‘Lekota’s dream was to see Freedom Charter ideals fully realised’ – SABC News

Anti-apartheid activist Pakes Dikgetsi says late former Congress of the People (COPE) leader Mosiuoa Lekota’s dream for South Africa was to see the ideals of the Freedom Charter fully realised.
He spoke to SABC News ahead of Lekota’s Special Official Funeral at the Old Grey Sports Ground in Bloemfontein on Saturday morning.
Lekota passed away last week aged 77 at a Johannesburg hospital after a long illness.
He served as Free State premier, Defence minister and chaired the National Council of Provinces (NCOP)  and the African National Congress (ANC).
Digetsi says Lekota was passionate about the Freedom Charter.
“Ntate Lekota used to say to us that the dreams of the people who gathered in 1955 at the Congress of the People in Kliptown have not been fully realised, must be the vision that we need to pursue. No single South African should not go to bed without food, no single South African should actually be without medication, no child in this country should be without education.”
He adds, “These are the ideals that are there in the Freedom Charter and pursue them and make sure that we attain them. Ntate Lekota was very passionate about the Freedom Charter and the teachings that the Mandelas that the Sisulus gave to him are the teachings that we shall carry forward, it is like in a relay, the baton was passed onto his generation, he has now passed that baton us.”
STRONG LEADER
Digetsi, who is also Lekota’s friend since the United Democratic Front (UDF) era in the 1980s, says he will remember him as a strong leader, a visionary leader, a teacher and a mentor.
“They tend to say long live the spirit of somebody long live, that sometimes becomes a slogan, but its deeper meaning is that the values that he espoused, the values that he strongly believed in must actually live on and his legacy will live long, will live forever and his efforts will not be in vain.”
He described him as a warm, approachable, down to earth and respectable person.
“Very considerable person, who would actually go out of his way, even when he sees somebody not part of his entourage, out of his group, go out and reach out to such people, he was quite a warm person. This is actually borne out by an outpouring of the condolences from all people, from all walks of life, poor, rich, working, unemployed, educated, uneducated, very approachable man.”
SQUABBLES IN COPE
Digetsi says Lekota was tenacious person with a strong character and when he believed in something, he believed in it.
“The so called squabbles were born out of his belief that COPE should not repeat the same mistakes that the ANC had done and part of the challenges was how to transition from the ANC kind of a culture into a new culture, he wanted to enforce the culture. Now this thing was not about personalities clashes, it was really about transition from a culture that was there in the ANC, it was very toxic and some people not being able to transition into the culture that Ntate Lekota wanted.”
He says Lekota coined party’s slogan, reliable, accountable and incorruptible.
“That our party must be reliable, accountable and incorruptible and he used to say, if people leave, they may leave because people believe in whatever they believe in, but those that remain behind, we are better, even if we are few such as we can influence the society in a proper direction of what is right.”
DECISION TO LEAVE ANC
Digetsi says Lekota left the ANC because what he saw was concerning and was quite unhappy.
Lekota, former Gauteng Premier Mbhazima Shilowa, and former Deputy Defence Minister Mluleki George formed COPE in 2008.
“Many people were unhappy, you saw the wrong direction it was taking, especially after the removal of President Thabo Mbeki  in a very unconventional and unconstitutional, so we couldn’t really reconcile ourselves to the fact that an unconstitutional removal of a president should be made now, now what you see is what happened in the ANC after Thabo Mbeki, another president was removed unconstitutionally, so we are normalising wrong things.”
He says protecting the wrong people was becoming a norm in the ANC.
“It has become a culture that some leaders do something wrong, we blindly follow and we go and defend that person out of loyalty, even in the face of the truth, but this person is not representing the party, his conduct was not in the interest of the party, but in his own interest. But because of blind loyalty, we follow such people, this is not what we want in COPE, we are better few.”
COLONIAL BOUNDARIES
Digetsi says Lekota felt strongly about colonial boundaries during his time as a premier,
He says, “When he was premier in 1994 until he left in 1996 to go to the NCOP, I was MEC of Housing and Local Government in the Northern Cape, we interacted a lot in terms of issues relating to governance.”
“One of his immediate issues that he raised was you know the colonial boundaries was such that part of the Northern Cape that includes Kimberley which was annexed by the English during the Anglo-Boer war because of the diamonds. They defeated the Boers who were in the Free State, everything west of the Vaal River towards Lesotho, now the colonial boundaries were such that the current Lesotho was created out of the colonial wars and Ntate Lekota used to talk a lot about those experiences and those issues.”
Digetsi adds,”So that would be our interactions that some point in the future we need to look at the colonial boundaries and to see how we can actually address the historical injustice of colonial conquest.”
GALLERY| The church service for Mosiuoa Lekota at the St Rose of Lima Roman Catholic church in Bloemfontein:

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