theformation of SADTU.No other sector has been as divided asthe teaching sector. The divisions in SouthAfrican society and the racially frag-mented education system have led to theexistence of various federal, provincial,ethnic and local teacher organisations.Before the launch of SADTU more than30 teacher organisations existed in thiscountry. Most of these were provincial orracially specific organisations linked upin a federalist manner with ethnic bodiessuch as the African Teachers' Associa-tion of South Africa (Atasa); the 'col-oured' United Teachers' Association ofSouth Africa (Utasa); the `Indian' Teach-ers' Association of South Africa (TASA)and the 'whites only' Teachers FederalCouncil (TFC).What is more striking however is thefact thatsince time immemorial there hasbeen talk about the need for teacher unity.The more splits occurred, the more thetalk of teacher unity intensified. When-ever this much-talked-about unity hap-pened however, it never went beyond apaper agreement or a consultative rela-tionship amongst the leaders of the dif-ferent organisations. The `deals' at thetop fell far short of transcending theracial categorisation of teacher organisa-tions in this country.The establishmentofSADTUisacul-mination of along process whichhas its origins in the April 1988 confer-ence in Harare hosted by an internationalassociation of teacher organisations, theWorld Confederation of OrganisedTeaching Profession (WCOTP) and theteacher's wing of the African Continen-tal Trade Union Centre (Oattu) - the All-African Teachers' Organisation (AATO).Also present at the meeting were SouthAfrican organisations such as Cosatu,the ANC and Sactu. It has taken morethan two years for these organisations toimplement the conference recommenda-tion ofestablishingasingle, united teach-ers' union to which they had committedthemselves.This has not been an easy task. Therehave been times when the prospect ofbringing the different teachers' organi-sations together have seemed very bleak.There have been many fights, stoppagesand breakdowns along the way. As re-Page 36 - WIP 70/71

Page 32 of 65 EDUCATION: THE TEACHERScently as April this year one of the teach-ers organisations, the Western CapeTeachers' Union (Wectu) which has nowgone into SADTU wrote in its newslet-ter: ' Sadly, the unity talks having been inprocess for more than two years, havenot brought us closer to the formation ofa single organisation. Some participantsin the talks are determined not to be partof a single, non-racial organisation'.In this newsletter Wec to went as far asattacking the two participants in the unitytalks- Utasaand Atasa - and posed Wectuas the vehicle for teacher organisation inthe Western Cape: `The reluctance ofUtasa and Atasa make it more imperativefor progressive teachers to be organisedinto Wcctu'.mined that its members cannot be com-pelled to do SADTU work.But more disturbing was the announcc-ment of the formation of a Nactu alignedteachers' union -the National Teachers'Union of South Africa (Natusa), justbefore the launch of SADTU.The examples cited here have notbcenraised merely to illustrate the way inwhich even the launch of SADTU hasbeen marred by differences and divi-sions. The point being made here is thatthe bringing together of 12 teachers' or-ganisations with different traditions hasbeen a great achievement, despite thedifficulties.The unity talks have gone through dif-ferent phases and has had many ups anddowns.A few months after the Harare confer-ence the first meeting was held to discussthe principles that were raised by the par-ticipants. All organisations reported thatthe 15 principles had beenwell-received by theirmembers. This processof consultation tookthe rest of 1988. In1989 the unity talkswent into limbo. Atthe end of the 1989N ECC conference, the'tcachcrunity' commis-sion,althoughcalling forthe talks to continue, ac-knowledged that the es-tablishment of a singleteachers' organisationEven on the eve of the launch sharpdivisions emerged which meant thatfour of the organisations - the TransvaalUnited African Teachers' Association(Tuata);the `whites only' TransvaalTeachers' Association (TTA); the NatalTeachers' Union (Natu) and the `whitesonly' Natal Teachers' Society (NTS) -that had participated in the unity talks,arc presently not part of the new teach-ers' union.Tua4r, which claims to represent about35 0(X) teachers, had reservations aboutsigning the unity agreement which stipu-lates that all the constituent organisa-tions should be dissolved within a yearafter the launch, and that assets will thenhave to he transferred to the new union.Although Tuaut has begun to raise theneed to consult its constituency and `thepartiality of the new union to Cosatu' asthe association's concerns, it is widelybelieved that the massive assets whichthe organisation has is the underlyingsourecofcontcntion. Ithas since becomeapparent that Natu is also mouthing thesame charges as Tuata.Both die TTA and NT S had problemswith the unity agreement signed by thedifferent teacher organisations on 30September. According to the NTS theclause compelling constituent organisa-tions to disband within a year and thedemand that affiliates do noshing tocontradict SADTU between the launchand the next conference, would infringeon the NTS's constitutional standing.Echoing the same sentiments the TTAsaid the clause stating that TTA mem-bers would have to work for SADTU issomething that the organisation wouldnot be able to justify in terms of theIndustrial Relations Act. As far as theTTA is concerned the law has deter-SADTU presidentShepard Mdladlana:'Unity; organisation andstruggle should be thewatchwords of theorganisation!'would take longer than initially expected.The banning of Ncusa in 1988 andWcetu and Detu in 1989, together withthe repression meted out against the moremilitant teachers' unions and their mem-bers, meant the unions that had beenspawned in the 1984/86 uprisings couldnot play their role in bringing togetherthe different teacher organisations. Thisis an important factor if one considersthat, despite their smallness in U:rms ofmembership if compared to the recog-nised organisations such as Atasa, Utasaand Ta-sa, the emergent unions had amore political approach to organising.The other factor which affected theunity process was the divergent views onthe new organisation. While all organi-sations agreed on the need for a singleteachers' organisation, the form that thisorganisation should take raised many de-bates and much discussion, which moreoften than not led to paralysis in the unitytalks. These debates did notfilterdown to therank-and-WIP 70/71 - Page 37

Page 33 of 65 EDUCATION: THE TEACHERSfile teachers and never really hastenedthe process of unity.The two issues that were hotly de-bated were: whether the union would be a tradeunion or a professional body;-whether the structure of the new organi-sation would be federal or unitary.These two questions led to a crystalli-sation of two blocs within the teachers'unity forum. A bloc of the establishedand officially recognised organisationson the one hand and the bloc comprisedof the new, small butpolitically assertiveunions such as Wectu, Detu, Matu, Neusaand others. The latter grouped them-selves as the `progressive' bloc withinthe unity talks and has maintained, sinceits emergence, that it views and concep-tualises the prospective national teacherorganisation as a trade union that wouldaffiliate to CosatuIt was clear to this bloc that teachers,on their own, will be unable to sustainany form of radicalisation on a consistentbasis. However in order to make a sig-nificant contribution to the unfoldingstruggle, teachers have to maintain arelatively consistent level of radicalisa-tion. The extent to which teachers par-ticipate alongside other sectors and strataof society will ensure and guarantee thatthe national teachers' organisation re-mains radical in outlook and practice.But this belief is not as a result of hot-headedness on the part of the 'progres-sive' bloc. The emergent unions pointedto the conditions which affected teacherssuch as long hours of work; low wages;job insecurity and victimisation as ne-cessitating a trade union organisation.Only an organisation with a militantapproach to these problems will be ableto change the working conditions of teach-ers. The 'progressive' bloc felt that ateacher trade union will fulfill the task oftaking up the bread and butter issueswhich affect teachers.It was also important to this bloc thatan organisation with a democratic char-acter was built. For the `progressive'bloc what the thousands of unorganised,disorganised and loosely organised teach-ers throughout South Africa need, isleadership that is vigorously account-able, and that facilitates democracy at alllevels.A trade-union identity would incorpo-rate local branches, democraticallyelected shop-stewards, regional and na-tional executive elections which wouldperfectly suit the fulfilling of the demo-cratic tasks that face teachers. In additionto this, regular branch, regional and na-tional congresses would ensure the con-tinued accessibility and, therefore, ac-countability of structures, to the rank-and-file teachers.Although not opposed to the idea ofteachers being organised under a union,the established and officially recognisedteacher organisations wavered on thisquestion. They felt the union approachadopted by the emergent unions was notcatering for the `professional interests'of teachers. No strong political counterwas forwarded by the established or-Sme oft the challengesoThe launch of SADTU representsfor the first time in the history ofSouth Africa, the birth of a na-tional, unitary, non-racial, non-sexistteacher union. This is a serious chal-lenge by teachers to apartheid educa-tion which, over the years, has dividedteachers into different racial categoriesand departments of education.The National Teacher Unity Forum(NTUF), the precursor to SADTU, al-ready reflected the potential of a singlenational teachers' union to confront thedivideand rule policy of thestate. Teach-ers from all departments and from allcorners of South Africa now have theopportunity to channel their commondemands through a single union and todirect these at a common enemy - theapartheid state. In refusing to continueto organise in a manner that entrenchesthe racist ideology of the state, SADTUis clearly striking a blow against theapartheid education system and addingweight to the demand for a single educa-tion department.The state has always relied on thesupport of teachers to disseminate itsideology and in the main teachers (ex-cept at crisis points like the 1940s,1950s,1976 and 1984/86) have been obedientcarriers of state ideology into the class-room. In this respect, teachers have rep-resented, on the whole, a conservativeforce in the unfolding struggle for demo-cratic control of schools.South African education has been ina crisis for a long time and students, notteachers, have historically been in theforefront of confronting this strugglehead-on. More often than not teachershave been the ones to stifle legitimatestudent militancy brought on by grossinequalities in the system. While stu-dents were turning schools into a ter-rain of struggle, teachers took a neutralstand or stood side by side with theauthorities in trying to force the stu-dents back into the classroom.It is clear from recent events, how-ever, that the state has lost the supportof a significant section of teachers to theliberation struggle- While previously itwas relatively easy for the state to actagainst individual teachers who refusedto march to their tune, today the statewould have to act against thousands ofsuch teachers.After many decades in which theteaching sector has been dominated bypolitically cautious teacher organisa-tions, we are witnessing the revival oftraditions last seen in the 1940s and1950s. Teachers are taking their right-ful place within the mass movement.The struggle for a people's education isbeing advanced by the establishment ofSADTU. The birth of the union facili-tates the building of unity between par-ents, teachers and students - a prerequi-site for seizing control over education.But more pertinently, what the for-mation of SADTU raises is a questionwhich has been the subject of intensedebate within the mass movement: thequestion of alliances. Over the years twodominant positions have emerged: The position which has been labelled`workerist' but which more accuratelyrepresents syndicalist and ultra-leftviews on alliances. According to thisview non-working-class strata can neveradopt radical positions. The second view which has becomeknown as the `populist' position ditchesradical programmes out of a fear of an-tagonisingdesperately sought-after non-working-class allies. According to thisview teachers can be won into the massmovement only if we adopt the lowestcommon demands.What is common to both these posi-tions is a belief that the middle classPage 38 - WIP 70/71

Page 34 of 65 ganisations to the idea of a teachers'union. The concern became the need tofind a balance between the `professional'and `union' responsibilities of the neworganisation.The fact that teachers had been ex-cluded from the 1956 Labour RelationsAct was also raised by the officiallyrecognised organisations. Thus the Utasabooklet used the following extract fromthe Labour Relations Act in support of itsargument against a trade union: 'This actshall not apply to persons ...employed bythe state in respect of their employmentsuch as ... nor to persons who teach,educate or train other persons at anyuniversity, technikon, college, school orany other educational institution main-tained wholly or partly from publicfunds'.But this was not a strong argument,particularly in the context of the struggleto have the LRA changed, so that allworkers are included under one labourlegislation.The 'progressive' bloc vigorouslyopposed all notions of federalism as itmerely entrenched the apartheid struc-tures of education. As far as the `progres-sive' bloc was concerned a federal struc-ture would mean that the union wouldremain loosely co-ordinated and that byand large teachers would remain affilli-atcd to essentially racially-defined or-ganisations.As it was important, politically, forunity to be forged from the bottomand not from the top, the `progressive'bloc argued thatan important componentof the bottom-up process was non- ra-cialism.At a workshop on teachers' unity heldin Cape Town under the auspices ofCosatu and involving the CPTA, Detu,Tasa, Wectu and the Peninsula AfricanTeachers Association (Penata)-anaffili-ate of Atasa, one of the members of the`progressive' bloc had this to say: 'If weare serious about contributing to the for-mation and construction of a new SouthAfrica that is non-racial, democratic andsacin STUcannot be significantly radicalised.What the formation of SADTU andthe recent struggles of teachers reveal isthat under particular circumstances,and more importantly under the leader-ship of the working class, sections of themiddle class can be won over to revolu-tionary positions.It is important to understand whereteachers fit into the unfolding struggle.On the whole, teachers are petit bour-geois. Black teachers, unlike the whitemiddle class, are oppressed and lackfundamental political rights in commonwith the great majority of theoppressed.For this reason black teachers cannotvote for a single government, live inareas of theirown choice, teach in schoolsof their choice, etc.With the De Klerk reforms, teachershave become enthused by what appearsto bean imminent post-apartheid SouthAfrica. This, coupled with the increas-ing deteriorating material conditions ofteachers, has driven teachers to radicalaction. On the one hand De Klerk'sreforms have raised teachers' hopes,while on the other this has come intodirect contradiction with the fact thatteachers increasingly have to tolerateappalling conditions: overcrowded class-rooms, longer hours of teaching, beingunderpaid, job insecurity, maladminis-tration/corruption in the racially segre-gated education departments, lack ofrights in schools, increasing threats ofunemployment and other more overtforms of victimisation.This contradiction has played itselfout in the resultant teacher anger andfrustration witnessed in the t-first half ofthis year. Inspired by the struggles ofyouth and workers which led to a mini.political upsurge in the period immedi-ately after the 2 February announce-ments, teachers began to use methods ofstruggle which were previously thedomain of the most exploited and mili-tant workers in society - the strike or`chalks-down'; go-slows; marches; thehanding in of record books; burning ofletters of misconduct; mass rallies; defi-ant refusal to complete leave forms forstay-away action, etc.What this demonstrates is that a largesection of the black middle class hasnothing to fear in a radical transforma-tion of South African society. 1t is thetask of the mass movement to advancethis radical programme and not to toneit down, if it wants to win significant sec-tions of the black middle class.distinctly non-exploitative, then our struc-tures and operations must reflect this.We cannot continue to exist in our sepa-rate and racially defined teacher struc-tures on the one hand, and on the other,expect to undermine the state's racistandexploitative education system - let alonecontribute to the broader liberationmovement for fundamental change inSouth Africa.So, for political reasons we need toform a unitary teachers' structure thatcan fight in a focussed way against thesingle but federal South African educa-tion system. We must begin to under-mine the structures that they have im-posed on us and the whole of SouthAfrica'.But it is not only for political reasonsthat the `progressive' bloc called for aunitary structure. The proposal for aunitary structure went hand-in-hand withthe conception that the new organisationshould be a trade union. The emergentunions strongly argued that only a uni-tary structure can take up the day-to-dayproblems of teachers.Although they agreed with the needfor a unitary teachers' organisation, theestablished associations felt a federalstructure must be used as a steppingstone to what is an ultimate goal - a newteachers' union with a unitary structure.The established unions felt it wouldbe premature to disband the existing or-ganisations, as this could lead to disloca-tion and effective renegingon the impor-tant task of looking after the interests ofthe teacher members.What the established organisationsfeared most was the possibility of losingofficial recognition. This, they felt, wouldbe a disservice to their members.t was the teachers' struggles thaterupted afer 2 February which gavethe unity process a jolt. In the aftermathof the unbanning of organisations andthe subsequent release of Nelson Man-dela we witnessed teachers taking to thestreets in their thousands throughoutSouth Africa. Teachers from the ranks ofestablished teacher organisations likeAtria, Tasa and Utasa - many of whomhad previously worked hand-in-glovewith the government - joined teachersfrom the ranks of the emergent and moreradical teacher unions in marches, massrallies, chalk-downs and awareness pro-grammes.We have also seen a joint delegationtaking the demands of teachers through-out South Africa to National EducationWIP 70171 - Page 39

Page 35 of 65 EDUCATION: THE TEACHERSMinister Gene Louw, with the supportofthousands of primary and secondaryteachers as well as trainee teachers fromthe colleges.The teachers' strikes in the first half ofthis year gave life to the National TeacherUnity Forum (NTUF) and the unity proc-ess. It was in a meeting called in April, inresponse to the strikes and the educationcrisis, that a timetable towards the estab-lishment of SADTU was adopted.Thus, thousands of teachers through-out South Africa were drawn to the ideaof a single teachers' union through theirown spontaneous strikes and marches.This groundswell of activity whichsometimes occurred outside of the ranksof NTUF 'structures' very often hap-pened despite NTUF rather than becauseof its influence.The drafting of a memorandum ofdemands and the delegation to the minis-ter, as well as the propagandistic effect ofthe march, served to centralise the focusof teacher frustration nationally andplaced NTUF at the head of all teacherstruggles. For the first time the process ofteacher unity took on a national andgrassroots character.After the April 'emergency' meetingthings moved swiftly and the new unionwas launched in October 1990. Whatsceptics called a dream was attained.But this was not an easy task. Manycompromises were made along the way.Until next year SADTU will remain anorganisation with affiliates - somethingwhich contradicts the desired unitarystructure. The question of affiliation to atrade union federation has also beenpostponed until next year.As a result of the compromises and theattempts to accommodate everyone, thelaunch conference took the form of aconsensus conference where the adop-tion of the unity agreement and the con-stitution and the election of officials wereunanimously agreed upon.The national executive committeeconsists of representatives of all theteacher organisations that signed the unityagreement. It was agreed that this will bea transitional executive which will seeSADTU through the first year duringwhich branches and regional structuresthroughout the country will be set up.Just how justifiable these compro-mises are is to be determined by whathappens in the future. What cannot bedenied however is that concessions havebeen made by the parties involved.Another critical problem is the fact thatthe unity which has been agreed uponWhen the toyi-toyingdies down we need tobe in a position tohold onto thethousands byinvolving themstructurally in theday-to-day runningo f branchesstill remains a paper agreement whichhas been entered into at the top.1991 is going to be crucial in deter-mining the character of SADTU. It caneither develop into a top-heavy and bu-reaucratic structure or a democratic andmass teachers' union with an account-able leadership.The way SADTU goes aboutbuildingdemocratic, non-racial, politically vibrantmass branches is vital for the organisa-tion. The danger exists that the unitywhich has been cemented at the top candisintegrate and that SADTU will be-come nothing else but a consultative bodyfor racially specific organisations andlocalised structures.f SADTU is to develop into a unionthat can begin to address the dynamiceconomic, educational and political needsof teachers and society at large, then thegainsof the launch need tobebuilton anddeveloped. The major tasks in this com-ing year are covered by the resolutionsthrashed out and adopted at the confer-ence. SADTU must make sure these reso-lutions don't just become mere rhetoric,but are used as a guide to a programme ofaction.If SADTU accepts that women makeup more than 60% of the teaching corpsin this country then its only hopeofbeingmass-based lies in its ability to organisewomen teachers.The fact that the Transitional NationalExecutive Committee only contains onewoman is a reflection of the lack of activeinvolvement of women on the ground.The regional programmes of actionmust make women's issues such as ma-ternity leave with full pay, equal pay forequal work at a living wage, sexual har-assment, etc, the main issues aroundwhich teachers are mobilised. In orderfor this to become a reality, regionalwomen's groups/committees have to beset up which are open to all members andwhich must ensure that women's issuesare taken up in a programmatic way andthat women become a dynamic part ofSADTU.The programme of action will have totake into account the very real differ-ences that exist among teachers. Eventhough we have achieved the formationof a national, unitary structure the teach-ers who are part of this come from verydifferent backgrounds and traditions.What is needed is a style of organisa-tion that will begin to weld activism andgrassroots participation with the abilityto maintain and represent a sizeablemembership.We cannot just continue to organiseteachers on an overtly political basis. Ina period of intense crisis this is possibleand necessary - but when the toyi-toyingdies down we need to be in a position tohold onto the thousands by involvingthem structurally in the day-to-day run-ning of the branches.A union approach has to incorporateorganising teachers around the issuesthat affect them directly, as well as main-tain a strong sense of accountability anddemocracy throughout the ranks.The only guarantee for a democraticteachers' union lies in the ability of thatunion to become mass-based and nottop-heavy with the leadership in a posi-tion to take arbitrary decisions. The life-blood of SADTU must be the most op-pressed and exploited teachers and notthose who hold powerful positions in theschool.It is also important that the new unionclearly defines its trade union role. Thesituation that prevailed with those or-ganisations in the 'progressive' blocwhere claims of membership were madewithout being able to verify this in termsof paid-up membership, must be cur-tailed.The struggle for recognition will go along way in solving this. The new unionmust fight for stop-order facilities withthe education authorities.It will be even more crucial for theunion to take up the debate on affiliationto a trade union federation. In order toimprove their conditions teachers needthe power of the whole working class.As the president of the new union,Shepard Mdladlana, said in his address atthe launch rally: `Unity; organisation andstruggle should be the watchwords of theorganisation!'Page 40 - WIP 70171

Page 36 of 65 ANC MEDIA POLICYWaiting for MovementThe state has a future mediapolicy. So do the monopolieswhich own most of the media.So, asks David Niddrie, howlong do we wait until the ANCdevelops one?The idea of a `media summit' todraw together the formations ofthe democratic movement andelements of the media itself toformulate a position on the media needsof a democratic South Africa was firstmooted early in 1989.In media circles, where isolated ini-tiatives in this direction were alreadyunderway, it was greeted enthusiasti-cally. Largely at the prompting of theAssociation of Democratic Journalists(ADJ), regional media summit commit-tees were established to begin discus-sions in preparation for a national mediasummit, which Cosatu and the UnitedDemocratic Front undertook to convene.Since then ... nothing. The regionalcommittees have for the most part with-ered away and from the centre -from thenational convening committee underNewNation editor Zwelakhe Sisulu -silence.The democratic movement is thusmoving through a transition period and,presumably, towards a democratic soci-ety without an agreed and articulatedZoe- WSA21media policy.Even on the issue of a possible ANCdaily newspaper, there is not agreement.Since 2 February several leading ANCfigures have said the movement wasplanning one; others have said, equallyfirmly, that it isn't.Virtually the only clear and uncon-tradicted statement to emerge from thedemocratic movement on media in thelast nine months is that they think pressfreedom is `A Good Thing'.This is hardly a definitive statement.Virtually without exception, all signifi-cant political formations arc saying thesame thing.Others, meanwhile, are hard at workto ensure that their views on how themedia should look are the ones thatdominate in the future.A task force appointed by presidentFW de Klerk's government is doing it atthe SABC. The Media Council, a non-government body established under gov-ernment pressure by the media industry,is proposing changes to legislation af-fecting the media. It is doing so withoutconsulting any of the formations likely tohave to govern the country in terms ofthese revised laws.The Argus company - the country'sbiggest newspaper group, publishingmore than half the newspapers sold inSouth Africa every day - is also seekingto pre-empt major post-apartheid restruc-turing of the print media. But with apolitical vision worthy of a companywhich took its name from the vigilant,100-eyed being of Greek mythology,Argus is attempting to do so by makingthe ANC, and anyone else who mayswing some weight after apartheid, anoffer it is going to be extremely difficultto refuse.Before going into the details andimplications of these initiatives, itis necessary first to establish whatmight be considered a definition of pressfreedom appropriate to the plural politi-cal democracy likely to be established inSouth Africa.Press freedom is no more than onemeans of exercising a prior and moregeneral right - that of freedom of expres-sion.At its most basic, freedom of expres-sion grants to individuals the right toWIP 70171 - Page 41

Page 37 of 65 ANC MEDIA POLICYspeak freely to their immediate circle ofacquaintances.Denying individuals this right - as thegovernment did for the 30 years prior tothe legalisation of the ANC, the PAC, theSACP etc. on February 2 - can be apowerful political weapon. Ask the mansentenced to three years' imprisonmentfor writing `Viva ANC' on his tea-cup atwork a few years ago.But freedom of expression goes fur-ther than this localised right.Communication in South Africa, as inall other large and complex societies,takes place not only by word of mouth,between individuals. Information andopinions are distributed and received viathe printed word (newspapers etc.) andby the broadcast media (radio and televi-sion).The United Nations Universal Decla-ration of Human Rights recognises theresulting dual dictates of freedom ofexpression. It acknowledges as a basichuman right not only `the right to free-dom of opinion and expression', but alsothe right `to seek, receive and impartinformation and ideas through any mediaregardless of frontiers'.But equality of access is a crucialyard-stick by which the exercise of anyright is judged.It is on the basis of inequality thatmost of the world rejected apartheid.The most graphic demonstration ofthis is the fact that just over 6-millionSouth Africans have since 1984 enjoyedthe right to elect representatives to thetri-cameral parliament. A further 15-million did not - they enjoyed only the`right' to elect representatives to someform of bantustan structure. This wasunequal, and the world therefore con-cluded that democracy did not exist inSouth Africa.Applied to freedom of expression, thislogic demands that all South Africansenjoy equally the opportunity to expresstheir opinions: both at the level of ex-pressing themselves to their immediatecircle and, more broadly, to the audi-ences available to the national print andbroadcasting media structures.While the 'local' right has arguablyexisted equally for all South Africanssince 2 February (although restrictions,such as that on advocating communism,remain), no such automatic right of ac-cess to the national audience exists.Every one of the 1,5-million-plusnewspapers sold in South Africa everyday is published by oneof six interlockedcompanies, which between them alsoPage 42 WIP 70/71own M-Net, the national news agency,Sapa (which they own jointly withSABC), the national newspaper distribu-tion networks, and the country's majorpaper production plants.And the four biggest of these compa-nies are controlled, in turn, by SouthAfrica's three corporate giants - AngloAmerican, Rembrandt and Sanlam -which between them control more than70l0 of the country's public stock com-panies.A handful of `alternative' or inde-pendent media publications have carvedfor themselves a niche in the media, butthe fact remains that they are essentiallyfringe publications. Argus' The Sowetanalone sells more copies every day than allthe'altcrnatives'combined sell in a week.Control of broadcasting is even moreconcentrated, resting almostentirelywiththe National Party, through SABC.Access is thus not a right, but a privi-lege granted on the basis of who themedia owners choose to give it to - edi-tors, reporters etc. and who they, in turnselect as `newsworthy'.As a result, there is little correlationbetween opinions expressed by the mediaand those which appear to hold generalsway in society - on the issues of sanc-tions, armed resistance to apartheid, andon the much-debated question of a demo-cratic government's intervention in theeconomy.This is nottheresultofanyconspiracybetween the owners, editors and report-ers.Harvey Tyson asserted two monthsbefore retiring as editor of The Star: 'In17 years as editor ... I was not onceapproached by shareholders, boardmembers or management about editorial 1(content).' But two decades earlier Brit-ish political scientist Ralph Miliband hadcountered a similar argument: `Editorswrite what they like because managerslike what they write'. Boards of direc-tors, unsurprisingly, appoint editors whoagree with them.We thus currently have a media inwhich there is no guaranteed right of ,access, but which, because of its control istructures, unintentionally skews nationaldebates.An appropriate definition of pressfreedom must thus go beyond simplyacknowledging the right of those whoown the printing presses and radio andtelevision transmitters to exercise theirright of freedom of expression. It must .rccognise the need to grant this right toall people through diversification ofcontrol.Because current disparities of accessare experienced not by individuals, butsectorally - the opinions and concerns ofblack people, the working class, women,and rural populations are particularlyunder-represented as sectors of society -solutions offered must redress the sec-toral imbalance, itself primarily the re-sult of apartheid.Btit if the specifics of those solutionsmust come from the contestingparties themselves, on the basis ofdemocratic debate, one final issue mustbe raised. Why not nationalise? The mediais, after all, a national resource like wa-ter, electricity the railways or the postoffice.State monopoly media do not have asuccessful history, almost invariablygravitating towards a single perspectiveview of society, inevitably that of theruling party - much as the commercialmedia inevitably speaks the language ofthose who ultimately control it.In Eastern Europe their failure to rec-ord the growing discontent of societyfurther widened the gulf between rulerand ruled.And closer to home, in multi-partyZimbabwe where Robert Mugabe'sZanu-PF rules by popular mandate, thestate print and broadcast media is criti-cised even from.within the ruling party as'his master's voice', reflecting what thegovernment would like to be, rather thanwhat is.And in South Africa itself, SABCprovides a particularly gross example ofstate-monopoly broadcasting.The problem with Cliff Saunders isnot that he is biased in favour of the whitegovernment and its allies, but that hisbias distorts the view he presents of theworld.A democratic alternative to this bias isrrot bias in the opposite direction, but anaccountable and representative broad-casting service.This, however, is precisely what DeKlerk's government is seeking to pre-vent with the current initiative at SABC.A government-appointed task force,headed by SABC chief Christo Viljoenand with strong representation from thestate intelligence community, has forseveral months been going through themotions of charting the future of broad-casting in southern Africa (see WIP 69).Its conclusions are, however, virtu-ally pre-defined: SABC has begun ac-cepting applications for national and

Page 38 of 65 ANC MEDIA POLICYregional broadcast licenses - 30 have sofar been received.They include M-Net's application fora licence to broadcast news; Bop TV'sapplication to broadcast beyond thebantustan and Soweto; Capital Radio andRadio 702 applications for national FMsignals.These are virtually assured, in linewith what is now clearly a governmentpolicy of privatising as much of the air-waves as is possible. The possibility alsoexists that some or all of the existingSABC regional stations such as RadioHighveld, and some of the Radio Bantustations, will be sold off.Although Pretoria seems currently setto hold on to its national stations (butwith several areas of operation contrac Ledout to private producers), the aim is tohand over to an incoming government astate-owned broadcast system whoseaudience is drastically reduced from the1-t-million currently enjoyed by SABC.And while this may be diversificationof ownership of a type, it is of a veryspecial type: SABC is attempting toconcentrate the new licenses among al-ready established media institutions.None of the political or other organi-sations which have applied (Inkathareportedly among them) is being consid-crcd, according to broadcast industrysources.And, they add, SABC has or intendsto approach Argus, Nasionale Media (themajor pro-government publishers) andother major newspaper corporations toask that they submit applications.If the newspaper companies do so,and arc granted licences, an incomingdemocratic government would have tocontend with multi-sector media giantswhose domestic and international influ-ence would make any state attempt totamper with their enterprises virtuallyimpossible.Some pre-emptive discouragement ispossible, however: the ANC has alreadyannounced that privatisation of statecorporations will be reversed if and whenDc Klcrk's government is replaced byone of which the ANC forms part.On broadcasting, the warning couldbe expanded to include any new licencesgranted.In sharp contrast to the SABC `keep itout of their hands' initiative, Tyson, nowa director of Argus which owns The Star,has put forward a proposal for co-opcra-Lion with 'any major, currently histori-cally disadvantaged interest group ... tokrunch their own media' which couldsubstantially case attempts to redress theimbalance in access to media.Acknowledging an `imbalance ofresources, of opportunities and of mediacoverage' and the need to put it right assoon as possible, Tyson told a confcr-encc organised by Rhodes University',journalism department: `I believe the so-called monopolistic press would be morethan happy to willingly share a centuryand a half of effort, talent, sweat, invest-ment and experience to ensure fairnessand balance, equal opportunity and di-versity of opinion and analysis'.This sharing, he said would involveoffering to historically disadvantagedinterest groups all or any of the follow-ing: full use of the mainstream printingpresses at the same rafts as the papersnow cost out their own printing. Thiswould he a major concession, for the costof a single newly imported big press isnow prohibitive - a-5 much as R100-mil-lion for a large colour press with periph-erals; equal use of all pooled distributionresources, again at the same rates (usu-ally based on circulation) as the existingdailys and wecklys arrange for thcm-sclvcs; training facilities for editorial skills,and advice on newspapering techniques.Everything, in fact, except participationin the emerging press' editorial deci-sions; secondment of newspaper managerialskills; circulation expertise and distributionmanagement; advertising advice, volunteered lice bythe agencies; Newspaper Press Union membershipand its shared facilities; Media Council membership.Tyson stressed that he was speakingin his personal capacity and that his offerwas not necessarily formal Argus policy.Since then, however, Tyson has movedon to the Argus board. His general senti-ment has, in addition, since been echoedby other Argus executives, and comesaftcra year-long internal Arguscommis-lion `The Future of Newspapers'.His proposal is thus one which in allprobability carries some weight and isworth considering.Argus motives arc not at issue: argua-bly, they arc attempting to ensure assmooth a possible transformation of themedia, and one in which their own struc-tures remain untouched by an incominggovernment. Considering the sharplycontrasting SABC initiative, this is notnecessarily something to criticise.While itwouldlcavethccommandingheights of the media in Argus hands itgoes a long way to leveling the mediaplaying field, and appears to give anynew media initiative - or several for thatmatter - a reasonable shot at contestingnn more-or-Icss equal terms in the mediamarket place.n media terms, Tyson's offer appears'to be an improved version of what Dc~, Klerkoffered in national political termswhen he offered to negotiate.One of the problems in responding,however, is the lack of an agreed andcomprehensive position from the demo-cratic movement on what it is looking forI in a national media.Until consensus is reached in thcdcmo-cratic movement, it must respond to ini-tiatives such as the Argus' and SABC'son an ad hex: basis. Such responses asthere have been so far to SABC havei been based either on a more generalopposition to state corporation privatisa-tion, or initiated from outside the leadingformations of the democratic movement- from the Film and Allied Workers'Organisation and the Campaign for OpenI Media. The leading formations of thedemocratic movement have, themselves,initiated nothing.And until a media summit takes place,they will be without a policy basis fromwhich to do so.WIP 70/71 - Page 43

Page 39 of 65 THE LANDThe Urban Foundation-backedPrivate Sector Council releaseda major policy document, `RuralDevelopment - towards a newframework', in September. Thecouncil claims the document `isone of the most comprehensivestudies ever on how South Africashould begin to reconstruct itsrural areas as non-racialdevelopment regions'. Itprovides a neat, often usefulsynthesis of .some of the keyproblems of land and agrarianreform - beet Tessa Marcus takesissue with its assumptions andrecommendations. She arguesthat it is a recipe formaintaining the privileges of the.few and exploitation of themajority in our countrysideStrate isin for capital inthe countrysideThere arc three types of problem with the Private Sector Coun-cil's recommendations for rural development. The first relatesto the timing of the report, the second to the process whichproduced it, and the third to its content. Together, they betraythe character of the report and its intentions.Released just two weeks before President FW do Klerkannounced the state's intention to repeal the Land Acts of 1913 and 1936,the document can hardly he considered instrumental in prompting thispartial reform measure. In fact, the timing of the report's release raisesquestions which arc very important in judging the integrity of it-s claims.Why had the PSC/Urban Foundation remained silent on an issue sofundamental to democracy and human rights when the political climatewas not favourable to such reform? Not because of a lack of evidence norbecause of an absence of pressure for urgent reform, but rather becausePage 44 WIP 70/71

Page 40 of 65 THE LANDrural reform was not conceived of as ameans to influence the pace of change inthe country.The report is a thrust into politicaldebate when `a future non-racial devel-opment strategy has not yet been thor-oughly thought through in governmentcircles... (and) when there is great uncer-tainty as to the future of urban, regionaland rural development policy'. Thissuggests that they chose to intervene inorder to influence the direction of thereform, a conclusion substantiated whenwe look at both the process and the con-tent of the report.The problem of process arises fromhow the report was compiled and theclaims it makes within it. The PSCcommissioned 39 papers from a varietyof academics who had to sign a secrecyclause as a condition of contract. Insteadof encouraging a free intellectual debateas the findings became available, it seemsthe PSC adopted a military-style intclli-gence-gathering operation to arm itselffor the `offensive'.The PSC also carried out an extensiveliterature search drawing on the workgenerated over the past two decades bythe handful of democratically mindedscholars, field workers and activists whohave engaged with the problems of apart-heid restructuring in the South Africancountryside. Whilst this is normal scien-tific procedure, it is also normal (andethical) to attribute the source of yourideas - something the report does not doconsistently.Further, the report claims that `thesummary of research and policy propos-als put forward ...can be seen as the con-tribution of the private sector and com-munity based leadership' to the problemof rural development. In other words, thereport implicitly claims that it is not justthe standpoint of the PSC but also of un-specified popular democratic organisa-tions, or their leadership.nstances of plagiarism and, more im-portantly, the secrecy surroundingthe research beg the question: to whattype of consultation process was the report.subjected?What seems most likely is that theprocess of discussing with particularindividuals and organisations was mis-read as consultation and, worse, as en-dorsement of the report. This is not aminor issue in the context in which thisreport is presented, since, for the PSCreport to take hold, it has to have thebacking of the majority of South Afri-cans.This is something of which the au-' thors are painfully aware. Thus, theyexplicitly state that it is not a `blueprintfor unilateral imposition' (who everthought it could be?) but rather that it isoffered as `a contribution to a vigorousnational debate'.The issues raised about timing andi process reflect the main problem in thecontent of the report - its classist perspec-tives.`Rural development - towards a newframework' is a singularly classist state-merit by monopoly capital. It mightsccma little discordant to emphasise this as-pect at a time when the national effort isdirected towards neutralising the mostreactionary, reform-resistant elements~within the ruling minority. But when itcomes to reform and the future it is thedifferent class interests which come toI the fore - as this report clearly displays.Not only does the report uninhibit-edly present the point of view ofbig business, it is also concernedw project this view as `objective' and`neutral', and as being grounded in sci-ence. Yet, both the definition of the prob-Icm and the solutions proposed hardlyoriginate from a disinterested and impar-tial perspective.In making this criticism, I am not dis-missing their ideas and arguments out ofI hand. Rather I aim to highlight their limi-tations and shortcomings in so far as thei problems of land and agrarian reform inSouth Africa arc concerned.The PSC rural development reportmakes some important and (in terms oftheir origins) ground-breaking assump-tions.I South Africa is considered to meanthe gcographiccntityestablishcdin 1910.And, whilst the report deals with so-called `black' and `white' rural areas, itemphasises the connectedness of theseareas, and the common conditions ofpoverty and the poor quality of life en-joyed by the majority of black peopleliving there.Of particular interest is the suggestionthat all rural areas arc characterised byI underdevelopment. This is contrary tomost thinking - popular and academic -about white-owned rural areas: theseareas are generally characterised as`modern' and developed.What arc we to make of this sugges-lion? `Modern' production can indeed be`backward' when it is built upon super-cxploitcd labour, as I have argued else-where. Yet there is nothing in their analy-sis or policy proposals to suggest that theunderdevelopment of white-ownedcommercial agriculture stems from anexamination of production relations inthe sector.Indeed, since they are advocates ofgrowth - and South African commercialagriculture displays features of growth -it would seem that what they mean byunderdevelopment arc the impoverishedconditions of life which most black farmworkers and dwellers experience. More-over, they hold, this impoverishment isnot a structural condition of the wayproduction is organised in the sector.Certain logical consequences flowfrom this problematic position - both inthe way the report further defines theproblem and in the solutions it proposes.One is to identify legally created ra-cial barriers as the primary obstacle to beovercome.The report presents a strongly arguedcase for the abolition of the 1913 and1936 Land Acts and the Group Areas Actwhich determine racial ownership andoccupation of land in the so-called whiteareas (and in the so-called homelands).This has been a long standing call whichdates back to the very enactment of the1913 Land Act - and certainly most ofSouth Africa's population does not needto be convinced on the desirability oftheir repeal.The problem, however, is that overtime the law has been used to entrench ade facto white monopoly of ownership.I This will notbe sweptaway today merelyby the removal of these statutes.In 1990, `84% of households in therural and dense settlement areas receivedincomes below the Minimum LivingLevel' and in 1983 average per capitaincome per month on white farms wasR12. Further, in 1985 `the average in-vestment in a commercial fanning uniti was in excess of 8650 000'.I Black rural poverty and the high price~of commercial farm land that these sta-tistics underscore begs the question: howmany among the black rural populationwill be able to be counted amongst that', new category of farmers the report speaksof -those'whohavesuf~cientresourcesto purchase existing commercial farms'?My point is: a non-racial land market willi not be created simply by removing mori-bund racial laws.The report recognises this fact, in part,~by suggesting the creation of two othernew categories of black farmers. Thesearc `emergent' small scale arable or in-WIP 70/71 - Page 45

Page 41 of 65 tensive livestock farmers without suffi-cient resources to purchase existingfarms' and `communities wishing to leasestate-owned grazing land in extensivepastoral farming areas'. Thus, the dropsof private black land ownership will bemade, with state assistance, into puddlesof mostly small-holders submerged in asea of white monopoly.n part, the answer is said to lie in the' restimulation of all forms of tenancy- with due legal protection. But notonly is tenancy in a private land market avery unequal and insecure relation, thisproposal also begs the question: whyshould land be owned by those who donot work it? If people are to be madetenants why should they not be tenants ofthe state? Why should the rent they payfor land be uncontrolled and used as asource of profit by private landlords ratherthan being effectively rechannelled intothe social wage essential to give sub-stance and meaning to an affirmativeaction programme?There is not much non-racialism in acountryside where land ownership re-mains mostly in the hands of whites andtenancy is mostly black.Another logical consequence is toplace the creation of a black farmingclass at the centre of the proposed solu-tion. Black farmers - resourced or `emer-gent', owners or tcnants-aretobestimu-latcd through extensive `farmer supportprogrammes', to be absorbed into theagricultural production system as it ex-ists.This is problematic for two relatedreasons.Firstly, because commercial agricul-ture is underdeveloped despite increasedproduction. The poverty of the rural areasnot only stems from the racial division oflabour but also from the social divisionof labour, and especially from the labourforms and social characteristics of theagrarian working class.Labour in the sector centres on a smallstabilised core of on-farm male workersand their families supplemented by alarge migrantised and casualised workforce drawn from off-farm labour pools.Most of these workers are women andchildren. In addition, small pockets of la-bour tenants and a sizeable number ofprisoners work in commercial agricul-ture.In other words, the profitability of thesector as it is presently structured, de-pends on the relative cheapness and sight-lessness of the workforce. If the structurePage 46 WIP 70/71THE LANDof production is unchanged then, as thePSC correctly observes, farmers willcontinue to substitute capital for labourto counteract efforts to improve condi-tions in the sector.While the report recognises the prob-lematic nature of `the economic andpolitical structure' of commercial agri-culture, this remains little more than anobservation. Its implications arc not fol-lowed through in the report's policyproposals. In turn, this undermines theweight of its call for the inclusion of ag-ricultural workers in the Labour Rela-tions Act - which, again, comes when thestate has already indicated its intention todo so.The PSC report would have it thatblack emergent farmers should be ab-sorbed into this milieu of exploitation.They should apparently emulate or evenexceed the white example in order tosurvive in conditions in which they arcnotably resource-poor and at a disadvan-tage in comparison totheir white counter-parts.But even then it is an open question asto whether these emergent black farmerswould survive given the centralisation,conccntrationandcapital intensity ofpro-duction in the sector.There is a second problematicaspect to the concentration oncreating a new black farmingclass: its composition. Surely the focusshould fall on the needs and rights of themajority of people who presently workthe land - farm workers. This is not tosuggest that they have exclusive rights tothe land. But their rights cannot be madesupplementary or even incidental to arural reform programme, not least of allfor economic reasons. Farming jobs dis-proportionately influence both the geo-graphical distribution of the population,(as the PSC report points out), and thesocial conditions of the countryside.And what about the women? In thereport there is a total absence of anyreference to women. Yet, as we al I know,the racial and class divisions of the SouthAfrican countryside are further compli-cated by a genderdivision which system-atically relegates African women toamong the most disadvantaged. Theymake up the majority of rural occupantsand the majority of people engaged onthe land - either in sub-subsistence farm-ing or mostly as `casualiscd' and some-times as full-time farm workers.The legacy of patriarchy which per-vades much intellectual thinking doesnot satisfactorily explain the authors'failure to address the problem of gender.Assuming their reforms were genderneutral was mistake enough. But there isa further point. The facts necessitate thatredressing inequalities arising from theoppression of women (particularly Afri-can women) must be a central considera-tion of any rural reform programme.astly, we need to look critically atL the concepts underlying proposalsto carry out the report's recom-mendations. The `how' has two compo-nents.The first refers to the theoretical meansby which the goal of rural development isto be achieved. The problem here is thatequity or fairness dots not mean equal-ty. Thus, a rural development strategywhich aims for `growth with equity', asnice as that sounds, does not presume toredress the inequalities of the country-side. Moreover, the primary `redistribu-trve' mechanism is assigned to the mar-ket, which as we have already seen isstructurally loaded against the majorityof South Africa's rural population - blackand poor and largely female.The only redistributive tendencies thatmarket forces display is towards the richand empowered. In this context, we alsoneed to treat with caution the particularinterpretation the report gives to the callfor `growth through redistribution', whichit considers as a supplementary measure.The other refers to how policy is to betranslated into practice, how it is to beimplemented. The PSC report has takenthe `cargo' notion of policy on board infull. Policy is viewed as a package (fromoutside), to be delivered in a given fixedspace/time framework (a project), andthen evaluated to iron out inevitable'shortcomings'. This approach, althoughmainstream `state of the art' and in themode of thinking of such heavyweightsas the World Bank, IMF, most states andmany non-governmental organisations,is also highly problematic and needs tobe publicly debated.In sum, the PSC strategy for rural dc-velopment rests on the creation of a smallblack farming class, to be absorbed intothe predominant system of agriculturalproduction, without impinging on theeconomic, social and racial privileges ofdominant farming interests. Although theproposals make small inroads into racialinequalities, key class, gender and racialissues which affect the majority of SouthAfrica's rural inhabitants remain out-standing.

Page 42 of 65 THE LANDb1'nter theblack middleclass farmerflninka Clanssera gives a second opinion nn !flat'cnrnprchcnsive' Urban Foundation report, and concludes: It'swell-re.ocurcltecl, alrigltt - but r)/ton uwo r)/%~tctrycthe Urban Foundation'sdocument on rural deve-lopment has boon longawaited. For ovcrfivc yearspeople working on landissues have hoard of themany stud icson rural demography, whitefarmer attitudes and agriculture commis-sioned by the foundation.Some years ago we saw a draft policydocument which was then put on ice.These documents constitute a uniqueresource base in the under-researchedarea of rural development and land is-sues.Finally, the results of all this researcharc published and distributed as a majorinput to the land reform debate. Thefoundation calls for the repeal of theLand Act, the Development Trust & LandAct, and other pieces of racially dis-criminatory legislation.Barely two weeks after the report isWIP 70/71 - Page 47

Page 43 of 65 published president FW de Klerk an-nounces that the acts will be repealed andstresses the importance of a non-racialland market in a future South Africa.There is common cause that theseActs must go; they make the right toproperty subservient to race; they havebeen used to evict black tenants fromtheir homes and to create the terribleracial inequity in land ownership whichexists in our country.Where dissenting parties differ, is inthe necessity and extent of mechanismsand processes to undo the legacy createdby the Acts. In this regard it is interestingto look at the Farmer Settlement Pro-gramme with which the foundation con-cludes its rural development programme.This is the most detailed proposal inthe document, with a broken-down budgetand a comparison of how existing statefunding could be re-channelled to imple-ment the scheme. It is proposed that thestate acquire large farms and convertthem into small farms for settlement byblack tenants. The budget includes thecosts of external planning and manage-ment. The scheme is expensive and`would need to be aimed at a relativelysmall and sophisticated farming popula-tion ...'.The scheme necessitates that thewould-be tenant farmers move fromwhere they lived before to the newlyacquired land.what we have here, essentially,is a centrally planned, exter-nally managed, expensivemodel which requires the physical mov-ing of people onto what is de facto na-tionalised land. This kind of approach torural development has failed and is dis-credited all over the world. In South Af-rica, institutions such as the Develop-ment Bank have rejected it after burningtheir fingers and causing irrevocabledamage to rural communities.The scheme contradicts the UrbanFoundation's stated principles of a bot-tom-up approach which relies on com-munity participation and takes accountof 'regional complexity, diversity andadvantage'.The Urban Foundation has posed theproblems of rural South Africa accu-rately and well. It has set itself impres-sive guiding principles. Why then doesit proceed to fall back on a discredited,outdated model of rural developmentwhich, at best, does not address the prob-lems it has posed, and at worst, contra-dicts the principles it has set itself?Page 48 WIP 70/71THE LANDI believe the answer lies in the fact thatthe foundation has chosen to sidestep theburning issue of the illegitimacy of pres-ent property relations in South Africa.Instead of starting from the land claimsof dispossessed South Africans, whetherthey be farmers who were never allowedto rent or buy land, farmers whose landwas expropriated on the basis of race,labour tenants who work for no wages tomaintain occupation of farms they inher-ited from their great- grandparents, orpeople removed from farming land anddumped in the Bantustans, the founda-tion chooses to start from the assump-tion, like De Klerk, that existing titledeeds must be protected.Existing white title deeds are the re-sult of a system of property law whichprohibited blacks from buying land, leas-ing land, or protecting what land theyhad. Our property law legalised forcedremovals, farm evictions, and the expro-priation of black land `in the public inter-est'. Political considerations of race haveoverridden the `sanctity of private prop-erty' for decades.Now, suddenly, within two weeks ofeach other, we have the state and capitalboth expressing deep concern about theunfairness of the Land Act. The timing issignificant. The system whereby thewhites own most of South Africa needsto be legitimised before a majority gov-ernment comes to power. Laws whichprohibit one section of the populationfrom land ownership on the basis of race,do not bode well for the prospects ofwhite landowners under a black govern-ment. Everyone is aware that few blackshave the money to buy land at currentprices, and that whites will be reluctant tosell rich farming land. Something has tobe seen to be done to alleviate ruralproverty and to give black farmers achance, but not anything which calls intoquestion the validity of white title deeds.The Urban Foundation has providedextremely valuable material which showsthe disjuncture between patterns of landoccupation and land ownership. They,more than any ~other group, have shownthat blacks are in de facto occupation ofland which is nominally owned by whitesin the rural areas. In the urban areas theyhave documented how little effect whitelaws of property or eviction have had onthe demand for, or expression of, rightsto land and housing by African people.African people, having been excludedfrom the terms of apartheid land law,have claimed and expressed their rightsto land by their physical presence andtheir tenacity in staying put. They havedeveloped systems of tenure and local`laws' for transacting land which oper-ate in the vacuum created by apartheidland law.In many cases African people havereal rights to land which, while they havebeen denied by apartheid law, can beupheld in terms of the general principlesof property law. The basis of commonAfrican claims to land, whether these bebirth, inheritance, occupancy, or con-tractual rights such as purchase or ten-ancy, are also the basis upon which thesystem of private property is upheld anddefended.We need to develop mechanisms andlegal proposals which confirm existingrights of occupation and land ownershipand so heal the disjuncture between theformal legacy of apartheid law and thereality on the ground, and confirm thebeliefs and values of all South Africans.We must consolidate the work al-ready begun in the development of anewsystem of registering existing rights toland, whether these be by occupation orother forms of ownership. Furthermore,we need to develop processes to adjudi-cate conflicting claims to land. The reg-istration and adjudication must be linkedtogether so that land transactions cannotbe registered until the process of con-firming existing rights and solving dis-putes has been completed.As long as the `free market' reigns,land will be bought and sold according towho has money - notwithstanding his-torical and occupational claims. To saywe must have a land claims court is mererhetoric unless there is provision in theregistration process that all contentioustransactions be referred to the court.The Urban Foundation has access tothe best expertise in these matters, all ofwhich need to be developed further. Butit did not take advantage of the imminentrepeal of the Land Act to pursue thisdirection. Instead, it builds a policy onthe debased and racial legacy of existingi title deeds. We need to undo the legacy ofapartheid land law, not entrench it. Topretend that it can be de-racialised bymerely extending it to cover wealthyblacks is cynical and dishonest. It leadsto a denial of the very principles of freeenterprise, secure ownership, and non-racialism which the Urban Foundationpublicly upholds. This makes plain howit is that the foundation reaches thesomewhat bizarre position of advocatingperpetual tenancy and nationalised landfor black farmers.

Page 44 of 65 PAZ BE ~FR7.1` oW0inding downthe Angolan warA oect.vcJire, elections and a 'rni.rec! ecnrtnny' are the Angolangmverrtrnertt'.s objectives in the wnrrent round ol'peace talks. ButDavid C'oetzee asks.- WWI that .wnis/i' Savirrthi'As a regional conflict theAngolan war is provingone of the most intractableto satyr.In October, the latestand most creative attemptwas made in Lisbon to get progress, butit was postponed to early November.Already there have been a series ofmeetings (sec chronology), but the bigdifference this time has been that theSoviet Union and the US have sent `tech-nical advisers' as observers.South Africa has also sent a prepara-tory team from the foreign ministry andfrom what was described in Portugal asthe `interior' ministry, to Lisbon.It has been kept quiet - but SouthAfrica has been having continuing talkswith Angola, the Soviets and Cuba in thecommissions set up after the December1988 New York accords to monitor thewithdrawal of Cuban forces from An-gola. (The next meeting takes place inJanuary). These commissions have pro-vided the diplomatic base for SouthAfrica's forays into the Pastern bloc.Thin time in Lisbon all the prepara-tion, for Angolan peace talks have onceagain been made with Portuguese me-diation through foreign minister DuraoBarroso.As lJ'IP went to press, promises hadhem received that the major Angolanparties would attend the postponed talksbeginning on Novcmhcr6. This followeda meeting of the central committee ofAngola's ruling MPLA party which for-mally agreed to replace one-party rulewith a multi-party system.This has been one of Unita's keydemands: the Angolan governmentshould recognise it as a legitimate partybefore there could he movement towardsa ceasefire.The two sides have been dancingendless diplomatic steps round this is-sue: on its side Uniul has agreed to recog-nise the MPLA - until elections. It hadearlier recognised president Jose Edu-ardo dos Santos as the head of state.There arc also problems over the lo-gistics of creating a single military forceout of the still-warring sides.But Unita was this time also askingfor a list of six African countries to beadded to the observer team.This, they say, should constitute thecore of a monitoring group for theceasefire being negotiated and for theelections to come.Included is Zaire, which Luanda hassaid should no longer be involved as aWIP 70/71 - Page 49

Page 45 of 65 ANGOLA`mediator' because of its active role insupport of Unita.There is plenty of meat here for diplo-matic delay - unless there is the will tobreak through.Everywhere there are signs that pa-tience is wearing thin: the US repeatedlystresses that the Soviet Union is cooper-ating nicely. US secretary of state JamesBaker said on October 19: `In Africa ourjoint efforts with Moscow led to fullNamibian independence. Now, we areworking together to achieve a ceasefireand multi-party elections in Angola'.The US congress, which has lookedthe other way in the past when the CIAput forward its budget requests for thesupposedly covert war in Angola, thismonth had a long debate, and a radicalmotion to overturn Unita aid was nar-rowly defeated.1988December: Angola, Cuba and South Af-rica sign tripartite accord in New York inthe presence of US and Soviet observers;it foresees Namibian independence andCuban withdrawal from Angola, and isthe culmination of a series of contactsstarted in 1976. The meetings subse-quently took place on Sal island, CapeVerde; in Egypt; and in Congo, beforeending up in New York.1989April: The UN sets up shop in Namibiaon 1 April to bring Resolution 435 tofruition. The entry into the country ofarmed elements of Swapo is perceivedby Pretoria as a violation of the accords.A week of violent combat follows but thepeace process is still on track.June: Zaire's president Mobutu hoststwo dozen African heads of state in movesto mediate in the Angolan conflict. UnitaIcadcrJonas Savimbi and Angolan presi-dent Jose Eduardo dos Santos arc thereand on the 24th shake hands on a ceasefire- but it is never observed. Luanda wantsSavimbi to go into exile; Unita accusesMobutu of taking sides.September: Unita meets in an extraor-dinary congress and approves proposalsto `reactivate Gbadolite'.November: Swapo wins Namibianelections.December: Dos Santos promises vari-ous reforms and measures to achievepeace. The government prepares a nine-point plan as a basis fob negotiation, inPage 50 WIP 70/71t Instead, the US congress voted to makethe aid conditional on both sides keepingto the talks, and the Soviets stoppingtheir military aid.This they have already said they arcprepared to do, if the US cooperates.So in theory the way is open for anendto Unita military supplies through Zaire.Whether the congress' vote will havean immediate effect remains to be seen -the CIA has been notoriously disdainfulof congressional votes in the past, andthis vote was in many ways targetedmore against them than against Unita,seeking to stop up some of the loopholesrevealed in the Iran-Contra affair.Indeed, the right wing in the US proba-bly sees Angola as a chance for a re-runof the Nicaraguan elections, with a war-weary populace burying its pride andvoting for the US candidate and peace.For all except this still influentialgroup, the continuation of the war seemsan anomaly. The `Cold War' is dead andovert South African destabilisation ended.In the US the right wing has, however,been allowed to have its head on thisissue till now because Angola has simplynot rated on the domestic political charts.For years Angola has in vain sought toreassure policymakers in Washington thatit is friendly to US business. FinallyLuanda launched an all-out diplomaticoffensive justbcforeJonas Savimbi madehis trip to Washington a month ago toseek to ensure Unita's access to contin-ued military aid.This no doubt had its effect - and forthe Congressional Black Caucus, An-gola is now the major Afro-Americanissue. Butanadded impetus forachangcdUS policy change could now come fromThe long road towhich exile for Savimbi is included.1990January: Savimbi visits Portugal.February: Angolan armed forces an-nounce on the 2nd that they have enteredMavinga, a key position on the route toUnita's headquarters atJamba. Unita saysit will not negotiate `with a knife at itsthroat'.March: Namibian independence isproclaimed on March 21. Dos Santosmeets Portuguese foreign minister Du-rao Barroso.April: Dos Santos meets his Congo,Gabon and Sao Tome counterparts andsays he is rejecting Zaire mediation. Thisappears to end the first chapter of nego-tiation process, which started a year pre-viously in Gbadolitc. On the 7th Unitarecognises the Angolan state and says itsready to sign an immediate ceasefirewithout conditions. It demands directcontact with Luanda. That recognition isone of the conditions Luanda regards asessential. It is announced that PauloAlicerces Mango is chosen by Savimbito coordinate mcctings.Previously inBonn, he is Vansfered to Lisbon, replac-ing Alcides Sakala. On the 19th An-gola's foreign minister, Pedro de Castrovan Duncm ('Loy'), holds talks withBarroso in Lisbon. Just before the meet-ing, Loy has extolled Portugal's role inunblocking the impasse preventing di-Dos Santos... promised toachieve peacerect talks. On the 23rd and 24th in Portu-gal, the first meeting between Unita andLuanda government takes place, withBarroso as Portuguese facilitator. TheAngolan government delegation is ledby jurist Antonio Pitra (`Pctroft'), withCirilo de Saita, while the Unita delega-tion is led by Gen Alicerccs Mango, witha representative from Jamba, PauloLukamba (`Gato'). Two days later, thefirst Congress of Angolan Cadres abroadtakes place in Lisbon, bringing togetherthose sympathising with both sides in the

Page 46 of 65 ANGOLAoutside, from the Gulf crisis: the US isAngola's best customer for its fine gradeoil, taking between 80% and 90% of pro-duction. But Washington is now grow-ing aware that the US had become toodependent on the Middle East for its oil,and it needs to diversify suppliers.Any further rationale for the US toback this war has been removed byLuanda delivering most concessionsWashington has sought through the yearsof its proxy war - except immediate re-cognition of Unita.The government has not only - as partof the Namibia deal -agreed to the Cubanforces leaving but it has submitted todirect US involvement in its ownconstitutional affairs, agreeing to multi-party elections.US demands were not made in a va-cuum - there was already pressure forpeaceAngolan conflict.May: A communique signed byUnita's political bureau members andthe high command of its armed forcesrecognises Dos Santos as head of theAngolan state. Alicerces Mango an-nounces in Lisbon that Savimbi is send-ing a personal message to Dos Santosproposing a ceasefire for June. Tony daCosta Fernandes, Unita's secretary forforeign relations, brings the Portuguesegovernment a message on the negotia-tions. Barroso then goes to Luanda wherehe meets Loy.June: A second round of talks beginsin Oeiras. The meeting is interrupted onthe 18th when the Unita delegation saysit has been called back to Jamba `for con-sultations'. At the end, Barros says thetwo sides 'have never been so close to adeal'. It is announced that the contactswill resume in the first half of July.July: An editorial in the Jornal deAngola says the government is not inter-ested in pointless meetings, and will onlyagree to participate in a third round oftalks when Unita's leaders give clearsigns that their words and their actionswill correspond. Barroso meets for fivehours with Savimbi, to whom he brings averbal message from Cavaco Silva. Onthe 31st, Venancio de Moura takes Ca-vaco a message from Dos Santos.August: Barroso announces the post-ponement of the third round until the endconstitutional change inside Angola, andinside the ruling party.Dos Santos has said, however, that hedoes not anticipate elections on this con-stitution before three years after the endof the war. Unita has given a cautiouswelcome to the move away from multi-party rule but questioned the proposedthree-year delay.Multi-partyism is the trend elsewherein Africa, where single party rule hasbeen tried and found wanting. But An-gola's experience of the single party hasbeen different: nowhere else in Africahas a single ruling party had to lead a highlevel technical war for so long on thislevel.Angola's survival as a unified statehas probably been due to the centralisa-tion and discipline of the MPLA. But therigid, centralised model, allied to anof the month. The move to delay it camefrom Luanda, and Unita reacted. Loysays there were problems of a legal,constitutional and political nature withthe recognition of Unita as a politicalparty. Cavaco Silva meets Dos Santos onthe 9th in Sao Tome and says the twosides will get together in Portugal on the15-20th. But on the 15th Luanda pub-lishes a declaration accusing Unita ofdelaying a new round of talks set for the21 st. The talks eventually get under wayon the 27th, and last four days. They endwithout agreement on the recognitionissue, but the parties agree to meet again.Portugal proposes that US and Sovietobservers should be present at the nexttalks. Luanda is negative. Ninth meetingof the jointcommission on south westernAfrica, in Windhoek on 13 September,with Angola, Cuba, Namibia and SouthAfrica, and the US and Soviet Unionpresent as observers. An opportunity forindirect talks in advanceof the nextroundof peace talks in Portugal.October: Another round in the peacetalks is set for Lisbon, this time with theSoviet Union and the US as 'technicalobservers'. Talks postponed to Novem-ber 6. At the same time the US Congressvotes to make further aid for Unita, set at$60-m, conditional on both sides hold-ing to the talks, and to the Soviets stop-ping their military aid for Angola. Thevote is welcomed by Luanda. MPLA for-mally decides to adopt multi-partyism,but sees elections three years after aceasefire.absolute lack of the necessary levels ofcadres, has led to an inertia and bureau-cratism,while urgent development taskshave needed to be carried out.With elections, Savimbi may emergeas the leader of a new Unita party, takinghis place in the people's assembly (orthere may be a third force, to which Unitasupporters will accrue). The US has,however, always played for higher stakes,with Savimbi entering government.All this will be hard for Luanda resi-dents to stomach.Their image of Savimbi is of a manwho has kept a civil war going because ofpersonal ambition and nothing else. Hehas permitted terror bomb attacks oncities and towns, hitting civilians, andhas operated a policy of cutting peasantproduction by blowing their limbs offwith anti-personnel mines.Yet Luanda, and in particular DosSantos, have taken the long view andagreed to the post-ceasefire legitimisa-tion of a disarmed Unita. First, they wantUnita to drop its weapons - not go into theelections as an armed force, as happenedwith the Contras backing the US-backedUno party in Nicaragua.What is not yet clear is how Luandawill deal with some of the underlyingreasons for the existence of Unita. Untilnow the government has been denyingthat this is a civil war, but there areenough tensions in the society to under-pin such a conflict - especially with out-side aid. They will reveal themselves ina multi-party dispensation, too.The most cited divisions concern ri-valry between the Ovimbundu (whoconstitute the backbone of Unita) and theKimbundu of the north. But there is alsothe tension between town and country-side. And if the new economic reformtakes root, there will be more class-basedtensions also, to find political expressionin parties.However, there is no other course.The government's own structural adjust-ment plan depends on constitutionalchange, too.At the end of last year Lopo de Nasci-mento,provincial commissioner for thesouth, said that it was necessary to freeup the politics of the state before the eco-nomic restructuring programme couldwork.A ceasefire, elections and an econ-omy using both market and planning isthe government's preferred path now.But will Savimbi see enough in this sce-nario to guarantee him the future he feelshe deserves?WIP 70/71 - Page 51

Page 47 of 65 BOOK REVIEWSComingto termswith thepastMK: The ANC's armed struggleBy Howard Barrell (Penguin Books)Death Squads: Apartheid's secretweaponBy Patrick Laurence (Penguin Books)THESE are the first two titles in Pen-guin's new `Forum Series', which 'of-fers alternative perspectives on criticalsocial issues to enhance democratic par-ticipation'.The release of short, accessible andrelatively cheap books on contemporaryissues is to be welcomed, especially asSouth Africans begin grappling with thepast, trying to make sense of how it hasgiven rise to the present, and ponderwhat sort of future will be created out ofthe battles to conserve, transform oreradicate apartheid society.Superficially, Howard Barrell andPatrick Laurence's contributions dealwith someof the same issues from differ-ent sides of a single conflict.Barrcll analyses the growth and de-velopment of ANC military activities,while Lawrence describes the state'smilitary and police initiatives to destroyorganised forces opposed to apartheidthrough destabilisation,assassinationandphysical attack.But that is where the similarities end.MK is a deeply thoughtful book, whichfrankly analyses the successes and fail-ures of the ANC's armed struggle.Barrcll argues that neither Umkhomowe S izwe nor the ANC ever succeeded inmounting an armed or insurrectionarystruggle which could seriously contendfor state power. He acknowledges thatMK faced some of the most difficult andinhospitable conditions ever to confronta revolutionary movement, and tracesthe attempts of MK leaders and soldiersto overcome these objective impedimentsover three decades.The first sabotage campaigns of theearly 1960s; the fascinating story of theANC military link-up with Zapu andengagement with Rhodesian forces inthe Wanki'e campaign; the slow rebuild-ing of decimated ANC and MK struc-tures in the early 1970s; the rush ofmilitant and politicised youngsters to joinMK after the 1976 uprisings; the armedpropaganda of the late 1970s and insur-rectionary moments of the mid-1980s -all involved shifts in MK's strategic think-ing, organisational tactics, and structuresof implementation and co-ordination.But, at core, Barrell's argument is thatMK - and the ANC - failed as a revolu-tionary movcmentaiming forthescizurcof state power.This failure was in part the result ofthe difficult objective conditions: but atthe same time, according to Barren, themajor reason for the failure of the ANCand MK to achieve their aim of the revo-lutionary seizure of state power was `theirinability - despite opportunities to do so- to develop internal underground lead-erships, at both regional and nationallevel, exercising day-by-day, hands-oncommand and control over all aspects ofpolitical and military work'.Much of Barrell's book is devoted tovarious ANC and MK attempts to re-solve the contradictions between mili-tary and political struggle and organisa-tion, exiled leadership and internal activ-ists, central direction and local initiative.Barrell argues that Operation Vula -currently the subject of a major trialinvolving high- level ANC and MK lead-ers - was by far the most successfulattempt to achieve a synthesis of thesetensions.Despite these failures, Barrell notesthat there is a sense in which MK alsosucceeded - not as a revolutionary move-ment, but in the light of its 1961 claimthat it was going to war not only to`create the conditions for a credible peace... but in order to avoid war'.Barrcll suggests that MK's mainachievement was essentially propagan-distic: it played a vital role in `bringingSouth Africa to the verge of a negotiatedend to white minority political domina-tion'. If this happens, MK will have`miraculously accomplished the move-ment's initial political objective: Theywould have gone to war to avoid war...Page 52 WIP 70171

Page 48 of 65 BOOK REVIEWSand won'.Death Squads describes the emer-gence and activities of assassination and'dirty tricks' squads linked to police andmilitary structures. The book is a usefulcompilation of material which has al-ready emerged through evidence in theHarms Commission, investigative reportslargely undertaken by journalists of theVrye Weekblad, and research by law-yers, the Human Rights Commission andDavid Webster Trust.All the major actors and incidentswhich were revealed during 1989 and thefirst half of 1990 are present: police deathsquad members like Dirk Coetzee andAlmond Nofamela; the Vlakplaas farmnear Pretoria where 'Askaris' - ex-guer-illa fighters working for the police - werehoused; the limited evidence on theSADF's shadowy Civil Co-operationBureau (CCB) which emerged throughthe Harms Commission; the Johannes-burg City Council spy ring.But ultimately Laurence's work fallsa bit flat: there is little information in hisbook which was not already known toregular newspaper readers. And his finalchapter, which attempts toexplain ratherthan describe death squad activity, lacksnuance and depth.This is partially a result of writingwithout the benefit of original researchand interviews with participants-an areain which Barrell's work is much stronger.Death Squads adds little in knowl-edge and texture to whatis already known,or could have been gleaned from a care-,fin reading of newspaper reports. Theactors and their motivations in thesesordid episodes remain one-dimensional,and at the end of the book one is left witha very limited understanding of how thedeath squads came to be, and the natureof those who staffed them.Barrell, by contrast, knows his subjectwell. MK includes extracts from inter-views, anecdotes, some original mate-rial. The author is clearly sympathetic toMK, the ANC and their objectives. Buthis is a critical voice, acknowledgingbravery and sacrifice, but distanced fromthe terrain of moral judgement.Perhaps this is asking too much ofDeath Squads, especially given the diffi-culties in researching the squads in de-tail. But as a centralisation of material,Laurence's book is useful, and will hope-fully be read by many ordinary whiteSouth Africans coming to terms with thepast, and needing to know what thegovernment was doing in their name. -Glenn MossThis isn'tgoing tobe aneasyreviewMY TRAITOR'S HEARTMy Traitor's HeartBy Rian Malan (The Bodley Head)To Rian MalanThis isn't going to be an easy review.Not for the usual, unstated reason: theyawning reviewer battled to finish thebook.I have just read My Traitor's hearthungrily, lured on and on. One breath-taking, lovingly crafted, always achingnarrative flows into the next.So how do I begin? Let me tell a smallstory of my own, or rather the bones of astory, the details have long since washedaway. Some time in the course of a prisonsentence I was abused verbally by aparticularly nasty prison officer- KaptcinArend Schnedcr. It was for somethingirrelevant that I have long since forgot-ten. Later when the officer and his entou-rage had disappeared, one of the warders(Basson? Badenhorst? or perhaps it waseven a Malan) glancing over his shoul-der, came down to me, clucking underhis breath, whispering in sympathy: 'Idon't care if a person is a warder, or aprisoner, or what. You just don't speak toa white man like that'.You see, reading your book hasbrought this now fading anecdote back tome. But why?I am not really sure. Maybe it hassomething to do with being lured into anunwanted complicity. This isn'tgoing tobe an easy review.Your book is written dangerously,looking over your shoulder. I don't meanin the sense that the person with the by-line `Rian Malan' goes into dangerous,front-line situations to bring us thesedespatches. I mean that you invite us intoyour heart. There is considerable hon-esty in your book. It would be rathercrass if I now rolled on to this terrain likea good old Soviet T64 tank and blastedaway something like this:You tell us: 'Even the CommunistParty deferred to Dawid Malan's legacyand organised under the slogan `workersof the world unite and fight for a whiteSouth Africa'. Nonsense! You prideyourself in being a hard-nosed, research-ing joumalist, and here you are repeatinga long debunked distortion which eventhe SATV did not quite manage to pur-vey in its recent `documentary' on theCommunist Party.`There are no classes in the UnitedStates?' No Rockefellers, no workingstiffs, no unemployed blacks, no mi-grants, Latinos? ... Come on!`Black democrats like Gatsha Buthe-lezi', you write. Without a trace of irony? Dealing with the1985-6periodwhichsaw, amongst other things, bitter UDF/AZAPO clashes, you speak of `BishopTutu's UDF'. At this time Tutu was apatron of both the UDF and the NationalForum of Azapo and CAL. But thatdoesn't quite suit the symmetry of yourargument. For the same period - you give onlythe barest hint that 40 000 people weredetained under the State of Emergency,and the overwhelming majority werefrom UDF structures. The resulting andmassive dislocation to organisationaldiscipline and political strategy, like-wise, doesn't quite fit your argument.Etc., etc...I could go on, but I don't want to bethis sort of T64 tank.WIP 70171 - Page 53

Page 49 of 65 BOOK REVIEWSWhen I started by saying that review-ers sometimes struggle to read books Iwas thinking of the novel I was meant toreview together with your book. Bycontrast with that novel, My Traitor'sHeart confirms me in a particular preju-dice.Most of the best writing that is goingon in our country at the moment, I meaneven aesthetically speaking, is in thefield of journalism. Personally, I findSouth Africa of the 1780s or the 1980sturned into fiction a great an-aesthetic.Your archival reconstruction of yourancestor Dawid Malan, who eloped inthe 1780s with a slave woman. Whoturned his back on white colonial privi-lege, only to emerge again this side of theGreat Fish River as the prime ideologuein the Slachter's Nek, racist rebellion,beats the fiction I've read covering simi-lar terrain. Ditto all the other narrativesyou weave together: the renegade NUMshop stcwarddispensing `protective' muttto a band of striking mineworkers beforethey wade fearlessly into gunfire butch-ering two white policemen; the life andtimes of the murderous Hammerman ofEmpangeni; the tragedy of the AzapoWauchope family in the midst of deadlysectarian struggles in Soweto; the Al-cocks in Msinga; and many more. Thereis truth here, and my T64 tank is notgoing to blast away with claims to thecontrary.But if journalistic writing, if the NewJournalism, is a powerful, compellingmode for our place and times, it also haspotential weaknesses. It is not innocent,and it is not merely empirical. Throughall the research there is the angle, theselection. No matter how often (and it ISoften in your book) that there is a pausefor pulse-taking and self-analysis, theauthor has motivations, some less de-clared than others.Let's get back to the complicity.Or rather, first, what's the angle run-ning though it all? What are the motiva-tions? You speak quite often of `mycircle of hell, the circle of white leftliberals'. You also speak of your own`Marxist' past (I could quibble, but Isuppose this 'Marxism' is like fear. Itmight be groundless, but if ilexists in thepysche of the beholder, it exists after afashion.)There are many shibboleths you at-tack in the course of your book. But at thecentre of it all is a sustained attack on, anexorcism of this `Marxism', this whiteleft liberalism.So let's gel back to the complicity. Agreat deal of what you say is absolutelycorrect. It connects with raw nerves.Hidden, unadmitted truths. Yes, there istruth in your book and I don't care whetheryou are a warder, or a prisoner, or what.But, at the end of the say, there is alsoa more fundamental sleight of hand. In-deed, despite all the apparent straight-talking, the fearless testing of nerve, theto-hell-with-the-bullshit, you arc carv-ing out a nice niche - having eloped, youarc now returning back over the mythicalGreat Fish River, to an uncomfortablycomfortable place with a tough-talkingNew Journalism your alibi.What is the device at play? When the17th century philosopher Descarteswanted to produce absolute certainty, tocut through the mists of medieval scho-lasticism, he began by doubting. Hedoubted everything and thought that inthe act of doubting he had secured hisfirst clear and distinct truth.My Traitor's Heart is forever signal-ling: what I am saying has not been easy.First there are all the physical dangers.This story comes from the frondines.Township stones rained down on my carroof. I was crapping in my pants. Here ismy despatch, it comes besplattered withblood. Look here and here. Ergo it mustbe true. The writing also proclaims itsorigins in psychological trauma. Here isliving proof, this text, this book, thisheart. Again, blood ergo truth.(There are moments when you be-come quite smug and elitist about thistruth framed within your sights: `Oureyes are scaled... Some whites see dan-ger, some see savages, some sec victims,and some see revolutionary heroes. Veryfew of us see clearly'.)There arc philosophical precedentsfor this theory of knowledge. The Inqui-sition was premised upon it, truth is bornof blood. Hemingway, in his way, intro-duced it into aesthetics. Spyker van Wykof the Security branch held to it - truthonly emerges out of pain.And what if the truth is often moreprosaic, more banal, or utterly morecomplex? After all, danger-run or bloodon the tiles is no proof of verity whatso-ever.Nevertheless, what is the supposed,absolute, bottom-line truth that emergesfrom your own morbid doubting?Strangely, but not so strangely, thismethodology of blood emerges with, asits a priori, axiomatic beginning ... Blood.Race. Biology.`I was desperate to win black trust andcritically of your younger self. Ah, yes,here there's complicity between you andme. I recognise that yearning. I know it.I remember it.And now all your New Journalismweaponry is brought to bear on this long-ing that we've shared. Every single nar-rative in your book is lined up to debunkthat innocent and naive yearning. Butyou draw the entirely wrong conclusionsfrom the debunking.What are the stories you tell designedto say? Basically this: in South Africa,when the barricades are up, it is black andwhite, simple. Blood and race. The proof?In the hour of the fires, as a white yourpolitical convictions and sympathies arenot inscribed on your forehead. In thetime of trouble, it is foolhardy as a whiteto wander on to the black side of thetownship barricades. The naive yearningfor acceptance is just that - naive.I agree, but 1 do not draw your conclu-sion that, therefore, it all comes down to`Africa, and the ancient mysteries ofrace'. The truth is at once a damned sightmore simple, and great deal more com-plex. Of course, in a bitter war situationit would be highly naive as a white,armed only with some progressive, innerconvictions, to wander into the town-ships. It would be equally naive of theblack comrades to accept your unlikelyexplanations.But this dots not mean that progres-sive whites arc foolhardy or naive to sidein a broader, more general but still activesense with the liberation struggle; to work,as thousands arc, in mundane, heroic orunheroic, passionate or slogging waysfor a non-racial, democratic or evensocialist South Africa.Politics is notonly, or notevcn mainlybarricades and brinkmanship. Of coursemany of the white comrades I am refer-ring to began where you and I began -with a naive longing to be trusted andloved by blacks in some kind of sweep-ing generic way. A generic way thatwould, of course, carry away a massiveguilt.Well, we all have to grow up.Our political commitments and analy-ses cannot be based on the desire for in-stant self-gratification, on some vaguedesire to be saluted and absolved by thedark masses out there.But equally, Rian Malan, nor shouldthey be based on petulant recoil into themythology of the ancient mysteries ofrace.Yours etcfriendship' you say honestly and self- I Jeremy CroninPage 54 WIP 70/71

Page 50 of 65 LABOUR TRENDS_. o'., vmallr OUR8A ,.ig W pqy: MffTy801VUSSfS H OwTackling the conglomerates: Barlow Rand workers at a recent demonstrationin JohannesburgThevictoriescontinue...struggle iscertainThe Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the Na-tional Council of Trade Unions (Nactu) have movedanother step closer to achieving their aims in theircampaign against the Labour Relations Act (LRA).As reported in WIP 69, the cabinet on 20 September accepteda proposal that a draft bill based on the Cosatu-Nactu-Saccolaaccord on the LRA - as amended by the National ManpowerCommission (NMC) and a working group established bypresident FW do Klcrk - be submitted for consideration by theparliamentary standing committee on manpower.The committee heard representations on the Labour Rela-tions Amendment Bill in late October, paving the way for it tobecome law next year.The labour federations arc quite naturally pleased with thisdevelopment. After all, they have been campaigning for thischange for over two years. There is, however, still someconcern about the steps that lie ahead.According to Cosatu's Geoff Schreiner, the bill is notentirely to the federation's liking; there is also a degree ofunceUainty about what will happen in standing committee and,later, in parliament.`The state's law advisers introduced certain changes whichwe believe change the substance of what was agreed in theworking group,' says Schreiner.Cosatu metwith Manpower MinisterEli Louw todiscuss itsobjections prior to giving evidence before the standing com-WIP 70/71 - Page 55

Page 51 of 65 LABOUR TRENDSDispute triggers20%2% 2%1 ~ I ~///,~ I I I I E~ I :-:~:~:~ I I I I 6;;~ #ZZWIn~( Wages ~ Dismissal = TU ecog Racism Central berg ~ Relrerrhment M Privatisation RepressionDisputes by sector50%any,i30%20%10%0%PubllC Sector ~~ GhemrCetEnQlnPerrrp = AIOIOrao%se%40%zooo%Mining IM TransportPaper OtherType of action3%( Strike ~ Sit-in ~ Lock-out Stoppage0 Demonstrationmittee. The minister noted the federa-tion's objections and undertook to tablethem as amendments with the standingcommittee.`If the Bill goes through as amendedin our talks with the minister, it will be agreat victory,' says Schreiner. `But itstanding committee and parliament.'The campaign around the LRA doesnot end here, however. As Schreinerpoints out: `Workers still have to winmany other rights.`For example, the right to strike is notentrenched in the law. Workers have thedepends on how it comes out of the I freedom to strike - provided theyfollowPage 56 WIP 7081certain procedures. But they can still befired for being on strike. Employers canalso interdict them from striking. And ifworkers live in company accommoda-tion, they can also be evicted during astrike.`If they had the right to strike - asworkers in other countries do - thesethings could not happen. This is funda-mental if we are start equalising the rela-tionship between capital and labour.'Trade union rights for all workers inSouth Africa is another goal that has notyet been attained.The Cosatu-Nactu-Saccola accordmakes provision for civil servants andfarm and domestic workers - who arepresently excluded from the ambit of theLRA - to be covered by the Act.The government, however, is stillresisting this and the Bill differs from theaccord in this respect.Cosatu is also set upon ensuring thatlabour legislation is extended to thebantustans.The industrial court and the Depart-ment of Manpower are an additionalproblem.`At present the industrial court doesnot have credibility - it must be revamped.Similarly, the Department of Manpowerdoes not reflect modern realities.`We need to have effective mecha-nisms to give effect to any LRA,' saysSchreiner.Then there is is challenge posed byparticipation in the National ManpowerCommission.`In principle we have agreed to par-ticipate', says Schreiner, `but we need towork out things like who should be thereand what power it should have.' WIP monitored 34 disputes involvingsome 86 680 workers in the period be-tween 21 September and 24 October. Ofthese 26 were strikes, 2 work stoppages,3 sit-ins, 2 lock-outs and 1 a demonstra-tion.Three of the strikes were nationalstrikes, of which the largest is the Nam-pak strike which centres on a demand forcentralised bargaining.As can be seen in the graphs, wagesdemands were the trigger for the major-ity of the disputes, followed by unfairdismissals, and trade union recognition.The majority of the disputes occurredin the public sector and the chemical in-dustry.The mining and transport sectors werethe next hard-hit.

Page 52 of 65 STRIKES AND DISPUTES12 September to 24 OctoberNationalCompany I Union Waken Date DetailsNampak Ppwawu 3000 19 September The central issue in this strike is Ppwawu's demand that Nampakmanagement agree to centralised bargaining for the group instead of the presentsystem in terms of which the union bargains at 40 individual plants. Other demands ere thatNampak should pledge to help rebuild the defunct paperand printing industrial councils and institute a group-wide investigation into 'bugging' ofunion activities. Initially the strike involved workers at 19plants, but it subsequently escalated to encompass 32 plants. Management's response to thestrike has taken different forms. It has madeapplications in the industrial court and supreme court to interdict workers from striking. Ithas also withdrawn recognition agreements atseveral plants. And some 1 000 strikers had been dismissed at the time of going to press. Onthe union's side, several protests have been staged toreinforce the strikers demands. On 26 September some 200 workers demonstrated outside Nampak'sSanction head office. On 16 October some5 000 people - including strikers, community members and students - marched from Alexandratownship to the head office of Nampak's parentcompany, Barlow Rand. A march was also scheduled to take place in Cape Town on 25 October,after WIP went to press. The union has in additionrequested the TUC and the Anti-Apartheid-Movement in Britain to put pressure on two supermarketchains - Asda and Sainsbury - not to purchasesupplies from Nampak companies here- Cosatu has given the strike its full backing. On 22October the federation announced that the strike would bea major focus of national protest action designed to press demands for centralised bargainingat Barlow Rand subsidiaries. Members of variousCosatu affiliates have also taken action in solidarity with the strikers: there have beenpetitions, workstoppages and blacking of Nampak companies.Post Office Potwa ! 22000 18 September ' Postal workers staged sit-ins countrywide inrejection of the new Post Office Bill which makes provision for the Post Office to be splitinto separatepostal and telecommunications divisions. According to Potwa, this amounts to an attempt atprivatisation.SA government PSL 20000 16 October Thousands of so-called coloured civil servants went onstrike demanding a 20% wage increase and an end to job differentiation. Top-level talksbetween a senior official of the House of Representatives and government paymasters werescheduled to follow.TransvaalATC Numsa 600 14 July As reported in WIP 69, this dispute started in May when the companydismissed six Numsa members, three of them shop stewards. In an effortBrits to have them reinstated, workers began preparing for a legal strike. On 9 August,however, management obtained an industrial court orderinterdicting them from striking. On 14 August management instituted a lock-out. ATCsubsequently proposed that the dismissals should be referred toarbitration. The company also agreed to negotiate a recognition agreement with the union.Duvha colliery Num 870 27 August Workers embarked on a legal strike when management offered toincrease wages by 14.5% in response to their demand for aWitbank 3 October 29% across-the-board increase. During mediation on 20 September workersrevised their demand, asking for 15% increase instead. Management,however, refused to meet their demand. Thereafter, workers were issued with an ultimatum toreturn to work on 3 October or face dismissal.Management has since banned union meetings and ruled that workers may not wear union T-shirts.Fosroc CWIU 90 17 October Workers struck demanding the reinstatement of a dismissed worker.Home Care Potteries Cawu 69 27 August As reported in WIP 69, workers were locked out aftergoing on strike because management hired casual workers a month after retrenching 33 of theirVereeninging fellow workers. The matter has now been referred to the industrial court.Iscor Num 5000 17 October Mineworkers went on strike at 3 Iscor mines - the Thabazimbi andSishen iron ore mines and Grootgeluk colliery at Ellisras - following aSishen, Thabazimbi breakdown in wage talks with management. Workers demanded a minimum monthlywage of 8630, while management offered 8560 a month. OtherEllisras demands are for full-time shop stewards and 16 June and 21 March as paid holidays. Ata meeting with management on 24 October Numproposed that the parties go to mediation to try to settle the dispute. Iscor has agreed inprinciple to this.Kamillen Products Sacwu 31 5 July Workers went on strike when management offered a wageincrease of R95 a month in response to their demands for: a 8150 a monthJohannesburg 3 September across-the-board increase; a 40-hour working week; a thirteenthcheque; and 21 March as a paid holiday. According to Sacwu, the action came afterthe company reneged on an agreement to allow union auditors to examine its books. The disputewas settled when workers accepted a wageincrease of R90 per month from September to December followed by a R30 per month increase inJanuary 1991 and a further R10 a month hike inSeptember 1991.

Page 53 of 65 Lebowa government Notrapsw 16000 19 September Lebowa's civil servants went on strike demandingrecognition of their union, the Northern Transvaal Public Service Workers' Union (Notrapswu),Lebowakgomo 10 October permanent employment for casual labourers and an end to various forms ofdiscrimination. The strike was characterised by high levels of violence,with several arson attacks on government buildings. Six executive members of the union weredetained during the action. The strike was resolved on9 October after negotiations between the bantustan government, Notrapswu and Cosatu. Thegovernment undertook to negotiate a recognitionagreement with the union and granted Cosatu permission to hold a rally at Lebowakgomo on 21October to report on the settlement. In retum,Cosatu and the union made a pledge not to call for any strikes, boycotts or other actions inthe region while negotiations with the government areunderway. The detainees were released after talks between Notrapswu and the police.Lichtenburg m'pality Nups 108 27 September The workers, who earn between 8200 and 8300 a month,downed tools demanding a minimum monthly wage of 8520 and recognitionof Nups. Management held talks with the union the same day and indicated that they wouldconsider the wage demand. When the unionrepresentatives went to report back, however they found that the workers had already beenserved with dismissal notices. The union has declared adispute and applied for a conciliation board.Matla Colliery Num 860 22 October Mineworkers went on a one-day strike when management decidedto take disciplinary action against 40 of their workmates for Witbank 23 Octoberusing changehouses allocated for skilled workers. The action of the 40 formed part of Num'sdefiance campaign to end racist practices on the mines.The strikers insisted that the 40 should not be singled out and that management should rathertake action against all of them. The dispute wasresolved when management agreed not to institute disciplinary action against the 40 in returnfor an undertaking from workers not to usechangerooms for skilled workers.Meyerton m'pality MSFAWU 202 30 July As reported in WIP 69, workers downed tools after thecouncil offered to increase wages by 8395 a month in response to their Meyerton demand foran increase of 8800 across the board. On 1 August they were all dismissed. The council hassince offered to re-employ 89 of the strikers but hasi refused to do the same for the others, saying their posts have been made redundant. Thedispute has been referred to the relevant industrial council.Motovia TGWU 94 27 September The workers, who are long distance drivers, went on strike inprotest against long working hours and the company's decision West Wood to withdrawtravel allowances. A third demand was for the reinstatement of a dismissed workmate. Accordingto TGWU, workers are expected to work 24 hours aday when on duty. To back their demand, workers embarked on an overtime ban, knocking off at5pm every day. On 27 September managementobtained a court order interdicting workers from continuing with the overtime ban. Workers,however, defied the order. On 28 September they wereall dismissed. Management subsequently offered to re-employ the workers provided they signedshort-term contracts. Workers rejected this sayingthe issue of short-term contracts should be discussed with the union at national level.Pact PPWAWU 270 25 September Workers downed tools demanding an audience with Pact deputygeneral director Louis Bezuidenhout after a report-back by Ppwawu Pretoria shopstewards on talks with management over stop order facilities. The union had for several monthsbeen demanding that Pact deduct union dues frommembers' pay packets. Pact's response was that it was locked into an agreement with anotherunion and was awaiting an exemption from therelevant industrial council. All the workers were dismissed less than two hours after the startof the work stoppage.Pietersburg Hospital Nehawu ! 300 27 September Workers staged a work stoppage after a whitewage clerk was racially abusive to a worker. The worker, who had been queuing28 September ' for pay, left the queue to go to the toilet. When she returned, the clerkaccused her of jumping the queue. The workers demanded that the derkapologise publicly. They resumed work after management forced the clerk to accede to theirdemand.Post office, Joh'burg Potwa 100 2 October I The workers, who live in post office houses inMolapovilla in Soweto, staged a demonstration outside Jeppe Street post officePotgieters Transport TGWU 38 4 September Workers went on strike demanding recognition of TGWUand the reinstatement of 5 workers who were dismissed because they had joined the union.Lichtenburg A third grievance was the company's decision to withdraw 7 workers' company cars.Management agreed to reinstate 4 of the dismissed workers,but refused to do the same for the fifth, or to accede to the strikers' other demands. All thestrikers were dismissed on 4 September. The union thenmade an application in the industrial court to have them reinstated under section 43 of theLRA. The application was, however, refused on thegrounds that the strike was illegal.Pretoria Glass CWIU 52 9 July As reported in WIP 69, workers at Pretoria Glass & Aluminium wenton strike in protest against the dismissal of a fellow Pretoria worker. All were on16 July. Management has since re-employed 17 of the strikers. The union is fighting thedismissals in the industrial court.Reckitt & Coleman CWIU 350 29 May As reported in WIP 69, workers embarked on a legal strike inan effort to force the company to participate in the Chemical Elandsfontein Industries'National Provident Fund and were all dismissed at the end of June. In response, the unioncalled for a consumer boycott of the company's products.I A conciliation board hearing on 19 October failed to resolve the dispute. A continuation ofthe consumer boycott is under consideration.

Page 54 of 65 Samancor Numsa 2000 30 August Workers embarked on a legal strike when management offered toincrease wages by 15% in response to their demand for increasesWitbank 19 September of between 15% and 360. The dispute was settled when workers accepted anoffer for a 16% increase which raises wages for Meyerton unskilledworkers to R4.55/hour and to R10.92/hour for skilled employees. Other improvements include timeoff for shop steward training and an undertakingby management to abide by job security clauses in the Main Agreement for the metal industry.SAMIEA Numsa 30 11 October Some 30 Numsa shop stewards, who represents 60 000 union members,staged a sit-in at the Pretoria office of the SA Motor Pretoria 11 OctoberIndustry Employers' Association (SAMIEA) to back wage demands currently being negotiated by theunion and the employer body. Workers aredemanding 84.50 an hour. Management is offering 82.50 an hour.Sigma Colliery Sacwu 2000 29 August Workers at this Sasol mine went on strike when negotiationson wages and working conditions broke down. Workers were demanding a minimumSasolburg 20 September wage of R1 299 a month; a 8400 across-the-board increase; more paidholidays; an improved shift allowance and reduced hours of work. Thecolliery had offered to increase the minimum wage by between 20% and 30% (which would havebrought the minimum wage for undergroundemployees to 8500 a month and 8454 a month for surface employees) and to increase the number ofstatutory paid holidays from 7 to 8. On 3September 8 union members were arrested, charged with malicious damage to property and allowedbail of 8200. On 13 September all strikers weredismissed. The dispute was resolved after mediation by IMSSA. The union settled on a 30%increase which raises the minimum for undergroundworkers to 8150 a month and for surface workers to 8469 a month.Zebediela Citrus NUFW 1500 8 August As reported in WIP69, workers at this state-owned farm wenton strike demanding a 50% increase and a minimum wage of 8400 a month as well asPietersburg recogntion of NUFW. On 8 and 9 October the strikers were evicted from theirquarters by Lebowa police in terms of a court order obtained bymanagement. The farm's security personnel, whom the strikers had accused of harassing them, andwho live in mud huts on the estate, then movedinto the quarters. On 12 October the magistrate who had sanctioned the eviction of the strikersrescinded ft court order. This meant that the strikerscould re-occupy their quarters. However, the security guards refused to move out and on 15October went on strike themselves. Nactu hasthreatened to call a national stayaway over the dispute.OwaOwa government Nehawu 8000 17 SeptemberQWaQWaOFSCivil servants went on a one-day strike over the arrest the previous day of 10 Nehawu officialswho had staged a seven-day sit-in at the bantustangovernment's offices after the government reneged on an undertaking to discuss the summarydismissal of 528 workers. Theofficials were charged with trespassing.NatalIndian Ocean Fertilizer CWIU 250 13 August As reported in WIP 69, management imposed a lock-outafter workers voiced their dissatisfaction with wages and working Richards Bayconditions.Mediation on the dispute took place on 1 November, but the outcome was not known at the timeWIPwent to press.Mainline Carriers TGWU 150 23 September Workers went on strike demanding the reinstatement of asenior shop steward who had been dismissed. Management responded by Pinetowndismissing them all. In subsequent negotiations with the union, management offered to reinstate63 workers but not the rest. The union rejected theoffer. Talks are continuing.Nicholas Kiwi CWIU 80 23 October Workers went on strike demanding the dismissal of a supervisorwho had been rude.CapeCape Electric Lamp CWIU 100 10 September Workers at Electric Lamp Manufacturers staged a sit-infollowing a deadlock in wage talks. On 13 September management obtained a court orderPort Elizabeth interdicting them from being on the premises. The workers, however, refused toleave. They were evicted by police on 14 September.Ellerines Saccawu 100 17 September Workers at seven stores in the Ellerines group embarked on astrike demanding the reinstatement of 2 dismissed colleagues. It Port Elizabeth was laterannounced that negotiations with management were underway.Mercedes-Benz SA Numsa 200 16 August This strike began when a group of employees oppsed to theNational Bargaining Forum (NBF) - a body established last year at Numsa's request as aEast London 8 October forum for negotiating wages and working conditions at 6 motormanaufacturers - downed tools demanding that management negotiate these issues atplant level. They did so because they believed they could get a better deal that way asMercedes pays more than the other manufacturers. The workersthen occupied the factory. On 10 August management obtained a court interdict ordering thestrikers to leave the plant. The order was not heeded. On21 August Mercedes announced that they had been dismissed. On 2 September police evicted them.The company thereafter announced thatproduction would not resume until: damage to the plant had been assessed and repaired; Numsagave assurances that the problems over the NBF had

Page 55 of 65 Rodclands PoultryUitenhagebeen resolved; Numsa satisfied management that workers would abide by the terms of theiremployment contracts and any other agreements betweenthe union and the company; and both the union and the company agreed on a practical process toremove problems that affect the company's growthand viability. Agreement on these issues was reached in late September. Numsa also confirmedthat workers had agreed to accept the wageagreement concluded at the NBF. Production resumed on 3 October. The dismissal of 538 workersduring the strike has been referred to arbitration.Just under 200 workers were dismissed on 21 August when they refused to heed an order to returnto work following sporadic industrial action flowingfrom a dispute between Fawu and the company over several issues, including wages and theemployment of casual workers on a permanent basis.After the dismissals the workers occupied the plant. On 22 August the company obtained anurgent supreme court interdict, ordering them to leave.Fawu says the dismissals constitute an unfair labour practice and is taking up the matter inthe industrial court as well as rallying community support forthe workers.Fawu21 AugustRonber CWIUPharmaceuticalsDimbaza14 August As reported in WIP69, workers went on strike demanding recognition of CWIU and weredismissed on 17 August. Ten of the Dimbaza workers have~since been re employed. The union has applied for a conciliation board to determine the fateof the remaining 26 workers.TRTCButterworthTGWUTranskei6 AugustThis dispute began on 3 August when workers at Transkei Road Transport Corporation'sButterworth depot downed tools demanding an explanation forthe suspension over the past month of 57 of their workmates. Management refused to accede tothe demand Umtata and later called in the police toact as mediators. In the interim, however, news of the dispute reached workers at thecorporation's Umtata depot. They demanded a meeting withmanagement to discuss events at Butterworth. On 6 August 400 Umtata depot workers downed toolsand forced management to talk to them by lockingthe depot gate. One member of management did, however, manage to leave the depot. He summonedthe police. On 7 August police called in theTranskei army to run the depot. Management also obtained an urgent court order interdicting theUmtata depot workers from disrupting operations atthe depot or molesting or intimidating those who wanted to work. On 8 August the court orderwas extended to cover all TRTC depots in the bantustanand the army took responsibility for running all services. A hearing to determine whether theinterim interdict should be made a permanent order was setdown for 6 September. There have, however, been several postponements and the matter was due tobe heard on 11 November. Management hasrefused to have any dealings with TGWU throughout the dispute. Eight shop stewards from theUmtata depot, who were detained after 7 August underTranskei's equivalent of section 29 of the Internal Security Act, were released in mid-October.

Page 56 of 65 CONTENTSBRIEFS The new Tucsa Uncle Tom Freedom Fighters Potwa congress Bantustanunion trade-offsTHE ANC The search for political direction The ANC Youth League What kindof ANC does the SACP want? TheWomen's League Democracy for beginnersTOWNSHIP WAR 20Migrant workers: cannonfodder for reactionary partiesHOSTELS Looking for an alternative to hellHEALTH Post-apartheid health policies Health for allEDUCATION From crisis to catastrophe The formation of SADTUMEDIA Does the ANC have a policy?THE LAND Responses to a new report on rural developmentANGOLA The long road to peaceBOOK REVIEWS Glen Moss reviews MK: The ANC's armed struggle and DeathSquads: Apartheid's secretweapon Jeremy Cronin looks at My Traitor's Hears by Rian MalanLABOUR TRENDS 55The LRAStrikes and disputesComing home to problemsANC President Oliver Tambo is due home in the first weeks of December,shortly before the movement'sDecember 16 Consultative Conference. A mammoth task awaits the ANCleadership - and the membership as awhole ahead. Pages 4 -18Capital in the countrysideTwo stinging attacks on the new Urban Foundation report on land reformPages 44 - 48Organising the classChallenges facing SADTU South Africa's first united teachers' federation

Page 57 of 65 THE NEW TUCSAHell forleatherMIDDLE-OF-THE-ROADtrade unions are involved inan initiative to form a newunion federation.The main force behindthe initiative is FreddieSwartz, general secretary ofthe 5 500-strong TransvaalLeather and Allied TradesIndustrial Union. He haswritten to approximately176 unaffiliated unionsinviting them to attend ameeting in Johannesburg on21 November to establishwhether there is sufficientcommon ground amongthem to warrant theestablishment of a newumbrella body.In the letter, Swartz statesthat unionists from theunaffiliated unions haveoften expressed the need toget together in a federation,and points out that they havemore members than thecombined membership ofthe Congress of SA TradeUnions (Cosatu) and theNational Council of TradeUnions (Nactu). Theprinciples on which such anew federation would bebased, he adds, couldinclude non-racialism, non-violence, non-involvementin party politics andopposition to sanctions anddisinvestment.Swartz also points outthat unaffiliated unionsfrequently find themselvesin conflict with Cosatuunions in the course of theirwork and that if they wanttheir views to be heard theyhave to unite.'There are manydisadvantages in not beingin a federation', Swartz toldWIP in response to queriesabout the initiative. 'Othergroupings claim they speakon behalf on labour. But interms of numbers and policythey do not really representthe whole of labour. Thesegroupings are also closelyaligned to certain politicalparties. We are not sure thatis a role labour should play.The response to the letterhas been 'heartening', headds. -Robyn RafelTHE NEW RIGHTThe UncleTomfreedomfightersON THE last Friday ofOctober, Zimbabwe UnityMovement leader EdgarTekere could be found some30km out of Johannesburgenjoying that much-lovedSouth African form ofentertainment, thebraaivleis.If eyebrows were raised itwas not because of theAfrikaner- inspired cuisine(after all, United DemocraticFront treason trialists havebeen known for theiraddiction to biltong) butbecause of the company.Tekere's hosts on thisoccasion were the FederalIndependent DemocraticAlliance (Fida), whoseaffinity to Tekere was ex-plained in their letter ofinvitation: 'He has first-handexperience of Africanisationand is a strong opponent ofMarxism and the one-partysystem', the letter stated.Fida, headed by 52-year-old former churchman JohnGogotya, was brought intobeing in mid-1987 - a yearinto South Africa's longeststate of emergency and incircumstances where tens ofthousands of UDFsupporters had beendetained without trial.Following Fida's launch,Gogotya expressed strongopposition to the UDF -which 'had high on itsagenda plans to necklaceblack moderates like us' -and to the system of oneperson, one vote. ' We haveseen what this has done tothe rest of Africa', he said.'It has brought oppressionand deprivation to the wholecontinent'.The man who believedjust two years ago that ANCleader Nelson Mandela was'in jail by his own choice',hailed Tekere as a freedomfighter.And, within a week of theTekere braai, Gogotya andhis team were closeted in theUnion Buildings withpresident FW de Klerkjockeying for a place at thenegotiating table andasserting that - provided onedid away with 'simplisticmodels such as the"Westminster system"' - theprinciple of one person, onevote could be respected.Fida claims anythingbetween 300 000 and600 000 supporters. Itsactivities are all-butunreported. Gogotya claimsthis is not because theorganisation does little ofnote, but because the mediahas systematically boycottedits events.Fida has been seen inanti-apartheid circles as astate project, as part of thecounter-revolutionarystrategy pursued since themid-80s by the Botharegime, which involvedsmashing democraticorganisations and insertinggovernment-sponsoredstructures into the resultantvacuum.The suspicion arose notonly from the timing of theFida launch, but also fromGogotya's association withMaboyi Zondo who in turnwas linked with a vigilantegroup which operated withimpunity in its war againstUDF-aligned groups in theEastern Transvaal town ofLeandra.While Gogotya hasalways denied governmentlinks, until recently herefused to disclosealternative sources ofsponsorship. Now he statesthat South African business,often through the AfrikaanseSakekamer, is a majorbenefactor. So, he says, aremultinational oil companies.He remains insistent thatFida receives no foreignfunds. But it is quite clearthat the organisationconsiders itself part of aninternational anti-Marxistmovement. Propaganda ofthe International FreedomFoundation adorns the wallsof its Johannesburg headoffice.And Gogotya is alsochairman of the ProgressiveAlliance, which makesclaims on Christianity in itsstridently anti-ANC/SACPpitch and has Richard JHarty of the WorldCommonwealth Foundationmanning its Washingtonoffice.Tekere's primary SouthAfrican host is considerablyless contentious than Fida.He is Phil Khumalo,described in the press twoyears ago asJohannesaburg's 'fastestgrowing black businessman'and head of a venture calledBusiness Challenge.Khumalo, the first blackSouth African to be granteda Nashua franchise and aformer lecturer in smallbusiness development atWits University businessschool, sent his daughtgr anddesignated successor, Pam,to university in Harare.The motto of BusinessChallenge, says sales co-ordinator Sydney Maisela, is'we put people intobusiness'. He adds thatparty-political alignment isout. `We deal with anybody,but anybody'.Business Challenge doesthis in a number of ways: bycollectively investing themodest contributions of itsmembers with the AlliedBuilding Society, in anelaboration of the stokvelprinciple, and providingPage 2 WIP 7Om

Page 58 of 65 BRIEFScollateral for loans made by Allied.Secondly it links the 'informal sector' very firmly with big capital,providing agents for major manufacturers -including the United Tobacco Company, which markets a wide range ofcigarettes.Apolitical as Business Challenge affects to be, it is certainly a secondcircuit to big capital and hardly theshortest route of access to any of the liberation organisations in thecountry. Fida, without doubt, is inimical tosimple non-racial democracy and the organisations which promote it.No doubt, as he extended his stay in South Africa Tekere reached beyondthese initial sponsors. But his strangeentree does more than tease. It calls to mind his electoral alliance earlythis year with Ian Smith's all-whiteElectoral Alliance. - WIP CorrespondentMERGEROne post Office, one unionA MERGER with two other post office staff associations and privatisation ofthe post office are two key items onthe agenda for the Post and Telecommunication Workers' Association (Potwa)congress in Johannesburg inJanuary next year.Other matters that will come up for discussion are negotiations between theAfrican National Congress and thegovernment and greater participation by Potwa members in civic associations.Potwa president Kgabisi Mosunkutu says a merger with the 5 300-strong PostalEmployees Association of SA (Peasa), whose membership is predominantlycoloured, and the SA Post andTelecommunication Employees' Association (Saptea), which has 1 260 Indianmembers, has been on the cardsfor some time.Says Mosunkutu: 'The congress will open the way for the merger with Peasaand Saptea - probably in the middleof next year. At the same time Potwa will be transformed into afullyfledged trade union, in line with a resolutionadopted at our 1988 congress. After that the major challenge will be toorganise white workers into the union'. -Henson SomperhaLABOURBantustan union trade-offsTRADE unions have not wasted time in exerting their influence in Ciskei andTranskei where they have recentlybeen given the green light to operate: they've pushed the two bantustansinto making changes to the new labourlaws. As reported in WIP 69, the new labour dispensation in Transkei cameinto effect in June and in Ciskei inJuly. In late September and early October Cosatu requested furtherconcessions in talks with Ciskei's Brigadier .Oupa Gqozo and Transkei's General Bantu Holomisa. Briefly, the changesCosatu has won in Ciskei are:farm and domestic workers, and those employed in small businesses (concernsemploying less than 20 workers),who were previously excluded fromthe ambit of the new law, will now be covered by it. Farm and domesticworkers are already covered in Transkei;workers are no longer required to give employers 24 hours notice if theyintend going on strike. By the sametoken, bosses do not have to give notice if they intend imposing a lockout;the 180-day time limit for parties to refer disputes to conciliation boardsis to be extended;requirements for trade union registration will be simplified. Two unionsare already registered: the SA Clothing &Textile Workers' Union (Sactwu) and the SA Municipal Workers'Union. Bothare Cosatu affiliates. Sactwu and twoother Cosatu unions - the National Union of Metalworkers and the ChemicalWorkers'Industrial Union - are registered in Transkei. In its talks with Holomisa,Cosatu asked for the law to be extendedto cover government and parastatal workers and for union registrationprocedures to be simplified. No details ofthe concessions the Transkei military leader is prepared to make wereavailable when WIP went to press,although Cosatu regional chair Thembinkosi Mkalipi said the discussion was'very good and positive'.Nevertheless, both leaders are still firmly excluding civil servants frombeing covered by the new laws.Gqozo, clearly threatened by the prospect of strikes in the public serviceand journalists not toeing the line, hasannounced that journalists at Radio Ciskei are regarded as civil servants. -Louise FlanaganCo-operative Planning and Education (Cope) Cope, a development agencyproviding training and education for co-operatives and community development, invites applications for thefollowing positions:Business Planner This is a challenging position for someone experienced inthe field of business administration,planning and management. Previous work in development an asset. Experiencein the field of business essential.Senior Projects officer This post involves development and resourceplanning for large-scale development projectswhich will involve co-operatives and community businesses. Experience indevelopment work or co-operativesessential.Applications, together with a full CV and the names, addresses andtelephone numbers of two referees, shouldreach Cope before December 1 1990. Send applications to:The Co-ordinator, Cope, PO Box 93540, Yeoville 2143 South Africa.WIP 70171 - Page 3

Page 59 of 65 16 December 1990It's all systems go for the ANC's first Consultative Conference since 1985 -the movement's first legal conferenceinside the country since its was banned in 1961. In this special 15-pagefocus, WORK IN PROGRESS looks atsome of the issues due to he discussed on December 16. We also look at theSACP's expectations of the ANC,the role of the Youth and Women's Leagues - and finally, offer an incisive'delegates manual' for those attendingtheir first ANC conference.

Page 60 of 65 THE ANCThe search for political directionThere will he little time for celebration at the ANC consultativeconference onDecember 16. There are too many serious challenges facing theorganisation to allow for triumphalism, as Jenny Cargill reportshilt the African National Congress (ANC) has downgraded its December 16national conference to a consultativeone, the gathering will be no less important.The consultative conference will face two crucial challenges:to break tile ANC's current organisational inertia; andto fill the vacuum on the key issue of strategy and tactics for the monthsahead.The movement's National Executive Committee (NEC) had perhaps little choicebut to postpone a fully-fledgedconference. Just two months from the scheduled date, only a handful ofdraft policy papers had been prepared,and still fewer had been distributed to branches for discussion. Thisthreatened to taint the conference asundemocratic even before it started. Since the consultative conference hasa more limited agenda, thedistribution of papers and resolutions is more manageable, and theprospects for democratic participation bydelegate, albeit around fewer issue, arc improved.Added to that, sluggish progress in negotiating the release of politicalprisoners and tile return of cxi les promiced only limited representation from the two groups with the greatestexperience of the movement and its current leadership. To have pushed ahead with a fully fledged nationalconference without their participation wouldhave added to the growing restlessness in what is historically the ANC'sinner core.But the ANC still needs todcmandofgovcrnmcnt the right to bring to the:December conference a strong exilecontingent. 'ibis, says one senior ANC source, will be vital to creatingthe necessary ' unity and trust in the build-up' to the proposed national

Page 61 of 65 THE ANCMANDELA!S COMING!While surveys put ANC support at more than 50 percent of the country'spotential voters, actual membership Isa mere 150 000.conference next June.The postponement of the national conference also provides the fledglinginternal branches with time to get abetter feel of the ANC, to form realistic opinions about individual membersof the leadership, as well as to debateand test mechanisms of internal accountability and democracy.The character of the national conference as it was initially envisaged wasbeing shaped more by notions of theANC being a government- in-waiting than by the challenges confronting aliberation movement still involved instruggle. Conference organiser and NEC member James Stuart said policyformulation was necessary not just to'manage this period of transition', but to ` prepare for a future non-racialgovernment'.This agenda included a long list of policy papers, covering a number ofissues - such as the environment - whichwould not have even earned a cursory mention before.But a number of leading ANC members feel this concentration wasinappropriate. The current political climate - inparticular, the violence - has necessitated a re-ordering of priorities,they argue: the issue of struggle, and itscomponent pillars must be re-asserted - though without losing sight of thelonger term goals and policies.As such, the December 16 conference will centre more on issues of themoment, such as the political situation,the state of ANC organisation, and strategy and tactics to guide the ANCthrough thePage 6 - WI P 70171current period.The postponement of NEC elections to June is both problematic andadvantageous.A leadership whose mandate has not only run its course, but was obtainedfrom what is now just one section ofthe ANC (the exiles), will be taking the organisation into a crucialpolitical phase - negotiations proper.To some extent, the ANC has already tried to address this inadequacy. Moreoften than not, NEC meetings todayinclude Mass Democratic Movement (MDM), notably Cosatu, leaders. Usuallyyoung and well-schooled ingrassroots politics, their presence necessarily changes the character ofthe NEC. However, this presence isdiscretionary, and not guaranteed.It is still unclear whether the December conference will consider optionsfor ensuring a more representativeleadership. Options could include entrenching extended NEC meetings as aninterim measure and electing aspecific team for negotiations, for instance.Currently, the ANC teams leading and facilitating talks arc entirelydominated by people recently returned fromexile. Should the ANC not be drawing on the immense experience of unionleaders in negotiating, as well as thefine legal acumen of many home-based lawyers?A point in favourof the postponement of elections is the extra time itgives members to get to know those inleadership positions, therefore providing the opportunity for a morerational vote inJune next year.While downgraded in status, the conference needs to kick off with anunderstanding that serious organisationaland strategic decisions cannot be delayed until June. As one ANC sourceputs it: ` Six months is too long to wait'.In his view, this means that the pervadingatmosphereatthe conference mustbe one of ` openness', wheredelegates arc not just voting fodder. Leadership adulation - with delegatesbeing overawed by proceedings and `names' - has to be avoided, he argues.Regional conferences have already given pointers to possible pitfalls onDecember 16. Specifically, from the start,the conference needs to devise and agree on procedures which ensure peoplevote on the issues and arc not justled by personalities.Enough has already happened in the few months since the unbanning of theANC to get a sense of the kind ofissues that arc likely to dominate the proceedings. And, with the impact ofnegotiations unfolding, debate isalready underway on the mostappropriate strategy and tactics for the comingmonths.A growing view in ANC ranks is that the organisation is sorely missing acoherent plan that spells out all theelements in this current phase of struggle and how they inter-relate.Consequently, the organisation has slippedinto a oncdimensional approach, with the talks having almost a monopoly onthe movement's energies andresources.Because of this, the ANC assertion that negotiations is a terrain ofstruggle in which the masses arc involved hasremained merely rhetorical.Past ANC strategy was premised on four pillars of struggle: mass action,the underground, armed struggle, andinternational support for the democratic movement and the internationalisolation of the apartheid state.The negotiating process begs a number of questions which the conferencewill need to debate vigorously. An ANCstatement on the December 16 conference emphasised the agenda would includeissues such as an interimgovernment and constituent assembly. The government finds both these issuesparticularly contentious, and ANCnegotiators have signalled some readiness to compromise on them. Delegateswill no doubt want to expressthemselves on any such readiness to compromise: under what circumstances,if any, could such a compromisebe tactically justified? How

Page 62 of 65 THE ANCcould leadership be kept democraticallyaccountable to membership in the eventof such a compromise, yet retain a neces-sary degree of flexibility?But the crucial question before theconference isn't whether or not to nego-tiate and compromise tactically in theprocess. Rather, it is how to ensure abalanced and realistic strategy of whichnegotiations arc merely one componentpart.Currently, mass action is being heav-ily underlined by many ANC membersas a guarantor of progress at the negoti-ating table. Recentpolitical developmentshave made clear the struggle for consti-tutionalised democratic freedoms is byno means over.In an article for the ANC mouthpiece,Sechaba, political education chief Ray-mond Suttncr argues for the movementto 'focus very strongly' on ' our mostpowerful area - the political terrain'. Hesays while the ANC 'initiated the pres-ent process, we do not automaticallyretain the initiative'.The ANC' has to keep the momentumgoing and in fact ensure that we put thedemocratic forces in command, dictatethe pace of struggle from the streets,townships, workplaces, ctc', adds Suttncr.This emphasis demands that massaction is also discussed in the context ofthe ANC's relationship with the MDMand its alliance partners. And consulta-tion between the the ANC, SACPand theMDM, it is widely acknowledged, mustbe radically improved.International isolation is another pil-lar of struggle that will undoubtedlycontinue to command strategic attention.The most likely outcome is an endorse-ment of the current thinking on retaininginternational pressure in principle, whileemploying tactical flexibility.The underground remains an clementof the ANC's current political approach.It is, after all, guarantor of continuedexistence if the talks fail and South Af-rica returns to all-out repression ofdemocratic opinion. Yet, in practice theunderground appears to have been leftout of current strategising. Both the Po-litical Military Council (PMC) respon-sible overall for underground operationsanti its regional subsidiaricsarc no longerfunctioning. This makes the undergroundmore abstract than real - a situation whichis obviously difficult to sustain.The ANC also has to consider whetherit has the resources to retain at leasta coreof its underground, or whether both re-sources and personnel might be betterZuma: With all his commitments, isthere time for organisational work?Suttner... ANC must dictate the pace01 struggle from the streetsdeployed elsewhere.The underground also creates a di-lemma for the ANC at the level of prin-ciple: can the ANC retain clandestinity ata time when it is trying to democratise itsranks?Therefore, it is difficult to sec theconference resolving to breathe new liftinto the underground. But clear deci-sions arc necessary on it.Umkhonto we Sizwe is a more com-plex problem. The ceasefire has trans-formed it into an army-on-hold, whichremains nonetheless undcrprcssurc fromPretoria. So far there has been no clarityon how the ANC views MK's role - if ithas any at all - in the negotiations.The conference will have to give scri-ousattention tothe uncertainty and senseof insecurity which affects MK cadresinside the country and, more particu-larly, the 4 000-odd in camps abroad.Having been recruited, mobilised andtrained for war, and having been pre-pared to make the supreme sacrifice,they deserve and need (perhaps more sothan many others) to be kept fully abreastof, and involved in developments to-wards a negotiated settlement.Ctear decisions on strategy andtactics will mean little if theDecember consultative confer-ence does not adequately address an-other key item on the agenda, the state ofthe ANC's internal organisation.In short, ANC organisation lookspretty shoddy.Undoubtedly, problems of relocationfrom exile, the violence, and limitedresources arc inhibiting the ANC's abil-ity to build a mass legal base.But the ANC's organisational short-comingsare not adequately explained bythese difficulties.Structurally, the ANC has an InternalLcadcrshipCorc (ILC) tasked with build-ing a new, legal and mass-based move-ment. Under it arc two committees: thepolitical and organising committees.According to sources in ANC head-quarters, the workload of political com-mittce members has made it impossiblefor the committee to strategist on a dailybasis.The organising committee, say thesesources, is also not functioning. The statehas effectively blocked a number ofmembers joining the committee: somedo not have the necessary immunity toenter the country; Mac Maharaj is de-tained; and Ronnie Kasrils is in hiding toavoid arrest. Others 1 ike Jacob Zuma andPopo Molcfe have numerous othcrcom-mitmcnts. And Chris Hani only returnedto circulation in September, after weeksin the Transkei waiting for renewal of hisindemnity.The end result is dismal recruitmentfigures. While surveys put ANC supportat more than 50 percent of the country'spotential voters, actual membership is amere 150 O(>n.Given that the political space formobilisation has never been better, theconference must find this result intolcr-ablc. And it would be seriously amiss ifit closes without suggesting workablesolutionsand appointing people who ranand will actually do the job.In essence, the conference needs to beless a celebration of achievements instruggle, and more a planning forumsocking solutions to a complex politicalprocess. The ANC cannot afford to letthis chance at pulling together a coherentstrategy and tactics slip away - as hap-pened five years ago at Kabwe.WIP 70/71 - Page 7

Page 63 of 65 THE ANCRead, young lion, readPage 8 - WI P 70/71[nothing else, members of the Afri-can National Congress Youth Leaguewill be. constitutional expert,; bY thetime the league is formally launched nextyear. As you read this, many of them arcprobably grappling with the new la-pagc ANC Youth League ProvisionalConstitution and its Code of Conduct -complete with its classification of 'gravecruncs against the struggle' and suitablepenalties.At the beginning of this ),car, asmcntbersofindividual youth congressesaround the country, they had their own -vastly di(Icrent - constitutions and pro-grarnntes of action. Members of thePtked>erg Youth Congress, for example,would he bound by Pcyco's own consti-tution anti code of conduct.All that changed in April this year,when the SA Youth Congress (Sayco)national congrcssr-solvedtochangcfroma federal structure to a unitary structure,and individual ),oath congresses becameSayco branches. 1'eyco then became thePikethcrg branch of Sayco, and had todebate anti adopt it uniform draft consti-tution.'I'ftcn, a few weeks ago, a new, 'bible'arrived for discussion: the AN(' Youthleague constitution, complete with itsproposals for the establishment of aProvisional National Youth CommitteeWNYC), Htth a Provisional NationalYouth Secretariat (PNYS) and RegionalYouth Committees IRYCs), and theguidelines for axle of conduct.'I feel sorry for sonic of the youngert:ontrades', said it store experience(]Sa),co activist. 'It's it lot for them tograsp. Youth congress, Sayco branch,now ),otalt league...'The net effect of all this debate, foepointed out, is that many youth structureshave been able to do little campaignwork this year. Political organisation hashad tot stake Ha), for political colucation-anti die lack of activity has had a nunth-ing effect oat South Africa's 'YoungLions'.' We are used tot campaigning, build-ing, organising. We have lost some ofthat. Sometimes the youth no longer roar... He have tot remind them the struggledid not( end with the relcasc of Mandcla'.But Sa),co members arc not the onlyones grappling with new concepts: thevotttft league's constituency strctcltcsMokaba ... likely to continueleadership rolemuch wider, encompassing the highschtx)I membership of the Congress ofSouth African Students (Cows); the SANational SttttlenLs('ongrcss(Sansco)itn(INational Union of SA Students (Nusas),which organisc at universities; religiousyouth formations like the Young Chris-tian Students (YCS) and die CatholicStudents Association (Casa); and evenJcugkrag, which organises students onAfrikaans-language university campuses.Added to that arc: me rnbcrs of the ANC inexile, many of them members ofUmkhonto we Sizwe and the ANC YouthSection, who will join die Youth Leagueata slight disadvantage: as they will onlybe able to return home later this year, orpossibly even next year, they arc missingthe c racial processofthe next five months.All, however, are expected to join thenew umbrella youth league - although itis obvious that Sayco members will playthe leading role in this new btxly: morethan 24 of the 30 national rncrnhcrsof theI'NYC are Sayco members, as tire mostof the additional 14 regional youthcommittee leaders who sit on the 44-mcmbe.r I'NYC.Nobcxly is expecting the process to betrouble free. A recent pre-Youth Leagueweekend workshop of Sayco andJetrgkrag members, for exam plc, resultedin clashes over nationalisation and bothereconornic bogeys.The youth league has given iLscll* justover five months to wcld together thesedifferent traditions. It is to set atxmtforming branches, zones and regionsalong the lines of its 'mother btxly', theAN(', anti come up with a formationable, as the new, draft constitution says,'to serve not only the purpose of rein-forcing the AN(', but also to strive tot

Page 64 of 65 Toy soldier. A younger young lion at the launch of the ANC's Youth Leagueachieve the mobilisation of the broadestsections of the youth of our country'.The deadline set by the PNYC is 6April 1991 - 10th anniversary of thehanging of MK cadre SolomonMahlangu. One important issue whichwill need to be defined before then is therelationship between the Youth Leagueand its `senior partner', the ANC. Ac-cording to its draft constitution, the YouthLeague is `organisationally autonomous'of the ANC, but still `liaises closely'.The commercial media is alreadymaking comparisons between the newYouth Lcaguc and its predecessor, whichin the 1940s produced the `youth rcbcl-lion' by Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tamboand others. But it seems unlikely shat theyouth will be given enough leeway toactively push particularly militant posi-tions. Rather, it will probably encourageits members to become involved in ANCbranches, and to gather support for theirideas through these branches.That, too, will not he easy. Already,some ANC branches arc experiencingtension between young activists andolder, more established ANC stalwarts.Even now, five months away fromthat event, it is not difficult to predictsome of those who will make up theleadership: current Sayco president Pe-ter Mokaba, for example, is also chair-person of the PNYC and looks likely toconanuc his leadership role. The sameseems likely in the case of many of hiscolleagues in the Sayco NEC such asgeneral secretary Rapu Molekane (cur-rently in detention), Ignatius Jacobs (whoalso serves on the Transvaal interim lead-ership of the SA Communist Party) andKgaogclo Lckgoro - all of whom arc onthe PNYC.The only thing likely to preventMokaba's election is his age: at 32, someSayco members feel he is `too old' tolead the youth league. At present, thedraft constitution allows for membershipup to the age of 35 - but some Saycomembers arc arguing for the age limit tobe lowered l0 30.ANC members outside the country,organised into the ANC Youth Section,arc also hel icved to be keen to sec a lowerage limit. But they have, to a certainextent, been unable to feed in their ideasbecause they were denied governmentindemnity and were thus unable to returnhome. Communication mainly took placethrough Youth Section leader JackieSelchi, himself over 40 years of age andalso heavily involved in organising therepatriation of exiles.WIP 70/71 - Page 9

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