Motlanthe hails Congress founder

2008-11-20 21:01

Johannesburg - President Kgalema Motlanthe paid tribute to Professor ZK Matthews on Thursday, saying the historical Congress of the People event in 1955 was his brainchild.

The Congress of the People is currently a subject of conflict between the ruling party and the breakaway party led by former ANC chairperson Terror Lekota, which bears the same name.

Motlanthe, speaking at a memorial lecture at the University of Fort Hare, emphasised the importance of the event in the history of the ANC.

"As president of the Cape provincial ANC, he [Matthews] planted the idea of the Congress of the People in his presidential address to the ANC Conference," said Motlanthe.

"His thinking sprang from the ideological orientation of the political party of which he was leader, the African National Congress, which thinking gave bearing to the values enshrined in our present democratic Constitution."

His lecture came on the same day that the ANC received a letter from Cope's lawyers, saying they refused to adhere to a demand from the ruling party that it stop using that name.

"He, along with the generation that followed in his footsteps, including Nelson Mandela, bequeathed us high principles, including the love for education, the love for freedom, patriotism and total espousal of a non-racial, non-sexist and just disposition towards fellow human beings," said Motlanthe.

Shock at recent events in SA

He said Zachariah Keodirelang Matthews would have been "shocked" at recent events in South Africa.

"If he were to be transposed to modern times, he would be shocked at the levels of xenophobia among some of us.

"He would be shocked to discover that whereas he had seen the role of higher education as a means of empowering the people of Africa, and has done so during his tenure at this university, some of our people today have erected fixed barriers between themselves and people from our neighbouring countries," said Motlanthe.

Motlanthe suggested that perhaps the government's involvement in tertiary institutions should be increased to deal with South Africa's social problems.

Technical skills

"I would argue that currently there is a mismatch between the needs of our economy and the content of our education... Among others, the issue we have had to confront was whether our university system is geared towards producing ideas and technical skills needed by a globalised economy."

Motlanthe said although he realised the importance of independent intellectuals, higher education could not divorce itself from social responsibility.

"It should concern itself with the agenda of mobilising responses and foster international relations on the African continent and beyond, to deliver on these goals...

"I am disposed to argue for a more involved relationship between the state and our institutions of higher learning and those who populate them," said Motlanthe.

"Of course, I am also alive to the historical counter-arguments to this view, invariably born of bitter experiences elsewhere in the world, where ulterior motives tend to underline governments' attitudes to their relations with higher education institutions."

However, he believed in a "complementary" relationship between the state and higher education institutions.

- SAPA