To mark the centenary birthday of Harry Gwala, Cosatu President Zingiswa Losi pays tribute to one of the most prominent stalwarts of the ANC and the SACP.
Baba Harry Mphephetwa Gwala, it’s your centenary celebration; on behalf of Cosatu a giant workers federation which is a grandchild of SACTU - a federation you once led in the 1960s - and again on behalf of the thousand workers across South Africa, Africa, and the world we commemorate the centenary of your influence.
You may have left this world at 75 on the 20 June in 1995, but yet you continue to impact our lives to this day. The teacher that you were has impacted our lives through lifelong learning. Your articulate and firm expressions, your rich political insight, your clarity of consciousness and your dedicated proletariat convictions has set a tomorrow that will forever be remembered.
You showed us it all when you joined the Communist Party of South Africa in 1942 and when you became a member of the African National Congress Youth League in 1944.
Astonished and marvelled at by your peers and the counter revolutionaries of that time; you engaged in workers’ struggle without holding back amid the hostility of the then apartheid system.
You reminded us of Marx Vaillant’s opinion, when he addressed the London Conference of the International in September 20-21, 1871; among many deliberations he charged them that ‘...the governments are hostile to us, one must respond to them with all the means at our disposal’.
As a Marxian economist your focus zoomed in on the role of labour in the development of an economy, and you subsequently began organising workers in the chemical and building industries, which led to you establishing the Rubber and Cable Workers’ Union in Horwick.
We salute your commitment to the revolution as a dedicated activist and trade union organiser.
At that very London conference, Marx further dealt with the issue of absentism in struggle when he espounded and explained “...the history of abstention from politics and one ought not to let himself be irritated by this question. The men who propagated this doctrine were well-meaning utopians, but those who want to take such a road today are not. They reject politics until after a violent struggle, and thereby drive the people into a formal, bourgeois opposition, which we must battle against a at the same time we fight against the governments”
Despite your hardline views and militancy, you were described as a man of gentle demeanour, grounded in your Christian belief as the son of a Lutheran Church lay preacher. Today we can do with your non-compromising stance to help us combat the infiltrating cancer of corruption and self enrichment.
These tendencies continue to paralyse our very own government and furthermore it robs the working class of realising the aspirations of the “Freedom Charter”, a document you contributed in formulating.
We are easily swayed towards self-interest at the expense of the masses that rally behind our trust to lead and win them battles. Our people trust us with leadership position only to find we take advantage of their votes just to benefit us.
How we wish today you were here to use your “Stalinist” command and tell us to stop. Like you were trusted to deal with a very hostile situation in the middle of war in Zululand, you could and would have dealt with those of us who choose to defy morality.
As we reflect on your life, we can proudly and with full conviction say it is a life well lived. The universe borrowed us a gallant soul in you and we are grateful, the choice of words - well lived indeed reflect the true meaning of our CONVICTION.
We are mindful of the fact that there is more often a casual expression of these words especially when we try to acknowledge those who pass on. Our culture actually restricts us from being blunt if we address those who went before us especially that it is forbidden to talk ill about the dead. But with you baba we really mean it: your life is a life well lived.
Now we address you baba Harry as a revolutionary whose life is well lived indeed; your past was reflected in your experience; your present was reflected in the responsibilities you executed with dedication; and your future was always reflected in the challenge you faced.
You experienced the hard locks, the strong chains, and the gloomy corridors of Robben Island more than once, yet your spirit was never broken.
What the apartheid system meant for bad by locking you up; you used it for good in that the inmates inside benefited immensely from your teaching competencies.
We can actually learn some valuable lessons from your life to ensure your forever in us, in that you stood true to your conviction and never betrayed the revolution like what many of us are doing today. We continue to misrepresent the intention of our struggle for individualism as opposed to collectivism.
We have formed and entrenched the new culture of factional politics in our movement just to ensure that we push our individual interest even if it means dividing the movement. How we wish you were here to call us to order and correct us.
We remember your fortitude as a vociferous opponent of tribalism when you stood beside the vision of Tata Madiba to forge a united South Africa.
In the midst of the raging tribal battle in KwaZulu-Natal in the late 1980s and the early 1990s, you stood your ground and forged acceptance of diversity and entrenched political tolerance between ANC and the Inkhata Freedom Party. Your work speaks for itself.
Baba Gwala personified the struggle of the working class in its totality, never slumbered on the role he was allocated. His dedication to unite the broader proletariat leaves us to desire more of his calibre.
We are here today on your behalf to celebrate your spirit of forever beyond the 100 years of your forever...
You are gone, yet not forgotten...
You are present in your absence...
You were yesterday in our dreams, you are today in our thoughts, you will be forever in our hearts.
We salute you!!!