Comrade Melissa Steyn and the whole family,

Former President Thabo Mbeki

Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe,

Leadership of the ANC and the Alliance partners,

Ministers, Premiers and Deputy Ministers and MECs,

MPs and MPLs

The Executive Mayor of Joburg and all representatives of local government,

Comrades and friends,

Fellow South Africans,

 

The ultimate measure of a man, I believe, is the extent to which they are willing to sacrifice their lives for a noble ideal which can change the lives of people in a very meaningful way.

 

We are reminded of this fact as we pay our last respects to this  time-tested revolutionary, an organizer par-excellence and a loyal, dedicated and humble servant of the liberation movement and the people of South Africa, Comrade Reg September.

Death has robbed us of a fearless freedom fighter, a fighter for the rights of workers and one of the key architects of the free and democratic South Africa, we today live in.

He dedicated his entire life to the struggle against exploitation and oppression.  He was a firm believer in equality, freedom and dignity for all.

 

It is the moral force of these ideals that saw him enduring detentions without charge during the 1960 State of Emergency and also in 1961.

He endured imprisonment, bannings and harassment as he was always firm is his belief that the goal of freedom in our lifetime was within reach.

 

Compatriots,

 

A Welsh saying goes that he who would be a leader, let him be a bridge. This became true of Comrade Reg as throughout his life he has been a bridge and a unifier, promoting non-racialism and unity, and fighting for a better life for the poor and the working class.

Being of working class parentage, his experiences of exploitative conditions in his first work at the shoe factory gave him first-hand experience of the misery that constitutes his parents and other workers daily toil. 

 

It is for this reason that Comrade Reg joined the National Liberation League of Cissie Gool and James La Guma, before becoming a full-time trade unionist in the early 1940s.

He organised workers in the textile industry in Port Elizabeth and Cape Town, and this shows that very early on in his life, Comrade September made it his calling to fight for equality and justice, a quality that defined his life for at least seven decades.

 

From the workplace, as his struggle world was still unfolding, Comrade September set his mind in the course of the Coloured people in the Cape, especially during the dawn of the apartheid era in the late 40s and early 50s.

Ominous changes which they had to confront, following the promulgation of apartheid as an official policy, included the Groups Areas Act, the Populations Registration Act, all of 1950.

It also later included the Separate Representations of Voters Bill, which became an Act in 1956.

 

The implications of all these laws as we know, were residential segregation, crude and ludicrous racial classification, as well as removing the Coloured people from the common to a separate voters roll.

It is these developments which turned Comrade Reggie September into a formidable freedom fighter that he was, who fought tirelessly for justice and equality in this country.

And it is these developments that convinced him that the oppressed should unite and fight for a nonracial South Africa.

 

Fellow mourners,

 

It is for this reason that the South African Coloured People’s Organisation whose leadership he was a part of, worked within the broader anti-apartheid Congress Alliance in South Africa until it was dissolved in 1966.

In fact, the Committee’s founding conference was addressed by Oliver Tambo and Yusuf Cachalia. 

This was Comrade Reg playing his role as a bridge and a unifier, and thus a formidable leader.

 

Thus we learn from Comrade Reg, that we should never steer away from building a united, nonracial society.

Comrade September distinguished himself within the ANC in every task he was given in exile and inside the country, and through that, he has taught us commitment, dedication and discipline.

From 1963, he was posted as the ANC Chief Representative for the United Kingdom and Western Europe, a post he held with distinction until 1978.

 

He served with distinction well as part of the ANC leadership. At the Kabwe conference in 1985, the ANC took a decision to open up leadership to comrades from the White, Coloured and Indian communities. He was among those who joined the National Executive Committee.

He was also a member of the Revolutionary Council of the ANC, which was tasked with ensuring mass mobilisation and intense underground activity in the country.

He was the first ANC leader to be instructed by the ANC and the Alliance to set up a political school of the liberation movement.

 

He executed this task of ensuring the political education of all ANC members including the leadership, with exceptional dedication.

The monitoring and evaluation of the development of the ideology of the ANC in line with developments in South Africa and abroad was his responsibility.

The development of training manuals for all political commissars of the ANC was also his responsibility.

 

He was also expected to monitor politico/military operations to ensure they were in line with the strategic direction and policy positions of the ANC.

This towering intellectual developed a political think tank of strategists,  policy experts and academics to ensure the development of the best ideas to advance the liberation struggle and also in preparation for governance.

Given his expertise, he was later to serve as part of the negotiations team for a democratic South Africa, after the unbanning of organisations.

 

It was a continuation of this long journey of service to the nation, that he became a Member of Parliament in the dawn of freedom.

It was in acknowledgement of his distinguished service to the course for freedom and to the nation, that Comrade September was honoured with the Order of Luthuli in Silver in 2004.  

This was indeed a fitting honour to one of our country’s most revered revolutionaries.  nbsp;    

 

Compatriots

Fellow South Africans,

 

Gradually, step by step, we are making progress in building the kind of society that Comrade September and his peers struggled so hard for.

As we approach the historic milestone of our twentieth anniversary of freedom and democracy, we can look back with pride on the road we have travelled since 1994.

 

Indeed there is a lot to celebrate about our country. The South Africa of today is a far better place than it was in 1994, socially, economically, politically and in other respects.

We are making this point because too often, when we face challenges, we are tempted to forget where we come from and to minimize our achievements.

 

In his memory let us also continue to advance democracy and a better life for all especially the poor and the working class.

These are the ideals that we fought for, for so many years, and they are the ideals that are articulated in the Constitution of the Republic and in the Freedom Charter.

In his memory, let us continue to defend the rights of the poor and the vulnerable.

 

We should also build a society in which we accept that we need one another.

We should work towards a society where we value the contribution of each citizen and sector, and accept that without each one of us, the South African community is incomplete.

This is the kind of society that many of our fallen heroes and heroines sacrificed for.  

 

A inclusive society in which every South African man, woman and child, regardless of race, colour or creed, feels  a sense of belonging to this beautiful country.

We must build a society in which each one of us, is our neighbours’ keeper, in the spirit of ubuntu.

We must build a caring society, and prevent ills such as violence against women and children, not only during the 16 days of activism against this scourge, but every other day. We now hear of babies as young as six weeks being raped in our country.

 

This is not the type of society that Comrade Reg sacrificed his life for.

 

It means we all have work to do to promote stronger family structures and stronger cohesive communities that can prevent such abhorrent incidents. We can solve or prevent these incidents through policing alone.

Clearly compatriots, we have to continue working hard because although we have achieved so much since the dawn of freedom, we still have a lot of distance to cover.

We should use our socio-economic development blueprint the National Development Plan to chart the way forward towards an even better future.

 

Using the National Development Plan as a guide, we must fight further to eliminate poverty, inequality and unemployment and build a better life for all our people. We must build a society in which our young people have more jobs and more economic generating opportunities.

We are building a society in which every household should have water, electricity, sanitation, good education and quality healthcare.

The National Development Plan outlines all these basic tasks that we must fulfill.

 

Compatriots and friends,

 

As we lay him to rest today, we proclaim proudly that Comrade Reg September was one of us and that he was one of the finest cadres of the struggle for liberation in our country.

We are privileged to have known and to have worked with him.

 

As a nation, we are poorer because Comrade September is no longer with us.

But we must continue sailing, even though this huge ship has stopped, for he has given us wings, the ideals he lived for, the ideals espoused in the Constitution of the Republic.

Comrade Reg, you have run your race; you have made your contribution and we are grateful for all that you have done for your country and your people.

 

You leave behind a nation inspired by your good work and ready to uphold and preserve your proud legacy.

We say death be not proud, for within us, the spirit of Comrade Reggie September will live forever.

As the Government and the people of South Africa, we convey our sincere condolences to his wife Melissa and the entire family.

 

You should draw strength and comfort in the knowledge that our thoughts are with you during this hour of need.

We share your pain; your loss is our loss too.

Today, we send Comrade Reg off to reunite with his compatriots and comrades, among them, Cissie Gool, James La Guma, Moses Kotane, O.R. Tambo, Joe Slovo, Dr Yusuf Dadoo and many others, with whom he shared the foremost trenches during our struggle for liberation.

 

Hamba kahle qhawe lamaqhawe.

May your spirit live forever within all of us.

 

I thank you.