Daphne was ethical and incorruptible. She embraced the true values of post-apartheid South Africa.
The North West Province has lost a great and humble giant in the person of Paul Daphne. Since I knew him, Paul was a selfless, committed, dedicated and true revolutionary, utterly focused on the enormous task of emancipating the oppressed people of South Africa, and he spent much of his life serving the people of the North. West province. Paul displayed and embodied the values outlined in the ANC Constitution that “…I will abide by the goals and objectives of the ANC, the Freedom Charter and other duly taken political positions…”; the principles of the country’s Constitution that commit to a non-racial, non-sexist, prosperous and democratic South Africa; and as a career public servant, he has consistently demonstrated a dedication to high standards of public service that is character-developing and supported by a strong ethical culture.
His commitment to the ideals of the ANC, as espoused by our founding leaders, was consistently matched by his sincere approach to service delivery in government, a rare feature if one looks at the culture of factionalism, selfishness, greed and plunder that one seen in many parts of our public service today.
Perhaps what will help those who remain in the public service is that we, who have worked very closely with Paul both in the ANC and in the government, develop a characterization or profile of what a true public servant should be like, based on in the values that he defended. I’m talking about a public servant who frees us from the triple challenge of poverty, inequality and unemployment; a public servant who recognizes the urgency of fighting crime, providing basic services such as water and sanitation, housing, infrastructure development and maintenance, solving our energy crisis, etc. South Africa is currently in a sorry state and the North West in particular is well known for its instability, infighting, looting and general chaos. Our province enjoys no respect wherever you go in the country and beyond. We are in desperate need of Paul Daphne officials throughout the fabric of our state machine.
Paul was a committed ANC activist as well as a public service “revocrat”. He was not an unduly politicized senior manager, but a politically sensitive senior official. The management and application of his government precepts was supported by his deep knowledge and appreciation of the urgency of tackling poverty. He was not a mechanical bureaucrat, guided by rules. For him, the prescriptions were meant to enable and accelerate the war on poverty, inequality and unemployment, not hinder it.
I met Paul in the 1980s when we were both professors at Bophuthatswana University. We both serve on the Staff Association, which I led in my successor to Dr. Naledi Pandor. By the way, when I was elected president of the staff association, Paul became secretary. We both joined UDUSA (Union of Democratic Personnel Associations), an affiliate of COSATU. Around the same time, Paul, myself and several other activists formed the Mafikeng Anti-Repression Forum (MAREF). Political conditions in Bophuthatswana at the time demanded that the change be addressed urgently. Clearly, there were similar developments at home and in exile. The harsh repressive practices perpetrated by the brutal security forces in Bophuthatswana worked very hard to isolate us from the rest of South Africa, and we had to find creative ways to engage in activism, despite these forces. Another structure we were part of was the Anti Bophuthatswana Coordination Committee (ABCC) which linked us directly to the UDF in South Africa.
A driving force behind the work we were doing was Paul’s then wife, Laura Taylor. She was simply a powerhouse. She was very effective and efficient in the engine room, supporting and directing our various political programs. In anticipation of Tata Mandela’s release, Laura bought large pieces of black, green and gold material which she sewed into a huge flag on Saturday night, February 10, 1990.
I had been insisting that the time had come to launch the first branch of the ANC, because we had been doing a lot of legwork. As a result, we received the go-ahead to speed up preparations for the establishment of an ANC branch. To give effect to this, we held a critical meeting at Cooke’s Lake. This meeting resolved to establish an ANC branch, and this decision became affectionately known as the Cooke Lake Minute.
Mafikeng was within the ANC’s Northern Cape region at the time, and the first thing we did was travel to the newly opened ANC office in Vryburg, where we met with Cde Jomo Khasu, the ANC’s regional organizer. The five of us banded together and returned to Mafikeng with a stack of membership cards and registration forms.
An important breakthrough worth noting came when we were able to smuggle membership forms into Rooigrond prison and recruit Sergeant Timothy Phiri and some 130 former members of the Bophuthatswana Defense Force who were serving sentences for their role in the coup. failed in 1988. They joined en masse and we put out a statement that they had joined the branch. The authorities reacted with anger and indignation, alleging that it was impossible for these prisoners to have joined, since they were being held in the maximum security section of the prison.
The establishment of an ANC branch required more than 100 paid members to be present at a launch meeting. As the police were disrupting ANC meetings throughout Bophuthatswana, it was decided that the best strategy would be to have a ‘clandestine’ launch of the branch with the required 100 members and then announce the launch to the public. The intention was not to operate as a clandestine structure, but to ensure that the launch could be successful and then operate and recruit openly thereafter.
Dr. David Green, a physician from Mafikeng and a member of the branch, offered his office, which had a space large enough to be used as a meeting place, and the date was set for the evening of Monday, August 20. The plan was for the partners to meet in small groups and then travel to the operating room together. All communication was done one-on-one by word of mouth to try to ensure top secrecy.
The plan went like clockwork. At the appointed time, 110 enthusiastic but disciplined paid Mafikeng ANC members crammed into David Green’s surgery, and Mafikeng ANC was reborn nearly 30 years after the apartheid government banned the popular movement across the country. The meeting did not have to last long. I submitted a recruiting brief explaining the strategy behind the decision to go secret, further stating that we had in fact slowed down pre-launch onboarding to contain our exposure and security risk. Jomo Khasu addressed the meeting and pointed out that the Pretoria Act, which had been signed between the ANC and the apartheid government, applied to every inch of South Africa and Mafikeng was no exception. He went on to indicate that despite the signing of the Pretoria Act, it was necessary to build structures for the defense of the people as the tyranny of apartheid continued in many parts of the country.
Cde Jomo presided over the election of office holders and a nine member executive was elected including me (Job Mokgoro), Chairman; Paul Daphne, Secretary; Mandla Magwetyana, Treasurer and six other executive members whose portfolios will be finalized at a later date. These six members were Silas Mbipha, Thaka Seboka, Kaelo Maropefela, Mmoloki Legodu and the late Jane Matsomela. As the newly elected President, I closed the meeting with a brief but moving speech in which I stated that we were not asking anyone to allow us to exercise our democratic rights, but we were taking these rights with both hands and would proceed to exercise them. in building the ANC in Mafikeng and in bringing the democratic project to a logical conclusion in that part of the country. On August 24, 1990, almost 33 years ago, we surprised (and shocked some) everyone when we appeared on the cover of Mafikeng Mail under the title “ANC launched in Mmabatho”.
After the 1994 elections, I was appointed Director General and Paul Deputy Director General in the Prime Minister’s Office, reporting to Dr. Popo Molefe.
In the new democratically elected government, the MPLs were housed in the ministerial residence where the Bophuthatswana cabinet ministers had lived. They were charged a paltry sum of R120. For some strange reason they refused to pay. He was very embarrassed by this behavior, as it was a very bad way to usher in a democratic dispensation. Paul and I were staying at the embassy and we had to pay about 200 rand. I discussed this issue with him and we both agreed that based on an assessment of the houses we lived in we should pay R1200, just to lead by example, and we could refund ourselves later. We never bothered to claim our money back because we had to lead by example after all. That is the Paul our province has lost, that is the companion we no longer have, the counselor we now have to do without. But his values are still alive. Let’s document them and let them inform us about how to renew our institutions.
My condolences to his family, including his fiancée Disa Ramagaga, his sons Daniel and Matthew; foster children Jeana, Tshidi and Itumeleng; his brothers Jeremy and Robert; and his ex-wife Laura.
May his revolutionary spirit rest in peace.
Professor Tebogo Job Mokgoro
