Limpho Hani, Clive Derby-Lewis and the power of refusing to forgive

Sisonke Msimang

Sisonke Msimang, The Daily Maverick

In the last few days the public conversation has turned to whether or not the country has moved on enough to release Derby-Lewis. Some have suggested that he is sick and old and has served his time. The grand narrative seems to be that treating him with kindness is a marker of our maturity as a society.

This sense that society has to be ‘bigger’ than the racist killer is a defining feature of the new South Africa. Forgiveness plays an iconic role in our post-Apartheid national identity; those who forgive are revered as heroes of a special kind. More than any other trait, South Africans see forgiveness as part of the miracle of our transition to democracy.

The Hani Memorandum

This is an extract from The Hani Memorandum for which he and six others were expelled by the ANC NEC in exile in 1969 (and almost executed) but later reinstated. NUMSA

The ANC in Exile is in a deep crisis as a result of which a rot has set in. From informal discussions with the revolutionary members of M.K. we have inferred that they have lost all confidence in the ANC leadership abroad. This they say openly and in fact show it. Such a situation is very serious and in fact a revolutionary movement has to sit down and analyse such a prevailing (sic) state of affairs.

The situation is further aggravated by the fact that accredited members of the Organisation are no longer consulted or no longer participate in policy making decisions of the Organisation – there have been two or three conferences when the leaders met or did not consult or inform the membership of the resolutions. The inference is that we are no longer considered members of the ANC.

Remembering Chris Hani

http://raymondsuttner.com/2013/05/03/remembering-chris-hani/

by Raymond Suttner

I have hesitated to write about Chris Hani, partly because I did not know Comrade Chris all that well, meeting him for the first time in 1990. But I want to convey a few things that I learnt. The first is that Chris cared about people and this one hears from all the MK soldiers, that he was concerned about every one of them, spending evenings with them, remembering their names even after fleeting meetings. During these evening discussions, Dipuo Mvelase, who had been a camp commander, speaks of Hani introducing her to feminism. But they would talk about everything, and many of the cadres missed their mothers and fathers and they speak of being able to speak to him about things that they would sometimes not have discussed with their ‘mum.’

Chris Hani’s political legacy

by Sean Jacobs, Africa is a Country

The American political scientist Adolph Reed Jnr. once wrote about Malcolm X that “… he was just like the rest of us—a regular person saddled with imperfect knowledge, human frailties, and conflicting imperatives, but nonetheless trying to make sense of his very specific history, trying unsuccessfully to transcend it, and struggling to push it in a humane direction.” Like Malcolm X, Chris Hani, who was also assassinated (Hani was murdered on this day in 1993), should not be made into an ideal type or used to settle political scores in the present.

A window from the house in which Chris Hani lived as a child

Chris Hani

How Hani brought politics to villagers

Nomboniso Gasa

by Nomboniso Gasa, Independent Online, 14 April 2014

As the sun hung above the Cacadu River the question echoed in the hamlets and villages: “Is it him? Is this the son of Tshonyane?”

The cars stopped outside a humble homestead.

Transkei Defence Force and Umkhonto weSizwe soldiers jumped out of their cars, making way for the returning son of the village.