PREMIER'S REMARKS
Comrade Programme Director
The Maseko Family
The Zwane family
Comrades
Ladies and Gentlemen.
We have gathered here today to bid farewell to a warrior.
We have converged from all corners of the province and the country to pay homage to a revolutionary.
We have convened in this grieving hall to salute a true patriot.
Let me, on behalf of the government and people of Mpumalanga, and on behalf of my organisation the African National Congress, express our sincere condolences to the Maseko and Zwane families, relatives and friends.
We shared and continue to share the pain and anguish of Comrade Solly's family.
It is difficult for us to understand the magnitude of the pain and sense of loss experienced by Comrade Solly's fiancée Pinky Mahlangu and the children Noluthando, Thando, Lindokuhle, and Nkululeko.
Please be comforted by the fact that the nation and the province share your grief; and we shall always be at your side. We share in your grief and sorrow and pray that God will give you the strength to carry on with your lives.
The people of South Africa are not strangers to memorial services and gravesides. Especially in January. In their march from colonial domination to independence, they have had to stop by the side of many a grave.
In January 1992, we buried Comrade Helen Joseph. Last January death robbed us of Comrade Alfred Nzo. Today, in January, we again gather to pay homage to an outstanding leader of our liberation struggle.
A comrade and friend who devoted most of his life in the service of his people. Comrade Solly Maseko is no more. And as the cold truth of this reality dawns on us with each passing day, our loss becomes the more difficult to bear.
Ngcamane's stout heart has stopped beating. The blood has stopped flowing in his veins. And our ranks have been robbed of the company of a unique revolutionary, an honest comrade. A foot soldier. A colossus because he was supremely human. Comrade Solly has departed from our midst.
A seeming void occupies his space, the air so still without his voice. Indeed, his departure from our midst is a great loss to the ANC, the Alliance, the people of Mpumalanga and the rest of South Africa.
Maseko, Ngcamane, Khubonye weNdlovu.
He was indeed a colossus. An elephant that majestically strode this province, yet so humble.
Comrade Solly was of the people, a product of the stern university of mass struggle and the life experience of the exploited and down-trodden workers and peasants of our country.
It was that education which inspired Comrade Solly to join the ANC. In the ANC, Comrade Solly rose from the lowest levels to become a national leader.
Comrade Solly knew it as clearly as he was convinced of the certainty of our victory, that the historic and urgent issue of the day in the new democratic South Africa is the speeding up of change.
He saw in the ANC the unique and authentic vanguard to mobilise and lead our people to victory. None among us was more conscious than he that the African National Congress could only carry out its historic mission if it maintained the character it had come to assume.
A character of a parliament of all the people of our country. He representative of our future, the negation of the divisions and conflicts that racial arrogance and capitalist greed have imposed on our people. From the day he joined the ANC Comrade Solly traversed uncharted paths with a single-mindedness and devotion that were unique only to him.
Comrade Solly was certainly a seasoned political leader of outstanding ability. To say that his death has struck us a blow is to tell the truth. He was the type of leader who knew how to follow. He was the type of operative who yielded results. He was a leader who in his sector produced results. And it is a test of leadership to be able to produce intended results.
We may not have been there when Comrade Solly gasped for the last time. But we are convinced that his dying wish for the people was that we should together speed up change for a better life for all our people.
Comrade Solly, this grievous occasion brings us together less to mourn your tragic departure than to close ranks and advance, united, to the fulfillment of our promise of a better life for all. To his family and relations we express our sincerest condolences.
The ANC salutes with pride the contribution of Comrade Solly to the cause of freedom and human emancipation. He was a great beacon, guiding and assisting in the building of the ANC in the province. But never, even once, demanding to be rewarded with a cabinet post or an ambassadorship.
We in the ANC have rich memories of a great revolutionary and freedom fighter, who recognised that freedom, like peace, was indivisible. He fought for peace against the twin evils that face humanity — the scourge of racism and the resultant poverty, homelessness, disease and infant mortality.
In extending the sympathies of the ANC to his family, friends and compatriots, we dip our revolutionary banner to this visionary fighter who did so much to espouse the hopes and needs and demands of ordinary people.
Those who have gathered here to make their pledge in public, or in the silence of their hearts, wish you well as you join the likes of OR Tambo, Chris Hani, Joe Slovo, Alfred Nzo and others. But we need to make this solemn pledge to you Comrade Solly.
As long as the people of our country continue to be immersed in poverty. As long as millions of our people continue to lose their lives as a result of preventable diseases, including AIDS, we shall not rest. That is a solemn pledge we make to you.
Your selfless dedication will inspire us forever.
That is why we pledge that we will not allow you to depart while we live!
We cannot say Comrade Solly is no more, while we walk this solid earth! You
lived,
Comrade Solly, not only because you could breathe.
You lived not because blood flowed through your veins.
Comrade Solly, you lived not because we could see and touch you.
You lived not because we shared many happy moments of laughter and sadness
with you.
Comrade Solly, you lived because you had dedicated your whole life to the
struggle of the people of this country.
You lived because you were so passionate about working for a better life for
all the people of this country – black and white.
You lived because you had surrendered your very being to
the people.
Comrade, you lived because your very being embodied love, an idea, a hope, an
aspiration, and a vision.
While you lived, our minds could never quite formulate the thought that you
were other than what the naked eye could see.
Comrades, while the ANC lives, Comrade Solly cannot die!
As long as the Alliance lives, Comrade Solly cannot die!
Comrade Solly we do draw comfort, from the knowledge that you left a legacy, which we shall all strive to emulate. We draw strength, Comrade Solly - from the knowledge that you continue to live in each one of us through your force of example, vitality of spirit and passion for justice.
Let all of us who live, say that while we live, Comrade Solly will not die! May he, for his part, rest in peace. Go well and farewell, dear friend. In all this, we will not fail you.
Hamba Kahle Ngcamane, Nyenyekile kwaNyambose.
To Pinky Mahlangu and the children Noluthando, Thando, Lindokuhle, and Nkululeko we share your pain and anguish.
To the Maseko and Zwane families, believe me when I say it is difficult for us to understand the magnitude of the pain and sense of loss you experienced and continue to suffer from. Be comforted by the fact that the nation and the province share your grief; and we shall always be at your side.
Pinky, Noluthando, Thando, Lindokuhle, Nkululeko as we share in your grief and sorrow we pray that God will give you the strength to carry on with your lives.
Thank You.