IT was a poignant moment: one veteran of the struggle acknowledging the contribution, over decades, of the other. Struggle-hardened cadres fought back tears as President Nelson Mandela, his own voice breaking with emotion, honoured “an outstanding revolutionary” who had “touched the lives of millions” by his example of “militant and unswerving commitment” to the ANC.
Housing Minister Joe Slovo, whose battle against cancer has been as courageous as his decades-long fight against apartheid, sat nursing an arm broken in a recent fall as Mandela announced the decision to crown him with the Isithwalandwe/Seaparankoe award. It is the ANC’s highest honour. The gold medal the blue crane and the leopard, marking the Nguni custom of decorating those who distinguished themselves in service of the nation with the feathers of the blue crane and the Sotho tradition of recognising heroes by giving them the skin of a leopard.
Mandela paid tribute to Slovo’s role, especially as a strategic thinker with the courage of his convictions, “spelling out the implications of new situations which sometimes we, as a movement, found hard to admit” — a reference to his role in the negotiations. He did not mention Slovo’s four decades of bannings, a treason trial, exile, the assassination of his first wife, Ruth First and attempts on his own; nor did he have to.
Speaking after the riotous applause had died down, Slovo said: “What I did I did without any regret, ever. I had decided long ago in my life that there was only one target — to remove the racist regime and obtain power for the people.”