27 October 2002
Master of Ceremonies,
Members of the Lembede family,
President, leaders and members of the ANC Youth League,
Comrades leaders and members of our movement,
Friends:
At a moment like this, when we are gathered to rebury the remains of a great son of our people, Anton Muziwakhe Lembede, it is natural that we should recount his life and tell of his achievements.
We must repeat the important messages he communicated to our people and our movement. The things he said, that:
"I live for the freedom of my people, and I shall die for Africa's freedom";
that "My heart yearns for the glory of an Africa that is gone. But I shall labour for the birth of a new Africa, free and great among the nations of the world.";
that "We are not called to peace, comfort and enjoyment, but to hard work, struggle and sweat. We need young men and women of high moral stamina and integrity; of courage and vision. In short, we need warriors.";
are continuing instructions to all of us, who are today privileged to come as close to the mortal remains of Anton Lembede as it is physically possible, who fight for the freedom of our people and the freedom of Africa, who seek to transform ourselves into the kind of cadre of whom Anton Lembede spoke, members of the Congress Movement of high moral stamina and integrity, of courage and vision.
On an occasion such as this, when we are gathered to rebury the remains of a great son of our people, Anton Muziwakhe Lembede, it is natural that we should recount what others said of him when he suddenly passed away 55 years ago.
What Govan Mbeki said then, that:
"His memory will ever be a source of strength to all Youth who devote themselves as he has exemplified to the most sacred and most sublime of all causes - the liberation of their people.";
what the August 7th, 1947 editorial of "Inkundla ya Bantu" said, that "the demand is greatest for trained young men willing to surrender themselves completely to the service of their people.";
what J.B. Marks said that those "of us who shared his views give him the assurance that what he has left incomplete we shall complete.";
what this outstanding communist said of Anton Lembede who had taken anti-communist positions, that his critics should "write the late Lembede's virtues in brass and his vices, if any, on water.";
and what the ANC Youth League itself said, that "The death of Anton Muziwakhe Lembede, scholar, philosopher, lawyer, leader and President of the African National Congress Youth League removes from earth one of the greatest Sons of Africa. It deprives the African Nation of its foremost champion in the struggle for emancipation.";
all of these tributes convey to us the instruction plainly stated by J.B. Marks, that we must complete what Anton Lembede left incomplete.
Some of what Anton Lembede intended to achieve is contained in the founding ANC Youth League Manifesto of 1944. In part, the Manifesto said:
"The formation of the African National Congress Youth League is an answer and assurance to the critics of the national movement that African Youth will not allow the struggles and sacrifices of their fathers to have been in vain. Our fathers fought so that we, better equipped when our time came, should start and continue from where we stopped.
"The Congress Youth League must be the brains-trust and power-station of the spirit of African Nationalism; the spirit of African self-determination; the spirit that is discernible in the thinking of our Youth. It must be an organisation where young African men and women will meet and exchange ideas in an atmosphere pervaded by a common hatred of oppression.
"At this power-station the League will be a co-ordinating agency for all youthful forces employed in rousing popular political consciousness and fighting oppression and reaction. It will educate the people politically by concentrating its energies on the African homefront to make all sections of our people Congress minded and nation-conscious."
At a time such as this, when we are gathered to carry out the national duty of the re-interment of the mortal remains of a great son of our people, Anton Muziwakhe Lembede, we must draw the necessary lessons from our great history made by such patriots as Anton Lembede, to find answers to the question - what should we do today and tomorrow, to advance the cause to which Anton Lembede committed his life!
What we do when we leave this place of final rest for one who will always remain one of our leaders, must give practical meaning to what Govan Mbeki said when stated that Anton Lembede's memory will ever be a source of strength to all who devote themselves to the liberation of their people, and what J.B. Marks said that we give the assurance that what Anton Lembede left incomplete we shall complete.
Anton Lembede committed himself to the freedom of our people, and Africa's freedom. The political freedom of which he spoke, the right to self-determination, has been achieved even in this country of his birth, where the forces of colonialism and white minority rule on our continent were most stubborn.
But we must ask ourselves the question whether Anton Lembede's vision of the birth of a new Africa, free and great among the nations of the world has been realised.
When he spoke of Africa, Muziwakhe Lembede spoke also of our country, whose destiny our patriots from the 19th century onwards had defined as being inextricably linked to the future of the rest our continent.
The right to self-determination of which Anton Lembede spoke and the greatness of Africa he sought to achieve included the recovery of what he described as the glory of an Africa that is gone.
That glory included Africa's contribution to the advancement of human civilisation. It encompassed the goal of peace and stability on our continent. It visualised an end to the suffering of our people and the peoples of Africa from poverty and want.
It foresaw the restoration of the situation when human beings on our continent would restore the balance between human survival and the protection of nature and the environment.
The 1944 Youth League Manifesto from which we have quoted, includes a remarkable statement about the glory of Africa of which Muziwakhe Lembede spoke. When it speaks of the society we should strive to build, it says:
"In South Africa, the conflict has emerged as one of race on the one side and one of ideals on the other. The White man regards the Universe as a gigantic machine hurtling through time and space to its final destruction: individuals in it are but tiny organisms with private lives that lead to private deaths: personal power, success and fame are the absolute measures of values; the things to live for. This outlook on life divides the Universe into a host of individual little entities which cannot help being in constant conflict thereby hastening the approach of the hour of their final destruction.
"The African, on his side, regards the Universe as one composite whole; an organic entity, progressively driving towards greater harmony and unity whose individual parts exist merely as interdependent aspects of one whole realising their fullest life in the corporate life where communal contentment is the absolute measure of values. His philosophy of life strives towards unity and aggregation; towards greater social responsibility."
Of course we now know that the value systems that the Youth League spoke about in 1944 as well as the social systems, have nothing to do with race and colour and therefore should not be attributed to any particular racial or cultural group.
Nevertheless, the statements made by the founders of the Youth League in 1944 challenge us to examine ourselves to see whether what we are doing to build a new South Africa is aimed at producing the communal contentment the League spoke about or its opposite as it was described.
With regard to the latter, to which it was opposed, the Youth League said this was a society in which personal power, success and fame are the absolute measures of values, the things to live for.
We all know that today, our movement, the movement of Anton Lembede, has attracted into its ranks people to whom personal power, success and fame are the absolute measures of value, the things to live for.
These are not the cadres of whom Anton Lembede spoke when he said that what our movement and country needed were young men and women of high moral stamina and integrity, of courage and vision, warriors for the liberation of our people and the construction of a better life for all.
Our struggle continues, for the eradication of poverty and the achievement of human dignity for all our people. It continues, for the creation of a non-racial and non-sexist society. It continues, for the building of a prosperous society and the all-round development and fulfilment of each and every South African, black and white, inspired by the concepts of the oneness of human being and social responsibility the Youth League called for in its Manifesto.
Our struggle continues, for the Renaissance of Africa visualised by Muziwakhe Lembede when he said that his heart yearned for the glory of an Africa that is gone, for the birth of a new Africa, free and great among the nations of the world.
In its continuing struggle, the movement has no need of people whose value system, the things to live for, are personal power, success and fame. What our continuing struggle are the cadres that Anton Lembede called for - men and women of high moral stamina and integrity, of courage and vision, genuine warriors for the liberation of our people and the construction of a better life for all.
We have already seen the grave damage that can be caused by those who live for personal power, success and fame. We have seen how this leads to corruption both within our movement as well as the very government institutions that our movement heads.
We have seen how this divides the movement, turning comrades against one another and diverting them from the urgent tasks of which Anton Lembede and his comrades spoke, of educating our people to be make all sections of our people Congress minded and nation-conscious, of ensuring that we do not allow the struggles and sacrifices of our fathers and mothers to have been in vain, of ensuring that we succeed to build the better and humane society the founders of the Youth League visualised.
We will not allow that the movement of Anton Lembede is corrupted by those who live for personal power, success and fame, that it abandons the masses of our people simply because the space has been created for those who are after personal success to capture a movement that, to this day, continues to have a majority of members who, as Muziwakhe Lembede said, are men and women of high moral stamina and integrity, of courage and vision, genuine warriors for the liberation of our people and the construction of a better life for all.
It is in these real ways that the example of Anton Lembede must continue this and future generations. The Youth League and the rest of our movement must continuously draw on his life to ensure that they stay on course in the struggle to complete what he did not have time to complete.
Such heroes are not mourned. For that reason, we have gathered here today to salute and celebrate the life of Anton Muziwakhe Lembede, whose spirit and example will always be with us as we say, the ANC lives! the ANC leads!
May he rest in peace.