Johannesburg – Struggle stalwarts Moses Kotane and JB Marks’s leadership was characterised by affection, concern and respect for the masses.
“They suffered terribly for the work they did. Banned, restricted, arrested and forced into exile – separated from families and friends – they never departed from the paths they had chosen,” Minister of Telecommunications and Postal Services Siyabonga Cwele said on Friday at the Johannesburg City Hall.
Speaking at the memorial service of Kotane and Marks, Minister Cwele said the struggle heroes never sought sympathy or adulation because they saw the hardships they experienced as nothing compared to the daily privations of the masses.
Marks and Kotane both died in exile while living in Russia in the 1970s. They were both buried in Moscow in the Novodevichy cemetery.
Their remains arrived back in the country on Sunday and a special reception to welcome them back was held at the Waterkloof Air Force Base.
“In honouring Moses Kotane and JB Marks, we must work together to defeat poverty, unemployment and inequality.
“In everything we do, improving the lives of our people must be uppermost,” Minister Cwele said.
He said the struggle stalwarts would have been keen champions of the programme of radical economic transformation.
“They would have been at the forefront of efforts to build an economy that serves the interests of all; an economy that creates jobs, lifts people out poverty and contributes to thriving communities,” Minister Cwele said.
He said they would have had the courage to own up to mistakes and the resolve to correct them.
The national liberation struggle was never about private gain or personal exaltation for Kotane and Marks, Minister Cwele said.
“It was a humane struggle against atrocities directed at families torn apart by pass laws and the migrant labour system,” he said.
Kotane and Marks would have been wary of the trappings of office and acutely aware of its power to corrupt and divert the course of the revolution, the Minister said.
“On behalf of the people of South Africa, we once again express our profound gratitude to the families of these fine heroes of our liberation movement.
“Anything less will be a betrayal of their struggle against the indignity and dehumanisation of our people,” he said.
Minister Cwele said Kotane and Marks understood that the struggle for national liberation could not be separated from the struggles of workers.
“These were leaders who understood that change could only be achieved through effective organisation and collective effort. They were party builders and union organisers,” he said.
Kotane’s funeral service will be on 14 March at the Pella Sports Ground in the North West Province.
Marks’s funeral service will be on 22 March at the Tshing Sports Grounds in the North West. – SAnews.gov.za
