Walter Sisulu would no doubt have been embarrassed by the effusive tributes that have been paid to him since he passed away on Monday night.
From across South Africa and from many parts of the world, thousands of voices have concurred that he was a great freedom fighter, a trusted leader and a worthy friend.
In the days that follow, as we hold memorial services around the country and as we gather in Soweto to bury him, much more will be said to offend his modesty.
He would describe these tributes as generous. He would remind us that the African National Congress always operated as a collective — that no one person can take credit for what were essentially the achievements of the masses of the people. Yet there is nothing I have heard in the past few days that has been untrue, nothing exaggerated, no stories embellished.
What emerges from these stories is not a portrait of a saint, but a vivid and multilayered picture of a human being, who, though not lacking in faults, was generously endowed with compassion, understanding, humility and reason.
The biggest mistake we can make as we remember Tata Sisulu is to deify him. He cannot be a deity when his essence, his character and his preoccupations were so essentially human. He sought what every person seeks. He felt the pains that every person feels. And he lived his life the way everyone else wishes they could live theirs — courageously, meaningfully and selflessly. Therein lies his greatness and, we must hope, therein lies his legacy.
There are many parts to what we know as the life of Walter Sisulu. We each have a different story to tell, we each have a different memory that we cherish and we each have a different lesson that we have taken to heart. It is a measure not only of the depth of his contribution to the struggle, but the extent of his meaningful interaction with scores of people spread over several generations.
He had a profound effect on the lives of the many people he met. At the same time, his effect on the ANC and indeed the course of South African history was equally significant.
As the first full-time secretary general of the ANC, Sisulu had an important effect on the movement; an effect that resonates within our organisational culture to this day.
Walter Sisulu was a great believer in the value of democracy and consultation. He made every effort to be as inclusive as possible, recognising that every contribution should be considered worthy of a hearing.
As secretary general he sought to involve the membership of the ANC more actively in the direction and programme of the organisation. If it was ever going to be true that the people shall govern, they needed to take the reins of their movement.
Despite the banning of the ANC and the imprisonment of much of its leadership, despite three decades of exile and underground organisation, this culture survives. It is a tribute to the style of organising that Walter Sisulu embodied that the ANC remains a mass-based movement with policies and programmes that reflect the views of its membership.
But this style of operation has not been unaffected by the changed conditions of the past nine years. There is an increased danger of the ANC being used as a vehicle for self-enrichment. We have even seen structures of the movement badly affected by competition for positions and access to resources.
It becomes increasingly difficult for effective internal democracy and cohesion to function under these conditions, but the only way to tackle these challenges is to empower the branch membership to take effective control of the organisation. The answer to factionalism and corruption, Walter Sisulu would say, is to deepen democratic practice and enrich debate. It requires cadres who are steeped in the revolutionary discipline and traditions of the movement.
That is not the only part of the Sisulu legacy that we would do well to recall as we tackle the many challenges of the present. In many respects he was the embodiment of the kind of leader, activist and citizen that South Africa needs now.
Many have spoken of his selflessness and the difficult sacrifices he made for what he believed in. They have spoken of his humility and his modesty. Much of this was simply in his nature, yet much of it required conscious choices about how best he could serve the people of South Africa and advance the struggle for democracy.
Walter Sisulu was a genuinely good person. Yet he was also acutely aware, as a national leader of the ANC, of how his demeanour and his behaviour affected his fellow leaders and activists. He chose a path of action over complacency, and of sacrifice over comfort.
These are choices that are there for all of us to make. We do not have to be born virtuous to act in a way that advances the cause of human progress. Like Walter Sisulu, we can choose to.
His other great attribute were sound judgement and thorough consideration of every course of action. He knew when confrontation was needed and when it was counter-productive. He understood, often more than many of his peers, when dialogue and engagement helped smooth the path forwards.
And he was most effective in passing on this ability to those he worked with. His wisdom rubbed off on people. Nelson Mandela, by his own account, was an early beneficiary of Sisulu’s insight. Struggling alongside Sisulu many more were to develop a far better understanding of the nature of the struggle and its strategic and tactical considerations.
The task of building a new South Africa requires such understanding. If we are to tackle poverty and under-development, achieve meaningful reconciliation and contribute to the regeneration of Africa, then we are going to have to rely even more than before on the lessons we learned from Walter Sisulu.
President Thabo Mbeki asked how best we should pay tribute to Walter Sisulu. Certainly we should give him a state funeral and fly the flags at half mast. Ultimately, however, the most fitting tribute we can pay to Walter Sisulu is to follow his example — to strive ceaselessly and selflessly for the betterment of the lives of all South Africans.
Let us build a nation in which the legacy of Walter Sisulu resides not in stone monuments, but in the lived experience of each and every one of its people. Walter Sisulu is dead. Long may his memory live, not only in our hearts and but in every step we take towards a better future.
Kgalema Motlanthe is the secretary general of the ANC.