8 March 2016
On 27 February a veteran of our liberation struggle Comrade Habakuk Shikwane (87) was involved in a motor vehicle accident and lost his life instantly, leaving the SACP greatly saddened. He was laid to rest on Friday, 4 March at a special provincial funeral in Limpopo Province.
Shikwane was born on 30 April 1928. He became an active operative of the SACP underground following its banning by the apartheid regime under the "Suppression of Communism Act" in 1950 and simultaneously served as an ANC activist. After the banning of the ANC in 1960 he was tasked to establish underground organisational machinery of the leading component of our national liberation movement and alliance in the apartheid capitalist native labour reserves, commonly known as Bantustans, in Bophuthatswana and Lebowa.
Shikwane belonged to the same unit as Comrade Michael Harmel, a communist activist and member of uMkhoto we Sizwe`s High Command. Harmel was involved in the drafting of the SACP`s 1962 political programme, `The Road to South African Freedom`. The programme introduced the thesis of colonialism of a special type, employed by the Party and the rest of our movement in developing an understanding of the South African situation, immediate and long-term tasks to achieve freedom. An extract from the thesis reads:
"South Africa is not a colony but an independent state. Yet masses of our people enjoy neither independence nor freedom. The conceding of independence to South Africa by Britain, in 1910, was not a victory over the forces of colonialism and imperialism. It was designed in the interests of imperialism. Power was transferred not into the hands of the masses of people of South Africa, but into the hands of the White minority alone. The evils of colonialism, insofar as the non-White majority was concerned, were perpetuated and reinforced. A new type of colonialism was developed, in which the oppressing White nation occupied the same territory as the oppressed people themselves..."
This analytical reflection underlined the connection between colonial oppression and apartheid in South Africa on the one hand and imperialism on the other hand. It gave further impetus to Shikwane`s activism and that of many other activists and leaders who intensified the struggle towards the goal of the South African freedom.
Shikwane passed on at the time when the main strategic challenge facing our liberation alliance is that of placing the national democratic revolution on to a second, more radical phase. The success of this phase of our struggle, building on our 1994 democratic breakthrough and its subsequent advances, must be characterised by at least two goals:
In memory of Shikwane, the whole of our movement must cement its own unity and unite our communities in pursuit of these goals of the South African freedom.
The SACP says:
"Let us unite and work together to solve the problems of persisting high levels of racialised and gendered class inequality, unemployment and poverty which were systemically created under the era of colonialism and apartheid, reproduced and reinforced by deepening capitalist exploitation and endemic crisis."
Shikwane took the lead.
As an artisan he established furniture manufacturing and small and medium scale industrial operations that employed, trained and skilled many comrades and supported the families of imprisoned and exiled activists and leaders of the SACP, ANC and SACTU. He considered himself the first black industrialist. One of the strategic tasks of our second radical phase of the national democratic revolution is to develop production by manufacturing diversification and industrialisation. This task he took seriously.
The SACP pays homage to this distinguished underground communist and extends our heartfelt condolences to the Shikwane family, friends and comrades.
SACP remembers its former General Secretary, ANC leader and MK combatant, Comrade Moses Mabhida
Today marked the 30th anniversary of the passing away of former SACP General Secretary, Comrade Moses Mabhida, one of the outstanding leaders of the ANC, uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK) and the progressive trade union movement. Mabhida was elected SACP General Secretary in 1979, replacing Comrade Moses Kotane who had passed away in 1978 in exile, Moscow, then the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, now Russia.
After the declaration by apartheid oppressors in 1960 of a "state of emergency", Mabhida was sent abroad by Cosatu`s legal predecessor, the South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU) to represent the organisation internationally.
He was elected SACTU`s Vice President at its founding congress in 1955. Around 1956 he became ANC national executive committee member. Following the ANC`s 1962 conference, Mabhida was tasked to focus on the development of the MK and underwent military training as Commissar. He became the Chief Political Instructor of new military recruits, and later served as its Commander. He served in the Revolutionary Council of the movement after its establishment in 1969 and later in the Politico-Military Council that replaced the former.
He met his death in Mozambique in 1986, a year after suffering a stroke in 1985 while on an internationalist mission to Havana, Cuba.
Issued by the SACP