Ben Turok – A Revolutionary Thought-Leader Until the End
On Sunday, 2 February, the ANC will celebrate 30 years since its unbanning as a liberation movement by former President FW de Klerk. The event will be marked by President Cyril Ramaphosa at the Johannesburg City Hall, where he also will pay tribute to the late Professor Ben Turok, one of the most outspoken revolutionaries of our time.
Who can forget the diminutive Turok, clad in a brightly-coloured African designer shirt, treading through the corridors of parliament with his large trolley bag filled with copies of New Agenda: South African Journal of Social and Economic Policy, that he ably edited?
Turok can best be described as a fearless and outspoken activist and a lifelong revolutionary thought-leader.
His book, Revolutionary Thought in the 20th Century, published in 1980, was an essential reader for any activist involved in the mass struggle for freedom and democracy in South Africa. It carried the seminal document, Strategy and Tactics of the African National Congress of South Africa, which raised seizure of power by military mean as a major objective of the liberation struggle in our country.
Turok had the singular honour of introducing the third clause of the Freedom Charter, The People Shall Share in the Country’s Wealth, at the historic Congress of the People held on 25-26 June 1955 in Kliptown. In doing so, he declared: