TRIBUTE

Sharp, ou yase-Mbozi!

Since his passing away on 10 March 1999, one has listened to many speeches about the role of Mbuyi Ngwenda as a worker leader, communist and revolutionary. Being at NUMSA’s head office, one has also been inundated with condolences reflecting Mbuyi’s different roles in politics. Having worked with Mbuyi, it is my feeling that something needs to be said about him as i-ou and umjita wase-Bhayi or e-Mbozi, the names given to Port Elizabeth (P.E) in working class communities around South Africa.

Anyone with a sense of working class life in P.E, could identify in Mbuyi’s communism and politics the traits of life in KwaZakhele, New Brighton and Walmer. His politics reflected the militancy of these townships. They also carried all the contradictions of a township and working class kid who embraced a new world outlook.

When I first met Mbuyi in the union, I had no doubt in my mind that he was i-ou yase Bhayi. His approach to politics, his love of separating issues of principle from ama-details reminded me of youth meetings in the 1980’s. His emphasis on ‘broad thrusts’ in debates had all the hallmarks of the activism of the 1980’s. Mbuyi, as activists were expected to do in the 1980’s, attempted to separate political and personal relationships. Passion and emotions were things that revolutionaries could not display publicly!

But there was something P.E-ish about Mbuyi’s mannerisms. The way he walked with his chest out and the way he dressed, left you with no doubt that here was someone made streetwise, smart and confident by life in the ghettoes of P.E. On many occasions, when he walked from the door of the head office building to his office, he had to be reminded that he was not walking on a Saturday morning, in Main Street (now known as Govan Mbeki Avenue) in Port Elizabeth!

His emphasis when he spoke about ‘i-principle, i-GEAR, i-party, i-issue here comrade chair’; alerted you to the Eastern Cape origins of the comrade.

Most men in Port Elizabeth have something about them. The way they walk tall, the colour co-ordination of what they wear, their attitude to women and the way they speak, leaves you with a clear sense of a group of townboys, wanting to distinguish themselves from the rest of the folk in the province’s rural hinterland. In many respects Mbuyi was no different. In his communism, in his politics; you could find traces of i-Mbozi.

When relaxed, the P.E slip would occur. Under these circumstances, there would be no reference to comrade, to chief, to mkhuluwa, to mhlekazi; but mtshanam! This is how amajita address each other e-Bhayi!

Townboy

The fact that Mbuyi was a townboy from a working class family in P.E could not be missed. Having been an amateur boxer in his early years, he followed the sport intensely. Once or twice in his tenure as the general-secretary, he threatened to bring boxing gloves to the office and in that way settle the disputes about who was the boss in the office!

Mbuyi had a zest for good life. He liked nice and fast cars. He liked travelling. Although he tried not to show it, Mbuyi loved his wife and kids passionately. Having been refused permission to leave a national meeting before it was concluded, he sat in front tearful. He confessed that as he was taking minutes in the meeting, he thought of his wife who he had promised to pick up after work.

In one of the social sessions in the dingy rooms of the Protea Garden Hotel (NUMSA’s second head office), we voted comrade Mbuyi in absentia, the best dressed general secretary. The fact that all the judges were NUMSA comrades with beer cans in their hands did not make us feel that we were biased. We felt that he won the competition on merit!

Mbuyi was the man of the moment! Even when he was down, he would liven-up when he grabbed the microphone. He would brighten up in front TV cameras. He liked debate. He was a star when it came to addressing crowds. Those who were at the last COSATU National Congress in September 1997, will remember how electrifying the comrade’s intervention was, when he responded to then ANC chairperson, Jacob Zuma, in the debate on whether COSATU should allow its national office bearers to stand as leading officials in the ANC. He put the mandate of the union eloquently and fearlessly.

Talking and listening

The comrade had a way of debating. He chose his words carefully. The way he spoke, his pauses, his postures and gestures, made listening to him enjoyable. Mbuyi never took disagreement with him personally. Last year, at an extended NUMSA Central Committee, a debate erupted on whether GEAR was the policy of the ANC or not. Mbuyi argued that it was not. Some of us differed with him. It was a heated debate. Mbuyi requested that he be allowed to participate in the debate as an activist, and not as part of the office-bearers who were chairing the meeting. I think that we hammered him in the debate. But he never took this personally.

After the debate, he came to shake our hands. He said that he felt that the debate had clarified issues within the union.

But Mbuyi was not just a good public speaker. He was a good listener. Within the union, he was not beyond reproach. While, as staff members we had no right to call him into order, we did this on a number of occasions. Sometime last year, we confronted him about his overseas travel. We felt that he was neglecting his work as the general-secretary. The words were harsh. We called him a union-tourist and not a general-secretary. He listened to our criticism. He tried to explain the importance of the meetings that he had just attended. But he agreed to prioritise in future! The only reservation that he had about our criticism was that in our accusation we seemed not to appreciate the internationalist character of the struggle for socialism. He said that there were comrades who thought that the struggle for socialism could be fought and won just in Johannesburg!

Like any working relationship, working with Mbuyi had its ups and downs. The biggest fights that we had were about his distaste for detail. He always emphasised issues of principle, the broad politics and the broad thrusts. Some of us felt that in an organisation as big as NUMSA, it is important to pay some attention to the nuts and bolts of the organisation. While these differences remained until his death, it was nice to work with Mbuyi. He was never bossy. He never threw around his rank. When, as a matter of courtesy, you told him that you were writing an article for an outside journal, he never requested the article so as to see whether ‘the line’ was correct. Smiling, he would encourage one to go ahead and publish the piece. His only request was for a copy for himself so as to also respond publicly if he wished to do so.

Mbuyi’s accessible character and leadership style fitted well with traditions of the union. Rank in itself does not count in NUMSA. Rather, it is your ideas and ability to lead. When Mbuyi was elected onto the Central Committee and politburo of the South African Communist Party (SACP), we called him in as his colleagues at head office. In a jocular manner we told him that in whatever he does, he must never think that NUMSA would now be a conveyor belt for communist party politics and policies. He laughed and referred us to policies of NUMSA and the SACP, which emphasised the independence of the trade union movement.

Principles

With all his mannerisms and his P.E traits, Mbuyi remained committed to the working class cause until his death. He was also a principled comrade. Having lost the battle against the corporatisation by the government of ESKOM, Mbuyi stepped down as the member of the Electricity Council, the structure acting as the board of ESKOM. He argued that the decision removed any rationale for him to remain on the board. He said that NUMSA’s policy was clear: no to union reps on boards of private companies, yes to participation on the boards of parastatals!

With all the jockeying for positions on the list of candidates standing for parliament, Mbuyi declared, within the union, his desire to remain with the organisation in the short and medium-term.

There is no doubt that many of us will miss Mbuyi, his politics, his quotes of Marx and Lenin and his mannerism. Sharp, ou yase-Mbozi!