Chris Hani's Funeral
Chris Hani's Funeral
Chris Hani's Funeral
That is why De Klerk retired army and police generals with golden handshakes,
but neither we nor the country know what activities they were dismissed for.
When Chris Hani criticised the theft of weapons from the Air Force Base, and said
those weapons were not stolen, but were taken to be used in covert operations, he
too was ridiculed. Guns from those same stolen weapons were used to kill him.
This secret web of hit men and covert operations is funded by our taxes. While we
remain without homes, without food, without education, almost nine billion rand
was spent in the last two years on these secret operations.
But we, the taxpayer, do not know what it was spent on. We only know that our
people continue to die in violence on the trains, in massacres, and by assassination.
The killing must stop!
A major initiative that Chris Hani proposed shortly before his death was that peace
brigades be established under the National Peace Accord.
Let us pay tribute to his memory by forming such Peace Brigades throughout the
country.
Let them be part of the reconstruction of our country, ravaged by the war waged
against us over 45 years of apartheid rule.
There has been a deliberate and massive propaganda offensive against Umkhonto
we Sizwe, its cadres and leadership. No effort has been spared to criminalize both
MK and Chris Hani. This has deliberately created a climate of acceptance when an
MK cadre is assassinated, as dozens have been over the past months.
To criminalize is to outlaw, and the hunting down of an outlaw is regarded as
legitimate. That is why, although millions of people have been outraged at the
murder of Chris Hani, few were really surprised. Those who have deliberately
created this climate that legitimates political assassinations are as much responsible
for the death of Chris Hani as the man who pulled the trigger, and the conspiracy
response was to deploy 23,000 more troops, telling white South Africans that they
had enough troops for them to feel secure. But why deploy troops against
mourners?
They say we cannot control our forces. We are not cattle to be controlled. And we
say to De Klerk: it is your forces that lost control and, completely unprovoked,
shot innocent marchers in Protea.
It is you who have allowed the bully boy tactics of the AWB to go unchallenged.
We, the victims of violence, have been blamed for the very acts that take our lives.
Yet you treat the far right with kit gloves, allowing them to publish hit lists when it
is a crime to do so. Your police do not protect marchers from gunmen who mow
them down, as in Vanderbijlpark.
Black lives are cheap, and will remain so as long as apartheid continues to exist.
And let there be no mistake: there have been many changes, and negotiations have
started, but for the ordinary black person of this country apartheid is alive and well.
Thousands of us die from TB every year, our children still play in open sewers, and
die from preventable diseases. Education is still a privilege. Our homes remain the
tin shacks and overcrowded townships. And no black South African has the vote.
They talk of peace as if wanting peace is pacifism. They paint a picture of us as
militant youth, or mindless radicals. They want to present the ANC as the other
half of the National Party.
We want peace, but we are not pacifists. We are all militants. We are all radicals.
That is the very essence of the ANC, for it is a liberation movement fighting for
freedom for all our people. It is our unceasing struggles - in the prisons, in mass
campaigns, through the armed struggle that has brought the regime to the
negotiating table. And those negotiations are themselves a site of struggle.
It is not a question of armed struggle or negotiations. Armed struggle brought
about negotiations. It is precisely because negotiations will force them to
relinquish power that certain elements are resorting to the cowardly tactics of
assassinations.
This government is illegitimate, unrepresentative, corrupt and unfit to govern.
We want the immediate installation of a Transitional Executive Council with one
purpose: to ensure that free and fair elections are held in the shortest possible time.
This TEC must put in place multi-party control of such areas as the security forces,
the budget, foreign relations, local government. An Independent Electoral
Commission must be established.
We also want an Independent Media Commission. We have the right to know what
is going on, to receive accurate information, and to put our views across without
manipulation and distortion.
Above all, we want an agreed election date to be announced.
What does an election mean for us?
A one-person, one vote election, throughout South Africa - and that includes the
TBVC states is, at this point in time and given the gains we have made, the shortest
route to a real transfer of power.
Such an election will produce a government that, for the first time in our long and
arduous struggle, will be a government that represents the democratic wishes of all
South Africans.
For the first time in our history an elected government will be answerable to all the
people. That government will face tremendous challenges.
South Africa will then, through radical opposition to apartheid, be transformed into
a united, non-racial, democratic and non-sexist country.
Of the highest priority will be the issues that were closest to the heart of Chris
Hani: the reconstruction of South Africa so as to ensure that apartheid is not
The leadership of the ANC draws its strength from you, our people. Over the death
of Chris Hani you have shown your determination, your courage, your love of
freedom.
We will be leaving here shortly to go to the cemetery and the Hani home, to place
the mortal remains of this great son of our soil in its last resting place.
Before we go, I wish to address a few words to all of you.
Minister Kriel blusters on and says that today`s proceedings are a test of our
political leadership. We say to him: he has tested our patience too long. Where
were the police during the four hours when gunmen rampaged through Sebokeng
last night leaving over 15 people dead? Where was his political leadership
exercised in decisive action against those who opened fire in Protea? In this
situation, it is the government and its ministers who have been found to be sadly
lacking in both leadership, vision and ability.
Chris Hani has a very special place in our hearts. But each and every one of you is
precious to us. You are our people, our pride and joy, our future. We love you all.
And we want all of you to reach home safely. When we leave here, let us do so
with the pride and dignity of our nation. Let us not be provoked.
The struggle is far from over. You are our soldiers of peace, our army for the
elections that will transform this country. Go back to your homes, your regions,
and organize as never before. Together, we are invincible. That is how we will pay
the greatest tribute we can to Chris Hani freedom in South Africa. Let Chris Hani
live on through all of us.
To the Hani family, you have suffered a loss that no amount of tears can replace.
The ANC and SACP have lost a giant of struggle. But perhaps the greatest loss is
to South Africa as a whole, now and in the future, for our country has been
deprived of the wisdom, courage and insight that was unique to Chris Hani.
I would also like to address a final word to Chris himself - comrade, friend and
confidant.
We worked together in the National Execubve Committee of the ANC. We had
vigorous debates and an intense exchange of ideas. You were completely unafraid.
No task was too small for you to perform. Your ready smile and warm friendship
was a source of strength and companionship. You lived in my home, and I loved
you like the true son you were.
In our heart, as in the heart of all our people, you are irreplaceable. We have been
struck a blow that wounds so deeply that the scars will remain forever. You laid
down your life so that we may know freedom. No greater sacrifice is possible.
We lay you to rest with the pledge that the day of freedom you lived and died for
will dawn. We all owe you a debt that can only be repaid through the achievement
of the liberation of our people, which was the passion of your life.
Fighter, revolutionary, soldier for peace, we mourn deeply for you. You will remain
in our hearts forever.
Amandla!