Sunday, April 21, 2019

Remembering Cde Chris Hani 26 Years After His Assassination
9 April 2019

The Congress of South African Trade Unions is joining the millions of South Africans to remember who was mowed down by an assassin's gun 26 years ago. Tomorrow, it will be 26 years since this country was robbed of one of its beloved sons by the gutless apartheid assassins. We take our hats off in remembrance of this revolutionary hero, who never wavered in the face of evil and who paid the ultimate price fighting for the emancipation of the oppressed majority.

As workers, we will use this moment and occasion to reflect on the legacy that Cde Chris Hani left behind. He was a working-class hero who earned his grass root popularity through his principled leadership. We remember and honour a passionate defender of the working class.

Cde Hani was unrelenting in his rejection of corruption, elitism, factionalism and discrimination. He never used his power and positions to advance his own personal or factional interests and was always disciplined enough to subject himself to organisational discipline.

Despite his enormous popularity, Cde Chris Hani was never a populist and knew that the revolution was bigger than himself. He was never power hungry and was prepared to be led and allow the organisation to have the final say on issues.

COSATU is challenging all those who are entrusted with leadership positions to not only quote Cde Chris Hani but to emulate him by subjecting themselves to organisational discipline and putting the people first.

In honour of Cde Chris Hani, COSATU calls on all workers to mobilise, campaign and vote for the ANC in the upcoming National General Elections on the 08th of May 2019.

Workers need to reject red meat populism of pseudo-leftist political parties and the rightwing agenda of the parties like the DA. Without fear of contradiction, we can safely say that Cde Chris Hani would never have voted for the DA. The DA remains the party of hard-line white supremacists, who are about defending the ill-gotten privileges of the white minority. The DA is hell-bent on reversing qualitative democratic advances made by the ANC government.

To honour Cde Chris Hani, we need to refuse to be puppets and useful idiots of big business and imperialists. We cannot afford to walk in fear of one another and tear ourselves apart to satisfy people, who do not care about us. Let us find solutions to our problems without allowing the enemy to weaken and ultimately bury the African National Congress.

Comrade Chris Hani laid down his life for this country and let us, therefore, vote for his beloved ANC and also continue with the project of cleansing it of opportunists, criminals and charlatans.

Let us vote for the ANC in defence of our revolutionary gains!

Issued by COSATU

Sizwe Pamla (National Spokesperson)

Congress of South African Trade Unions
110 Jorissen Cnr Simmonds Street
Braamfontein
2017

Tel: 011 339 4911
Fax: 011 339 5080
Cell: 060 975 6794

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