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Black consciousness stalwarts say that people should emulate Steve Biko and begin to break free from the conditions they are in and start doing things for themselves.
Speaking Saturday at a webinar hosted by the Group of 70s on Facebook to mark the 43rd anniversary of Biko’s death, the leader of black consciousness, Professor Barney Pityana, said there was a revolutionary that must be unleashed in everyone in order to do things for themselves.
Pityana succeeded Biko as president of the South African Student Organizations (SASO), having been its general secretary.
He regretted that the current politics that had turned away from politics was not about good and opportunity, but about the “politics of opportunism.”
“People lost confidence in the government and believed that democracy had no future for them. They protested the government services, but they often ruined and destroyed what they were looking for. “
Pityana said that the people of South Africa believe that democracy has no future. Under the black democratic government led by the African National Congress (ANC), everything was highly privatized, from education, public works, roads, electricity and many other things.
“Infrastructure was being destroyed, including the vandalization of railway infrastructure, theft of copper cables, land invasion, illegal occupation of unassigned houses, violence against women and children was rampant and farmers were being murdered. “
He said corruption had become synonymous with ANC government and fat cats who stole public funds before they were allocated.
Pityana said that this happened because the black leaders lacked blackness.
“People had lost confidence in the government. The ANC government lacked direction and a sense of value and ethics.
“President Cyril Ramaphosa and his cabinet did not condemn the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) when it unleashed violence against Clicks stores across the country to protest racism.
“The message was lost in the violence and criminality of the EFF. But the president and cabinet members did not condemn the incident, only former public protector Thuli Madonsela and Adam Habib, rector of Wits University spoke.
“South Africa needs a new politics, it needs to uncover its soul … politics in South Africa is doing the opposite,” Pityana said.
He went on to say that there was an increase in tribalism and linguistics that emanated from the narrowing that was accompanied by the exclusion of as many people as possible by the current government.
“In each and every one of us there is a revolutionary. We must take responsibility for improving our lives. We should get away from stomach politics, let’s think about getting out there to make sure our people work together to improve it.
“There is a tendency to sit back and wait for a government official to come deliver. We need to do it ourselves. All of us, in my opinion, are revolutionaries, ”he added.
Former vice president of the Black People’s Convention, Professor Saths Cooper, said the country needed to regain its humanity and called for an intergenerational dialogue to “free ourselves from our historical subjugation.
Cooper was elected the Azanian People’s Organization (Azapo) upon his departure from Robben Island and a current founding member of the Group of 70’s management committee.
Thenjiwe Mtintso, a former Black Consciousness activist who became a high-ranking member of the South African Communist Party (SACP), said he wished that the path of serfdom that prevailed during Biko’s time could still continue today.
“I think we have betrayed Steve Biko,” Mtintso said.
“Many South Africans had lost ubuntu or humanity: blacks were burning their own schools and libraries and some politicians told their voters to “keep your stinking votes.”
“Self-hatred and the death of values had become a way of life while tribalism, racism and other evils of society were alive and well.
“The Covid-19 pandemic had exposed the worst human values. We need black consciousness now more than before. It is a permanent way of life regardless of who we are or where we are.
“We cannot lock up black consciousness in an organization that can claim it for itself. Every organization should have a black conscience, ”Mtintso said.
Mtintso said that no amount of harassment could deviate Biko from her ideals. He added that political partisanship was a problem in South Africa.
“Political parties spent a lot of time pointing the finger and not saying what people should do as individuals, as citizens and as a country.”
Another former BC activist, Dr. Mamphela Ramphele warned: “There is no revolutionary coming to free us, we must free ourselves from this situation. Each of us is a revolutionary. “
Biko’s son, Nkosinathi Biko, addressing virtually a separate annual Steve Biko commemorative conference organized by Unisa and the Steve Biko Foundation, condemned the massacres or human rights violations that occurred under the democratic rule led by the ANC.
He cited the Marikana massacre, the murder of Alexandra Collins resident Khoza by members of the South African National Defense Force (SANDF) and the shooting of a child, Nataniel Julies in Eldorado Park by police.
The event was also addressed by America’s civil rights leader, Dr. Reverend Al Sharpton. He said African Americans were still oppressed in the United States and praised the ANC’s decades of struggle against oppression.
“It doesn’t matter what white people think of us, what matters is how we think of ourselves. Freedom does not come from the oppressor but from the oppressed who say ‘I must be free,’ ”Sharpton said.
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