Tribute to Comrade `Mdidiyeli` Fani Jiba
Fani Johannes Jiba, SACP Transkei regional chairperson, died tragically in an unexplained shooting incident on June 3 1992.Comrade Jiba,known as "Mdidiyeli Mbambo" in MK ranks, was buried in Cambridge, East London on June 21.
The Petros Jobane Branch remembcrs comrade Jiba as a clear example of how a communist should be - he loved his family, community and country.
He first became involved in struggle while still at school. As a high school student he was detained in 1977. Continual harassment by the South African security police made it impossible for him to finish matric at school. But he studied privately while working in Johannesburg.
In 1980 Mdidiyeli left the country to join MK in Angola. He was recruited into the SACP and rose through the ranks of MK to become Political Instructor. Later he was appointed Camp Commissar.
"Comrade Commissar", as he was known to new recruits, received training in the German Democratic Republic and he completed two separate political courses in the Soviet Union.
He returned to South Africa in September 1991 and immediately got down to work. He was elected SACP chairperson in the Transkei region. But he also served as a political educator in Cambridge, East London, where his family lives. He was instru
mental in building our Petros Lobane Branch of the Party. He would visit our branch monthly and would hold political discussions with us.
We are proud to record that even his funeral was turned into a victory for the Cambridge township community:
In the past people from our township have had to travel more than 30 kilometres to Duncan Village to getto a cemetry for blacks. On the eve of comrade Jiba`s funeral we sent an SACP and civics delegation to see the local municipality. We demanded that they allocate a site for the people of Cambridge in the town cemetry. We won his demand.
And so, for the first time, beginning with comrade Jiba`s funeral, we buried a black person in the town cemetry. The whole town came to a standstill as a full military procession went down to the graveyard.
The delegation to the municipality also won another victory. On the night of the vigil the street lights of our township were switched on after almost 2 years without lights!
Our Party`s 8th national congress took a resolution that communists should identify and address community issues. In honouring our fallen comrade, we, the Petros Jobane SACP branch have tried to live up to that resolution and to the revolutionary example of our Commissar.
