NEWS & MEDIA LETTERS FROM THE PRESIDENT

"We will not abandon national reconciliation"

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Last month one of our daily newspapers, 'The Citizen', carried a front-page story under the banner headline - "McBride tipped to head Metro cops". It was referring to Robert McBride. It had been tipped by "a reliable source" that McBride had been "mentioned as a possible replacement" for the position of Ekurhuleni Metropolitan "Chief of Police".

It explained that Mr McBride had been a cadre of our liberation army, Umkhonto we Sizwe. It added that he had carried out a car bomb operation against "Mangoos (sic) and Why Not bars near the Durban beachfront in 1986", in the belief that these were frequented by soldiers of the SADF. It said three civilian women had been killed, and no soldiers.

The newspaper also stated that Mr McBride "was granted amnesty for the attack by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) due largely to the fact that the ANC claimed it had ordered McBride to attack the pubs, contrary to its initial denials that it was involved in the bombing".

The day after it "broke the story", it published an Editorial headed "Here comes McBride". Among other things, it said:

"He is blatantly unsuited, unless his backers support the dubious philosophy: set a criminal to catch a criminal. Make no mistake, that's what he is. The cold-blooded multiple murders which he committed in the Magoo's Bar bombing put him firmly in this category."

Before we discuss the grave implications of what 'The Citizen' is seeking to achieve, let us discuss some factual errors in its reporting, hoping that the newspaper will make an effort to respect the truth in future. The ANC has never said that it specifically ordered the operation against Magoo's Bar. It has always said that this operation was carried out by cadres of Umkhonto we Sizwe acting in the field, on the basis of information available to them, targeting military targets in white areas, consistent with ANC policy.

The ANC made no presentation to the Amnesty Committee of the TRC, as a result of which Mr McBride obtained amnesty. The Amnesty Committee granted Mr McBride amnesty consistent with the provisions of the Interim Constitution, the legislation establishing the TRC, and the determination of the Court that had sentenced him to death and 82 years imprisonment. This apartheid Court accepted that Mr McBride's actions were political.

The negotiations that took place from 1990, and concluded with the adoption of the Interim Constitution in 1993, sought to achieve as peaceful a transition as possible, from apartheid white minority domination, to a democratic and non-racial South Africa.

During this process, the critically important matter arose as to whether the democratic order should deal with those who had perpetuated white apartheid minority rule, in the same manner that the victorious Second World War allies had dealt with those who had imposed Nazi rule on the people of Europe and the world. The simple question that was posed was - should we have our own Nuremberg Trials!

The ANC, its allies and supporters took the decision that we should take the path of reconciliation and forgiveness, rather than the path of revenge and further conflict. We decided that we should spurn the option of revenge and Nuremberg Trials.

We opted for the establishment of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. This would provide the possibility for all South Africans to tell the truth about such gross human rights violations as might have occurred during the contest between the forces of racist white domination on the one hand, and those of democracy and equality for all, on the other, and provide for amnesty and reparations.

All the political and other formations in our country agreed that this was the best and most humane manner in which we could respond to the injunction to forgive but not forget the evil of racial tyranny that had enslaved millions of our people.

Correctly, Robert McBride took the opportunity provided by the establishment of the TRC to seek amnesty. He made a full disclosure about what he had done, and expressed remorse for his actions. Operating within the context of the law, the Amnesty Committee of the TRC granted him amnesty, as it did with regard to the larger number of operatives of the apartheid system who applied for amnesty.

The ANC, its allies and supporters accepted that those who had been granted amnesty would afterwards be treated like any other citizen. There would have been no point to the TRC process if we insisted that we would act in a manner that sought to penalise those who had been granted amnesty.

During the last nine-and-a-half years of our liberation, both our movement and government have respected this approach.

We have even served in government with people who had occupied high positions in the apartheid regime, when it was involved in murderous campaigns that claimed the lives of thousands of people who were opposed to apartheid or seen by the captains of apartheid as its enemies.

During the 1980s, agents of the apartheid regime assassinated a prominent leader of the ANC, Joe Gqabi, in Harare, Zimbabwe. At that time, 'The Citizen' published an Editorial charging that Joe Gqabi had been killed as a result of an internal ANC fight. It falsely alleged that there was an intense conflict between two factions within the ANC.

It said that Nelson Mandela led one of these factions, and Oliver Tambo, the other. It said that "the Mandela faction" had murdered Joe Gqabi because he had joined "the Tambo faction".

This was an outright lie intended to divert attention away from the reality that Joe Gqabi had been brutally assassinated by agents of the apartheid regime. It was an attempt to attach a heinous crime to Nelson Mandela, knowing that he was a prisoner of the same regime that murdered Joe Gqabi, and had no possibility to defend himself.

To add insult to injury, 'The Citizen' has sought to camouflage what it thought of Nelson Mandela (and Oliver Tambo) by pretending to be a fervent believer in Nelson Mandela as the best of human beings, the unique representative of the blessings of national reconciliation.

Despite everything 'The Citizen' has written about and against the ANC, we have avoided reference to this history. We did this not because we had forgotten what had happened in the past. We did it because our people had agreed that we should forgive what had happened in the past.

I do not know whether Mr McBride was ever or is interested to be Chief of Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Police. I do not know whether he has the competence to serve in this capacity. What I know is that it would be fundamentally wrong that he is denied the possibility to be appointed to any position, simply because of what he did during our struggle for liberation, for which he apologised and for which he was granted amnesty. We will not agree that Mr McBride should be condemned for having been a liberation fighter.

In essence what 'The Citizen' is suggesting is that we were wrong to have chosen the option of the TRC. It is arguing that Nelson Mandela was mistaken when he said so many times in the past - let bygones be bygones!

'The Citizen' is urging our country to reopen the wounds of the past. It says that we should open a veritable can of worms. Practically, it says we should speak out about, and name the individuals and institutions responsible for the perpetration of the apartheid crime against humanity.

Because it feels free to denounce Mr McBride as a criminal - "make no mistake, that's what he is" - it opens the way for the rest of us to follow its example. We too have ample opportunity to denounce thousands as criminals. The serious question we must ask is - whose interests does 'The Citizen' serve?

Whatever the problems, all our people, black and white, have made remarkable progress to bridge the divisions and heal the wounds of the past. Even as we recognise that much still remains to be done, we know that the enemies of the past have reached out to one another to make the important statement together, that they share a common destiny.

In an extraordinary process driven by the recognition that we belong together, the majority of our people, black and white, have come to understand that our country faces a common challenge of the eradication of the legacy of apartheid, which we must confront in unity.

Today, even as opposed to a mere five years ago, there are many more of our people who can say with genuine feeling and conviction that we are all South African and African. There are that many more who ask the question - what can I do to contribute to the achievement of the goal of a better life for all? There are that many more who will travel the world and tell the true story of what the millions of our people are doing to transform ours into a winning nation.

'The Citizen' thinks that all this must come to an end. It says that we must identify, denounce and isolate those South Africans anyone of us might determine to be criminals, on the basis of what they did in the past. Accordingly, it must surely approve even of the dangerous and reckless acts of destabilisation of our young democracy, in terms of which some are seeking to bring charges in the US courts, against various South African and foreign companies that engaged in business in our country during the apartheid years.

It must also be keen that the lists should be published of all those who served the apartheid regime as agents, informers and sources - journalists, intellectuals, lawyers and other professionals, religious leaders, traditional leaders, medical doctors, civil servants, managers, leaders and members of NGOs, members of various political formations, and others. Or is all this intended to apply only to ANC members!

During the apartheid years, 'The Citizen' played the role it did, on the basis of its ignoble parentage. In the post-apartheid years it has done what its conscience tells it is right, consistent with its past. It obviously believes that what it stands for is right and morally correct, including repudiating the TRC process.

Recently, there has been much discussion about who might or might not have been an "apartheid spy". In the course of this, as did 'The Citizen' when Joe Gqabi was murdered, false and self-serving allegations have been made that this reflects divisions within the ANC.

As happened then, these politically motivated lies will not divide the ANC, as intended. Neither will the efforts of 'The Citizen' to provoke us to abandon the path of national reconciliation succeed.

One of the people who wrote to the Editor of 'The Citizen', after his newspaper "broke the story" about Robert McBride, said: "Muzi, do not think peace exists, because many whites are gatvol."

I dread to think what would happen to all of us if black people took to communicating the message: "Paul, do not think peace exists, because many blacks are gatvol."

Fortunately, I know that the ANC will, as it has done for 91 years, continue to argue that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white.