The Individual, Auto/biography and History in South Africa

spite of the express disapproval of the majority”. Tabata also “rewarded his brother‐in‐
law”, Wycliffe Tsotsi, with the position of movement Vice‐President, “a completely new
position in that organisation”. 115
The political challenge to I.B. Tabata’s political practice which was presented by
Livingstone Mqotsi in Lusaka was also a vigorous biographical critique and
reassessment by a younger movement leader, who had refused to acquiesce in a system
of political patronage that had taken a bureaucratic turn. Mqotsi argued that in seeking
to introduce the concept of the “leader cult and the personality cult”, Tabata had sought
“despotic and arbitrary powers, including the power to expel”, if members had
“incurred the displeasure of the leader”. Tabata also allegedly sought “to place himself
above the membership of the organisation”, and as a “further incursion into the
principle of internal democracy”, he wanted “to derogate from the supremacy of
conference itself”. In Mqotsi’s biographical reappraisal, the claims on leadership by
Tabata were no longer the consequence of duty and service, but emerged out of
bureaucratic control, political dishonesty and authoritarian practices. 116
This transition was apparent, Mqotsi argued, in the ousting of Leo Sihlali and in the
opportunistic use of Neville Alexander’s name. In “worming himself” into the
presidency of the Unity Movement, with Wycliffe Tsotsi’s assistance, Tabata had
committed “political assassination” by seeking “to discredit and depose” Leo Sihlali, the
“duly elected” president. Sihlali had been “manoeuvred” out of the Unity Movement
presidency while he was under house arrest and police surveillance. Tabata “usurped
presidential powers” and sought “publicity in his own interests”. After having
“engineered” Neville Alexander’s “virtual expulsion” from the Unity Movement in 1961
“without any good and sufficient reasons”, Tabata had “unilaterally” readmitted
Alexander into the organisation, as a means of attaining “personal glory and publicity”.
115 L Mqotsi, General Secretary, African People’s Democratic Union of Southern Africa to All Members of
the Unity Movement, the All‐African Convention, the African People’s Democratic Union of Southern
Africa and other affiliated organisations and bodies, May 1966, Livingstone Mqotsi Papers; An
Indictment of I.B. Tabata and his Clique’, Lusaka, 19 September 1966, Livingstone Mqotsi Papers.
116 An Indictment of I.B. Tabata and his Clique’, Lusaka, 19 September 1966, Livingstone Mqotsi Papers.
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