Of discipline and loyalty: the passing of Mosiuoa (Terror) Lekota

By Maeder Osler

I have a vivid personal memory of Mosiuoa Gerard Patrick (Terror) Lekota, former political activist , one-time ANC stalwart and COPE leader, who has passed away at age 77.

It was in the heady days just after the transition, when Lekota was the first premier of the Free State, and in the interests of toenadering, the ANC planned a ground-breaking Colesberg get-together with local Broederbonders and members of the farmer’s union.

The problem was that the new owner of the Central Lodge told the ANC they needed to pay a deposit before the event.

Apparently at the suggestion of the late Tina Joemat-Pettersen, a high-level ANC delegation sought me out in the principal’s office of Umso Senior Secondary School in Kuyasa township and asked me to lend them the deposit.

This was because I was an ANC member at the time, and due to serve on the interim transitional ‘Eboya’ council. So I scraped the money together. I couldn’t really afford it, and (as the ANC’s Miriam Kibi could attest) it took a very long time before it was repaid. But be that as it may …

The actual event was notable not so much for the speeches or the refreshments but for an exchange between Lekota and Abraham Kruger, a senior local Broederbonder and chair of the farmers’ union (who subsequently took me into his confidence on a various issues).

After the speeches, Kruger, in his straight, big-man style, stood up and asked ‘een groot vraag’ (one big question): ‘Hoekom werk die ANC saam met die SAKP?’ (Why was the ANC collaborating with the SACP?)

In fluent Afrikaans, Lekota gave a lengthy and eloquent reply which seemed to satisfy his interlocutor, to the effect that the ANC did not believe in forsaking allies it had worked with for so long; that friendship implied loyalty; and that one did not just drop one’s friends.

All the time, it seemed to make sense. But times change, and this theme would be thoroughly tested and contested in the years to come.

A matter of discipline …

This was in the heady days just after the transition when everybody was starry-eyed about the new South Africa in the making. The murky Arms Deal scandal rang some alarm bells, but the ANC ship sailed on, still relatively untarnished.

Gradually, it became clear that then deputy president Jacob Zuma was central to some disturbing new dynamics in the ANC, and the political mood changed. Suddenly, Joemat-Pettersen, then MEC for education in the Northern Cape, was dancing in the aisles in front of Northern Cape teachers in Kimberley, first held high and shouting, ‘Zuma, Zuma, Zuma!’

In 2005, following an adverse court judgment about corruption, Mbeki fired Zuma as deputy president, but this was like trying to stem a tsunami with a bucket and spade. Two years later, at the fateful Polokwane conference, Thabo Mbeki was ‘dropped’ as party leader and Zuma was swept into power.

At that time, I expressed my concerns and alarms to a senior ANC activist in Colesberg. He explained, slowly and carefully, that my problem was that I was ‘undisciplined’.

An open letter

The next year, in September 2008, the ANC forced Mbeki’s resignation as national president. Numerous cabinet members, including the deputy president, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, resigned in protest and solidarity. Among them was Lekota, who declared that he had ‘served the ANC with divorce papers’. By then, he had served as minister of defence since 1999, and chair of the ANC for a decade, from 1997 to 1007.

The ‘divorce papers’ turned out to be an open letter to the then ANC secretary-general, Gwede Mantashe. Known as the ‘divorce letter’ today, it expressed Lekota’s alarm about the party’s deviation from its traditional principles, which had left him and other comrades with a sense that their ANC membership had become an ‘endorsement of practices that are dangerous to the democracy that many people in our country struggled to bring into being’.

It concluded: ‘I appeal to you to reply to my concerns in an open and frank manner so that everyone can be assured that the deduction that I and many other comrades have made, that the organisation is no longer pursuing the original policies of the ANC, is correct.’

On behalf of Mantashe, NEC member Jeff Radebe wrote a brutal and threatening response, saying: ‘Put bluntly, you and those who share your views are giving notice to leave the ANC. For the record, the ANC is a voluntary association of individuals who believe in it, and who are free to leave as and when they seek to do so.

‘History is full of examples of such individuals. In the majority of cases, these were leaders who had grown too big for the ANC. These people could no longer subject themselves to the discipline of the organisation. As such, they either had to leave voluntarily or be expelled. We hope we have not reached that stage in your case. …’ (For the complete texts of both letters, click here.)

Eight days later, on 10 October, Lekota announced plans to stage a national convention about South Africa’s political future and the possible formation of a new political movement. It was held in Sandton, Johannesburg at the beginning of November. Some polities parties sent delegations, but the the ANC did not. At the end of the convention, Lekota announced the formation of a new party.

Amid huge interest and fanfare, the Congress of the People (COPE) was duly launched in Kimberley on 14-16 December, and Lekota was elected as president. For a while, it seemed as if COPE could make serious inroads into ANC dominance, and breathe new life into the increasingly arid political landscape; in the 2009 general election, it won more than 7 per cent of the vote, and 30 seats in parliament. For a number of reasons – including debilitating internal power struggles – it crashed and burned, to the point where in 2024 it failed to win a single parliamentary seat.

Meanwhile, in Luthuli House …

Meanwhile, on 13 October, the ANC had suspended Lekota’s and co-conspirator Mluleki George’s memberships, pending disciplinary proceedings again them. Charges against Lekota included ‘behaving in such a way as to provoke serious divisions within the ANC, undermining respect for the structures of the organisation, participating in organised factional activity, bringing the organisation into disrepute, and engaging in behaviour which manifests a flagrant violation of the moral integrity expected of members’.

They were due to appear at a disciplinary hearing in Luthuli House on 3 November, but resigned a few days before. Setting out this chain of events, a media statement issued on behalf of then media spokesperson Jessie Duarte concluded triumphantly: ‘Now that neither of them is an ANC member, the charges fall away. …’

Back in Colesberg …

Shortly after COPE’s formation, I also jumped ship. Despite ANC hysterics and ‘disciplining’ manoeuvres, including sinister CIA-type smears, COPE won two seats on the local council. But this show of local promise, COPE unravelled spectacularly, from near hero to almost zero.

Through carefully managed ‘insider’ and ‘outsider’ mechanisms, the ANC then ‘disciplined’ all of us ‘COPERS’ in a multi-pronged array of punishments.

The tributes pour in …

Tributes have poured in after Lekota’s death, following a period of illness. Many political role players – including some of his political adversaries — have spoken warmly of him, often noting that, whatever mistakes he might have made in the course of his political career, he had managed to stick to a clear set of principles.

By contrast, the ANC’s statement seems quite guarded. After describing Lekota as a ‘former leader who served South Africa in various capacities during the pre and post democratic era’, it goes on to say that  his passing ‘marks the departure of a figure whose life intersected with important moments in the history of our country and the struggle for freedom’ – which is saying almost nothing.

Waming up a bit, but still n very general terms, it says: ‘Lekota played a sterling role in the demise of apartheid, leading to the dawn of democracy. History has in its annals a man committed to the lives of the people, their dignity and freedom.’

This remarkable paragraph follows: ‘As we commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Constitution and the Human Rights Month, we state unequivocally that Mr. Lekota has an indelible footprint in these milestones, and regrettably, as a coincidence of history, passes on these significant calendar days of our rich history.’ A footprint in a milestone?

Cyril Ramaphosa, at least, has been more generous. Speaking off the cuff to ENCA, he said he and Lekota had shared a long political history. Despite ‘political differences’ that had resulted in Lekota forming his own party, he continued to have ‘deep respect for him’. He was a ‘committed South African who loved this country, much as we were serving from different branches, as it were … therefore, I will continue to honour him. …’

Principles, and the passage of time

Times indeed change, as evidenced by the retirement of Abraham Kruger; the mysterious passing of Joemat-Pettersen; my own retirement from farming, also with fond memories of the thousands of expectant young people I came to know as headmaster who are now out and about in a new world; the passing of Jessie Duarte; and now, the passing of Lekota. And in politics, as the saying goes, even a week is a long time.

Somehow, though, Lekota’s remarks in a Colesberg Hotel about loyalty and discipline some 37 years ago still resonate with me, even though this turned into a (sometimes painful) journey towards loyalty to a set of principles instead of a party.

FEATURED IMAGE: Mosiua Letoka being sworn in as a member of parliament, 22 May 2019/ (GCIS)