Transformation is being undermined by those trying to re-enslave the emancipated, writes President Thabo Mbeki

Democratic South Africa will celebrate its 10th anniversary next year.

Yet as we prepare to mark this occasion, there are some in our country and the rest of the world who do not accept that we can make a success of our project to transform our country into a truly democratic, stable, non-racial and prosperous nation .

These people are not satisfied with simply predicting our failure . They go further to ensure that we do not achieve the objectives we have set ourselves.

Some have sought to tell us what we should do on issues such as health and our relations with our neighbours.

Recently, as part of a campaign to instruct us about what we should do, a determined effort has been made to oblige our movement and government to release the names of members of the ANC and our government who allegedly served as agents of the secret intelligence services of the apartheid regime.

In 1993, at our instance , the representatives of all our people agreed that all of us had the responsibility to let bygones be bygones. Among other things, we agreed to establish the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The government released the subsequent TRC report, committing itself to implementing those of the commission's recommendations which it agreed with.

Despite all this, now there are some who are trying to undo what our movement sought to achieve when it proposed and supported the TRC, and fully co-operated with it. Effectively, these people argue that some list of members of the ANC, who were allegedly recruited by the apartheid intelligence services, should be published.

Quite why this should apply only to members of the ANC is not explained. The fact is that there are many people active in various walks of life , including some who argue for the "outing" of suspected former agents of the apartheid system within our ranks, who worked to sustain the apartheid system .

When we took the decision to achieve reconciliation rather than retribution, we decided to forgive all those who might have caused unjustified harm to anyone in our country and elsewhere, in pursuit of the objectives either to perpetuate apartheid, or to achieve the liberation of the oppressed. We created the possibility for all to explain their actions.

And yet, today, there are some in our country who act in a manner that seeks to destroy this effort at national reconciliation. They are fishing in muddy waters to allege, with no effort to prove their allegations, that various members of the ANC and the government worked as members of the apartheid intelligence services.

Those now making allegations about ANC and government members working for the apartheid intelligence services do not seem to understand that members of the ANC and our government are equally capable of asserting that various South Africans and foreigners, including journalists, intellectuals, other professionals, politicians, business people, and others, served the apartheid regime, and of naming them.

We have avoided this route because it would undermine and subvert the objective of national reconciliation and stability. It would deny our country and people the possibility of advancing beyond the conflicts of the past.

Every day we work with people who were an integral part of the apartheid system. Voluntarily, our movement and government have elected to work with people who belong to a political party that, historically, was the party of apartheid.

We do so because we are determined to put the past behind us, by promoting the unity of our people to engage in a common struggle to address the legacy of colonialism and apartheid that is not of our making.

For this reason, we have also unequivocally opposed actions taken by some, to proffer charges against various South African and international companies in US courts .

We have the possibility every day to denounce all those, at home and abroad, who, in one way or another, and at one time or another, stood against the movement of national liberation that freed all our people from the apartheid crime against humanity.

There are some who pretend that an authentic list exists of ANC members who served as agents of the apartheid intelligence services. No such list exists. Those who claim that such a list does exist are telling an outright lie.

Those who claim to have superior knowledge do not ask for a similar list of those who belong to other political formations, who were agents of the apartheid intelligence and other services.

We will not allow that our movement, government and country are torn apart by the agendas of those who have no interest in the success of our democratic and anti-racist revolution. We will not create the opportunity for the mischief-makers wilfully to label who ever they wish as apartheid agents .

In time, all those who feel free to charge others in our ranks with having been agents of apartheid will have to answer for the charges they have made. The masses of our people will not forgive them for what they are trying to do, to undermine our country's movement forward, towards the genuine and all-round emancipation of the ordinary working people of our country.

Those who are peddling false stories about enemy agents in our ranks will be defeated.

This is an edited extract from Mbeki's weekly newsletter published on the ANC's website, in the same way that the African slaves of Haiti defeated the combined forces of European reaction, that fought to deny them their liberation.

Our successful struggle for liberation from apartheid and white minority domination imposes an obligation on us to fight to defend our right and duty to determine our future. This places a duty on all of us to be true to our consciences in everything we do, to do what we believe is right, and to be loyal to the injunction that we should serve the interests of the people of South Africa.

Our opponents will oppose us, presenting their case with the greatest eloquence and erudition. This includes and will include painting our leadership as being made up of traitors who worked for the perpetuation of the apartheid system. These are the same leaders who guided our movement and country in the successful struggle for the defeat of the apartheid system.

These opponents remain our opponents, however much they now pretend to be interested in the integrity and revolutionary purity of our movement and government, and the welfare of the masses of our people. Their task is to use all means at their disposal to oppose and defeat us. As long as we remain liberation fighters, so long will we refuse to be told by others, including these historic opponents and others, what we should think and do.

With acknowledgement to the Sunday Times.