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The Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) appears to be six years old, a child at Grade R preparing to start Grade 1.
That was the situation in which it found itself – with factions vying with one another to be recognised by the Electoral Commission – when it registered for the national general elections.
At the inauguration of Robert Mugabe as the prime minister of Zimbabwe, Tanzania’s President Julius Nyerere, one of the most respected leaders in Africa, told Mugabe that he had inherited “a jewel in Africa, do not tarnish it”.
That seems to have been the case with the PAC. Robert Sobukwe left the PAC with a jewel and a genuine jewel will never stop shining.
The cornerstone foundation of the PAC was land. It didn’t compromise even at times when it was mocked, perceived as stupid for fighting for the soil they could pick up, rather than the economy.
Today land is a major bone of contention. It has the potential of rocking the nation and could even lead to a civil war.
So how come it is the EFF, and not the PAC, at the centre of the land struggle?
It’s unfortunate the PAC was banned within the year of its inception and existence. It did not have time to develop a second layer of leadership.
This was why Sobukwe appointed Potlako Leballo (PK) when he realised his jail term would be lengthened. I think it was good that he elected one of the founders as a “regent”.
But it is unfortunate that PK was a different “animal’ from what Sobukwe thought he knew. He was not the political figure he portrayed himself to be, but a boasting, dramatic character.
He would go to the media and brag about the plans on which the PAC would embark. That made it easy for the enemy to capture PAC activists planning the action.
He was responsible for dividing the PAC in exile. As a result, many people died and others left the PAC.
The arrest of the Zephania Mothopeng in the 1976 students’ uprising was a terrible blow suffered by the PAC.
Another was the death of its endeared leader, Sobukwe.
Even after political organisations were unbanned, the challenge of succession re-emerged.
Mothopeng was a radical who did not respect Clarence Makwetu, the man who would be his successor.
Makwetu occupied the one seat the PAC had in Parliament. He was succeeded by the Reverend Stanley Mogoba, who was succeeded by Motsoko Pheko.
Pheko was succeeded by former Azanian People’s Liberation Army commander Letlapa Mphahlele.
As usual, since infighting seems to have been the order of the day in the PAC, it happened when Mphahlele was told to step down.
He still considered himself the PAC president. Alton Mphethi was elected acting president. Mphethi considered himself president when he was expelled and Luthando Mbinda became president.
The PAC has continued to be marred by leadership squabbles and court challenges between Narius Moloto, Mphahlele and Mbinda.
Moloto was appointed president following the expulsion of Mbinda, who was elected president in 2015.
Former PAC leader Themba Godi formed his own party – the African People’s Convention in 2007 when he was expelled from the PAC.
The only thing the PAC needs to do is to espouse Pan Africanism and the United States of Africa as Sobukwe did.
The jewel Sobukwe left the PAC with, Pan Africanism, is enough to win the party majority support.
What the PAC needs is to take that jewel and present it to the people of South Africa. Had the PAC done that, the party wouldn’t find itself in the state in which it is today.
At 60 the PAC cannot even get six seats in Parliament in the sixth democratic election.
Ndabeni is a public servant and commentator
