The ANC this week hit back at Rhodes vice-chancellor Sizwe Mabizela, accusing him of being a black face fronting a racist liberal agenda to undermine the party.
ANC spokesman Zizi Kodwa said liberals had over the years sought to co-opt people who could mask the character of its real agenda to paint the liberation movement as inherently corrupt, inefficient and unable to govern.
Speaking to students and other supporters in a packed lecture hall at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, Kodwa likened this agenda to the apartheid government’s covert support of the vicious vigilante gang, the Witdoeke, which wreaked havoc in such areas as Crossroads where Kodwa said he grew up.
He said the Nationalist government had furthered its agenda by using a black warlord who could not speak a word of English to do its dirty work.
Kodwa’s fierce counter-attack follows remarks made by Mabizela at the opening address of the university’s graduation ceremonies earlier this month.
Mabizela said people “of questionable moral and ethical character” were running the country.
“The noble qualities and values of personal integrity, honesty, humility, compassion, respect for each other, fairness, forgiveness, empathy, selfless dedication and willingness to put others first – that were so beautifully exemplified by President Nelson Mandela – have given way to venality, a complete lack of integrity, moral decadence, profligacy, rampant corruption, deceit, and duplicity.”
Kodwa said the remarks clearly reflected the posture of the university. “It worries us when these attacks come from a university. The characterisation of the leadership of the liberation movement as a leadership that can’t distinguish between left and right, between what is moral and immoral, what is ethical and unethical is a further perpetration of this offensive liberal onslaught against the leadership of the liberation movement.”
Kodwa said the graduation ceremony had been used to lampoon the leadership rather than announce radical steps to transform the university. He would like a one-on-one meeting with the VC, not to reprimand him but rather to find out where he got these “strange views”.
Kodwa said it had been hoped that when black VCs were appointed at historically white institutions, it would be a step forward for transformation. But that hope had been short-lived as transformation at universities such as Rhodes and UCT had taken a back seat.
He said concepts such as academic freedom and institutional autonomy were being used to block transformation. The time to negotiate for transformation was past and he urged students to be bold and to rise up and demand it.
Kodwa also warned that compromises made during negotiations for democracy should also be revisited.
ANC slams Rhodes VC for ‘fronting’ liberals
ANC spokesman Zizi Kodwa said liberals had over the years sought to co-opt people who could mask the character of its real agenda to paint the liberation movement as inherently corrupt, inefficient and unable to govern.
Speaking to students and other supporters in a packed lecture hall at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, Kodwa likened this agenda to the apartheid government’s covert support of the vicious vigilante gang, the Witdoeke, which wreaked havoc in such areas as Crossroads where Kodwa said he grew up.
He said the Nationalist government had furthered its agenda by using a black warlord who could not speak a word of English to do its dirty work.
Kodwa’s fierce counter-attack follows remarks made by Mabizela at the opening address of the university’s graduation ceremonies earlier this month.
Mabizela said people “of questionable moral and ethical character” were running the country.
“The noble qualities and values of personal integrity, honesty, humility, compassion, respect for each other, fairness, forgiveness, empathy, selfless dedication and willingness to put others first – that were so beautifully exemplified by President Nelson Mandela – have given way to venality, a complete lack of integrity, moral decadence, profligacy, rampant corruption, deceit, and duplicity.”
Kodwa said the remarks clearly reflected the posture of the university. “It worries us when these attacks come from a university. The characterisation of the leadership of the liberation movement as a leadership that can’t distinguish between left and right, between what is moral and immoral, what is ethical and unethical is a further perpetration of this offensive liberal onslaught against the leadership of the liberation movement.”
Kodwa said the graduation ceremony had been used to lampoon the leadership rather than announce radical steps to transform the university. He would like a one-on-one meeting with the VC, not to reprimand him but rather to find out where he got these “strange views”.
Kodwa said it had been hoped that when black VCs were appointed at historically white institutions, it would be a step forward for transformation. But that hope had been short-lived as transformation at universities such as Rhodes and UCT had taken a back seat.
He said concepts such as academic freedom and institutional autonomy were being used to block transformation. The time to negotiate for transformation was past and he urged students to be bold and to rise up and demand it.
Kodwa also warned that compromises made during negotiations for democracy should also be revisited.
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