27 March 1955 - 24 October 2004
Dumisani Makhaye, a revolutionary leader and true son of Africa, was born on 27 March 1955, in Cato Manor (Umkhumbane), Durban.
His first taste of apartheid was during the police raids against the brewers of Zulu beer in Cato Manor in the late 1950s. The Makhaye family was forcefully removed from Cato Manor in 1958 and the police used dynamite to destroy their family house.
The family was temporarily sheltered at Point Road, a white residential area, with the employer of Makhaye's father. Despite staying on the Durban beach front, Makhaye was not allowed onto the "whites-only beaches".
Makhaye's grandfather, Khibane, had earlier become a wanderer and a refugee in his own country. The expansion of white farmers around Umvoti in the vicinity of KwaDukuza drove Khibane to seek new grazing lands at Makhabeleni, hundreds of kilometers away. His grandfather, Mafosi, took part in the Bhambatha Rebellion of 1906. His father, Udong'olumanquzu, took part in the mass struggles of the fighting 1950s.
A number of events conspired to raise Makhaye's political consciousness. These included the 1973 Durban strikes, in which his father took an active part as a Durban Municipal worker; the victorious armed struggles in Angola, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Cape Verde and Guinea Bissau; the growth of the Black Consciousness Movement; the release of the first batch of ANC leaders imprisoned in the early 1960s, such as Harry Gwala; and the murder by Special Branch Police of ANC leader Joseph Mdluli in police custody.
"The massacre of student in Soweto in 1976 became a clarion call to most of us, the youth," Makhaye later wrote. The ANC network led by people like Themba Kubheka, Baleka Mbete, the Langa brothers - Bheki, Ben and Mandla -and the late Rev BNB Ngidi became a source of inspiration.
The massacre of students in Soweto in 1976 drove Makhaye into exile to join the ANC and Umkhonto we Sizwe. Being in the ANC during those most difficult years and at such a tender age was an experience that shaped him. The late ANC President Oliver Tambo and the late ANC leader and SACP General Secretary Moses Mabhida had a lasting impression on him. To Makhaye, Moses Mabhida represented "that brand of communists that did more than anybody else to defend the independence and integrity of the ANC".
Makhaye was among the first to be deployed to the forward areas after undergoing military training in Angola. He worked closely with celebrated MK commanders like Joe Modise, Joe Slovo, Chris Hani and Cassius Maake. He studied political science in Cuba for two years, and led specialised military units for training in East Germany. He was in the MK command of the Natal Urban Military machinery and later the Natal Command.
Just before the unbanning of the ANC, he represented the ANC in some meetings of the United Nations Committee on the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People and the International Organisation of Journalists. He studied trade unionism in East Germany and management in Zambia.
When he was arrested in Swaziland and deported to Tanzania in the mid-1980s, the ANC redeployed him to headquarters in Lusaka, Zambia. He joined the ANC' s Department of Information and Publicity (DIP), led by Thabo Mbeki.
He returned to South Africa in August 1991 after the unbanning of the ANC. In November 1991 he was elected onto the ANC Southern Natal Regional Executive Committee working closely with comrades like Jeff Radebe, S'bu Ndebele, Nkosazana Zuma, Diliza Mji, Mike Sutcliffe and Linda Zama. After 1994 he was elected onto the KwaZulu Natal Provincial Executive Committee. In December 1997, at the ANC's 50th National Conference in Mafikeng, he was elected onto the ANC National Executive Committee.
In 1994 he was elected into the KwaZulu Natal legislature and appointed as Chairperson of the Finance Committee. In 1999 he was re-elected into the legislature and appointed as MEC for Housing. In April 2003 he was appointed as MEC for Agriculture and Environment affairs.
Makhaye was re-elected onto the ANC National Executive Committee at the ANC' s 51st National Conference in Stellenbosch in December 2002.
Following the April 2004 election, Makhaye was appointed MEC for Local Government, Housing and Traditional Affairs in KwaZulu Natal's first ANC-led government.
Dumisani Makhaye was a brave and a daring cadre of the ANC, loyal and uncompromising on matters of principle and organisational discipline. He was a cadre with a rare combination of being both frank and receptive to new ideas.
Makhaye was an outstanding teacher for many young cadres of the ANC, who selflessly committed himself to their political growth and development. He was a distinguished scholar on revolutionary theory; a writer whose work will continue to inspire generations to come.
Makhaye passed away on Sunday, 24 October 2004.