mosibudi mangena fighter for black self-belief and...

Conversat ions in Transi t ion 73

Mosibudi Mangena

Fighter for Black Self-Belief and Dignity

Mosibudi Mangena was born on 7 August 1947 in Tzaneen, in what is today the Limpopo Province. He attended primary and secondary schools in Wallmansthal near Pretoria, and matriculated at Hebron Training Institute in 1969. In 1970, he enrolled at the University of Zululand (Ngoye) for a BSc degree, where he became an active member of the South African Students’ Organisation (SASO).

He subsequently discontinued his studies and became active in the Pretoria Students’ Organisation, the local branch of SASO. In December 1972 he was elected the first National Organiser of the Black People’s Convention at its inaugural Congress. A year later he was detained under Section 6 of the Terrorism Act. Tried and convicted, he became the first Black Consciousness activist to be imprisoned on Robben Island. While serving a five year sentence, he completed BSc and BSc Hons degrees through the University of South Africa. He later obtained a MSc degree in Applied Mathematics.

Released from prison in 1978, Mangena was banned and restricted to Mahwelereng Township in what was then the Lebowa homeland for five years. In 1981, he went into exile, and joined the Black Consciousness Movement of Azania (BCMA). He was first elected Chairperson of the Botswana Chapter of the movement, and in 1982, Chairperson of the Central Committee of the organisation. In 1983, he moved his operational base to Zimbabwe, where he resided until he returned to South Africa in July 1994.

On his return from exile, he was elected President of AZAPO following the merger of the BCMA and AZAPO. He

74 Conversat ions in Transi t ion

was elected an MP in April 1999, and appointed the Deputy Minister of Education in January 2001. From April 2004 to May 2009, he served as South Africa’s first Minister of Science and Technology.

Mangena is the author of four books: On Your Own (1989); A Quest for True Humanity (1996); A Twin World (1996), and My Grandmother is Permanent (2004).

He was the first patron of the Sowetan-Telkom Math-ematics and Science Teacher-of-the-Year Awards. He is the Founding Chairperson of the South African Literacy Initiative and Masifundesonke Reading Campaign.

In March 2008, he received an Honorary Doctorate (Doctoris Technologiae) in the field of Applied Sciences from the Vaal University of Technology. In December 2009 he was awarded an honorary DSc degree by the University of Stellenbosch.

He is a member of the Human Resource Development Council and he serves as a board member of the Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection as well as the MTN SA Foundation. He is also a member of the Advisory Council of the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution.

Asked what his single most important priority would be if he were elected President of South Africa, Mosibudi Mangena observes: “The first thing I would do is get our people to believe in themselves

again, believe that their destiny is in their own hands, believe that this country belongs to them and work for the realisation of a country that respects the dignity of all South Africans, both black and white.” Insisting that a significant part of South Africa’s social and economic ills have to do with black people failing to believe in themselves and their capacity to succeed, Mangena argues that “black people continue to be disempowered, both inwardly and in terms of skills training, from doing things for themselves”.

Mangena blames our political parties for perpetuating this disempower-ment. “The current government does not create an environment where peo-ple can do things for themselves. This culture of saying to people, vote for us and we will give you houses and welfare grants is wrong. We as a nation have somehow demobilised our people. Africans used to work hard and take good


care of themselves, but nowadays men sit around in groups drinking, saying ‘my roof is leaking and government is not fixing it’. The tragedy is that these are able-bodied men who say this. When I was growing up and the roof was leaking we got out there and fixed it. Self-reliance, a willingness to learn how to do things and a commitment to work is something we need to recover in this country.”

Elaborating on his argument, Mangena refers to discussions he used to have with the late ANC leader, Steve Tshwete, with whom he shared a prison cell on Robben Island. “I used to talk a great deal with Steve and he would tell me about people in the rural parts of Eastern Cape who frequently approached him with requests for jobs despite having large portions of land that were lying fallow. With whatever meagre money they had, these people would travel long distances to the nearest town to buy things like chicken feet even though they had enough land to raise chickens themselves, to grow vegetables and keep a few goats.”

For Mangena, the dependency of black people is fundamentally what has gone wrong. Critical of excessive welfare programmes, he argues that rather than implement policies that entrench social and economic dependency, the government ought to be instilling a desire to be self-sufficient, a commitment to ownership and a sense of self-belief in our people, providing support for programmes that enable people to be productive, and disabusing them of a belief that they are helpless. “The government should tell the people that they own this country and that they can alter their social and economic circumstances. If our people could internalise this sense of ownership and self-belief, they would rely less on handouts from the state. They would realise they have the capacity to do things for themselves. At present too many people are either receiving a social grant or waiting for jobs that are simply not there. This mentality needs to change. We cannot create better and sustainable communities in South Africa until black people overcome what amounts to an inferiority complex, which militates against an African innovative spirit which is part of an African sense of self-help.” This he sees as a central feature of ubuntu which, he argues, “involves a sense of social entrepreneurship which involves equipping one another to cope with life and to build a better life.”


Why Black Consciousness matters today Mangena argues that the Black Consciousness philosophy – propagated

and popularised by its foremost exponent Steve Biko – can play a key role in restoring black people’s self-confidence, dignity and pride in post-apartheid South Africa. A major concern for Mangena is that, notwithstanding the defeat of the apartheid system, many black South Africans continue to suffer from a sense of subservience and self-imposed psychological oppression. “Black people in this country, generation after generation, were born into a white racist system that despised everything about black culture, which they made subservient to white domination. These many centuries of domination, exploitation, contempt, brainwashing and derision have resulted in black people internalising a white-imposed inferiority. In the process many blacks have lost the capacity to know they are equal in capacity and will to any other person on earth.”

A central feature of Black Consciousness for Mangena is what he calls a “simple truth”. It teaches us that political liberation as a true and sustainable reality cannot be realised without an inward transformation and sense of psychological liberation. “People who are without a capacity for self-worth are ultimately unable to control their own lives or to contribute to the creation of a new society. They are unable to be free. What Biko taught us in the 1970s is vindicated and shown to be true by the reality of our current situation in this country. The government cannot give anyone their freedom and self-dignity; these are qualities that each individual and each community needs to earn for themselves. All the government can do is create the milieu and conditions within which people can do this for themselves. The road to freedom is a long one. It is painful and it involves a relentless and ongoing struggle. Too many black South Africans say ‘apartheid ended in 1994 and we still do not have houses, clean water and decent schools for our children’. My question to them is ‘what are you doing to get these things?’ We cannot wait for government to provide these things. We need to get involved in our communities, root out corrupt leaders, pressurise the state to get its priorities right, and become part of a self-development process in the country.”

Mangena is adamant that a great deal of work still needs to be done in South Africa to wean black people from inferiority complexes and white people from their so-called superiority – both of which are a legacy of living in a racist society. He states that the effects of psychological subjugation,


coupled with a lack of a sense of ownership, have made black South Africans bend over backwards to placate the fears of their white compatriots, which includes adopting laws and policies designed to accommodate these fears. “There is little sense of ownership by black people in this country. And this is not even a mistake, because we indeed do not own this country, either psychologically or economically. Whites continue to be a dominant presence in South Africa and many blacks are quite overwhelmed by this. As a result blacks are reduced to being less than human. They are pushed to the margins of existence.”

Mangena is highly critical of BEE as he sees it in many instances as having reinforced a feeling of inferiority among black people. “BEE has reinforced black inferiority because all it has done is affirm a politically-connected black elite without giving it the power to own anything”, he says. He believes that almost two decades into democracy there ought to have been significant black social and economic progress, arguing that black South Africans can take a leaf from Afrikaner development in the 1930s and subsequent years. “Afrikaners have been responsible for a great part of our oppression but there are positive lessons we can draw from how they used state power to advance their social and economic development as a people who were hitherto excluded from the economic wealth of the country.”

Using education as an example, Mangena asks: “Why are black people not bothered by the fact that we are failing to provide our children with a decent education? Why can’t we create excellence in our neighbourhood schools? Why do we have to look for excellence elsewhere, in privately-owned and former Model C schools, when we can create the same or even better standards in the township and rural schools? There is no Verwoerd to hold us back any more. We are in charge of the education budget and state machinery. Who or what is holding us back”?

Mangena argues that, with a few notable exceptions, the difference between the South African black professional and ruling class and its counterparts elsewhere in the world lies in a lack of self-belief, self-esteem and firm spiritual, social and cultural self-confidence. He employs the word “love” in making his point, suggesting “black professionals fail to be of sufficient service to their people because they do not love themselves, and by extension, they fail adequately to show love towards their people.” Referring again to conditions in township schools, he says black teachers do not take sufficient pride in their work because they lack self-esteem. This, he says,


renders them incapable of being ashamed of the shoddy and sub-standard work they offer their students. “I believe that if the teachers in the township schools could learn to love themselves they would teach our children competently, providing them with a decent education. The problem is that they don’t believe that the children they teach are capable of better standards. They have a poor opinion of both themselves and our children. This is an inferiority trap within which many black South African find themselves. Until we address this, the country will continue to be on the back foot of progress and development and non-racism.”

The betrayal of the liberation struggle Mangena holds South African black intelligentsia responsible for the

betrayal of the liberation struggle in South Africa. “The black intelligentsia has betrayed the masses. It is as simple as that,” he says unambiguously. He argues that black professionals and intellectuals have “embarked on a path of avaricious accumulation of wealth, often through both subtle and more obvious forms of theft, corruption and short-changing of the very masses that contributed to ending the apartheid regime in 1994.” He is angry at the widening chasm between the ideals of our Constitution and the daily realities of life in South Africa. “Our reality on the ground and what the Constitution provides for are far apart. We strut around extolling the virtues of our Constitution, while living outside its letter and spirit. Our society has become one of the most unequal in the world. Poverty has increased under our much-vaunted democratic dispensation and we ought to be ashamed of our failure.”

Mangena insists that the social and economic hardship being experienced mainly by black South Africans today is due not to a lack of financial resources, to the failure by the political class to translate the ideals of the liberation struggle into reality. “South Africa is not a poor country and we ought not to see as many poor people in the streets as we do. We do not suffer from a dire shortage of resources. The problem is that we suffer from an appalling lack of solidarity, empathy and an application to the liberation project to the nation-building process. Many who occupy positions in society that should enable them to help pull the majority out of poverty are preoccupied with looting the nation’s wealth, looking after themselves and their cronies,” he states categorically.

Mangena identifies three policy areas that require urgent attention if South


Africa is to effectively tackle its growing problems of poverty and inequality – namely, education, health and land reform.

• Education:Mangena laments the precipitous decline of the education system under

the watch of a black government. “Seventeen years after the attainment of freedom, many of our children still go to school in mud classrooms and sit under trees without appropriate educational tools. Feeding schemes collapse due to massive pilfering and, in some provinces the education system has collapsed under the weight of graft and maladministration,” he observes.

He insists education is the most potent and sustainable weapon to fight against poverty, stating that “it is only through education and skills training that poor children can be given an opportunity to escape the clutches of poverty. As such it ought to be a top priority in the country. Instead, the government is held captive by SADTU as it protects ill-equipped teachers and provincial education departments that have neither the self-confidence nor the capacity to create and maintain decent schools. The result is a perpetuation of black inferiority and dependency. Doling out social grants is nice, it even produces votes, but it does not take our people out of poverty. It freezes them in poverty.”

• Healthcare:For Mangena, getting the public healthcare system working is a non-

negotiable imperative and central to giving meaning to the notion of a constitutional democracy that respects the citizens’ socio-economic rights. He states that we cannot expect our children to benefit from even the best forms of education if they are suffering from disease and inadequate forms of health care, pointing out that it is the children of working-class and poor people who bear the brunt of chaotic public health institutions. “Ailing and sick people go to public health facilities with trepidation. These are sites beset by gross inefficiencies and shortages of medicines and health professionals. The abuse of patients is also commonplace. This is because unqualified staff and managers are employed in positions that ought to be filled on the basis of merit.” He argues that this has a knock-on effect throughout the entire health system, breeding incompetence, maladministration and corruption. “Moreover,” he argues, “although South Africa is not without appropriately qualified and competent people, when vacancies occur, the most competent


applicants are all too often judged to be of the wrong colour, sex or political party. Sometimes they are simply seen to be too honest and upright, so appointments are made on the basis of something other than ability.”

• Landreform: Mangena decries the scant progress that has been made since the

country’s land reform programme was introduced in the early 1990s and welcomes recent declarations that the South African government intends to accelerate land redistribution. “There is no question that we too face a crucial and necessary task to democratise land ownership and the occupation of land in our country.” He insists that this needs to be legal, orderly, productive and just, while warning against implementing ill-conceived policies that could undermine the stability of the agricultural sector. “We have to redistribute land in a way that preserves social, political and economic stability, and more importantly it ensures that the country is self-sufficient in food production. If we fail to do so we may well find ourselves in the same position that Zimbabwe finds itself in. The outcome will be violence and starvation,” he emphasises. Mangena stresses that not everyone wants to be a farmer nor can everyone make a success of farming, but “by now we should have identified black people who want to be farmers and who have the aptitude to succeed at it.” He argues that long-term agricultural success requires large-scale agricultural training and development within which the state provides emerging farmers with the support they require, including finance, equipment, extension services and appropriate forms of infrastructure.”

A dire need for principled and moral leadershipMangena’s concern is that in the current climate where corruption

goes unpunished, the confidence in the structures of justice and political leadership will continue to decline, arguing that this level of economic and political impunity is the single most detrimental factor facing South Africa.

“What,” he asks by way of example, “must go through the minds of the people working in the police service when it is so frequently discovered that their leaders are open to bribes?” Speaking of the sinister impact of this kind of corruption in different areas of government, he asks what bearing this kind of leadership has on our children, who need to have good role models. “The temptation to emulate corrupt leaders is something we dare not underestimate,” he stresses. It threatens the future of our children, our


grandchildren and generations still to come. To fail to redress the corruption we face in South Africa today is to undermine the well-being of the majority of our people. It will poison a future that the leaders of our liberation dreamed of and often died for.”

Mangena insists it will take a different calibre of leadership to begin to turn around the major challenges facing the country. “South Africans,” he argues, “must demand principled, moral, competent and humble leadership – leadership that is imbued with a progressive consciousness, one that is responsive to the needs of the citizens and one that has a strong spiritual, social and cultural bond with the people.

The son of farmworkersA son of farmworkers, Mangena has experienced first-hand the viciousness

of the apartheid system. “I was born on a white man’s farm and both my parents were farmworkers. At the time, the conditions on farms were feudal and it was not unusual for land-owners to demand that their workers go for several months without pay, under the most abusive labour conditions,” he recalls.

Determined to shield their sons from the harshness of farm life, Mangena’s parents sent him and his brothers away from the farm, where they were placed in the care of relatives in what was then known as the town of Pietersburg (Polokwane). “My uncles were in Pietersburg and this is where my brothers and I were sent. The memories of my parents and others working on the farms continue to have an impact on me.”

It is this direct experience of injustice that shaped his political principles and beliefs. “I have experienced and seen a pattern of abuse of black people, so when I went to university in 1971 and SASO burst onto the scene I was immediately drawn to the organisation’s political message.” His experience has also influenced the way he approached his work with people. “I always want to know where people came from, how they grew up, what life experiences they have had,” he says.

Mangena’s words are a reminder of the message of Black Consciousness that is as powerful nearly two decades into democracy in South Africa as it was in the days of statutory apartheid. He argues that, what he calls these “near-lost voice of Black Consciousness,” needs to be rediscovered and revitalised order for South Africa to prosper.


Pieter Mulder

Afrikaner and Nation-Builder

Pieter Mulder was appointed Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries by President Jacob Zuma in May 2009. He saw the President’s invitation to accept the appointment as an overture to Afrikaners and other minorities to share in the nation-building process. He consulted with the executive of the Freedom Front Plus (FF+) party of which he is leader, and several Afrikaner cultural and agricultural organisations, all of whom indicated their support for the appointment.

Mulder was born in Randfontein where his father, Dr Cornelius (Connie) Mulder was mayor of the town and subsequently a National Party MP for the Randfontein district. Connie Mulder was appointed Minister of Information and Plural Relations and Development by Prime Minister John Vorster and became a serious contender to succeed Vorster as Prime Minister, before his involvement in the Information Scandal. Pieter Mulder attended high school in Randfontein, became head boy, played for the first XV rugby team and was the victor ludorum in athletics. He was elected best officer of the year while undergoing his military training, earned a Doctorate in Communication Studies at Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education and underwent post-doctorate studies at the University of Wisconsin in the United States of America. He later became professor of Communication Studies at Potchefstroom University. In 1988 he was elected as a Conservative Party MP for Schweizer-Reneke. In 1994 he became a co-founder of the Freedom Front (FF) party under the leadership of General Constand Viljoen, a former head of the South African Defence Force.


Mulder succeeded Viljoen as party leader in 2001. In 2003 several Afrikaner-based political parties joined with the FF to form the FF+. Having won 9 seats in the 1994 elections, the FF+ presently holds four seats in the National Assembly. In 2010 Mulder was elected onto the executive committee of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation (UNPO), an international organi sation of political organisations and governments representing self-proclaimed “indigenous peoples, minorities and un-recognised or occupied territories”.

Pieter Mulder has asked each of South Africa’s democratically-elected presidents who they perceive the Afrikaner to be. President Nelson Mandela answered: “You are South Africans, like all of us.” Mulder says

President Thabo Mbeki provided a detailed academic response, indicating that while many Europeans chose to leave the continent as African states gained their independence, the Afrikaner missed the boat. Mbeki concluded: “You are settlers of a special kind”. Mulder says, “Mbeki left me with the impression that we are a tolerated people.” When Mulder asked President Jacob Zuma the question, he responded: You’re the white tribe of Africa.”

Mulder has miniature flags on a mantelpiece in his office, representing over twenty minority peoples from around the world who are struggling to acquire political and legal recognition in their respective countries. These include the flags of Aborigines in Australia, Basques in Spain, Kurds in Iraq and Iran, Masai in Kenya, Maoris in New Zealand, Rama in Hungary, Rehoboth Basters, and Sami in Sweden, the Palestine Liberation Organisation, Tibet, Kosovo and Somaliland – all members of the UNPO. Explaining that this organisation experiences its own tensions, with members making different demands on the states within which they are located, Mulder says that what unites them is the international concept of self-determination and a commitment to have political if not territorial space in which to give expression to their culture, identity and national well-being. On another wall he has a certificate signed by President Paul Kruger appointing his grandfather as “regterlikekommissaris” in the former independent Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek. Next to this is a photograph of the 1961 parliament that included his father, Dr. Connie Mulder, as a back-bencher. The National Party had won a majority of seats in this parliament in 1948, marking the resurgence of the Afrikaner


after the defeat of the boer republics in the Anglo-Boer war. Alongside this is a photograph of the last all-white South African parliament, where Pieter Mulder features in the back row. After this are three separate photographs of Mulder with Presidents Mandela, Mbeki and Zuma.

Mulder uses the photographs to talk of the Afrikaner’s struggle for recognition and political influence. He tells of a recent incident in cabinet when Steve Biko’s “black man you are on your own” maxim was quoted. It was Mulder’s turn to speak next and he expressed his appreciation for Biko’s philosophy but that Afrikaners discovered this during their struggle against the British during the Anglo-Boer War in 1902. Later, when other ANC ministers spoke, they observed that the history of struggle reminds us that “blacks and Afrikaners are on their own.” “We all laughed and I began to feel that our dialogue was taking us somewhere!” Mulder says.

An offer to serve in Government Mulder received a phone call from President Zuma at 22h30pm after

the 2009 elections, offering him the post of Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs, saying he needed to have an answer in the morning. Mulder consulted with the executive of the FF+ and several Afrikaner organisations. The next morning he informed the President that he did not agree with the government’s land redistribution policy and could therefore not take responsibility for the land portfolio but that he would, under certain conditions, be willing to accept the portfolio of agriculture. The conditions included the recognition that he was elected on an opposition mandate and that he would therefore continue to express opposition to government policy where he regarded this as appropriate, and that he could not work on a Sunday, when he attended church and spent time with his family. The President separated the two ministries (of land and agriculture) and agreed to the conditions. Mulder was sworn in as Deputy Minister for Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

The IFP was also approached to serve in Zuma’s cabinet, but Mangosuthu Buthelezi wanted a minister’s position. As only a Deputy Minister position was offered, no one was appointed. Being the only non ANC person in cabinet and given the interests of his constituency in his portfolio and other matters, Mulder emphasises his criticism of government in both cabinet and the public arena. He, at the same time, emphasises that the FF+ offers an alternative to the “shrill voice” of the Democratic Alliance (DA), which he


says is “more interested in scoring political points than forging good policy”. Mulder is outspoken in his criticism of the Language Bill which, if

adopted, would increase from two to three the number of languages to be used in government communications, stipulating that two languages must be “indigenous languages of historically diminished use and status”. His concern is that the wording of this clause would effectively exclude Afrikaans and fail to acknowledge the long and painful battle of Afrikaners to preserve their language in the wake of the language policy of the English colonial government after the Anglo-Boer War. He insists: “This debate is not over. There is support within and beyond the FF+ for the required number of ‘indigenous and historically diminished’ languages to be increased, in order to protect Afrikaans, which is a widely-spoken language in the Northern and Western Cape as well as in other parts of the country. “He is also critical of the opposition of the trade unions and some government ministers to the Walmart investment in South Africa saying: “We desperately need jobs and investments, and we need to learn to live with competition by whoever is prepared to invest in South Africa and play by the rules of fair competition.” In the same way he condemned the announcement that Zuma had fathered his 20th child from a relationship he had outside of wedlock with Sonono Khoza, daughter of Irvin Khoza who headed the local organising committee for the Soccer World Cup. Mulder said this is unbecoming of a President and an embarrassment to the country.

His most outspoken criticism of government came in the form of a speech in Parliament that government endangers food security in South Africa with their redistribution of land policy that is not based on real facts. We need a scientific land audit on who owns what land in South Africa. Land is a very emotional issue from all sides. Emotional slogans, propaganda figures and one-sided history perspectives will not bring us to win-win answers. “I speak where I regard it as necessary to do so – for the sake of my conscience, my grandchildren and other children who will inherit this land. In so doing I sometimes think of the words of Engelbert Humperdinck, “please release me and let me go …” “But I am still around and have come to learn and appreciate something about being an African engaged in African politics.”

Drawing on a rugby analogy, Mulder says if you want to contribute to the game you have got to get off the grandstand and put your head into the scrum. Acknowledging that he does not always win the ball and that he takes a few punches in the rough and tumble of the game, he also has an opportunity to


speak in cabinet of the concerns, anger and fears of Afrikaners and others. “My concerns,” he says, “are heard, I am told they are appreciated, and sometimes they shape the decisions being made at the highest level of authority.”

He discusses the mistakes that have been made in what he sees as the “high-handed manner” that has resulted in the names of ANC struggle heroes replacing the names of Afrikaner heroes in the country’s cities and towns. “Does this mean that names of towns and streets will be endlessly changed as each new government comes to power? Afrikaners have made mistakes in the past in this regard and now the ANC is doing the same. It’s time to find a more thoughtful and consultative approach to these things. Some people, black and white, deserve to have their names remembered in the naming of streets, towns and dams. Others do not. Politics is not about the simple imposition of the will of the strongest on the weakest. All this does is breed resentment. There are people in Potchefstroom (where Mulder lived and served on the municipal council) who are going around at night painting out the new names of streets and erecting address boards on their gates that reflect the old names of the streets. The cycle of resentment is thus escalated. On the more constructive side, however, we have sat down with city councillors in Potchefstroom to find a compromise. The outcome is that today the town of Potchefstroom retains its name, with the municipal authority being renamed Tlokwe City Council. Details aside, this is the level of compromise that is required in the current nation-building process in South Africa.”

He is adamant that there are reasonable people, as well as extremists and ideologues, in all racial and political groupings in South Africa. “My task as leader of the FF+ and as a member of an ANC cabinet is to ensure that the reasonable people on all sides of the political spectrum are able to work together,” he insists. “The differences that divide us as South Africans are too often over-simplified for the sake of political expediency. The DA, with the assistance of both the English and Afrikaans media, exaggerates these differences by promoting an adversarial form of politics that inflames white and coloured fears. When the ANC is threatened by its internal divisions in turn, rallies its troops by portraying all whites, not least Afrikaners, as racists and oppressors. It is a case of projecting a common enemy to ensure those internal divisions, incompetence and lack of delivery in the ANC government is overlooked. Well, this kind of political spin is wearing increasingly thin and will one day be seen for what it is. Whites, on the other hand, including many within my own party, suggest that the ANC is using Julius Malema and


other extremists in the ANC Youth League as a cover for their more sinister intentions. Malema has, however, at least as many enemies in the ANC as he has friends.” Mulder’s wish is the creation of a new kind of politics within which the barriers of the past give way to consensus building and cooperation, as well as honest critique.

He continues: “The FF+ is part of this country’s loyal opposition. We are here to cooperate in the creation of a society that respects the rights, privileges and responsibilities of all South Africans. We are at the same time a niche party, representing the interest of Afrikaners and other minorities. As such we express our opposition to such government policies and programmes that we believe fail to serve the medium-to long-term interests of the Afrikaners and other minorities within the context of a democratic South Africa. We are also ready to share in and promote those developments that serve both Afrikaners and the greater common good. There are some Afrikaners who are impatient with our constructive and participatory politics. They prefer the more aggressive approach of the DA. But right now we believe we are doing more to shape government policy than the DA.”

Politics and landThe politics of land reaches to the heart of struggle for coexistence and

identity in South Africa. Mulder sees the land debate as a reflection of the First and Third World mentalities that are found in South Africa. “From a First World perspective, we understand land and agriculture in economic terms. We also understand that from a Third World and political perspective, land is a deeply emotional issue. It is about human dignity, a sense of ownership and belonging.” He refers to the Afrikaner understanding of ownership and identity, recalling the belief of Afrikaner nationalism expressed in the 1930s. Driven from their farms in the Depression years, with the ownership of minerals being largely in the hands of English capitalists, the Afrikaner was sustained by a belief in God, in a sense of belonging to tribe and nation or volk, and in the need to regain their land.

He points out that 15 years ago there were 60 000 commercial farmers in South Africa. Today there are 37 000 commercial farmers who are required to produce more food than their predecessors. Mechanisation and major capital investments are required for this to happen and tenant farmers and workers are being driven off the farms. “This,” suggests Mulder, “is an economic as well as a political challenge that the nation is required to face. It has to do


with feeding the nation, while recognising the need to create space for small and emerging farmers. It is not a case of one or the other but both, and this is a difficult balance that needs to be affirmed.” He understands the basis of government and ANC land redistribution policy, while arguing that it fails to address the tension between the idealism and reality of the land challenge facing South Africa in an adequate manner. “The government is not unaware of this problem,” he argues. “So,” he insists, “even after all the mismanagement and non-delivery that characterises the Land Commission is sorted out, responsible land redistribution in South Africa is always going to be a slow and difficult process. We have seen what has happened in land distribution in Zimbabwe. In 2000 Zimbabwe produced 250 thousand tonnes of grain. In 2011, following land reforms, they produced only 10 thousand tonnes. The present government says that they are determined that the same will not happen here. The challenge we face is how to balance the emotional need, fed by a history of dispossession, with the economic reality we face.”

He draws on the words of Afrikaner poet, Van Wyk Louw, who wrote of “’ndroëendroewe land” (a dry and sorrowful land) in speaking of the hard realities of farming in both South Africa and the African continent. “The boer (Afrikaner farmer) has learned through generations to cope with these realities,” he argues, “which explains why 22 countries to our north approached our farmers through Agri SA and his ministry to help restore and develop farms in their countries.” He refers specifically to agricultural growth in Mozambique and Zambia in this regard, saying “A very high percentage of commercial farmers in Zambia are South Africans and Zimbabweans who have been driven off their farms. There are also over eight hundred South African farmers who are today involved in agriculture projects in Mozambique. Muammar Gaddafi, in turn, specifically asked Afrikaner farmers to settle in Libya before he was killed and the Afrikaner farming community is growing in countries like Kenya and Tanzania. Afrikaners are boere. We have farming in our blood.”

The contemporary Afrikaner Since he had asked South Africa’s three post-apartheid presidents how

they view the Afrikaner, he is asked to define himself and the Afrikaner people. Mulder recalls a visit to Gibraltar and Spain several years ago. “From Europe I could see the Atlas Mountains in Africa and felt quite emotional. The Americans with me looked the other way. I thought of Scandinavia


and the bridge between Sweden and Denmark, realising there is little real interest in building a bridge between Europe and Africa – whether physical or metaphorical. The Afrikaner is an African. We know this. I, for example, have no other passport and I don’t want another passport. We need to build our destiny on the African continent.”

He insists that we need to break out of the stereotypes that we have created of one another in South Africa. “Afrikaners are no more a homogeneous group of people than are the Zulus, Tswanas, Portuguese or English, and few among us see ourselves as settlers or Europeans. What history teaches us, however, is that when a group of people perceives themselves to be under threat they tend to coalesce and some among them find a sense of cohesion around the very forces that others find most reprehensible. Some become aggressive, some romanticise the past and others exaggerate the sense of threat under which they find themselves. There is, at the same time, a common thread that unites most self-conscious Afrikaners and that is a desire to be accepted as a legitimate part of post-apartheid society. We want, without fear or hesitation, to share in the political process and to contribute to the creation of a better society for all South Africans. All we ask is the right to speak our own language, to affirm our culture, to practise our religion with the same rights and privileges as any other racial group in the country.” Accepting that this is a departure from the baaskap of the past, Mulder says it is time to acknowledge both the achievements and failures of Afrikaners as well as others in South Africa and to move on. “This,” he says, “is a difficult message to convey politically in some Afrikaner constituencies, but needs to be done in a cautious and honest manner.” Acknowledging that not all Afrikaners are committed to post-1994 inclusivity, he argues that “more and more of us realise that our own destiny is inextricably tied up in the destiny of all South Africans. I simply ask for the right to be myself without favour, privilege or prejudice – and I sense there are more and more Afrikaners asking for no more than this. Those who hanker back to the privileges of the past are doing themselves a grave disfavour.”

He speaks of the international concept of selfdetermination and the Orania Volkstaat project in the Northern Cape. “I am not ready to move there,” he says, “but I recognise the right of Afrikaners to explore ways of affirming their own identity, and I have invested some money in a pecan nut farming project in Orania that creates jobs for the people in the area.” He argues that there is sometimes a narrow line between participation in the


new South Africa and aggressive forms of separatism and isolation. “It will be interesting to watch the political developments in this regard in Orania over the next few decades. I hope the climate is such that a sense of responsible belonging is practised and internalised by all South Africans in a manner that allows all South Africans to affirm their dignity and specific identity in ways that suits their particular needs at a particular time in their history. The future is ours to create.”

The future of the FF+Asked about the future of the FF+ with four members of parliament,

Mulder reiterates the niche character of his party. He argues that “the FF+ is a party of specific interests, much like the African Christian Democratic Party, Bantu Holomisa’s United Democratic Movement and the IFP, who attract voters who are not prepared to vote for the larger, more inclusive political parties”. He sees parallels with the Green Party in Germany that has six or seven percent of the seats in the Bundesrat. He sees niche or special interest parties to be making important contributions to the democratic process in South Africa and elsewhere in the world. Predicting that the internal divisions within the ANC will, at some point, result in a split in the party, he argues that “a less dominant government and a more viable opposition will open doors where the FF+ and other smaller parties may well hold the balance of power in determining who governs the country and what policies are being promoted, as is historically the case in many European and other countries.” Noting that there is more patronage and resources to distribute within government than outside government, he suggests history indicates that once that patronage is depleted the support rapidly dissipates. “So,” he concludes, “the political landscape of the country is still in formation. Eighteen years is not a long time in a democratic nation-building process and the FF+ is in for the long haul.”


Helen Zille

Persistent Voice of Opposition

Helen Zille worked as a political correspondent for the Rand Daily Mail, before entering politics. She covered several important political stories during this time, including the death of black consciousness activist Steve Biko. Contrary to the official version of the story which ascribed his death to natural causes, she provided evidence that he had been tortured to death.

From the 1980s onward she became involved in civil society and activist organisations, including the Open Society Foundation, the Independent Media Diversity Trust, and the Black Sash. She also campaigned against vigilantism and repression in Western Cape townships, and was part of the peace movement that worked to bring warring factions in Crossroads together.

She obtained a BA degree from the University of Witwatersrand (Wits) and joined the former Democratic Party in the mid 1990s, where she was asked to reformulate the party’s education policy and stand as a candidate for the Western Cape provincial legislature. She was also a Technical Adviser to the Democratic Party at CODESA in the early 1990s.

Helen was elected to the Western Cape Provincial Parliament in the 1999 general election for the newly-named Democratic Alliance (DA).

From 1999 to 2001 she served as Minister of Education in the Western Cape Provincial Government. When the ANC gained power in the province in 2001 she became leader of the opposition in the Western Cape legislature, where she remained until she was elected as a member of the National Parliament in 2004.


As an MP she served on the Portfolio Committee on Education, and acted as the DA’s National Spokesperson. Her constituency included Langa, Gugulethu and Khaye-litsha.

On 15 March 2006 she was elected as mayor of Cape Town, and resigned from parliament.

On 6 May 2007 she was elected as the leader of the DA at the party’s Federal Congress in Johannesburg and in May 2009 she became premier of the Western Cape.

Helen Zille credits her parents for shaping her political values and thinking, and for being the source of her inner strength and unrelenting drive. She says the experience of her parents, who were

half-Jewish and fled Nazi Germany in the 1930s to escape persecution, had a major influenced in her upbringing. “My parents were very politically engaged while I was growing up, influence by the fact that they were compelled to leave Germany because of the political situation there, and political issues were often discussed in our home. We were taught to stand up for the underdog, and see things from their perspective. This resulted in my having a lot more exposure to the evils of apartheid than most other white youngsters.”

Zille’s parents were early members and supporters of the Progressive Party formed in 1959 and her mother was also a fervent Black Sash activist in the 1950s. Zille says she is particularly grateful to her mother who taught her to be independent-minded and to have confidence in her own informed judgment. “My first memory of politics impacting on my consciousness was when the National Party government ended the school-feeding scheme for black children during the 1950s. I can still see my mother’s anger. She was very active in the Black Sash Advice Office at the time, which put her in close touch with the realities of black people’s lives. Over supper in the evening she would recount the things she had heard about during the day, which resulted in a deep inner disconnect between the culture to which I was exposed in my school and that of my home environment.” Zille saw the political injustices of the apartheid government as contradicting the principles she had internalised while growing up in her parents’ home. This motivated her to get involved in politics, initially as political reporter and social activist and eventually in the Democratic Party and the Democratic Alliance (DA).


Exposing the Biko cover-upThe murder of Steve Biko by the apartheid security police in 1977 was a

defining moment in Zille’s life. She states that although she never met Steve Biko, he significantly influenced her personal and professional life. “As a student at Wits, I still recall my confusion when the young and dynamic Biko led black students out of the National Union of South African Students, and announced, ‘Black man, you are on your own’. It took a while for me, an activist for non-racialism, to understand his analysis of the need for black solidarity in the psychological struggle against racial oppression. I understood it better when he said: ‘The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed. I knew that blacks needed to liberate themselves. I understood Black Consciousness in that context.’

As a budding journalist on the RandDailyMail, (the Johannesburg daily newspaper) that was under constant attack by government and forced to close down in 1985, Zille was assigned by the newspaper editor, Allister Sparks, to uncover the truth behind Biko’s death in detention. “He sent me to Port Elizabeth, where Biko had been detained, to track down and interview the doctors who had treated him. When one of the doctors who examined Biko’s body provided me with information that contradicted the police report, it was clear that this was going to be an extremely important story. The public and international community needed to know what had happened,” she says.

Thanks to the newspaper’s relentless investigative journalism, Zille recalls, “We finally were convinced that Steve Biko had not died of a hunger strike but from brain damage.” The exposure of Biko’s death was a defining moment of Zille’s journalism career, making a huge impact on her and her family. She received several death threats and had to go into hiding with her son when the security police sought to arrest her. “I received several death threats and moved out of my flat in Berea. It was a harrowing experience, but the threats also made me more determined to continue,” she says. She also had to endure the indignity of being hauled before the press council, which found her guilty of “misleading” and “tendentious” reporting,” with the newspaper being forced to issue a ‘correction’.

At the inquest into Biko’s death, she remembers that “witnesses described how he was transported, naked and manacled in the back of a police vehicle to Pretoria, and how he died alone on a cell floor”. She also recalls with sadness watching the grieving Biko family following inquest proceedings. “From time to time, I would look up at the face of Biko’s regal mother, dressed in black,


who sat as if in a trance, listening to the account of her son’s last days. His wife, Ntsiki, sat next to her mother-in-law. The portrait of them, united in grief, has stayed with me always.” For Zille, the most crushing moment of the inquest was the final words uttered by the presiding magistrate, Marthinus Prins, who ruled that: “The available evidence does not prove that death was brought about by an act or omission involving an offence by any person.” The inquest had found that Biko’s death had been the result of a serious head injury, but failed to find any individual responsible.

Zille says Biko’s abiding legacy is that he called for “the psychological liberation of both black and white people in order that they meet as equals,” and believes the history of South Africa would be very different had Biko lived. “There are some individuals who make such a profound difference at the time and show such exceptional qualities of leadership as he did. I have no doubt in my mind that Steve Biko, although I never actually personally met him, would have been such a person.” She is concerned about, and cautions against, the appropriation of Biko’s teachings and legacy by some in the South African body politic to promote parochial political agendas and vested interests. “It is not my place to seek to be an interpreter of Biko’s vision and world-view. Black Consciousness was a necessary step on the road to non-racialism. That may be so, and I have no doubt that is how Biko himself understood it. The great risk of defining identity exclusively in racial terms is that race classification and racial preferment become entrenched, to advance vested interests. An even greater risk is that they become a smokescreen for promoting the agenda of a small elite and pretending this is in the interests of the masses. This is not what Steve Biko stood for.”

Political activism Zille’s active involvement in politics started in the 1970s when she

enrolled as a student at Wits University. She had initially wanted to join the National Union of South African Students (NUSAS), but after attending her first meeting she felt alienated by the organisation’s politics. “When I went to Wits I had expected to join NUSAS but the first meeting I went to completely turned me off. The atmosphere was dogmatic and dominated by Marxist rhetoric,” she recalls. She chose instead to join Remember and Give (RAG), the student charity fund-raising organisation, and also became increasingly engaged with the liberal Youth Progress Party and the Academic Freedom Committee which shaped her desire to fight apartheid.


Her political activism continued in the early 1980s, after she left journalism in the aftermath of her breaking the Biko story. During this period, she worked and held leadership positions in a number of non-governmental organisations and human rights groups, including Black Sash and the End Conscription Campaign (ECC), the South Africa Beyond Apartheid Project and the Cape Town Peace Committee, the Open Society Foundation and the Independent Media Diversity Trust. At the height of the 1986 State of Emergency Zille and her husband, Johan Maree, opened their home to anti-apartheid political activists who were sought by the apartheid security forces.

She further exposed herself to physical danger when she, as a member of the Cape Town Peace Committee, gathered evidence for the Goldstone Commission which investigated attempts to destabilise the Western Cape before the elections in 1994. “I did more investigative work in the 1990s when I was working for the Cape Town Peace Committee trying to expose the “third force” in the Western Cape. This was the only time in my history of political involvement when I have felt in danger. There was no doubt in my view that agents within the police were using any fault lines in the black community to try to turn people against the African National Congress (ANC) and foment violence. I went to the Goldstone Commission with a dossier but my evidence was found to be inconclusive.”

Entering party politics Zille’s formal political career started in 1994, when she joined the liberal

Democratic Party – later to become the DA. Since then, she has held various leadership positions within the party and in government including party’s spokesperson on education and deputy federal chairperson, education minister in the Western Cape Province, mayor of Cape Town and, lately, national party leader. It was Zille’s election as mayor of Cape Town in March 2006 that elevated her public profile and made her one of the DA’s most high-profile figures. In the 2006 municipal elections, the DA became the single largest party in Cape Town with 42 percent of the vote, ahead of the ANC. Zille was elected mayor by 106 votes to 103, after the DA obtained the support of several smaller parties.

She describes this event as “an important milestone in South Africa’s history”. In her inaugural mayoral speech, she stated that: “For the first time since 1994, citizens removed an incumbent political party through the ballot box. The voters understood their power and they used it. This is the bedrock


of any sustainable democracy.” For Zille, the election victory represented a valuable opportunity for the new DA administration to showcase its governance credentials and to implement its policies that were informed by a governance philosophy that was different to that of the ANC.

Opportunity society Zille argues that the political contest in present-day South Africa is

between two competing political philosophies and that its “outcome will determine whether or not we succeed as a nation”. The first philosophy, which she says is currently being propagated and practised by the ANC, is that of a closed, crony society for the politically-connected few. In this system, the state is hijacked by figures in the governing party to dispense patronage to their political contacts through tenders and ‘jobs for pals’. Institutions that promote transparency and accountability are shut down or taken over, because they threaten the survival of this patronage network.

The other philosophy, which is expounded by the DA, is termed the Open Opportunity Society for All. This is a society in which all South Africans are free and equal in rights, and in which each has the opportunity to go as far as their talents will take them; in which all South Africans have the space to be whatever they wish to be. In such a society, she says, the role of the state is to give citizens the space to be who they want to be and state support, such as education and health care, to realise their intent. This, she insists, requires enlightened policy decisions and an efficient public sector within which there are people who are capable of providing competent government. .

It is to this guiding philosophy that she attributes the DA’s policy achievements in the Western Cape, insisting that the DA is the only political party that is giving meaningful expression to Nelson Mandela’s vision of building “a society free from prejudice and in which every individual could thrive.” “The ANC,” she says, “has abandoned the values of Mandela and trampled on his vision of building one rainbow nation with one shared future”. She contends that the DA, thanks to its policies that promote openness and opportunity, succeeded in turning around a city in decline as a result of the closed, crony system. “The DA-led coalition that came to power during March 2006 wasn’t perfect. No government ever is. But we did succeed in arresting the City’s decline and turning it around, moving step by step in the direction of development and progress.”

At the heart of the open opportunity philosophy, Zille emphasises, is effective


governance. She points out that in 2006 the DA administration inherited a city that was failing – characterised by poor services, a deteriorating infrastructure, insufficient maintenance spending, declining revenue collection, high external debt and low staff morale. She points out that the DA took several measures not only to rescue and improve the administrative bureaucracy in Cape Town, but also to accelerate service delivery to the poor. These measures included cutting external debt, providing emergency funding to run-down services such as nursing, fire-fighting and policing, completing the amalgamation of the seven separate administrations that were brought together to form the Cape Town Metro, equalising conditions of service, improving revenue collection, ramping up infrastructure development, dealing with duplication and reversing a legacy of deploying people without the requisite skills to lucrative jobs as a political reward, and cracking down on corruption.

These steps, she maintains, have resulted in a better governed city, with significantly improved conditions for the poor. She proudly states her policies helped to, among other things, grow the city and provincial economy, reduce crime, decrease unemployment, stimulate urban renewal, and raise the rate of capital investment in infrastructure. Citing a number of independent studies and surveys, she claims that Cape Town now delivers more services – such as water provision, sanitation, refuse removal and electricity – than any in other city in the country. Despite these policy successes, Zille acknowledges that there is are still many hurdles to overcome if the goal of a better life for all is to be attained. “Far too many people still live in poverty, there is still a huge divide between the rich and the poor. There are still people living without access to basic services. There is still much we can do to improve their lives.”

Challenging ANC Dominance Under Zille’s leadership, the DA has become the most vocal opponent of

the ANC. Since her election as leader of the DA in 2007, Zille has stridently challenged the ruling ANC government on a range of policy issues, including crime, public health, judicial independence and South Africa’s policy towards Zimbabwe. She has also worked hard to broaden the appeal of her party. In order to challenge the dominance of South African politics by the ANC – which won 66 percent of the vote in the 2009 general election – Zille has sought to shift the DA (which won 16 percent of the national vote in that election and beat the ANC in the Western Cape) away from just being seen as the political home of South Africa’s white liberals.


“Growing the base of a political party on the foundation of a political philosophy and a value set is very difficult in a racially-divided context, where people tend to see politics as a choice between different race groups. And so growing your base across all barriers requires a mix of strategies,” Zille observes. Widening the appeal of the DA to the average black voter and positioning the party as a force to be reckoned with outside of the Western Cape, where the majority of voters have, since 1994, consistently denied the ANC a clear mandate to govern – necessitated a departure from the party’s tactics of past elections. For one, during the 2009 election the DA avoided foregrounding race in its election messages, opting instead to focus on the service delivery record of the DA as the ruling party of the Western Cape and Cape Town. It also sought to project itself as a party that is part of the heritage of the struggle against apartheid – holding one of its election rallies at the Solomon Mahlangu Square, in Mamelodi, Pretoria, where Zille invoked struggle icons such as Oliver Tambo together with icons of South African liberalism such as Helen Suzman. This political approach has had the effect of portraying the DA as a pivotal part of South Africa’s struggle heritage.

While she recognises the huge contribution that the ANC has made in the quest for human rights and the triumph of democracy, Zille is concerned that it has in recent years deviated from its own roots. In a message of congratulations to the ANC on its centenary, she recognises that the organisation has much to celebrate. She states, however, that “within 17 short years, it has betrayed many of its principles. The party that once punted democratic values like free speech and the freedom of the press is shutting down the media and suppressing dissent. The party that once prided itself on its commitment to the poor has become a crony self-enriching elite.” Her major concern is that in seeking to enrich themselves, the new elite in the ANC adopted policies reminiscent of the previous regime. The outcome, she argues, is that “the ANC more and more resembles the regime it fought so hard to bring down”. She says that the DA is committed to promoting the agenda of human rights and good governance for which the ANC and other organisations have fought over the past hundred years. She is also concerned to ensure that no single party in South African is ever able claim total ownership of the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. She sees the fight against apartheid, which was at different stages led by the ANC, as a South African struggle driven by a range of black organisations as well as some white groups that all South Africans need to own and take forward.

Broadening the appeal of the DA has also involved speeding up the


internal transformation of the party, with priority being given to “growing our own timber” – identifying young black talent and giving them opportunities to come through the ranks. The elevation of Lindiwe Mazibuko to the position of DA’s parliamentary leader – and of other young, credible black leaders who can appeal especially to the new generation of voters for whom the ANC’s liberation credentials are becoming less and less important – represents a critical step in the party’s ongoing transformation and in making it a formidable electable force. Mazibuko epitomises the DA of the future and is a symbol of its hopes and possibilities. “We know we are on our way to that tipping point which will change this country forever,” she proclaims. The elevation of Mazibuko is a sign of good progress towards that tipping point,” says Zille. She believes that forging coalitions with opposition political parties is crucial to the realignment of South African politics. “There are people who share our values in all political parties. If we manage to bring all those people together in one political vehicle I believe we will be a majority. We must build this new majority.” She adds: “I remain convinced that coalitions are a crucial step in the realignment process. We must now move to the next step. We must bring together all those who still believe in a place called the New South Africa.” Asked whether she thinks the DA would one day govern South Africa, she replies emphatically: “Not in 2014, but 2019 is a distinct possibility.” Having won the Western Cape resoundingly in 2009, she thinks it is within the DA’s capability and reach to take one or two other provinces in 2014 – possibly the Northern Cape and perhaps even Gauteng.

Being a leader Asked about the role of leadership in governance, Zille reflects back

on her mayoral stint, stressing again the vital role that good leadership and effective governance played in reversing Cape Town’s decline: “In my role as mayor, the biggest challenge was trying to get the right people in the right places to ensure the city of Cape Town ran as efficiently as possible,” she says. “This has taken a lot of time and some trial and error.” She speaks of “how quickly functional institutions can become dysfunctional under the wrong leadership, and how long it takes for them to become functional again under the right leadership”. She says that the the turn around strategies that she led and implemented as mayor succeeded largely because of the skilful and capable administration that she was able to assemble. “Generally I try to


surround myself with people who have relevant subject knowledge and skills for their jobs, pro-active dispositions and are trustworthy. Then I listen to their advice.” She says this is the leadership approach President Jacob Zuma would be well-advised to emulate.

Responding to a question about what constitutes good leadership, she says the essence of leadership is, firstly, having a vision – knowing where one wants to go, based on where one is. It is then being able to develop a strategy on how to get there and move towards it in a way that other people will follow the leader. She says a leader must be able to act in different situations – depending on the nature of the problems being tackled. For her, there are many attributes of leadership, but good judgement is critical. “Sometimes you have to lead from the front, sometimes you have to confront, and sometimes you have to lead from behind. Steering from behind is a very challenging role of leadership. Sometimes you have to be consensual in approach, sometimes conciliatory.” Above all, she points out, true leadership involves integrity and courage “because sometimes as a leader you have to have huge courage to do what you know is going to be unpopular”. Referring to her leadership experience in South Africa, Zille says her years as Western Cape mayor and premier as well national leader of the DA have been the happiest of her life, simply because of the challenges she has faced. “I really enjoy taking complex problems and finding solutions for them. I’m never happier than when I’m facing major challenges,” she says.

mosibudi mangena fighter for black self-belief and...

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