15 May 2023

The South African Communist Party (SACP) expresses its message of heartfelt condolences to the family of Billy Masetlha, South Africa’s ambassador to Algeria. We also convey our message of sincere condolences to the African National Congress, uMkhoto we Sizwe Liberation War Veterans, Congress of South African Students, and the people of South Africa at large.

Masetlha, 68, passed away on Sunday, 14 May 2023.

Comrade Billy Masetlha was born in the working-class community of Alexandra, Johannesburg, in 1954. He dedicated much of life, starting as a student and youth activist, to the struggle against apartheid, the struggle for liberation and democratic transformation and development.

At the height of the brutal apartheid repression during the June 1976 Soweto student uprising, he organised and worked closely with student leaders, Tsietsi Mashinini, Dan Montsitsi and others. Two years later, in 1979, Masetlha helped found the Congress of South African Students.

He played a key role in the military pillar of our struggle, graduating from being a student activist and leader, to receiving military training and serving as a member of the joint ANC and SACP liberation army, uMkhonto we Sizwe.

Masetlha was also active in the underground pillar of our struggle to end apartheid rule and replace it with democracy and a better life for all through democratic transformation and development.

He went into exile as part of the intensification of our struggle, in the face of heightening apartheid repression. Masetlha continued clandestine work in South Africa, as part of the underground pillar of our struggle, while he was in exile in Botswana, Lesotho and Zambia.

He was instrumental in the formation of the South African Youth Congress.           

After our April 1994 democratic breakthrough, he served in different terms as the Director-General of Home Affairs, head of the National Intelligence Agency, a member of the African National Congress National Executive Committee, and an ambassador of South Africa, among others.    

The SACP says,

“Hamba Kahle Mkhonto”.

We will pick up the spear.

The struggle continues.

ISSUED BY THE SOUTH AFRICAN COMMUNIST PARTY | SACP

EST. 1921 AS THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF SOUTH AFRICA | CPSA

Dr Alex Mohubetswane Mashilo:
SACP Central Committee Member, National Spokesperson
Political Bureau Secretary for Policy and Research

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