SUSPENDED union boss Thobile Ntola said the ANC was shooting itself in the foot trying to silence the likes of Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu.
Ntola said the party should produce more leaders like Tutu, to retain its moral high ground in society.
“When the Arch makes a noise and says this is wrong, the movement should not be the one silencing him. Instead, ANC elders must make an appointment with him and find out what he meant.”
A few months ago the Mail & Guardian published an interview “The Arch”, as he is known, gave the New York Times in May last year, in which he announced that he would not be voting for the ANC this year.
Tutu was quoted as saying: “South Africa has the capacity to be one of the most vibrant countries in the world. Our potential is immense. And it’s an ache, it is a very huge ache, for oldies like me to see our country deteriorating and slowly sliding off what we thought belonged to us – the moral high ground. It’s a great pain to see that we still have the kind of disparity we used to decry under the apartheid dispensation.”
Ntola said when the likes of Tutu “scream and say no, they are highlighting some abnormality”. Ntola was suspended last August for allowing suspended Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi to address a Western region Sadtu rally in Port Elizabeth.
Vavi had just been suspended after admitting that he had sexual relations with a junior colleague.
A faction of Sadtu supporters believe the suspensions are part of a witch hunt, and nine Cosatu affiliates, including Numsa, have filed a court case challenging Vavi’s suspension.
Ntola said Vavi faced an onslaught similar to Tutu’s for his anti-corruption stance in how tenders are distributed in municipalities and government departments.
The Dispatch reported last month that Vavi had tried to expose such corruption by hand delivering dossiers exposing corrupt practices in municipalities such as Nelson Mandela Bay Metro and the North West. However, he claimed nothing had been done about those cases to date.
“We can’t be irritated when Vavi raises something. We must sit him down and get an understanding of his thinking. The issue these people highlight is that the values of the ANC of Luthuli, Mandela and Sisulu are being lost along the way. We must not vilify such personalities and make them outcasts. What binds us together are the same values, fighting for a country which treats all its people equally.”
Ntola said this started with being tolerant of opposition parties because the ANC “is leading everybody in this country, not only ANC members and supporters”.
He said the ANC “can easily be destroyed if people want to define it as a party of a certain class in society, and confine it to a certain ideology”.
Once, he was in the same meeting as Walter Sisulu in the early 1990s, where a person had militant views about the shape the movement was taking. Ntola said person running the meeting wanted to suppress this fellow, but Sisulu insisted that he be given a chance to air his views.
“That is how we learnt that no matter how senior you may be in the ANC the views of ordinary members remain equally important. That’s the ANC we know,” said Ntola. — zineg@dispatch.co.za
ANC should listen when people like Tutu criticise it
Ntola said the party should produce more leaders like Tutu, to retain its moral high ground in society.
“When the Arch makes a noise and says this is wrong, the movement should not be the one silencing him. Instead, ANC elders must make an appointment with him and find out what he meant.”
A few months ago the Mail & Guardian published an interview “The Arch”, as he is known, gave the New York Times in May last year, in which he announced that he would not be voting for the ANC this year.
Tutu was quoted as saying: “South Africa has the capacity to be one of the most vibrant countries in the world. Our potential is immense. And it’s an ache, it is a very huge ache, for oldies like me to see our country deteriorating and slowly sliding off what we thought belonged to us – the moral high ground. It’s a great pain to see that we still have the kind of disparity we used to decry under the apartheid dispensation.”
Ntola said when the likes of Tutu “scream and say no, they are highlighting some abnormality”. Ntola was suspended last August for allowing suspended Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi to address a Western region Sadtu rally in Port Elizabeth.
Vavi had just been suspended after admitting that he had sexual relations with a junior colleague.
A faction of Sadtu supporters believe the suspensions are part of a witch hunt, and nine Cosatu affiliates, including Numsa, have filed a court case challenging Vavi’s suspension.
Ntola said Vavi faced an onslaught similar to Tutu’s for his anti-corruption stance in how tenders are distributed in municipalities and government departments.
The Dispatch reported last month that Vavi had tried to expose such corruption by hand delivering dossiers exposing corrupt practices in municipalities such as Nelson Mandela Bay Metro and the North West. However, he claimed nothing had been done about those cases to date.
“We can’t be irritated when Vavi raises something. We must sit him down and get an understanding of his thinking. The issue these people highlight is that the values of the ANC of Luthuli, Mandela and Sisulu are being lost along the way. We must not vilify such personalities and make them outcasts. What binds us together are the same values, fighting for a country which treats all its people equally.”
Ntola said this started with being tolerant of opposition parties because the ANC “is leading everybody in this country, not only ANC members and supporters”.
He said the ANC “can easily be destroyed if people want to define it as a party of a certain class in society, and confine it to a certain ideology”.
Once, he was in the same meeting as Walter Sisulu in the early 1990s, where a person had militant views about the shape the movement was taking. Ntola said person running the meeting wanted to suppress this fellow, but Sisulu insisted that he be given a chance to air his views.
“That is how we learnt that no matter how senior you may be in the ANC the views of ordinary members remain equally important. That’s the ANC we know,” said Ntola. — zineg@dispatch.co.za
Would you like to comment on this article?
Register (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.
Trending Now
Latest Videos