NUMSA MOURNS TRAGIC DEATH OF NELSON MANDELA BAY METRO COUNCILORS!

Tuesday 17 January 2012

The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) joins the working class and poor communities of the Eastern Cape, particularly the communities of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality (NMBMM) in mourning the tragic loss of the three Councilors, Comrades Phumeza Lose, Mxolisi Gumenge and Noncedo Ngqondi who tragically died in a fatal car accident outside Port Elizabeth (see report).

We send our heartfelt condolences to the families and friends of the dearly departed comrades and best wishes for a full and speedy recovery to the injured and hospitalized Councilors.

We send our words of sympathy to Honourable Cllr Mayor Wayile Zanoxolo, since this tragedy will temper with the work of the Executive in meeting the 2011 electoral commitments of the ANC-led Municipality in delivering faster, effective and quality services and building of sustainable livelihoods for working class and poor communities within the Metro.

This horrific tragedy and loss of valuable human lives on our public roads, including the finest and best Cadres of our movement, committed in serving our people, the country and the revolution reminds us of the mammoth challenges we face in reversing the apartheid, unequal infrastructure development and poor public roads.

We call on the ANC-led Alliance to honour our departed Comrades by moving with speed in implementing the resolve of the 1969 Strategy and Tactics of the ANC adopted in Morogoro, which says "In our country - more than in any other part of the oppressed world - it is inconceivable for liberation to have meaning without a return of the wealth of the land to the people as a whole. It is therefore a fundamental feature of our strategy that victory must embrace more than formal political democracy. To allow the existing economic forces to retain their interests intact is to feed the root of racial supremacy and does not represent even the shadow of liberation.....Our drive towards national emancipation is therefore in a very real way bound up with economic emancipation. We have suffered more than just national humiliation. Our people are deprived of their due in the country's wealth; their skills have been suppressed and poverty and starvation has been their life experience. The correction of these centuries-old economic injustices lies at the very core of our national aspirations. We do not understand the complexities which will face a people's government during the transformation period nor the enormity of the problems of meeting economic needs of the mass of the oppressed people. But one thing is certain - in our land this cannot be effectively tackled unless the basic wealth and the basic resources are at the disposal of the people as a whole and are not manipulated by sections or individuals be they White or Black".

This strategic and decisive resolve of the ANC in Morogoro represents the best aspirations of our people, particularly the working class and the poor of our country.

We find solace in the fact that these Comrades, wherever there are in the nooks and crannies of the universe are in the capable hands of Mbuyiselo Ngwenda, Mtutuzeli Tom, John Gomomo, Walter Sisulu, Oliver Tambo, Basil February, Ruth First, Harry Gwala, Sparro Mkhonto, Mathew Goniwe and other countless long departed leaders of our Mass Democratic Movement (MDM).

Statement issued by Castro Ngobese, NUMSA National Spokesperson, January 17 2012 

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