Speeches

Programme Director, The Mnganga and Gcabashe families, Members of the ANC National Executive Committee, President of the ANC Women’s League, Cde Sisisi Tolashe, Members of the ANC Women’s League NEC, Leadership of Alliance and Mass Democratic Movement formations, Comrades and Friends,

We are gathered here to say farewell to a leader and an activist whose life was defined by love and service. Today we bid farewell to a mother, a sister, an aunt, a freedom fighter, a comrade.

On behalf of the leadership and membership of the African National Congress, we express our deepest condolences and sympathies to her family, friends and comrades.

While we were preparing to bid farewell to our comrade, the Deputy President of the ANC Women’s League, we heard the news of the passing of the former president of the Women’s League and a stalwart of our struggle, Ma Getrude Shope.

In an African hut, there’s a pole that stands in the middle. It is called Intsika. African women are the izintsika in our homes, in our families and in the nation. They keep everything intact, like that pole in the middle of a traditional hut.

Having to lose two izintsika in succession deepens our pain. Although they were of different generations, they were of the same political lineage. They fought for the same cause.

Cde Lungi Mnganga-Gcabashe was drawn into political action by a deep desire for peace, for freedom and for justice. She lived her life in the service of others, in the service of her people and in the service of her country.

She has walked every step of our journey to democracy with the people of South Africa. She has worked with the people to overcome every challenge they face and celebrated with the people for every success achieved. She joined the struggle at a time of great turbulence and conflict in this province.

She became active in local structures at a time of heightened repression, when the forces of apartheid sought to sow division, to turn communities against each other. It was her calm and determined manner, her sincerity, her integrity that propelled her to leadership in local peace committees at a young age. From these early experiences, she knew the destruction and the pain of division.

Throughout her life, she dedicated herself to forge

unity: within communities, within organisations

and within her country.

She knew that a people united could never be

defeated.

She knew that unless we settled our differences,

unless we overcame the conflicts of the past, we

would not be able to move forward. We would

not be able to build a South Africa that belongs

to all its people, a South Africa that is just, equal

and prosperous.

It is at a time like now, when we have seen a

resurgence of racial quarters, that we need of Cde Lungi.

antagonism from some

people with the conviction

The year of Renewal to make the ANC a more effective instrument of the people to achieve the vision of the

Freedom Charter: The people shall govern! The people shall share in the country’s wealth!3

At a time when our communities are being

torn apart by gangsterism and violent crime,

by corruption and patronage, by a bitter

contestation for public resources, we need

people of the calibre of Cde Lungi.

At a time when our movement still struggles with

the corrosive force of factionalism, we are called

upon to follow her lead. We called upon to be

unifiers. To be healers.

Cde Lungi was an organiser and a builder.

Whether it was building local structures of the

UDF at the height of struggle or establishing

the ANC as a powerful movement following its

unbanning, she understood the value of popular

mobilisation and organisation.

She understood the need for these structures

to be rooted in communities, to be drawn

from communities and to serve the interests of

communities.

The value of effective organisation grounded in

people’s daily lives is as important today as it

was when Cde Lungi started out as an organiser.

A little more than thirty years into democracy,

when politics has, for many, become an

occupation, when the activists of yesteryear

occupy positions of public authority, many no

longer see the need for a mass-based movement.

For many, mass mobilisation is for elections. It is

for conferences. It is for protest.

But for a person like Cde Lungi, mass mobilisation

is essential for the fundamental transformation of

society. It is essential to address the difficulties

that people face and to improve the conditions

in which they live.

For a person like Cde Lungi, democracy relies

on the participation and activism of the people.

We remember her concern as a Member The year of Renewal to make the ANC a more effective instrument of the people to achieve the vision of the

Freedom Charter: The people shall govern! The people shall share in the country’s wealth!

of

Parliament that not enough time was dedicated

to constituency work. She was convinced that

public representatives needed to spend more

time among the people they were elected to

serve.

This was the type of leader she was. From

her first responsibilities in local structures and

regional structures, from the positions she held

in the province to her election into the National

Executive Committees of the ANC and the ANC

Women’s League, Cde Lungi understood that

leaders were there to serve.

As a leader, she sought neither power nor

influence. She did not seek prestige or

enrichment. She did not seek public office for

the benefits it could bring her.

How many of us can today make such a claim?

How many of us speak the words of service and

selflessness, but are driven by a desire for self-

advancement?

How many of us seek authority, but not

responsibility?

As we reflect on the life of Cde Lungi Mnganga-

Gcabashe, let us ask ourselves these difficult

questions.

Where we fall short of the standard set by Cde

Lungi, where we fall short of the expectations of

our people, let us make amends. Let us become

better leaders. Let us place the needs of our

people above our own.

Cde Lungi will be remembered as someone

who throughout her life championed the role of

women within the movement and within society.

Among her earliest political tasks was to recruit

women into the ANC, and she dedicated herself

to the advancement of women at all levels of

leadership.4

For her this was a matter of justice. It was

fundamental to the achievement of the equal

society which we were striving to build.

She understood that freedom required nothing

less than the full and equal participation of

women in all areas of the life of the nation.

It is a tribute to her and those who worked

alongside her, that our country has made such

remarkable progress in advancing the position

of women over the last 30 years.

She was vital in giving the women of this country

a voice and securing their place within the ANC,

within our public institutions and more broadly

within society.

But she knew, as we know, that this struggle is

far from over. Women are under-represented in

many areas of society, from business to science,

from politics to sport.

Women are more likely to be unemployed and

underpaid. African women shoulder the greatest

burden of poverty.

The violence that is perpetrated by men against

women has reached the proportions of a

pandemic. It is a scourge that breeds fear and

mistrust. It destroys lives and divides communities.

And it stands as a barrier to the full realisation

of the basic human rights of the women of this

country.

We remember Cde Lungi as a leader who was

always ready to join many thousands of women

in the streets of this country. Always ready to

carry a placard to shame perpetrators of gender-

based violence. She was always ready to visit

and console families who had lost loved ones.

The reality of the daily struggles of women in

this country requires from us an even greater

determination to continue the work to which Cde

Lungi dedicated so much of her life.

It requires that we follow her lead in mobilising

and organising the women of South Africa, of all

races, from all walks of life, to intensify the fight

for equality and justice.

And we must recognise, as she did, that this is

a struggle not to be waged by women alone. It

is a struggle that men must pursue with as much

purpose and resolve.

We are gathered here today in our numbers

because Cde Lungi was driven throughout her

life by her love for her people. She was driven

by her love for justice and freedom.

But she was driven also by a love for life, for her

family, for her friends and her comrades.

To her family, we extend our sympathies for a

grievous loss.

We say thank you for sharing her with our

movement and our people.

We have lost Cde Lungi far too soon. We have

lost her at a time when we needed her honesty

and her dedication most.

As we mourn her passing, let us resolve to honour her memory not in words, but in action. Let us honour her memory by taking forward the struggle to which she dedicated her life – the struggle for peace, for unity and for equality for all.

May her continue.

soul rest in peace. May her struggle

Hamba Kahle Mbokodo

I Thank You