Durban - Opposition parties are livid over the eThekwini Municipality’s plans to splurge R210 000 on a memorial lecture commemorating the life of ANC and SACP struggle stalwart Harry Gwala.
The amount is part of R3.8 million budgeted for a series of programmes organised by the city’s parks, recreation and culture unit.
The Gwala lecture, according to the report, focuses on “his life, politics and legacy”.
It will be delivered by Gwala’s friend and fellow Robben Island prisoner, George Mashamba.
But opposition parties are baffled, arguing that Gwala was a nobody in Durban, and he was a divisive figure responsible for much bloodshed in the Pietermaritzburg area.
In a report to the executive committee, the unit says the events are to “showcase the services the parks, leisure and cemeteries unit provides on an ongoing basis, as well as bringing together communities to share ideas and interact on various platforms”.
Other activities planned include the Gospel Icons Discovery competition, the Arbor Week launch, the Ocean Economy seminar, the Sports Vision 2013 seminar, a beach sports day, the Art and Music at the Park event, the Wenze Kahle breakfast and the annual Living Legends Awards on Saturday at the ICC.
DA provincial and eThekwini caucus leader Zwakele Mncwango asked what role Gwala had played in the city and suggested the municipality was just looking for an excuse to spend money.
He said Gwala was “hardly someone you can regard as a struggle hero because of his role in the killing of innocent people”.
“He killed many IFP supporters in Pietermaritzburg. Now such a person can’t be regarded a hero of the struggle.
“Struggle heroes are those who fought against the apartheid regime. He was fighting his own people. He is not one we should celebrate,” he said.
He said it was the same reason the DA objected to the Sisonke Municipality being renamed after Gwala.
IFP councillor Mdu Nkosi said: “We understand if the ANC or the SACP do this on their own. But it becomes a problem once you involve eThekwini, the municipality.”
There is “no link between the two”, he said.
“What was his contribution in eThekwini? I have no memory of it. He’s never been in the city’s leadership. They can’t use the city’s budget; it’ s a waste of resources,” he said.
The National Freedom Party’s Bongiwe Mtshali said her party was “shocked” when it learned of the memorial, saying it was “mischievously” included in the celebrations programme.
“What does eThekwini have to do with Harry Gwala? He was an ANC person, an SACP person. It has nothing to do with the city. I really don’t know if the ANC is trying to force-feed its history on the whole of South Africa,” she said.
The head of eThekwini communications, Tozi Mthethwa, said Gwala had “many known links” in KwaZulu-Natal “and specifically Durban”, having obtained his teacher’s diploma at Adams College, in Amanzimtoti.
“In the 1940s and early 1950s, Gwala was an organiser of workers in various industrial sectors in Durban. Most of his work of mobilisation was carried out between Durban and Pietermaritzburg,” she said.
“We can reflect on what Gwala believed in, to build this city as a non-racial, united and prosperous one.”
The Mercury