SACP Statement of Heartfelt Condolences on the Passing Away of ANC Deputy Secretary General Comrade Yasmin "Jessie" Duarte

17 July 2022

The South African Communist Party (SACP) conveys its message of deepest condolences to the family of ANC Deputy Secretary General, Comrade Yasmin “Jessie” Duarte, who passed away in the early hours this morning, Sunday 17 July 2022.

The SACP also sends heartfelt condolences to the ANC, which she served diligently in various roles over the years, as well as the entire Alliance, the South African liberation movement and people at large.

Comrade Jessie, as she was fondly known, devoted her life to the South African struggle for liberation and social emancipation, the national democratic revolution. Spending her young life under the inspirational tutelage of some of our iconic liberation stalwarts such as Comrade Albertina Sisulu, Comrade Jessie went on to inspire more women in South Africa and across the African continent and beyond, to remain resolute in the struggle for women emancipation, along with the emancipation of all oppressed people. Her contribution to the movement thus goes back to the people’s struggles against apartheid, for a just, non-racial, and non-sexist society.

She served on the National Executive Committee of the ANC since the ANC’s 51st National Conference in 2002 and had been serving the ANC as Deputy Secretary General since the 53rd National Conference in 2012.

The Alliance as a whole has suffered irreplicable loss in Comrade Jessie’s demise. A while ago, Comrade Jessie revived her membership of the SACP and was a member of the SACP in good standing at the time of her passing. The Party, like the ANC, will be poorer without her.

Not only was Comrade Jessie the ANC Deputy Secretary General, but she was also a member of the Alliance Secretariat. She convened and chaired the meetings of the Alliance Secretariat, dealing with difficult questions of our time, like the deadly COVID-19 pandemic. She also convened the meeting of the Alliance Political Council and gave leadership guidance to its drafting team. Comrade Jessie played a central role in these capacities, steering the Alliance Secretariat meetings that produced the Alliance's COVID-19 Response Framework and the effort to save public entities that were ravaged by state capture.

In tribute to Comrade Jessie Duarte, the SACP calls for the intensification of the struggle against patriarchy, one of the major features of capitalist society, a struggle Comrade Jessie was passionate about. The Alliance and the entire progressive movement have the task of deepening the struggle against neoliberalism and all its inherent features. In addition to fighting against neoliberalism, we must continue reviving our state-owned entities, which were ravaged by both the forces of neoliberalism and state capture, while building more state capacity for the development of our country. Neither the neoliberal agents nor the state capture looters will lead our country out of the structural capitalist crises faced by the working-class and poor.

Coming out of its 15th National Congress, the SACP will make its contribution to the struggle to end patriarchy and defend the gains of the liberation movement. The SACP commits itself to organise the people for working-class power and for the further development of our society, as well as for an end to the exploitation and subjugation of one by another.

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