A GAME CHANGING MOMENT IN SOUTH AFRICAN HISTORY

On Saturday 17 March 2012 an extraordinary thing in our very remarkable politics occurred: eleven opposition political parties took the stage in a visible show of solidarity against the Protection of Information Bill because of the ANC government's refusal to include a most necessary public interest defence clause.

As momentous as this was, the real high point was in the readiness of the people in the audience, from different political parties, to collectively own leaders such as Robert Sobukwe, Steve Biko, Nelson Mandela, Mangosuthu Buthelezi and Helen Zille, amongst others. Important living and deceased leaders, for once, became common property associated with the common good.

The trivialisation of politics through a territorial, factional or racial attitude was supremely overcome by people seeing the larger canvas. How exhilarating it was to leave the confining boxes and for once to be free in the greater expanse of political space. Here for the first time South Africans were willing to accord the kind of reverence that the PAC exclusively gives to Sobukwe and Azapo to Biko and the IFP to Buthelezi, and the DA to Zille to a pantheon of distinguished leaders committed to democracy, the existential struggle of the people, and to unadulterated freedom.

On stage, in Khayelitsha, Buthelezi paid tribute to Mosiuoa Lekota for being the midwife of the new initiative to bring opposition parties together and enable them to demonstrate that political parties can indeed rise above petty politicking and narrow-minded bickering associated with politics all over the world in order to show strength and magnify their voice in the interest of South African democracy. Lekota, in turn, highlighted the significance of the role of each party participating in the unified endeavour to protect our constitutional democracy and prevent our regression to the bad old days of the apartheid regime. This was the new line in defence of the our RSA constitution.

Here, by common consent, political parties were applauding the merits of working together while preserving their own identities and their respective chosen agendas. It was a demonstrable win-win situation that was not lost on the leaders nor the audience. Everyone understood the significance of the common stage and the common determination not to be pushed over by an obstinate government too bent on eroding the constitution and making the judiciary and the legislature into its lapdogs to give solace to endemic corruption.

Here, at the very moment when a serious challenge to our constitution arose the eleven political parties cast aside their differences and with one unambiguous voice declared their resolve to fight the erosion of our right to know and to be informed to the full extent of the law. Suddenly, everyone on the stage felt the strength they were manifesting and the people in the hall felt the hair on their bodies rising because of the electric current that was running through their bodies.

This was a game changing moment in South African politics. The people witnessed in and understood it.

With the eleven opposition parties united like never before in history (except for the MF) on the one hand and COSATU, the Human Rights Commission and the Public Protector all coming out strongly and decisively against the Protection of Information Bill on the other, the momentum has accelerated. Add to this the Right2Know campaign and George Bizos and others of his calibre making a clarion call to South Africa to stop the ANC government in its tracks lest it denudes our constitution of the rights we have, the stage is set for the second great struggle for democracy in South Africa.

All those who to seek to protect freedom of expression and of media, are gathering in strength. If the late Kader Asmal were still alive he would also have raised a huge din against this slide by the ANC government towards apartheid suppression of information and draconian imprisonment for those who had the courage to act in the public interest. It is a classic case of Animal Farm revisited. Save for two brave souls in the ANC caucus, the others cravenly submitted to Luthuli House. They let the country down at a very critical juncture and much of the good they did in the past was cancelled out after the vote was taken. The record will stand for all time and their children and their children's children will wander how they regressed from being the progressives they were.

Fortunately, Saturday's meeting in Khayelitsha gave birth to a new and powerful moral voiceto counteract the moral cowardice of those who would rob us and their own children of the right to full accountability by the people's government. The media and the courts may be a thorn in the side of government but that is how it must be even if our respective parties were in power.  Every political party, without exception, needs to have its activities minutely scrutinised and corruption exposed. That is how it must be and that power must never be diminished!

The die is cast. Now the fight by the political parties must move forward through the launch of a united campaign flowing into every ward in South Africa through party councillors and party organisers. Every home should receive a call from the united opposition forum so that the legacy of our children is not compromised by the present government. Our children must be taught to fervently repeat the Nelson Mandela mantra:   Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another.

The forging of a national spirit and the ready willingness of the assembled politicians and supporters to accept the great leaders of our democracy not in the division of segmented parties where they existed but in the unity of a common matrix of freedom, is indeed a turning point in our glorious history and the preservation of our democracy.

May freedom never dim in our country and may moral courage glow bright to show us the way to a safe and secure future. What the leaders and their respective parties did in Khayelitsha on 17 March 2012 will reverberate through history. Those who experienced it will know what I am expressing and acknowledge that what I am saying was indeed so.

MF Cassim is head of political research for COPE

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