Media Statement

The African National Congress (ANC) joins the Hani family, South Africans, the Congress of the South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and the South African Communist Party (SACP) on the 33rd anniversary of the assassination of Comrade Martin Thembisile Chris Hani.

A consummate internationalist, strategist, commissar, catholic, an activist of the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL), a student of classical languages, Marxist, pragmatist, trained guerrilla, combatant of the ANC and a gallant solider of the Umkhonto We Sizwe, fighter in Wankie and Spolilo campaigns that confronted the heavily armed apartheid army and its surrogates. Comrade Chris rose within the ranks of the ANC and the SACP, becoming a disciplined and dedicated member of the National Executive Committee (NEC) and worked within a collective, detested corruption and elitism. He was highly decorated, wore many medals but sung no self-praises. Instead, Tshonyane, his clan name, lived amongst the people with humility.

The 10th April 1993 will be remembered as one of the testing moments in the history of the liberation movement.

This sombre and tragic day was timed not as an act of communist hatred but a well calculated plot to derail negotiations and to plunge the country in chaos, thus derailing a dream of a non-racial non-sexist democratic South Africa. His assassination was designed to perpetuate minority rule for a dream of democracy and freedom was on the horizon after failed attempts of the state sponsored violence that gripped fear in the country, undermining efforts to conduct negotiations in a peaceful climate.

When the news of the coldblooded and cowardly killing of the Comrade Hani broke out the country teetered on the precipice, with threats of more violence and reprisals. To the wisdom of the leadership of the ANC, there was restraint, countenancing the real motive of subverting the negotiations. His assassination changed in favour of the working class, the poor, the oppressed and the liberation movement on the negotiation table, gave impetus to negotiations which culminated into the setting of the election date. As a coincidence of history but in Comrade Hani’s honour, on the 27th April 1994 South Africans went to the polls, voting overwhelmingly for the ANC. His death was not in vain but changed the course of history.

The death of Comrade Chris cannot be a moment of platitude but a deep sense of reflection on the journey travelled since his callous death in 1993 and the 30 years of the Constitution. Since the day we lost our chains of bondage in 1994, it is a befitting moment for his ideals where the ANC had delivered on its vision of a better life for all.

These achievements, amongst others was the abolishment of the death penalty which the apartheid regime used as a weapon to silence its opponents, electrification of millions of households, potable water, roads, schools, houses, hospitals and clinics.On the legislative front the ANC is expediting land redistribution through the Expropriation Act, mine safety, decent living wages, access and diversification of education, universal healthcare, and building of universities, the National Students Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) for unfettered higher education access, equity through the Employment Equity Amendment Act, building a capable ethical developmental state. All these are not rhetorical but the principles of the Freedom Charter and imperatives of the Constitution driven through progressive legislation and a dream of a democratic South Africa devoid of the indignity of poverty, unemployment and the reversal of the frontiers of the legacy of apartheid.

Compounding the country’s pain is the sustained right-wing and neoliberal anti-transformation agenda to reverse the hard won gains of our nascent yet maturing democracy and to undermine the sovereignty of the state. It is for this reason that the ANC will rally the country behind the agenda of nation, inculcate patriotism as a bulwark to defend democracy and advance freedom. In his honour, the ANC will not abandon its historical mission but advance it with vigour.

We salute and pay tribute to a soldier.

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