Mavuso Msimang has never been afraid to speak his mind. The ANC veteran has consistently voiced his opinions on the party and how it could better serve the people it purports to serve. Now in his late 80s, Msimang has spent most of his adult life inside the movement, first as an uMkhonto we Sizwe combatant and later as a senior figure in the democratic government, which lends his criticism a weight that few outsiders could claim. Between Hope and Vigilance: Prescriptions for a Wounded Nation is a published anthology of some of his strongest opinions and most thought-provoking essays and speeches.
In December 2023, Msimang “painfully” cut ties with the organisation he had devoted his life to. He later “reconciled” with the party, but this hasn’t stopped him speaking out about injustices that the party and its present and former members continue to be complicit in. In the book, he also clarifies the true definition of a veteran, arguing that the term has been claimed too loosely by those who joined the movement once liberation was already within reach, rather than reserved for those who risked everything to bring it about.
Msimang reminds his readers of the struggle: of the sacrifices and injustices made by its members across all races in the fight for liberation, stories of personal sacrifice that have almost been forgotten.
He writes of the less well-known, but no less important, sacrifices made by people such as Sophie Theresa Williams, one of “the legendary leaders of the historic Women’s March to the Union Buildings in Pretoria” in 1956, and pays homage to the many who fought for the democracy we live in today. “When today we decry the abandonment of the rich values of the organisation by some in the leadership, we often mention the names of OR Tambo, Yusuf Dadoo, Lilian Ngoyi, Ahmed Kathrada and a dozen or so others,” he writes. “This is of course because these leaders fully earned their stripes. But what many do not know, which we should always try to reflect in our writings and speeches, is that these values were embraced by tens of thousands of ordinary members.”
Often at severe personal cost. His account of how South Africans were subjugated, brutalised and dispossessed, from the settlers to the mines, all in the name of personal greed, is harrowing.
Some parts read like sitting on a sofa, listening in on a personal conversation, a man sharing pain and grief with a friend. “To crush its enemies, the apartheid state deployed within its security establishment hardened individuals who were authorised to carry out some of the most gruesome methods of torture on political prisoners,” Msimang writes. “And so it was that in November 1981, Dirk Coetzee and his sidekicks, who were ordered not to use a gun to kill Griffiths Mxenge, the respected ANC activist, decided to use four knives and a wheel spanner to inflict 45 lacerations and stab wounds that pierced Mxenge’s body, lungs, liver and heart. They slit his throat and cut off his ears and also ripped open his stomach.”
These tales of heroes, found mostly in the first two parts of the book, form a backdrop that demonstrates the sacrifices made, what was fought for and who was lost to create the democracy we know today. They also provide an even clearer picture of how the atrocities against South Africans have continued.
In Part Three, “Corruption: Its Enablers, Factions, Closing Ranks, Party and State Capture”, Msimang returns to a theme he first began raising in 2015. Once again, he pulls no punches. Published mainly in City Press and Daily Maverick, his writings were the beginning of the proverbial writing on the wall for the ANC. There are no sacred cows: from Jacob Zuma, Ace Magashule and Julius Malema to Floyd Shivambu and, of course, the Gupta brothers, Msimang continues to highlight how corruption has hollowed out the party and corroded South Africa’s economic strength, at the cost of citizens. What distinguishes his account from the flood of state capture commentary already published is timing: much of this material was written as the events unfolded, not reconstructed with the benefit of hindsight, which gives the collection an unusual immediacy.
It comes as no surprise that those he writes of are none too pleased by his consistent criticism. He argues clearly that those in power should be held to a higher standard than the liberation fighters who came before them, and those who have come under his scrutiny have hit back hard. Msimang does not back down. In 2017, in a City Press piece titled “Attacking the stalwarts won’t solve the ANC’s woes”, he wrote: “Recognising that the organisation needs a vigorous shake-up is a good place to start on the journey to reclaim what was once its moral high ground. Also essential is that people allow themselves to think and act fearlessly. Credibility will elude us if we are not brutally frank about our situation.”
Msimang’s political commentary and depth of knowledge on the subject carry real weight, but so does his commitment to conservation and the environment. As a founder of African Parks and former CEO of SANParks, his dedication to preserving South Africa’s natural heritage runs just as deep as his commitment to holding the ANC to account. He has been blunt about the state’s failure on this front too, lamenting that governments largely pay lip service to conservation.
In the final part of the book, Msimang devotes a section to this topic, in “Love Nature, and Protect the Salt of the Earth”. It includes criticism of the ANC government’s failings and provides hope, in a 2023 Daily Maverick article: “Nature conservation not only protects, it provides. Witness how biodiversity activities, such as nature-based tourism, constitute the fastest-growing tourism in South Africa.”
The postscript offers a rare window into his resignation from the ANC and his later decision to rescind it. Msimang writes about both with the same candour that defines the rest of the book, never flinching from the choices he made or the reasons behind them. It is clear he holds himself to the same standard, if not a higher one, than the standard to which he holds others.
Msimang’s collection not only reminds the reader of parts of South Africa’s history that have been forgotten but also invites the reader to question whether democracy under ANC rule has simply replaced one set of chains with another.
Business Day
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