When Kwame Ture came to speak at the International Black Solidarity Rally in London in 1983, he told the rally, “Africa will be free, united and socialist, no force on earth can stop it.” Now , Thamie Plaatjie, one of the new dynamic young leaders elected at the 7th Congress of the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (South Africa) has emboldened this statement and taken it a stage further.

Comrade Plaatjie was elected Secretary General with Wonder Masumbuka as his deputy. Themba Godi was elected to the crucial post of National Organiser and Vusi Nkumane elected Treasurer. They join the older established leaders Comrade Stanley Magoba re-elected President and Motsoko Pheko elected Deputy President.

Comrade Maxwell Nemadzivhanani, a member of the Northern Province Legislature failed in his bid to be elected President. He called for Unity within the PAC and described the Congress as a resounding success for the PAC. In his analysis, he said that delegates to the Congress opted for continuity in Comrades Mogoba and Pheko and for transformation by electing young dynamic leaders. “What was fundamental,” he said, “was that ground breaking resolutions were taken by the party.

In a message to Pan Africanists world-wide, Secretary General Thami Plaatjie says, “This century is the century of Africans in Africa and the Diaspora. Capitalism, imperialism and neo-colonialism will finally perish because their interests are not for the advancement and betterment of the quality of life of the Africans. It is in this regard that capitalism and imperialism have the seeds for their own destruction. Pan Africanism is the only liberatory ideology to bring about the long fought for unity of Africans so that the vast mineral wealth and human resources of Africa can be used for the advancement of Africa. It would be timely to have the 8th Pan African Congress in South Africa in year 2001.

Note must be made that the 7th Pan African Congress was held in Kampala, Uganda in 1994. The resolution of the Hackney Black Peoples Association of London, England to hold the 8th Congress in August 1997 around the 110th birthday of the Honourable Marcus Garvey was agreed in Kampala. However, the Secretariat run by Tajudeen Abdul Raheem made no attempt to convene 8PAC.

This 7th Congress of the PAC was held on its 41st anniversary at Tompie Seleka Agricultural College, Mpumalanga (where the sun rises) from 7 - 9 April. This was the first large gathering of Pan Africanists in this the 21st century. The second will be the Centenary Pan African Conference to be held in London, England on 22 July 2000. The PAC Congress was attended by 272 delegates plus observers from the nine provinces into which South Africa is divided. International guests and fraternal delegates came from Great Britain, Jamaica, the United States of America and representatives from the Zimbabwe African National Union  - Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), long-standing comrades -in-arms of the PAC. The theme of the Congress was Taking the PAC to the people.

In the opening address, Comrade Motsoko Pheko outlined the historical development of the struggle for liberation and the development of the PAC. He pointed out that over 200 members of POQO, the military wing of the PAC had been executed. This included five members of the Vulindulalela family who were executed on the same day. A total of seventeen PAC fighters were executed on that day. It was the PAC that had led the Positive Action Campaign and the campaign against the Pass Laws that resulted in the Sharpville Massacre.

In his address, Comrade President Mogoba said that there were over 300 PAC  prisoners who took part in the liberation struggle still languishing in prison. He called on South African President Thabo Mbeki to release them into his care. On his re-election, Comrade President Magoba emphasised the support of the PAC for land redistribution in Zimbabwe. He further called on Thabo Mbeki to speed up land reforms in South Africa. He said that he had no illusions of the task and challenges that the PAC faced, and he pledged to work hard to win back PAC supporters, to foster unity within the PAC and other like minded African organisations. Currently, the PAC and AZAPO are in discussions around joint struggles of the two organisations.

The International address was given by Comrade Lester Lewis of the Pan African Association of London, England. He told the Congress that Edward Wilmot Blyden was the first person to call for an African Nationality. Blyden coined the phrase Africa for Africans . He developed he concept of the African Personality based on the high principles of African culture. He showed that it was the Pan African Movement that laid the foundation for decolonisation in the twentieth century and all the major victories won in the last century were the result of  led by Pan Africanists such as George Padmore and Kwame Nkrumah, who was voted Man of the Millennium by Africans. He said the question now was what kind of Pan African Union. He called for a democratic, egalitarian, socialist Pan African Union ruled by African culture as outlined by Blyden in African Life and Customs and Cheikh Anta Diop in The Economic and Cultural Basis For a Federated State.

Edwin Wilson, a fraternal delegate from the USA read a Solidarity Message from Blyden Cowart, the 74 years old daughter of George Padmore and her daughter Linda Blyden Randall. They urged the PAC to continue to fight for the principles for which Padmore fought.

In the Congress Resolutions, the PAC re-affirmed its commitment to Pan Africanism : a democratic, egalitarian, socialist Pan African Union in which African culture is restored and practiced, and in which Africa produces what it consumes and consumes what it produces.

In summary, one can say that in the same way that the first Pan African Congress organised by Henry Sylvester Williams in July 1900 was the foundation for the enormous successes of the last century, so, this first of the PAC in this century has laid a solid foundation which to build for successes in the future

What is noticeable about South Africa is that the only thing that as changed is the colour of the members of the government. Life is still dominated by the white settler colonialists on whose behalf Thabo Mbeki and the ANC appear are governing South Africa.

The South African television company SABC continues to promote European culture. It has failed to Africanise its main programmes or to promote African culture. Its reports on the restoration of land in Zimbabwe to its rightful owners are particularly racist and offensive. SABC is giving support to the Rally For Congolese Democracy (RCD) the so-called rebel Movement fighting a proxy war for U.S. imperialism against President Laurent Kabila in the Democratic of Congo. The RCD is controlled by Yoweri Museveni, President of Uganda. A British newspaper the Daily Telegraph in a recent article, called Museveni a western proxy.

After the second ousting of Wamba Dia Wamba as president of the RCD, the SABC programme Morning Live interviewed its representative in South Africa in its programme on Tuesday 11th April. The interviewer hoped the RCD would do well. Such an interview could not be broadcast if Mbeki and the ANC were not part of the US plot to grab the vast mineral wealth of the DRC and keep the Africans in poverty and starvation. This must be the only reason why Mbeki has so far failed to call for the unconditional withdrawal of Ugandan and Rwandan troops from the DRC.

There are no African owned newspapers in South Africa. The style of much of their reporting is racist. The shrill, vitriolic, and venomous campaign they have unleashed against President Mugabe of Zimbabwe is an indication of their fear and panic that the reclamation of land in Zimbabwe will eventually come to South Africa. Even The Sowetan, aimed at the African population exhibits racism in some of its reporting  and in particular on the question of land reclamation in Zimbabwe.

Land reclamation is spreading in Africa. In Kenya, one Member of Parliament has called for Africans to take back their land stolen by Europeans under colonialism.. One delegate to the PAC Congress, Glory Mosibudu Mpiti said that the land on which the Congress was held is Pedi land. The whites came and took the most fertile land and the Pedi want their land back

Most talk in South Africa today is about the African Renaissance. This is a programme being financed and promoted by United States imperialism with the assistance of Thabo Mbeki and the ANC government. But Mbeki and the ANC are deceiving the masses of the people when they talk about African renaissance. They are promoting European culture and values while suppressing African culture and values.

For example, the ANC GEAR programme is an IMF/World Bank structural adjustment programme which is causing so much unemployment, poverty and suffering throughout the continent. Privatisation of state industries means that foreigners now own and control industries formerly owned collectively by the people.  Mbeki has called for the rapid development of a Black Business class. This means oppression of the many by the view and is in direct contradiction to the egalitarian socialist traditions in African culture. Despite this, the Communist Party of South Africa has hedged its bandwagon to the ANC for the personal aggrandisement of some of its leaders. It won’t be long before many communists in South Africa begin to follow George Padmore’s path from communism to Pan Africanism and return to their African culture.

Trade unions affiliated to the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) have launched a rolling campaign of mass action against job losses caused by GEAR and privatisation of state industries. An estimated 100,000 workers were expected to go on strike in the Johannesburg area on Wednesday 12th April. A national strike is planned for May 10th.
The National Land Committee recently organised a protest against the abuse of farm workers in Mpumalanga. Mass poverty is still rife and the people are still in want of the basic necessities of life. Consequently, there is a great deal of crime.

These conditions are the fertile ground on which the new, young, dynamic leaders of the PAC will build for the coming Pan African Union.

Report by Prince Ntum ba Azah (a.k.a. Lester Lewis)

NOTICE BOARD:

(A) Prince Ntum ba Azah’s statement to the Congress entitled THE PAN AFRICAN VISION as well as his OPEN LETTER TO THE AFRICAN PEOPLES OF THE WORLD  is available by Mail Order, price $10.00 (US) includes postage from Hackney Black Peoples Association, 18 Stoke Newington Road, London N16 7XN, England.

(B) Details of the Centenary Pan African Conference to be held on Saturday 22nd July at Conway Hall, London WC1, England will be sent out by Email within the next week. Guest speakers to date who have accepted the invitation to attend the congress are Blyden Cowart and Linda Blyden Randall; Mabel Carmichael, mother of Kwame Ture and daughter ; Gamal Nkrumah, son of the Osagyefo and Man of the Millennium Kwame Nkrumah; Motsoko Pheko of the PAC, Herbert Ekwe Ekwe of the International Institute of African Research in Dakar, Senegal.

(C) The PAC needs moral and material support. So do the women in Mpumalanga province who want to set up a food processing Co-operative and APARA AFRICA - WEAR AFRICAN  clothes making cooperative. Anyone who can help in any way, send an Email back and I will send you the details as well as pass on your details to the comrades in South Africa.
 

The Struggle Continues!

Olumbah (GOD) Be Praised.

Africa for Africans!
Africa For God!
Africa For Humanity.

London, England, Thursday 13th April, 2000.

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