New parties fuel apartheid-era divisions, warns Jeff Radebe

JEFF Radebe, ANC KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Convenor, this week issued a warning to South Africa’s political landscape explicitly challenging entrenched power structures, political opponents and high-profile figures undermining the nation’s constitutional progress.

- SIZWE DLAMINI

In his Freedom Charter Lecture delivered at Unisa on Thursday, Radebe made a call to resist those seeking to dismantle the gains of decades of struggle for justice, and a clarion for radical reform rooted in the ideals of the Freedom Charter.

“These formations, which mushroomed in the aftermath of the 2024 electoral outcomes, seek to construct a society that is the antithesis of the Freedom Charter,” Radebe said, criticising emerging political entities that “mobilise on the basis of racial exclusion and chauvinism”.

He cautioned that these groups aimed to “reverse the gains of constitutional democracy” and “restore elements of apartheid logic”, particularly “the pursuit of parliamentary supremacy”.

“They are building ‘black parties’ as a counterweight to the vision of nonracial unity,” he said, calling their actions “an attempt to undo the progress we have made as a nation”.

Radebe’s critique extended beyond domestic politics into foreign policy, where he condemned those “who once spoke for the state” now supporting actions that threaten South Africa’s dignity. “The position of the Republic of South Africa, not any political party or former official, is the custodian of its foreign policy,” he emphasised.

“Silence is not neutrality — it is complicity.

“It is profoundly disturbing,” he continued, “that some within our own country, who once occupied high office and bore the constitutional duty to speak on behalf of the Republic have chosen to undermine our principled foreign policy positions.

“We must state unequivocally: the position of the Republic of South Africa is to reaffirm unwavering solidarity with Western Sahara (where there is an ongoing territorial conflict between Morocco and separatists),” he said, condemning individuals who “support rogue actions that undermine our principled foreign policy positions”.