Dear\nCde Ben Turok\u2019s family our Veterans and stalwarts coming from our provinces,\nmembers of the ANC who came to celebrate\nthe life of the late revolutionary and a committed and selfless cadre of our\nglorious movement Cde Ben Turok.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\nis befitting that we celebrate the life of our visionary Cde Ben Turok on this\nday-30 years since our struggles resulted in victory of the unbanning of all\nliberation movements and the commencement of peace talks for a negotiated\nsettlement to end the most atrocious sytem of aparthied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nunbanning allowed all those in exile to return home and freely participate in\nbuilding a united and a democratic South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\npath we have traversed so far has been not that easy and yet Cde Ben Turok became more\nvigilant and actively participated all our democratic structures, raising his voice loudly and fearlessly where and when our democratic values that so\nmany had died for were trampled upon by\nunscruplous elements who hijacked our revolutionary movement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We\nowe Cde Ben Turok a great debt of gratitude for his contribution to the\ndrafting of the Freedom Charter, introducing the clause: \u201cThe People shall\nshare in the country\u2019s wealth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\nis an indictment on us as the Veterans League that we have not recorded personal\ncontributions of dedicated and committed cadres of the movement who faught\nfearlessly for the liberation of South Africa. As Veterans of the movement we\nmust urgently address this anomaly as wrong and the biased history must be\ncorrected. The history of those who contributed immensely in our struggle for\nliberation must and will be written.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However,\ntruth be told, when our glorious movement veered off track, when our democratic\nconstitution was undermined, when lies were being peddled and unscrupulous\nindividuals were protected, when matters relating to the Guptas, Nkandla and unnecessary\ndismissal of cabinet members were being defended, Cde Ben Turok was not afraid\nto break ranks and demanded accountabilty from those who were in power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cde\nBen you reflected the ANC values of integrity, dignity, honesty and ethics. We first met in the late 1970\u2019s and later\ntaught together at Funda Center Soweto in 1991. \nI can attest to the fact that the values of the ANC, guided you throughout\nyour long life and are still relevant today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cde\nBen we all know that you were appalled by the state of our organisation and you\npublicly condemned State capture and the mass looting of state resouces by\nunscrupulous public representatives and civil servants. It was free for all. Nearly all our State Owned Enterprises\nresponsible for wealth and job creation were hijacked and some are bankrupt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cde\nBen, some individuals must be charged for committing treason as they were\nimplicit and actively participated in mass looting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We\nwere all shaken when society punished us in 2016 by not going to the polls to\nvote for the ANC and this resulted in our glorious movement losing the three\nbig Metros.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nANC Veterans League which is the custodian of our values, policies and\ntraditions and has the authority to intervene on all issues that affect the\nintegrity and dignity of our glorious movement failed to speak authoritatively\nand challenge and oppose vociferously the wrongs that were happening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cde\nBen, truth be told the 54th<\/sup> Nasrec National Conference saved our glorious\nmovement and the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As\nthe ANC we have duly humbled ourselves, we are no longer arrogant, we have\nlearnt a bitter lesson that people come first and we are now committed to renew\nand unite the movement and the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cde\nBen we dare not disappoint you. As\nveterans of the movement we will work tirelessly to renew the ANC as the most\neffective force for social change. We\nwill ensure that veterans participate and help the movement to build strong and\ncredible branches. The ANC branches must become the centre for community\ndevelopment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As\nveterans we will volunteer our services to the Oliver Tambo School of\nLeadership. This will help our movement\nto roll out the planned mass political education campaign which is part of the\nANC\u2019s national effort to train and develop ethical, committed and dedicated\ncadres who will not be lured by crass materialism, cadres who will uphold the\nANC values of integrity, dignity and selflessness that Cde Ben was committed\nto.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We\nwill not support the appointment of those that are implicated in corrupt\nactivities and those that are found wanting and have lied under oath to be\nappointed in senior government positions and in SOE\u2019s Boards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We\nwill not entertain opposition of our continued request that those who are\ncharged and found wanting should not occupy senior positions within the\nmovement, represent the movement as MP\u2019s, MPL\u2019s and Councillors or be appointed\nto any government position until they have been cleared by the ANC disciplinary\nprocess and by a court of law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We\nmust admit that we still have a deficit of trust from society and we have to\ncommit to rebuild the integrity and the dignity of our glorious movement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As\nthe Veterans League the integrity and dignity of our movement is sacrosant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As\nveterans we are committed to build an ANC that is united in action. We will help our movement to heal the\ndivisions and factions within its structures \u2013 the Veterans League, Women\u2019s\nLeague, Youth League and the Alliance partners. \nWe have to place the needs and interests of our people above all other\ninterests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As\nveterans we are committed to preparing our movement for a decisive victory in\nthe forthcoming local government elections based on an ANC mandate of service\nand an end to poverty, unemployment and inequality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We\nfirst have to admit that we have failed our people by not maintaining our infrastructure\n\u2013 roads and water pipes have not been maintained over years and yet budget in\nsome cases has been approved. We have\nsewage flowing down surburban roads and past our schools. In our controlled\nmunicipalities especially in black townships, uncollected rubbish decomposes in\npiles on every street and illegal rubbish dumps have multiplied. This is a\nhealth hazard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We\nmust appoint skilled and competent bureaucrats who are fit for purpose and\ndemonstrate their commitment to ethical leadership and service with the highest\nintegrity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As\nveterans we will insist that the selection of candidates and the deployment of\ncadres should be based on merit and not patronage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In\nmemory of Cde Ben Turok we will continue to uphold the values of our glorious\nmovement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We\nwill help our movement to strenghten and tackle corruption at all levels. We will ensure that our movement puts an end to\nstate capture and those responsible must be held to account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lala\nNgoxolo Cde Ben Turok our revolutionary and a selfless and a committed leader. \n\n Robala ka Kgotso our veteran and stalwart, we\nwill continue to fight against patronage and corruption for the sake of our\nfuture and will fly the ANC flag high.\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dear Cde Ben Turok\u2019s family our Veterans and stalwarts coming from our provinces, members of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2163,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ipan.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Ben-Turok-.jpeg?fit=743%2C413","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ipan.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ipan.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ipan.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ipan.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ipan.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2162"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.ipan.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2162\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2164,"href":"http:\/\/www.ipan.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2162\/revisions\/2164"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ipan.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ipan.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ipan.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ipan.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}