Keynote Address by Jeff Radebe, Minister of Public Enterprises, South Africa
African Unity and Revival: A Vision for the Millennium Conference
Hosted by the Embassy of the Republic of South Africa
and the Institute for African Studies of the Russian Academy of Science
Moscow, Russian Federation, 2 October 2001
Chairperson,
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Sredin,
Colleagues, academicians, tovarichii,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Friends,
It is wonderful to be back in Moscow after an absence of some sixteen years, and even more special to be among so many comrades and friends who have consistently supported and participated in the struggle for freedom, democracy and economic emancipation in South Africa over many decades. Both of our countries have witnessed tremendous changes and continue to face many challenges, but I am confident that as we gather today to place yet another brick in place to consolidate relations between our two countries, we will succeed in building stronger societies based on justice and equality for all.
I want to tease out two themes in my address this morning. First of all I will try to contextualise the historical relations between the Soviet Union, Russia and South Africa, identifying a special relationship that suggests why the New Africa Initiative can benefit greatly from stronger relations between our two countries. The second theme relates to the main topic of the conference, namely, Africa's revival and the practical plans that can involve areas of mutual cooperation between South Africa and Russia that we could explore as a means towards that end.
The Heart of Redness is a recent novel by the well-known South African author, Zakes Mda. It weaves a sensitive tale about the challenges that development brings to established rural communities in South Africa today, challenges that are exposed in the tensions of new class and social relations brought about by modernization in a countryside where generation gaps between young and old sometimes become blurred when confronted with new ways of doing things. Schools, roads, teachers, clinics, water taps represent new sources of power and authority that, if not reconciled through popular participation, can be divisive and ultimately self-defeating. The story is located in the picturesque village of Qolorha in the Eastern Cape situated close to the rugged Transkei Coast alongside a river in the heart of the land of the amaXhosa. Mda weaves his tale between contemporary South Africa and around the legend of Nongqawuse, the messenger of the ancestors, and the Cattle Killing of 1856 during the time of Britain's colonial wars of dispossession. The protagonist in the novel searches in vain for a woman, NomaRussia, he met in Johannesburg who is named 'Mother of the Russians' in honour of the death of the "much hated colonial governor" Sir George Cathcart at the hands of Russian soldiers in the Crimean War in 1854.(1) Mda explains further:
Everyone remembered how the news of Cathcart's death had spread like wild fire, sparking jubilation and impromptu celebrations throughout kwaXhosa. People got to know of the Russians for the first time. Although the British insisted that they were white people like themselves, the amaXhosa knew that it was all a lie. The Russians were a black nation. They were the spirits of amaXhosa soldiers who had died in the various wars against the British colonists. In fact, those particular Russians who killed Cathcart were the amaXhosa soldiers who had been killed by the British during the War of Mlanjeni. …
Mda puts words into the mouth of one of the old ancestors: "For many months we posted men on the hills to look out for the arrival of the Russian ships. But they never came."(2)
The ancestors would not have known about the Russian rebels against Tsarist autocracy exiled to Kamchatka who had landed at the Cape briefly in 1772 after a dramatic escape the previous year. But they would have known of the prison visits in Cape Town by two famous Russians: the author Ivan Goncharov in 1853, and the painter Alexey Vysheslavtsov in 1858 to prisoners of the War of Mlanjeni, amongst them Chiefs Siyolo and Maqoma.(3)
Apollon Davidson has pioneered the study of Russian contact with South Africa and much of what we know today is a result of his work. He has outlined, for example, the extent of knowledge of South Africa in Russian scientific journals and literature from the early 18th century to the present; the stories of some of the first Russian émigrés who arrived in the Cape in the late 1600s and has outlined briefly the history of Russian naval interest in the Cape sea route from the time of the ever-curious and energetic Peter the Great.(4) We also know of the arrival of Africans in Russia. Large numbers of Africans were captured by the Ottomans and sold into slavery into southern Russia around the Crimea and Kazhakstan. Then there is the remarkable tale of Alexander Pushkin's African maternal great-grandfather, Hannibal, sent to Peter the Great as a gift but who educated him and brought him up as his own son, sending him to Paris for further education. On his return he would assume an important role in Peter's court and eventually become General of artillery and then the engineering corps, perhaps the real precursor of those thousands of African men and women who would travel to the USSR from the early 1960s and train as liberation fighters!(5) Historians now acknowledge the participation by Russians in the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902 on the side of the Boers and the public enthusiasm for the war effort against the British in Moscow and St Petersburg at the time.(6) Cultural contact has been a consistent element of our relations, from the very first recitals by a Russian musician in Cape Town in 1798(7) to visits by troupes of Cossack dancers, the Bolshoi ballet, and lately the Russian balladeer Oleg Mitjaev in 1995 and the production of his CD entitled, "A letter from Africa". In 1937, a record of "Revolutionary Songs of the South African Proletariat", was produced in Moscow(8), followed later by the tour of Amandla, the ANC's cultural group and the recording of a record and tapes in1982, a project facilitated mainly by Slava Tetekin. Most recently, besides the current visit of Philip Tabane and Molombo and PJ Powers, Moscow has heard the wonderful voices of our Durban opera stars, Linda Bukhosini and Bongani Tembe.
The ANC's history in relation to Russia begins in the early days of the USSR and was linked essentially to the growth and development of the Comintern. As such it was also linked to the early contacts of South African communists and labour leaders with the Comintern. Comrades such as James La Guma, David Ivon Jones, Albert Nzula, Edwin Mofutsanyana, Josiah T Gumede, the Buntings, JB Marks, Lazar Bach, the Richter brothers and many others traveled to Moscow during the 1920s and early 1930s. These early contacts, as we well know, contributed to the development of theoretical perspectives that still find echoes in the policies of the SACP and the ANC.
We should also reflect that when JT Gumede enthused in 1927 that he had "seen the new world to come, where it has already begun. I have been to the new Jerusalem" he was not alone in this view. Visiting Moscow and Tbilisi in Georgia at the time, Gumede found himself treated as an equal, meeting revolutionaries and nationalists from across the world. The multinationalism of the young USSR overwhelmed him, but he brought home a positive message. His interpreter during the visit, AF Plate, [who would go on to become Professor of Chemistry at Moscow State University] recalled in 1982:
Gumede considered as one of the greatest achievements of our country that the Socialist Revolution managed to unite people of different nationalities in their struggle for common ideals. He emphasized the significance of this experience for all nations struggling for their independence and considered that success in this struggle would highly depend on the unity of action of all forces fighting against racism and colonialism.(9)
As we recall those years, however, and note the positive elements that developed, such as the emphasis on nonracialism, the promotion of internationalism, the need for unity within the ranks of revolutionary organizations, and so on, we do not forget the darker side. Isolated probably within the confines of the Comintern debates and discussions, many at the time were ignorant of a wider picture that was developing. Expulsions and purges tore into the small CPSA in the early 30s and we too have our victims. The 7th Congress of the SACP in 1989, reacting in part to similar processes in the CPSU and the rehabilitation of people like Bukharin and others, annulled SP Bunting's expulsion from the Party in 1931. At the same Congress, the SACP posthumously reinstated Lazar Bach and the Richter brothers to Party membership.(10) More recently SABC-TV produced a moving tribute to these last three comrades, that odyssey-like, brought the solitude of 1937, the horror of the camps, and the heartaches still felt by family and survivors, to the fore. If we are to learn from history at all, then we need to know as much of it as possible.
The fact remains, though, that trade relations between Moscow and South Africa developed slowly and consistently during the 1930s, whilst in public the CPSA's recovery from 1936, and the activities of Soviet-South Africa Friendship Societies kept awareness up. The operation of a Soviet embassy and the presence of a strong diplomatic corps until 1956 also assisted. These formal ties would resume in 1992 at a government-to-government level amidst some controversy as we know, but the situation has now normalized after the 1994 elections and the changes that have taken place in both countries. My concern is to concentrate on how we draw on the positive elements of our historical links and how we integrate these with the new possibilities that exist.
The greatest historical commitment of the USSR is the assistance, aid and support provided by the government, the CPSU and numerous associations, to the liberation struggle itself in South Africa and Africa as a whole. This we can never forget, nor will we ever forget it. When the Soviet flag was carried high at the Cradock funeral of Matthew Goniwe and his comrades butchered by the apartheid regime in 1985, the comrades in that dusty township probably did not fully realize the extent of Soviet assistance. Over 40 000(11) Africans came to the USSR, to Moscow, Leningrad, Kiev, Odessa, and other centers, to study, to undergo military training, for medical assistance and well-deserved R+R, from 1960 to 1991. Of this number, perhaps 3000 were South Africans, although the figures will probably never be known exactly.(12) In the words of President Mandela during his State Visit to Russia in 1999, assistance in the diplomatic arena and military aid was provided unconditionally,
at a time when it was neither fashionable to provide it nor dictated by narrow interest. In a time of need Russia became a home away from home for many of us. Hundreds of young South Africans found here the education they were denied in their own homeland. Many of our cadres found the military training that turned them into skilled combatants for freedom and justice. This was the solidarity of true internationalism, transcending a vast geographical distance as well as the cultural and social differences between our peoples.(13)
It was here that I, and many others, had the privilege of attending the Lenin School; that Cde Ronnie Kasrils and many others too, underwent military training. The Patrice Lumumba Friendship University, other technical and scientific institutions, not least the Frunze Military Academy, or the Afro-Asian Solidarity Committee offices, and others became entrenched in the minds of Africans, for it was in these institutions that we were able to develop our analytic and theoretical skills to deal with the difficult tasks of administration and government. It was here that we were able to assess first hand and with the assistance of brilliant tutors and teachers, the complexity of the New Economic Policy era of the 1920s; the intricacies of international economic systems; and in the 1980s in particular, to experience the stirring debates and discussions that would drive perestroika onto the world stage not only as a policy option, but as a direct development and challenge to orthodox ways of seeing and thinking. In fact, cities like Moscow and Kiev would become so ingrained within us that for many years after we left the Soviet Union, arguments would arise about the relative merits of Dynamo Kiev and Moscow Spartak! So it is with delight that we hear of the growing popularity of a South African soccer star in the Russian league, Jacob Lekgetlo currently with Lokomotive, who recently became the first South African to win a top Russian soccer award.
There is one element I do wish to touch on that normally does not find its way into public discussion, and that is the role of institutions like the Africa Institute, and what it means for us now. To paint the contrast in the starkest terms, we discover that Institutes of African Studies in Europe arose mainly from processes associated with colonialism and empire. Geographical exploration, language and ethnology, medical and scientific research were harnessed to the identification and exploitation of natural resources and the determination of rival spheres of interest between colonial powers, systems of appropriate administration and how to ensure the health of expatriates. African studies in Russia and particularly from the foundation of the USSR, emerged from within an internationalist context, from the multinational character of the new soviet state, and identified itself with the consequent struggles against colonialism and imperialism in the east and Africa in particular.
The dichotomy of interest between east and west, evident in this academic tradition, is reflected also in the titles of books, research topics and literature of the years. Thus it is significant that one of the first detailed studies of Africa to emerge from the USSR was the 1933 Russian publication of The Working Class Movement and Forced Labour in Negro Africa edited by Albert Nzula (using his pseudonym Tom Jackson), Ivan Potekhin and Alexander Zusmanovich.(14) Nzula, as we know, was the first black General Secretary of the CPSA who died tragically young here in Moscow in 1934 and whose ashes now rest somewhere in Donskoye Cemetery. His Russian co-authors were fundamental in the establishment of Soviet African Studies. In later years, Apollon Davidson's magnificent Yuzhnaye Afrika: Stanovlenie sil Protesta(15) (unhappily still not available in English!), was researched and published from afar, at the same time that South African liberal historians were painting a rather different picture of our country's history. During the 1980s in particular the pens of Soviet authors provided perspectives otherwise unknown.(16) Much more recently Vladimir Shubin's masterly 'view of the ANC from Moscow' (17) is invaluable as a source of political and liberation history that has provided a major impetus to a public understanding of our struggle. One example of the practical and non-mechanical application of academic studies to SA's liberation and the African Studies Institute and Academy of Sciences is the seminar in 1986 preceded by the publication of Topical Issues of the Soviet-African Relations in the 1980s.(18) This was followed up later by another initiative sponsored by the Africa Institute, when the ANC coordinated a large group of academics and specialists in 1991.
Another frequently forgotten element relates to what happened during the perestroika period,
when Progress Publishers continued to produce documents and key speeches that helped us
understand the dramatic theoretical and practical developments that gripped the USSR.
Novosti Press Agency, particularly its Harare office, kept us informed [if not always
enlightened!] into the early 1990s with their Weekly News Briefings and assorted documents.
For us in South Africa, it was a great sadness to see these agencies vanish through
circumstances beyond their control. The sudden silence and the flow of direct information
reduced to a mere trickle was overshadowed by the noise of immediate television and the
concept of instant news. We were robbed of significant intellectual debate about economic
policies in particular and about the new challenges facing socialist and capitalist alike.
Although many of us were still in gaol at that time, others were able to benefit greatly from
access to, for example, not only the Draft Platform prepared for the 28th Congress of the
CPSU, but also the response to it by the so called Marxist Platform of the CPSU and other
groupings. Those vigorous debates, under conditions of glasnost, were followed very closely
in South African liberation circles. To some extent I would suggest that current discussions
in South Africa about economic policy could well learn some firm lessons from these past
debates.
Much of what I have just said is very familiar to most of you here, but I have mentioned these pages from the history of our relationships because all too frequently these days, matters of struggle, the origins of our friendships and the basis of our political engagement is at best misunderstood, or at worst simply taken for granted. But the major reason I have dealt with these historical matters at such length is to emphasise that, from our perspective, we genuinely believe that a very solid foundation exists within Russia and the states of the former Soviet Union for the continuation of a profound relationship between our continent as a whole and this region of the world. For as Africa maps its way forward into the new millennium, as our leaders and our people put into place practical plans that are designed to overcome the legacies of centuries of colonialism, slavery, underdevelopment and the ruptures of the Cold War period, so we will benefit from the assistance and friendship of those peoples who stood by the continent in some of its darkest times as well as their most recent experiences.
Let me turn, then, to the main part of our interest this morning, namely the New Africa Initiative and provide us with some material to assist in our discussions. I am aware that Dr Eddie Maloka will deliver a specific paper on this topic, so let me be brief.
As we all know, the New Africa Initiative has emerged from the Millennium Partnership for the African Recovery Programme (MAP) and the Omega Plan. It outlines the approach African countries will take to eradicate poverty and place themselves on a path of sustainable growth and development. It emphasizes the role that African governments will play as proactive instruments of development and progress, alongside partnerships with the developed countries of the north in particular. The emphasis is on eradicating historically induced underdevelopment and the results of latterday inadequacies in domestic policies. It relies on good governance, sound economic planning and organization, and the inclusion of Africa in global economic development.
There are three preconditions for development, namely, peace, security, democracy and political governance, economic and corporate governance, with a focus on public finance management, and regional cooperation and integration. These three preconditions are tasks in themselves, but the plan also insists on five priority sectors to which resources must be mobilized. These are infrastructure development, information and communications technology, human development, specifically health and education, culture, agriculture, and the diversification of production and exports and market access. The task of mobilising resources involves increasing savings and capital inflows through debt relief, increased overseas development assistance and private capital flows, and better management of public revenue and expenditure.
Specific timeframes are outlined in the New Africa Initiative to ensure that it does not simply remain at the level of commitment, and specific items are noted in some detail. Mechanisms for peace keeping and peace enforcement, post-conflict reconciliation and rehabilitation, and combating the proliferation of small arms, light weapons and landmines, are a high priority. Likewise, participating countries will develop basic good governance practices that will boost democracy. Capacity-building initiatives will be undertaken, focusing on administrative and civil service reform, the strengthening of parliamentary oversight, and the introduction of measures to combat corruption and build judicial reform. A task team from finance ministries and central banks will review economic and corporate governance practices in the various countries and regions, and make recommendations on appropriate standards of good practice. High priority will be given to public financial management.
Increased investment in infrastructure, especially refurbishment, and improved maintenance practices to sustain infrastructure is at the center of the Plan, coupled with the need for training institutions and networks which can develop technicians and engineers in all infrastructure sectors will be initiated. We believe also that appropriate public-private partnerships are an effective way to attract private investors to provide support for public funding on the pressing needs of the poor. Specific initiatives have already been identified to develop key infrastructure sectors such as information and communications technology, energy, transport, water and sanitation, and science and technology platforms.
Africa can develop new industries, upgrade existing ones, and must develop in those areas where African countries have comparative advantages, including the agro-based, energy and mineral resourced-based industries. To encourage the diversification of African exports, intra-African trade will be promoted, marketing mechanisms and institutions will be created to develop strategies for marketing African products, the costs of transactions and operations will be reduced, and regional trade agreements will be promoted.
"The African Initiative's objective is to consolidate democracy and sound economic management on the continent. Through the programme, African leaders are making a commitment to the African people and the world to work together in rebuilding the continent".
The South African government has endorsed the initiative wholeheartedly. What is more, all of the programmes that are identified in it, from the improvement of public service and management through to the practical identification of infrastructure development and education and technical reform to support it, are already part and parcel of our domestic policy. Critically important, is that South Africa does not see itself as an isolated country at the tip of Africa. Our transport, communications, energy, and education policies are rooted in agreements within SADC to ensure that the region as a whole moves forward together. The development of trade relations between South Africa and the rest of the African continent is a growing phenomenon. Our electricity, transport and communications enterprises, all sectors dominated by state owned entities, are engaged in a very active way in partnerships with companies and governments across the continent. Our defence industrial sector has grown over the years into a globally competitive player in some critical areas of technological expertise and operates across the continent.
But a critical element of Africa's work is to integrate itself into the global environment. This process involves particular challenges to African states themselves. But more than that, it also involves the establishment of an international environment that is more appropriate to the needs of the developing world, one that is multipolar in character, without domination and the exercise of monopoly control. Another feature calls for the reorganization of the instruments of global governance, such as the necessary reform of the United Nations Security Council and other multilateral bodies to reflect better the real global environment in which we work. These objectives are best addressed through the active cooperation of allies and friends across the globe.
The unwary reader of the New African Initiative may think that the emphasis on the developed world, and its particular reference to the older colonial powers and the capitalist west that is mainly responsible for the debt problems and which dominate the current set of power relations towards African countries, excludes countries like Russia. We would disagree and argue instead that Russia and its neighbour China are essential and critical actors for the success of Africa's renaissance. Not only does this part of the globe represent a massive proportion of humanity and natural resources themselves. The region includes nations and peoples who have relentlessly supported Africa in the past, often at great cost to themselves, but in ways that show that there is a powerful force within these countries that promotes world peace and development. A more intensive partnership with African countries can only strengthen our objectives.
As far as Russian-South African relations go, I would like to suggest that the trade relations that exist at the moment are but a firm foundation upon which we can and indeed must build and extend our partnership. In this regard, the South African government remains enthusiastic about its formal relationship as reflected in the work of the Joint Intergovernmental Committee on Trade and Economic Cooperation [ITAC] as well as of the Joint South African-Russian Commission on Scientific and Technological Co-Operation [JCST]. The barriers that exist on both sides that still hamper elements of our trade relationship can be overcome. The South African government looks forward to the positive results that must flow from the forthcoming meetings of these various Commissions. There is room for an expansion generally in our relations in the atomic, energy, defence, communication, agriculture, mining and geological fields, and between our scientific institutions. Already we have seen significant partnerships, particularly in the area of diamonds and non-ferrous metal ores, mining, agricultural products and in some areas of manufacturing. The integration of the technologies involved in the Mirage F1-AZ project sees Russian Mig engines incorporated into non-Russian aircraft. We are also very keen to explore further the ways in which South Africa's defence industry can support the maintenance of the large numbers of Russian-origin helicopters and other fleets in Africa. Our two countries can also benefit substantially from the resources we both have in the space satellite and test facilities area. We should not forget either that part of the world where we in fact share a common border: Antarctica and the work we can do together at SANAE 4 and the Russian base there.
Russian influence and contacts with South Africa are a part of our historical and political present. Russia has similar relationships with other countries in Africa. We would urge a greater interest in Africa from Russia precisely because we believe that your presence can be a positive one, and one that finds itself on the side of the New Africa Initiative and in line with the global objectives we both pursue.
At the outset I referred to Zakes Mda's novel, The Heart of Redness. Thereafter I spent some time looking at the special nature of our relationship as two countries and peoples. The South African government places a strong emphasis on building and strengthening our relationship with Russia. We do this not out of sentiment, but out of a keen appreciation for the way in which the USSR and its main successor, the Russian Federation today, has worked with us in the past and is working with us now in the new conditions that exist in both our countries. Unlike the ancestors in Mda's novel who stood on the beautiful hillsides of Transkei waiting for "the russians" to arrive, we know that you have indeed always been there, alongside us in our struggle for liberation. We hope fervently that you will be with us, with Africa as a whole, in the new struggle to reclaim our birthright and our place in the world. We will not fail you and together, Russia and South Africa can become stronger than they are now.
Spasibo bolshoi!
______________
1. Mda, Zakes The Heart of Redness [Cape Town, OUP, 2000], p 70
2. ibid., p 93
3. Davidson, Apollon "Russia and South Africa: Centuries of Contact" in Davidson, A and Filatova, I Russia in the Contemporary World: Proceedings of the First Symposium in South Africa, Centre for Russian Studies, UCT, [Cape Town: Centre for Russian Studies, UCT, 1995] p 98. Beinart, W The Political Economy of Pondoland, 1860-1930 [Johannesburg: Ravan Press, 1982] p 33
4. ibid.
5. Golden, Lily "Africans in Russia", in Davidson and Filatova, ibid., pp 59-61
6. Kandyba-Foxcroft, Elisaveta Russia and the Anglo-Boer War 1899-1902 [Roodepoort: CUM]
7. Davidson, A "Russia and South Africa" p 97
8. ibid., p 107, fn31
9. quoted in Francis Meli, South Africa belongs to Us! A History of the ANC [Harare: Zimbabwe Publishing House, 1988] p 76
10. Editorial, "The Case of SP Bunting" and "Three members reinstated", African Communist, no 119, fourth quarter, 1989, pp 19-21
11. Goldin, L "Africans in Russia", p 61
12. Shubin, Vladimir The ANC: A View from Moscow [Cape Town: Mayibuye Centre, UWC, 2000], p
13. Nelson Mandela, "Toast at a Banquet in Russia" on the occasion of the State Visit to Moscow, 29 April 1999
14. an English edition was only published in 1979 by Zed Press, edited by Robin Cohen, under the title Forced Labour in Colonial Africa
15. Moscow: Nauka, 1972
16. A sample list of monographs and books in English would include, for example, the following titles: Valentin Gorodnov, Soweto: Life and Struggles of a South African Township [Moscow: Progress, 1988]; Andrei Urnov, South Africa Against Africa, 1966-1986 [Moscow: Progress, 1988]; Mikhail Vyshinsky, Southern Africa: Apartheid, Colonialism, Aggression [Moscow: Progress, 1987]; Boris Asoyan, Nelson Mandela [Moscow: Novosti, 1989]; Boris Asoyan, Apartheid: the "White Man's Burden" [Moscow: Progress, 1988]; Vladimir Bushin, Social Democracy and Southern Africa (1960s - 1980s) [Moscow: Progress, 1989]; Apollon Davidson, Cecil Rhodes and His Times [Moscow: Progress, 1987]; Africa Institute, The October Revolution and Africa [Moscow: Progress, 1983]; Zinaida Tokareva, Organisation of African Unity: 25 years of Struggle [Moscow: Progress, 1989]; Sergei Slipchenko, In Southern Africa [Moscow: Progress, 1987]; Yuri Popov, Political Economy and African Problems [Moscow: Novosti, 1982]; Oleg Ignatyev, Amilcar Cabral [Moscow: Novosti, 1990]; Nikolai Reshetnyak, Patrice Lumumba [Moscow: Novosti, 1990]
17. Vladimir Shubin ANC: A View from Moscow [Cape Town: Mayibuye-UWC, 1999]
18. published by Mezhdunarodnye Otnosheniya Publishers, 1985, to coincide with the convocation of the 27th Congress of the CPSU