New Year Message by the President of the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania, Comrade Mzwanele Nyhontso
31 December 2021
M’Afrika amahle, compatriots and friends.
The bad public image of a PAC that is rudderless, that is riddled with infighting, that is pronounced dead, that is not showing up where it is supposed to be, and its leaders associated with malfeasance and unbecoming behavior, making our followers and support base grit their teeth each time the news headlines mentions the organization – – – all of these issues and more are done away with.
The liberation movement has gone over serious hurdles of its legitimacy in the eyes of the law, and it has gained a restoration of its place in the eyes of the majority of the Azanian masses as a liberation movement once more. Let me declare without prevarication that the PAC of Azania is one entity. The PAC is united.
We must learn from these bad experiences of selfish internal power struggles, we must identify the root causes, and eliminate them thoroughly as we go forward with the task of national liberation.
Pan Africanists all over the world take the PAC and its correct standpoint against colonialism and imperialism as a torch bearer for the total liberation of all African people.
In this new phase we are entering as an organization, the PAC must demonstrate ‘a sense of responsibility and a sense of duty’, as the late Chairman John Nyathi Pokela would put it. We must work extra hours in the day, every day, until our national tasks are done. We work for unity within the African Revolutionary community, and unity among the people of Africa. We overcame the internal hurdles via unity. This is our Party line: “Unity – Criticism – Unity.”
The PAC is back. In the new year, in 2022, the presence of the PAC must be felt all round. We must be in every home, in every community, rural and urban, serving the people, sacrificing for the people, and adopting the position of the most and the many who are suffering, we will do these in order to transform a failed South Africa, and make our struggle realize a successful Africanist Socialist Democracy, a Peoples Republic of Azania.
2022 is the Year of the PAC.
We will strive to reduce the margins of errors. Those who are practical and active, are certain to make mistakes and errors in the implementation of the program of action. We are guided by the 1949 Program of Action. We will conduct constructive criticism and discuss among ourselves how we can improve our activities. Theory without action is waste of energy. Revolutionaries are those who are in the theater of war, not the spectators sitting in the comforts of their homes and making bookish remarks. Theory combined with action becomes a praxis. That is what the Year of the PAC means. Talk is cheap. Let’s unite in action.
We will continue to have loose cannons. That is because the period of degeneration – when PAC-bashing was all that could come out of the mouths of lone wolves and reclusive characters – will still be able to show up from time to time. We have educated knowledge bearers in the PAC who are now out of touch with the realities of the decadent world of consumerism, cancel culture and deliberate gross misinformation on the social media platforms. Their knowledge is poisoned. They will have to recalibrate their skills to suit the objective conditions. More than anything else, they will have to fall under the discipline of the Africanist Movement, led by the PAC. As they say in the field of medicine, “we have to deal with the illness in order to save the patient.”
The PAC is back.
This means we have a de jure ligitimacy as a political organization, and a de facto authority in the eyes of the public. The main strategy of the PAC has always been to build the Party in its form and content, so that it can practically “show the light,” and that the African people will in turn can be able to increase their capacity to make historical changes and own their souls, own their liberation, own their land and own their destiny.
We will insist on getting these following four elements if organization right:
1. Administration – our offices must be efficient and secure and trustworthy. We must do everything on time, strive for excellence, and do the best we can under the guidance of our Secretary General’s leadership.
2. Politics – our political message must be clear and follow the line that the African people can understand and follow. Sobukwe said that Africanists should speak in biblical simplicity. We must be concrete and very clearer.
3. Distribution – we must ensure that the political message we preach reaches the people. We must get a feedback on what us delivered and correct ourselves as we continue going forward. Our distribution of packaged messaging must be interpreted by the middle ranking leaders in manner that we can be understood by the woman and man in the street.
4. Membership: our members are our cadres. They do more than everyone else to ensure that the PAC reaches the masses. Our cadres must not be abused by ambitious people with a hidden agenda. The PAC has already said that it does not regard its membership to be blind followers. Each and every one of our members is very important.
These four elements are the focus points of rebuilding the PAC into a fighting force.
In 2022, the PAC will have its constitutional annual conference in which the branch delegates meeting in a congress are the highest decision makers. PAC decisions cannot be made by a clique or a minority of opportunists. We faced many challenges since August 2019, mainly a counter revolutionary onslaught from within aimed at neutralizing the growth of the unity project.
This, as we said earlier, has been overcome. We also had the lockdowns out of the coronavirus pandemic. It has negatively affected the holding of the annual conferences in 2020 and 2021. We must however move forward and hold the supposed third annual conference. We must restore order at all levels.
The PAC is back to its members once more. Disciplined membership makes progress in a structured manner, to rebuild the PAC. Leaders must have the mandate of their constituencies. We need legitimate branches where members must belong. No one must roam aimlessly without belonging to a bona fide structure of the PAC where they branch. This is where democratic discussions are held, ideas are proposed, and decisions are made. This is where accountability is expected. Structured approach to unity bring the PAC closer to the people.
The PAC is back, taking pride of place in the hearts and minds of the African people.
Our brand of Pan Africanism recognizes the territorial rights of the indigenous peoples and their unity in the struggle to overcome settler colonialism, super exploitative capitalism and the mother of all troubles, imperialism. We do not refer to color. Colonialism introduced white supremacy. We will however have to liberate even the racists from their wrongful conduct of worshipping white supremacy. Being back for the PAC means our political outlook and our worldview must be told without fear. No one must say they did not know what the PAC stands for.
The PAC and a United Patriotic Front must work wonders in a synergy that will articulate and accomplish the objectives of the African Nation. The quality of life of the African people must be improved, by themselves. The PAC stands for life abundant. We must talk to the middle ground – people who do not belong to political parties – and win over their hearts and minds. The PAC must be understood very clearly. That is what meant by saying that the PAC is back.
The PAC is back. We are going to list minimum requirements for the unity of purpose with other similarly minded organizations. We will also create a platform for proper communications with the vast array of political parties, requiring a basic patriotic commitment to the serve the people. Politics of change and hope must be closer to the people. The elitist politics of a few controlling the many must be eliminated. National democracy must be people powered. We, in the PAC, will advance unity and progress, rather than harp on the causes of isolation, disunity and conflict. We will be positive in our actions, revolutionary in character, and Africanist in orientation.
In the Year of the PAC, in the year 2022, let us hold hands and together rebuild the Africanists movement into a mass-based organization. Let us make Mangaliso Sobukwe, Zephania Mothopeng, Clarence Makwetu, and a host of other leaders who are now our ancestors, very proud. We are the tools of history. History has chosen us, in the PAC, to advance its positive outcomes. Come and be with us, branches of the same tree.
Izwelethu iAfrika!
High morale, high discipline!
One Azania, one nation, one people!
Izwelethu iAfrika!