President Thabo Mbeki has paid special tribute to African National Congress stalwart Raymond Mhlaba, who died at the age of 85 last Sunday, calling him one of South Africa’s foremost leaders and ”midwife of our democracy”.
Mbeki devoted his weekly column on Friday in the ANC’s online publication, ANC Today, to Mhlaba’s memory.
The president said Mhlaba — a Rivonia trialist — was one of the ANC leaders who said they would not pray for mercy from their enemies, but would even give their lives to empower the people to rise to their strategic task of acting as their own liberators.
”Oom Ray started his political life as a trade unionist. He then became a member of the Communist Party, and soon after joined the ANC.
”Even as an individual, he represented and epitomised the tripartite alliance that has been the central driving force of the historic process to end apartheid and build a new South Africa.
”To the very last day of his life, he defended the need for this strategic alliance. He insisted on the correctness of its common programme further to advance the national democratic revolution.
”Everybody who knew Oom Ray will acknowledge his simplicity, humility and absence of any sense of superior rank, as one of our foremost leaders and midwife of our democracy,” Mbeki said. — Sapa