AZAPO REMEMBERS BIKO
Branches and formations of AZAPO will be commemorating the death of the late Steven Bantu Biko 23 years after his assassination. In keeping with its theme "Towards Black Economic Control " - to the 15th Congress last July, AZAPO structures find befitting to remember Steve in this fashion, particularly in line with his efforts of running projects like Zanempilo, Winterveld etc. as a way of self-empowerment by the people themselves in a hostile environment of apartheid.Steve never believed that the majority can be affirmed by the minority in a country which belongs to the majority. He taught all Black Consciousness adherents the principle of self-reliance. The Zanempilo Clinic in Ginsberg: the literacy schools in Winterveld and other places bear testimony to the assertion above. It is this belief in the principle of self- reliance (economic empowerment) that infuriated the past racist regime to the extent of exterminating him. They could not exterminate his ideas.
On the question of racism Steve believed that it is an aspect of economic benefit. Only those who stand to benefit from the system would want to block other races from getting anywhere near the wealth of the country. That is racism.
Had Steve been with us today, one believes he would have taught people to rise and fight against racism where it exist. There are still many places in the country where maburu are being referred to as baas by our fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters. These makgowa take delight in it.
Every year, from the 6th to the 12th September, AZAPO structures comme-morate the arrest and death in detention of the founding father of Black Consciousness, the late Steve Biko.
This year's commemoration will be addressed by among others BCM leader Peter Jones. Jones was arrested with Steve in the Eastern Cape in 1977.
MAY HIS SOUL REST IN PEACE !!
CONFERENCE ON RACISM
AZAPO has read with a mixture of bemusement and anger reports which suggest that the NNP, in it's response to Thabo Mbeki's opening address, complained that an impression had been created that white people are to blame for racism in the country. According to them all communities must share the blame. AZAPO has no doubt or hesitation on the matter! AZAPO blames and will continue to blame white people for racism. They invented it to justify their theft of our land and our wealth. They passed laws to systematise it and to criminalise us for resisting it. They practised it with brutal determination and pride. We are told that Boshoff for instance, who was the "rector" at Turfloop in 1972, did not even have a university degree and was not qualified to be the rector of a university. We are sure that he would not have been appointed to such a position at a white university. But because Turfloop was an institution catering for Blacks, he was made a rector there. And he used to brag that his colour was his degree.One of our martyrs, Onkgoptse Ramothibi Abram Tiro, was expelled from the institution for pointing out the racism that was being practised there, namely that their parents and relatives - the people who had ensured their education through sweat and blood - had to watch their graduation through windows whilst the hall was full of people who could not care a hoot for them, the white spouses and guests of the white staff there.
Another one, Mthuli ka Shezi, was pushed beneath a train for standing up for the dignity of Black women who were being mistreated by white men. The father of Black Consciousness, Bantu Biko was killed for refusing to submit to the baaskap that passed for the administration of law and order. It was racism that made them bash his head against the wall. White supremacist racism was the reason why Biko had to be undressed and chained and driven in that state from East London to Pretoria. His body had been devastated. It was his defiant soul that they were targeting. They thought that by thus humiliating him, they could cause him to acknowledge them as his superiors.
AZAPO's view is that the best way to deal with racism is to address its legacy. Rather than spend money on a conference such as this one, AZAPO's view is that money should be spent to upgrade schools in townships, equip them with computers, laboratories, libraries; help teachers to upgrade their qualifications so that they can teach our children science and technology; improve health care and ensure that poor people are not condemned to death because they cannot afford private hospital care; and build decent, affordable houses for our people and make them available for rental to those who cannot buy them.
Allegations of reverse racism such as was made by the white Mineworkers Union, must be ignored. In the coerse of addressing the legacy of apartheid, Whites, who were used to being cushioned by it, will feel some inevitable discomfort. That is nothing compared to the oppression and humiliation that Black people lived with for all the years of apartheid. Besides, they can leave and go to Australia or where ever else they had come from.
THE DICTATORIAL FREE MARKET ECONOMIC SYSTEM
Governor of the Reserve Bank, Tito Mboweni has appealed to politicians to mind their language because the things they say upset foreign investors and result in them having negative sentiments about our economy, notwithstanding that "our economic fundamentals are sound" and our credit-rating as an investment destination has improved.So not only do foreign investors want the government to pursue Structural Adjustment Programmes with all the attendant problems for our people that they come with - reduced social spending in the face of great social need bequeathed by Apartheid and colonialism, huge job losses resulting from the privatisation of state assets, flight of capital resulting from relaxation of currency controls, an absurd thing called jobless economic growth where only experts can say the economy is growing when the rest of us experience escalating poverty and destitution; they also want the government to control the minds of politicians in the country and ensure that they always sing the praises of this uniquitous system.
This sounds very much like the dictates of religion where even to ask questions may constitute sin or blasphemy. You are required not only to do as you are told, even your thoughts must conform. Now where is the freedom in this system? AZAPO believes that all these things that are being said are just excuses to ensure that we keep chasing the mirage that they have made the government in developing countries to chase, namely a Utopia in some vaguely-defined "hereafter" where unemployment, poverty, crime and dysfunctional government services are all things of the past because we shall have reached the promised land of wealth and annual economic growth of ten percent or more and every citizen shall be a successful entrepreneur.
The questions that AZAPO wants answered are: why must Black people always submit to suffering in the present in the hope that the future will be so good as to compensate for past pains? if they believe so much in this hereafter, how come they want to traumatise our people so much in the present to ensure that our governments pay them now; why can't they wait to be repaid during Utopia when everybody can do it without problems? if they are so confident of the goodness of their system, why do debates around its merits have to be stifled? Put differently: why is it necessary to impose embargoes and sanctions against Cuba to prove that socialism does not work? Why not allow both systems to operate freely and openly so that socialism can be seen to fail? if they are really interested in contributing to economic growth in our country or any other developing country, why is it that they don't want to build factories and contribute towards the development of infrastructure in our country and the only investments they want to make us to buy state assets that are being privatised? considering their reluctance to make any long-term investment as opposed to "quickie" types that can be made and reversed in a wink, why should we trust that they have good intentions? Why shouldn't we regard it as a means to own the economy of our country so as to hold any incumbent government to ransom? - after all who pays the piper, calls the tune! why are their goal-posts shifting all the time? As soon as you implement all their dictates, there is something else - more onerous and absurd - that they add. Now GEAR is no longer enough, the government must control its ministers and even the presidents of other countries. In 1998 we were told that the fault lies with the "Asian contagion". In 2000 its the situation in Zimbabwe, the floods in Mozambique and the wars in the DRC... the list is endless.
AZAPO is now convinced that the only freedom achievable under this system is their freedom to control governments and make them vulnerable to manipulation so that if the government sees the light and starts to focus on the interests of its own people, they will find it easy to engineer a coup and unseat that government.
AZAPO has no illusions about the extent of economic growth achievable under this system - after all the state assets have been privatised the billions that are being quoted as the income therefrom will be the pinnacle of economic growth. Then you'll see a plateau and ultimately a final abyss, tears and the eternal gnashing of teeth.