21 December 2014
The SACP sends its deepest condolences to the entire family, and in particular the son, Comrade Nhlakanipho Zuma who is our Party`s District Secretary and Young Communist League National Committee Member, as well as to the friends community, of Comrade Bhekithemba Regionald Ngubane (Zuma). Comrade Reggie, as he was also known, played an important grassroots-based leadership role in our struggle for national liberation and socialism. Comrade Reggie ceased to breath on 14 December 2014 after a fight against the illness to which he ultimately conceded defeat. Comrade Reggie belonged to the SACP, the African National Congress (ANC) and the South African National Civic Organisation (SANCO), both as a member and leader, on the ground.
Obituary:
"Heroes never die. They live on forever in the hearts and minds of those who would follow in their footsteps."
Comrade Bhekithemba Regionald Ngubane (Zuma) was born on 22 November 1963 in Howick, Moses Mabhida Province (KZN). He started schooling at Kwenzakwethu Primary School and later at Zaminhlanhla Primary School. He attended secondary education at Ukusa High School and completed at Mpophomeni High School.
Comrade Reggie found his first job at a textile company called Esinyameni. He resigned later due to political violence that directly affected him.
His active participation in the liberation struggle saw him become one of the targets of the collaborators of the apartheid regime. His home was burned down. In the wake of this incident, he moved to Embalenhle, then in Eastern Transvaal, now Mpumalanga Province, in 1987. Upon arrival he participated in Embalenhle Youth Congress, which was later renamed South African Youth Congress (SAYCO) Embalenhle Branch.
After unbanning of political parties in the early 1990s, Comrade Reggie participated in the rebuilding of the ANC and ANC Youth League structures in Embalenhle. He also played a leading role in re-establishing SACP structures in Mpumalanga, with the Secunda Branch launched on 31 March 1992 and Comrade Reggie forming part of the first Branch Executive Committee that was elected. A year later he was elected SACP Branch Secretary, a position he was re-elected to for five consecutive terms.
While leading the SACP he was also part of the leading team in the Local Government Negotiations Forum (LGNF). Comrade Reggie was a rare breed; one of the revolutionary cadres who took an active role in the daily life of both the ANC and SACP as well as SANCO. He understood that the “branch is the basic and important unit of any revolutionary people’s organisation”. His contribution was recognised, beyond the District.
Based on his commitment he was appointed as one of the two comrades to represent Mpumalanga Province in the running of Inkululeko Media and Marketing Co-operative at SACP Headquarters for several years. He led ANC for a significant number of years as a Branch Executive Committee member, and later as chairperson.
Comrade Reggie also participated in the realignment of ANC and SACP structures. He was elected in this process as Branch Secretary to lead his new Voting District Branch, named after one of SACP outstanding activists Comrade Juda Tsotesti. Cde Reggie later led another Voting District Branch, Sunrise, for three terms, until his departure from the world of the leaving.
The SACP says Hamba Kahle Qabane;
In your honour we will intensify the work to build a mightier vanguard Party of the working class and socialism in ALL key sites of struggle;
In particular, on the ground, in the community, in the battle of ideas, the workplace and the economy, the environment, internationally, and;
Regardless of the opportunist "left-wing" infantile disorder in its different variants and right-wing anti-communist forces alike, also in the state - which we shall continue to contest in and outside as we do so presently both directly and through our revolutionary Alliance.