The Eastern Cape’s first premier, Oom Ray Mhlaba, has been in the news again with reports that a statue of him is to be unveiled at his birthplace of Nondyala in Nkonkobe local municipality near Fort Beaufort (“Villagers, NGO celebrate life of former premier Mhlaba,” Daily Dispatch, February 17 2016).
Part of this Raymond Mhlaba legacy project includes reviving a community hall and educare facility in the village, a memorial lecture, gala dinner, art exhibition – and erecting a bronze statue of Mhlaba.
This is indeed good news, and the NGO African Footprint of Hope and all those involved should be congratulated. It is also a timely reminder that the Eastern Cape needs to build on the solid foundation laid by Oom Ray.
I had the privilege of working under Oom Ray and getting to know him in the early formative years of the Eastern Cape. He initially appointed me as MEC for youth, gender and development planning in his office – I was one of the youngest MECs in the country. Later I was appointed as MEC for sport, arts and culture in the Eastern Cape. During my time in his cabinet I came to know and appreciate Oom Ray’s remarkable contribution to our democracy.
Oom Ray was born on February 12 1920 at Mazoka village. He passed away on February 20 2005. During his lifetime he placed an indelible stamp on the history of South Africa. After secondary schooling at Healdtown, he moved to Port Elizabeth where he worked in a laundry.
He became active in trade unionism through the Non-European Laundry Workers Union.
He joined the South African Communist Party in 1943 and the ANC in 1944. Membership of these two organisations became the twin lodestars in his life.
Later, at the time of his recall as premier, he shared with us that, since joining the ANC, he had never taken a personal decision about his future, but had allowed the movement to make decisions about where it needed him. It is no exaggeration to say that Oom Ray dedicated his entire life to the struggle for freedom and democracy.
He played a leading role in Port Elizabeth in the defiance campaigns of the 1950s and was one of the first to realise that the apartheid regime’s repression of any form of peaceful protest meant that there was ultimately no choice but to turn to armed struggle. He was among the first group of cadres sent to China for military training. He returned to South Africa in 1962 and, after the initial arrest of Nelson Mandela, took over the command of Umkhonto we Sizwe.
He was among the leadership arrested at Lilliesleaf farm in Rivonia in 1963 and was sentenced to life imprisonment in the Rivonia Trial. He was imprisoned on Robben Island until 1982, when he was transferred to Pollsmor Prison until his release in October 1989. In 1994 he became the first premier of the newly established province of the Eastern Cape – the only Rivonia trialist to be so honoured in any of the provinces.
I can testify that Oom Ray was a truly remarkable man. He was equally at home with urban and rural communities. He had an enormous appetite for hard work.
He was a deep thinker and a strategist but at the same time, he retained a simplicity and humility. He was genuinely a man of the people.
Many people today forget what kind of a province he inherited in 1994. It was, as then president Thabo Mbeki said during the funeral oration for Oom Ray, “a territory that had been left in a monumental mess by the apartheid regime”. Oom Ray’s first tasks included creating a united province out of three separate and geographical entities, each with their own histories and identities – the eastern and north-eastern parts of the Cape Province and the so-called independent states of the Ciskei and Transkei. In administrative terms, he had to establish a new Eastern Cape administration and meld together the bureaucracies of the former Ciskei and Transkei, house of delegates, house of representatives and the Cape provincial administration.
This was no easy task but Oom Ray and his leadership collective tackled each of the many challenges they faced.
This remarkable achievement is sometimes in danger of being overlooked. It is something that we should all pause to consider. In a very real sense, Oom Ray laid the foundation of a united Eastern Cape. The transition was peaceful and, even today, there is a great deal of social cohesion in this province.
That foundation is one of the legacies Oom Ray bequeathed to us.
That is not to say the Eastern Cape is not without challenges. There are still remnants of the divided identities that emerge from time to time, where identities in the former Transkei are somehow seen as different from the western region and vice versa.
More significantly, the challenges of poverty, inequality and unemployment in the Eastern Cape are very tangible challenges indeed.
The efficiency of the public service and effective anti-corruption measures in the province are also real issues that need to be confronted. Without pointing fingers at any particular individual in this regard, at some point the challenges facing the Eastern Cape seem to have overwhelmed people’s belief in their capacity to overcome them.
The Eastern Cape has sadly become something of a byword for failure and incompetence.
This is patently absurd if one looks at the history of the Eastern Cape and the fact that even today the province’s best export is skilled people.
Oom Ray’s administration, in its formative years, was characterised by a sense that past inequalities could be overcome through hard work and commitment, that genuine development could be brought to the province, that indeed a better life could be created for ordinary people in rural and urban areas.
Public servants were motivated, dedicated and worked long hours. But somewhere along the way this sense of urgency, this dedication, this sense of serving a higher cause seem to have been lost amid the plethora of problems engulfing successive administrations.
The current premier of the Eastern Cape, Phumulo Masualle, has displayed a willingness and capacity to tackle many of the challenges facing the province today, but some of these are quite intractable and defy easy solutions.
In truth there are deep-seated systemic issues that could best be tackled by everyone getting behind the premier as a broad collective.
What is needed is serious introspection and deep analysis to identify and address the root causes of issues and not just their symptoms.
Above all we need to re-establish a sense of self-belief in the Eastern Cape’s capacity to address and overcome its challenges.
Gauteng premier David Makhura has recently appointed a panel of 20 eminent people, called the Eminent Group of Nation-Building and Social Cohesion Champions, to address issues of social cohesion, racism and xenophobia in Gauteng.
Perhaps consideration should be given to appointing a similar group of eminent people to undertake the kind of in-depth analysis needed here and to engage Eastern Cape residents in public discourse to support the current premier in his efforts to turn the province around.
That would build on the foundation laid by Oom Ray and serve as a fitting living legacy to the life he dedicated to the struggle for freedom and democracy.
l Sonwabile Mancotywa is National Heritage Council chief executive officer. He writes in his personal capacity.
l The Raymond Mhlaba Memorial Lecture will be delivered by Minister in the Presidency Jeff Radebe in Old Cape College in Fort Beaufort at 9am today.
Proud Ray Mhlaba legacy needs support
Part of this Raymond Mhlaba legacy project includes reviving a community hall and educare facility in the village, a memorial lecture, gala dinner, art exhibition – and erecting a bronze statue of Mhlaba.
This is indeed good news, and the NGO African Footprint of Hope and all those involved should be congratulated. It is also a timely reminder that the Eastern Cape needs to build on the solid foundation laid by Oom Ray.
I had the privilege of working under Oom Ray and getting to know him in the early formative years of the Eastern Cape. He initially appointed me as MEC for youth, gender and development planning in his office – I was one of the youngest MECs in the country. Later I was appointed as MEC for sport, arts and culture in the Eastern Cape. During my time in his cabinet I came to know and appreciate Oom Ray’s remarkable contribution to our democracy.
Oom Ray was born on February 12 1920 at Mazoka village. He passed away on February 20 2005. During his lifetime he placed an indelible stamp on the history of South Africa. After secondary schooling at Healdtown, he moved to Port Elizabeth where he worked in a laundry.
He became active in trade unionism through the Non-European Laundry Workers Union.
He joined the South African Communist Party in 1943 and the ANC in 1944. Membership of these two organisations became the twin lodestars in his life.
Later, at the time of his recall as premier, he shared with us that, since joining the ANC, he had never taken a personal decision about his future, but had allowed the movement to make decisions about where it needed him. It is no exaggeration to say that Oom Ray dedicated his entire life to the struggle for freedom and democracy.
He played a leading role in Port Elizabeth in the defiance campaigns of the 1950s and was one of the first to realise that the apartheid regime’s repression of any form of peaceful protest meant that there was ultimately no choice but to turn to armed struggle. He was among the first group of cadres sent to China for military training. He returned to South Africa in 1962 and, after the initial arrest of Nelson Mandela, took over the command of Umkhonto we Sizwe.
He was among the leadership arrested at Lilliesleaf farm in Rivonia in 1963 and was sentenced to life imprisonment in the Rivonia Trial. He was imprisoned on Robben Island until 1982, when he was transferred to Pollsmor Prison until his release in October 1989. In 1994 he became the first premier of the newly established province of the Eastern Cape – the only Rivonia trialist to be so honoured in any of the provinces.
I can testify that Oom Ray was a truly remarkable man. He was equally at home with urban and rural communities. He had an enormous appetite for hard work.
He was a deep thinker and a strategist but at the same time, he retained a simplicity and humility. He was genuinely a man of the people.
Many people today forget what kind of a province he inherited in 1994. It was, as then president Thabo Mbeki said during the funeral oration for Oom Ray, “a territory that had been left in a monumental mess by the apartheid regime”. Oom Ray’s first tasks included creating a united province out of three separate and geographical entities, each with their own histories and identities – the eastern and north-eastern parts of the Cape Province and the so-called independent states of the Ciskei and Transkei. In administrative terms, he had to establish a new Eastern Cape administration and meld together the bureaucracies of the former Ciskei and Transkei, house of delegates, house of representatives and the Cape provincial administration.
This was no easy task but Oom Ray and his leadership collective tackled each of the many challenges they faced.
This remarkable achievement is sometimes in danger of being overlooked. It is something that we should all pause to consider. In a very real sense, Oom Ray laid the foundation of a united Eastern Cape. The transition was peaceful and, even today, there is a great deal of social cohesion in this province.
That foundation is one of the legacies Oom Ray bequeathed to us.
That is not to say the Eastern Cape is not without challenges. There are still remnants of the divided identities that emerge from time to time, where identities in the former Transkei are somehow seen as different from the western region and vice versa.
More significantly, the challenges of poverty, inequality and unemployment in the Eastern Cape are very tangible challenges indeed.
The efficiency of the public service and effective anti-corruption measures in the province are also real issues that need to be confronted. Without pointing fingers at any particular individual in this regard, at some point the challenges facing the Eastern Cape seem to have overwhelmed people’s belief in their capacity to overcome them.
The Eastern Cape has sadly become something of a byword for failure and incompetence.
This is patently absurd if one looks at the history of the Eastern Cape and the fact that even today the province’s best export is skilled people.
Oom Ray’s administration, in its formative years, was characterised by a sense that past inequalities could be overcome through hard work and commitment, that genuine development could be brought to the province, that indeed a better life could be created for ordinary people in rural and urban areas.
Public servants were motivated, dedicated and worked long hours. But somewhere along the way this sense of urgency, this dedication, this sense of serving a higher cause seem to have been lost amid the plethora of problems engulfing successive administrations.
The current premier of the Eastern Cape, Phumulo Masualle, has displayed a willingness and capacity to tackle many of the challenges facing the province today, but some of these are quite intractable and defy easy solutions.
In truth there are deep-seated systemic issues that could best be tackled by everyone getting behind the premier as a broad collective.
What is needed is serious introspection and deep analysis to identify and address the root causes of issues and not just their symptoms.
Above all we need to re-establish a sense of self-belief in the Eastern Cape’s capacity to address and overcome its challenges.
Gauteng premier David Makhura has recently appointed a panel of 20 eminent people, called the Eminent Group of Nation-Building and Social Cohesion Champions, to address issues of social cohesion, racism and xenophobia in Gauteng.
Perhaps consideration should be given to appointing a similar group of eminent people to undertake the kind of in-depth analysis needed here and to engage Eastern Cape residents in public discourse to support the current premier in his efforts to turn the province around.
That would build on the foundation laid by Oom Ray and serve as a fitting living legacy to the life he dedicated to the struggle for freedom and democracy.
l Sonwabile Mancotywa is National Heritage Council chief executive officer. He writes in his personal capacity.
l The Raymond Mhlaba Memorial Lecture will be delivered by Minister in the Presidency Jeff Radebe in Old Cape College in Fort Beaufort at 9am today.
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