Dear comrade president : Oliver Tambo and the foundations of South Africa's constitution / André Odendaal with editorial contributions by Albie Sachs.
Publisher:
Penguin Booksan imprint of Penguin Random House South Africa,
Copyright Date:
2022
Description:
xxii, 441 pages, 24 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some colour), portraits ; 24 cm
Terrible but cleansing fires. The 'council of war' at Kabwe -- 'Will comrade King Sabata please come to the microphone' -- A new dimension of strategy and analysis -- The backroom think tank on the frontline. A historic gathering in a builder's yard off a sanitary lane in Lusaka -- 'KK'; 'OR' and comrade Jack -- The quartet in Sheki-Sheki road: the core of the constitution committee -- The two insiders from outside Lusaka -- Translating the vision of the Freedom Charter into a constitutional document -- The skeleton -- Building the foundations of government. Joe Slovo's misgivings -- A call for clear political guidance -- Confidential and urgent: opening up channels with lawyers from home -- The dilemma -- "The foundations of government' -- The leadership has its say -- Oliver Tambo meets Mikhail Gorbachev -- The chief checks in and Skweyiya presses ahead -- Designing the platform for a new kind of politics: broadfront strategies and the finalisation of the constitutional guiidelines. 'How do you speak to an archbishop?' -- Encounters in Dakar -- Assassination in Swaziland -- Harare, Arusha, Amsterdam -- NADEL broadens the anti-racist legal front -- Constitution committee plans in cold storage -- NEC debate: to negotiate or not to negotiate? -- Tambo's special Christmas gift -- The SG calls the cadres to Lusaka -- 'For your unconstrained appraisal': the in-house seminar -- The constitutional guidelines and talks about 'Talks about talks'. Cuito Cuanavale -- Murder in Paris and a car bomb in Maputo -- 'Only free men can negotiate' -- The Consgold talks and the constitutional guidelines: round one -- The Consgold talks and the constitutional guidelines: round two -- The guidelines move to centre stage, 1989 -- 'The Rendez Vouz with destiny'. Taking charge of what needs to be done in our country -- The Harare declaration -- A revolution within the revolution -- Eight is not enough!': the final push and an unexpected announcement -- Coming home. Return of the first exiles -- Last meeting in Lusaka -- A soft landing in Cape Town -- Tambo arrives home -- Afterword: 'Freedom and bread'
Summary:
''In his annual presidential address on 8 January 1986, ANC president Oliver Tambo called on South Africans to make apartheid ungovernable through armed action. But unknown to the world, the quiet-spoken mathematics teacher and aspirant priest turned reluctant revolutionary had also on that very day set up a secret think tank in Lusaka, which he named the Constitution Committee, giving it an 'ad hoc unique exercise' that had 'no precedent in the history of the movement'. Knowing that all wars end at a negotiating table, and judging the balance of forces to be moving in favour of the liberation movement, he wanted the ANC to be prepared and to be holding the initiative after the political collapse of apartheid. Guided by a brilliant analysis by Pallo Jordan, Tambo instructed his new think tank to prepare a constitutional framework for a liberated, non-racial, democratic South Africa. Their task was to formulate the principles and draft the outlines of a constitution that could unite South Africa when the time came to talk in the fledgling days of freedom and democracy. The seven-member team, including Albie Sachs, Kader Asmal and Zola Skweyiya, started deliberating and reporting to Tambo. In correspondence, they typically addressed him as 'Dear Comrade President'. Drawing on the personal archives of participants, Dear Comrade President explains how this process, which fundamentally influenced the history of contemporary South Africa, unfolded. Why and how did it happen? What were the first written words? When and where were they put on paper? By whom? What values did they espouse? And how did the committee's work fit into the broader struggle? This book answers these questions in ways that have not been done before and provides paradigm-changing insights into the purposeful first steps taken in the making of South Africa's Constitution.''--Publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.