Sunday 11 April, 1999
Comrade President of the Republic, Nelson Mandela, Cde President of COSATU, John
Gomomo, the leadership of the SACP, ANC and COSATU present here, and all the comrades
attending this function, I greet you on behalf of the
Central Committee and the entire membership of the South African Communist Party.
Comrades, we are gathered here today to commemorate the 6th anniversary of the brutal
and cowardly murder of our comrade and leader, Martin Thembisile Chris Hani. All over our
country, similar commemorations are taking place.
As the SACP we would like to say that we are also meeting today to celebrate the fact that
the killers of this great son of the soil have been rightly denied amnesty. Let us all say
today, let them rot in jail, they are thugs and murderers who do not deserve to be part of
a democratic South Africa!
These killers who carried out this murder were both stupid and very cunning. They were
cunning because the murder of Cde Chris was a terrible blow to the SACP, the ANC-led
alliance, and to the overwhelming majority of South Africans. The anger that this murder
stirred in the hearts of millions of South Africans could easily have plunged our country
into irreversible war.
All the public opinion polls of the time showed that, after comrade Madiba, Chris Hani was
easily the second most popular political leader in our country.
But the killers were also stupid. They completely under-estimated the strategic
intelligence of the SACP, of the ANC and of our people. Yes, we were angered. But we were
also sharp enough to understand that this was a deliberate provocation designed to
prevent, forever, the holding of one-person, one-vote elections in our country. But the
plot backfired.
Rather than delaying democratic elections, the crisis and huge mass mobilisation that
followed the assassination brushed aside all of the blockages and delaying tactics that
were being used at the multi-party negotiations by the NP and their allies.
Within two and a half weeks of the assassination an election date was finally written in stone. Exactly one year later, the April 1994 elections took place. In many ways, the first ever-democratic elections in our country were a monument to the memory of Chris Hani. Tragically, but in truth, it was his death that forced the agreement on an election date.
Cde President, as the South African Communist Party, we would like to ask, through you,
that, since Mr. Clive Derby-Lewis and Mr. Janus Walusz have not told the truth, the
Director of National Prosecutions, Mr. Bulelani Ngcuka,
must re-open the investigation into the murder of Cde Chris Hani. We are not asking for a
re-investigation because we are being vindictive, but only because we want the real truth
to come out, as the only basis for taking our country forward. Nor are we asking for the
re-opening of the investigation in order to prolong the understandable pain within the
Hani family. We are
asking for the re-opening of the investigation, only because we want to ensure that the
whole truth must come out so that never again shall such acts take place in our country in
future.
We would also like to use this occasion as the South African Communist Party to address
Messrs Clive Derby-Lewis and Janus Walusz directly. We would like to say to them that we
know that there was a wider conspiracy in the murder of Chris Hani. It is also very clear,
Mr Derby-Lewis and Mr Walusz that you have now been dumped and you are the only ones who
are going to carry the burden of a conspiracy that did not involve only the two of you.
Why don't you serve your sentences with a clear conscience by speaking the truth and
mention all the others who were involved in this plot? The Amnesty committee
itself has said in its findings regarding your amnesty application that there are
compelling reasons to believe that there was indeed a wider conspiracy, though it could
not make a conclusive finding in this regard.
We would also like to use this occasion to call upon all the Afrikaners in this country
not to be misled once more by those people who want to use the denial of amnesty of
Derby-Lewis and Walusz for their own narrow ends to undermine our democracy. The murder of
Chris Hani and the denial of amnesty to their killers should be used as an opportunity by
the Afrikaners to seek to strengthen our non-racial and non-sexist democracy. We
particularly call upon the Afrikaner working people, who constitute the majority of the
Afrikaner population in this country, to forge a common cause with their
black working class compatriots in order to ensure that never again shall our
country be characterised by racial division and hatred. The cause of the working
class, black and white, is one to struggle to bring about a society, which is free of
exploitation and racism.
Having said all this, as the Communist Party we want to say today the only best way to
remember Chris Hani is to vote for the African National Congress. Let the workers of this
country ensure that the ANC is returned on 2 June 1999 with an even bigger majority. We
are saying this because we believe that it is only an ANC-led government that is best
placed to
transform the conditions of workers in this country in the present period. It is this
ANC-led government that has swept away all racist and oppressive laws. It is this ANC
government that has brought water to 3 million people, housed nearly 3 million
people, connected 2 million households to electricity and transferred land to 68 000
households. This marks major improvements in the lives of the working class and the poor
in this country.
Even more important it is this ANC government that has fought hard and passed laws in
this past five that have entrenched worker rights that we have struggled for so long
in this country. These include the Labour Relations Act, Basic Conditions of Employment
Act, Employment Equity Act, and Mines Safety Act. These laws are designed to strengthen
the democratic
power of workers in the face of bosses, and give workers the right to organise, to strike,
to acquire skills and to take part in decision making in the work place. Last but not
least, it is this ANC government that has passed laws like Domestic Violence Act and
Maintenance Act because it believes firmly that there can be no true democracy without
addressing gender inequalities and the oppression of women, as well as treating women's
rights as human rights.
Let us honour the memory of Chris by dedicating ourselves to the task of building and
strengthening the Tripartite Alliance. In particular let the workers ensure that we build
a strong SACP. As part of building this strong SACP let us also ensure that we contribute
to the financial independence of this party through our debit order campaign. Let every
worker contribute a
small sum of money to the SACP every month.
The SACP calls on all workers, all militant youth, the rural poor, all socialists, and all left-wing professionals to vote ANC.
Take forward the vision of Cde Chris Hani
Blade Nzimande
General Secretary
South African Communist Party