Serote is making the call through his latest play, Sikhahlel’u OR (Oliver Tambo), which made its debut in the South African State Theatre in Pretoria on Thursday.
The show, directed by award-winning director Ntshieng Mokgoro and features The Soil singer Ntsika Ngxanga, will run until Sunday.
The play, which is an adaptation of Serote’s epic poem of the same title and released in 2019, fuses music and dialogue.
Serote was inspired to write the poem by the state of the country and by ANC's deviation from its objective.
The legendary poet wanted to ask uncomfortable questions to Tambo, the highly respected former president of ANC during exile years. He died in April 1993 in Johannesburg.
“On March 21, we remember the Sharpeville Massacre where people were killed (in 1960), an incident that made the whole world respond and support our struggle for liberation. The whole process put us in the spotlight to say where we are now in terms of rights. It is such reasons that I had to review what the struggle has achieved," Serote says.
“We have one of most important constitutions in the world and we need to focus on improving the lives of ordinary people after which we have totally regressed. I asked OR to lead us and advise on how to carry out this plan.”
Serote said a lot of talk about the renewal of the ANC meant that the party needed to admit that something went very wrong and pinpoint the problem.
