(Vol. 64, No. 2, Rosh Hashanah 2009)
JA: You embarked on your political career in the early 1990s. Could you tell me a little bit about your background and activities prior to that?
RR: I was born Ruth Zilibowitz in Springs. My parents, like most of the Jews in South Africa, came from Lithuania, and my father was an active member of the Springs Jewish community. I went on to qualify with an M.B.BCh. from Wits, and at the same time got a diploma for teaching drama from the London Academy of Dramatic Art. (I roam between the creative and scientific). I married one of my teachers, who was a surgeon at Baragwanath Hospital, and we had three children. It was at the same time my children were leaving the country to study overseas, that I went into politics. Being a Jewish mother, you have to have something to care about, so I adopted the cause of putting out the real story of the Constitution. I started to write letters, organize workshops under the auspices of The Democracy Trust and Dr. Buthelezi sent me an appreciative letter thanking me for my efforts. That was the start of our relationship.
JA: It was unusual for any member of the Jewish community to join the Inkatha Freedom Party, let alone play a significant role within it. How did this come about in your case?
RR: It made perfect sense to me. My son organized a debate at wits when mandela was released. The legal issue of the time was the Constitution, which was the subject of many family discussions.. My daughter, who was the chairperson of the Wits Law Society, organised a conference to discuss the Interim Constitution in 1993. Kadar Asmal and Tony Leon, amongst others, attended it. I went and was fascinated by the ifp’s proposals , which were federal in nature, similar to the US and ideal for South Africa. I asked the IFP speaker why we heard so little about their ideas and he told me about the propaganda campaign to smear INKATHA. I have since carried his story with me like an albatross. People did not tell the IFP story. Buthelezi was the best alternative leader for this country – he had international support and White support. The communists targeted him – smartly. They vilified him and sidelined him, undermined him with death threats and misrepresentation. They did so because he was dangerous – he was the one thing that could spoil their agenda. The more I found out about it, the more it inspired me to uncover the truth. I’ve always tended towards exposing myths. Anthea Jeffreys, whom I admire tremendously for her courage, hasjust released a marvelous book that bears testimonyto this strategy.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row] JA: You started to come to public attention in the lead-up to the inaugural non-racial elections in 1994. What were your activities during this period? RR: I worked with an organization, The Democracy Trust, that was lobbying for a federal constitution, and through that I organized a workshop to expose the truth about where the IFP was positioned pre elections. It was through that event, in which all parties participated, that international mediation [in resolving the impasse between the IFP and ANC over the forthcoming elections] came about. I suggested to Bobby Godsell that the business community, by throwing themselves so completely behind the ANC, was not doing enough to resolve the deadlock. He was not very happy with me, but he did then say that the business community would support international mediation if that was the way out of the crisis. It turned out that this was indeed the mechanism through which the IFP was brought back on board. It didn’t resolve the constitutional crisis, but it averted more bloodshed. The breakthrough was achieved by Kenyan academic Washington Okumuo, a friend of Buthelezi, who was in South Africa for the mediation. He influenced Michael Spicer to approach Mandela, who had first to check with Joe Slovo, to let the IFP come into the elections. It was a dramatic, last minute decision, and it was overwhelming to feel that I had somehow been a part of it. JA: It was certainly quite remarkable how following that turn-around, ANC-IFP violence stopped virtually overnight. RR: It would have escalated. The IFP would have gone underground and kept fighting. JA: Following the elections, you entered Parliament as an IFP Senator. How did this come about? RR: I was not at that stage a member of any political party. When the IFP came on board, I accepted an invitation to be on the Party list, to give them endorsement. I had no intention I had no intention of going into politics. After watching the inauguration, I wrote to Buthelezi summarizing what I had done and assuring him that I would work with him in whatever way I could to help in taking the country forward. The next thing, I got a phone call asking whether I would be a Senator. I spoke to my husband and children, and they all responded differently but positively. My oldest son said, “You’re jumping into a pit of snakes. If you think you’ll cope (because you’re such an idealist), go for it”. My daughter said, “You’ve always tried to change the world. This will give you a platform to do so”. my youngest son quipped “ mom for president , why not!” So I entered Parliament as a Senator. JA: One never hears anything from or about the Senate nowadays. RR: In those days the Senate still had some power, thanks to the IFP’s impact on the Interim Constitution. Now it is the Council of Provinces, a handmaiden of the Legislature. It was at the first IFP caucus meeting that I actually met Buthelezi. He said to me, “I’m so happy to see you; I never thought you would come”. I replied, “Between G-d and you, I somehow felt that I had to be here!” We worked closely together. I would say that he was the most significant person I’ve met in my life, outside my personal family. It was such a privilege to meet someone who had been through what he had, with his faith and his deep roots in traditional Zulu culture, which most Whites understand in the most superficial way. I learned so much about the Zulu traditional structures, their values and what they could teach us – its similarity to Judaism. I learned more about the value of being part of a Jewish community through being associated with Zulu people than I had through my conventional, middle-class Jewish life. I have turned more and more towards Jewish learning and Jewish community living. That in itself has been a fascinating and rewarding journey. Buthelezi always called me a Julu- a Jewish Zulu and often asked me to open National Council meetings in Ulundi, by reciting a psalm of David. He knows the psalms backwards and always found the appropriate one for the times. Once I was in the Senate, I was fired up with enthusiasm, ready to change the world. I was on the Constitutional Committee, Education, Justice, Health, Science and Technology, Environment. I don’t do things in half-measures, and immersed myself in work. At the end of two years, I understood the centralizing agenda that was developing under the banner of the rainbow nation. It was frustrating and I couldn’t break through the media blanket on truth. I came to realize that Hansard is just full of words which die there and make little difference, so I started working on grass roots projects to put my ideas into practice. JA: Nevertheless, you say that at least initially the Senate had some influence. RR: It did. One time I was in hospital with pneumonia, and my colleagues came to take me out of my bed so that I could talk on a local government issue and vote with the IFP to block something that was going to affect traditional leaders. My most important work was on the new constitution which took away many benefits the IFP had leveraged into the Interim one. Eventually, overworked and frustrated I became ill, and told the party that I needed to take leave, and that I was not prepared to come back into the Senate under the new Constitution. It reflected the vision of people like Chaskalson, Slovo, Albie Sachs – and others who dreamed of transformation, by placing power in the hands of people who would socially engineer the country toward equality. At that time, IFP MP Walter Felgate left Parliament, and I took his seat. I began focusing on specific portfolios – Science and Technology, Energy, Health, HIV/Aids and Education. JA:How involved were you with KwaZulu-Natal? I had a leg in three provinces then, and commuted often to Ulundi, and also to Cape Town. It was exhausting and frustrating in some ways, but amazingly gratifying in others. I feel that I’ve seen so much of the country from an in depth perspective. Now, what was I promoting all the time while I was in the National Assembly? I worked towards achieving checks and balances throughout society – in Parliament and in the private sector, a balance between Government and private enterprise, freedom and responsibility, tradition and modernity, with Government creating a framework within which people could work, through give and take relationships, to achieve a state of harmony. That, and Pluralism, was my blueprint in everything I said and did. JA: This obviously would apply to political systems as well, with an appropriate balance between central and local government. RR: Absolutely. And because I was so frustrated with watching how the ANC was constantly bleeding power to the centre, to manipulate and engineer, and realizing the waste of words, I put more effort into projects in KwaZulu-Natal, and in Gauteng. Here in Alexandra I began Khayalethu ( Our home) which was akin to setting up five businesses, because it was craft, recycling, food gardens, Aids education and business training. I was determined to show that you can empower people from the bottom up. Frankly, over the years, I got “conference cramp”. I just saw millions of pages of papers being tossed in the bin, with few MPs reading them. JA: What were some of the main things you championed in Parliament? RR: I hope that knowing what I was able to achieve, often behind the scenes, will encourage South Africans to work with all political parties and not only with those seen to hold the reigns of power. Influence on government comes from many quarters. I hope to continue to be one of those spheres of influence through my newly created Democracy Foundation.
