Tribute to the passing on of our heroic revolutionary young leader of our party and our movement,Cde Nkosiphendule Kolisile.

The fateful morning of Sunday the 20th of July 2013 brought us the most devastating news that destiny has imposed itself on one of our most youngest and outstanding revolutionary leader of our party, Cde Nkosiphendule Kolisile. We received the catastrophic news that the heart of one of our most finest and extraordinary young revolutionary leaders of the South African working class has ceased to beat.

We convey our deep heartfelt condolences to the family, relatives, friends, the leadership of our revolutionary alliance, the leadership of our democratic government led by the ANC and the entire of the people of our country. We stand to salute the living memories of this heroic son of our national liberation movement.

He was indeed one of the most outstanding and disciplined exemplary young volunteers of our national liberation movement. He belong to the category of the generation of our young leaders whose tenacity and contribution to the cause of the struggles for the liberation of our country will forever remain immeasurable. 

He was first and foremost a loyal servant of our people, a true patriot, a leader of our liberation movement, a leader of our vanguard party, a trade unionist and an all round organiser of the working class movement.  He was indeed a selfless revolutionary and a fearless leader of our people to the end.

He was a colossal of our generation. A colossal who mastered the art of fiddling with his own generation. A colossal embedded in the foundations of the scientific Marxist Leninist revolutionary theory. A colossal in the category of the rare spices of the few but the better.

The people of our country and the whole world have lost a heroic young revolutionary leader of the struggles of the working class. We have lost a young revolutionary leader of the struggles of the international proletariat movement. A revolutionary young leader in the forefront of the struggles of the progressive movement to make the world a better place for humanity.

Our country and the world has indeed lost a true representative of the struggles for the liberation of our people. We have lost a revolutionary leader of the struggles of the working class. A true shop steward of the progressive trade union movement. We have indeed lost a true representative of the masses of our people.

We bid farewell to its final resting place the mortal remains of one of the most distinguished young revolutionary leader, whose indomitable contribution to the noble cause of the struggle of our people, will forever be a source of inspiration to the future generations of man to come. We bid farewell to its final resting place the mortal remains of one of our own.

We bid farewell to its final resting place the mortal remains of a young revolutionary leader who comprehended the strategic question of the struggles of our people against imperialism and colonialism. A true representative of the worldwide struggles of our people against poverty, disease and underdevelopment.

We salute the mortal remains of a young organic leader who commanded the theoretical grasp and the essence of the struggles of our people in the former colonies and semi colonies. An organic revolutionary who understood the scientific notion that ours is not just to interpret the world, but to change it.

We celebrate the times and memories of a young revolutionary leader who understood that our task is to fight for the victory of our National democratic revolution. A leader who understood the scientific notion that the struggles of our people against national oppression and exploitation is interwoven.

We celebrate the times and memories of a young revolutionary leader who mastered the strategic question that under our specific concrete circumstances, our socialist revolution cannot succeed without a national democratic revolution. A young revolutionary leader who understood the interrelationships between the national struggles and our struggles for socialism. 

We celebrate a life of a revolutionary young leader who understood the historic mission of our party as the leader of the struggles of the working class for national liberation and towards the victory of the socialist revolution. A leader revolutionary leader who grasped the character of our party as a revolutionary organization guided by the Marxist Leninist theory as a tool of analysis.

We salute the times and memories of a revolutionary who indeed understood the most important historic question of the role of the Communist party in the struggles of our people against imperialism and colonial oppression and exploitation. A leader who belonged to the vanguard party of the working class, the party of the most advanced elements in our society, and  the party of the few but the better.

We salute the times and memories of a distinguished revolutionary who mastered the strategic question of the independent role of our party and its place in the struggles of our people for national liberation. A leader who mastered the most organic question that our national democratic revolution is part of the socialist revolution.

A young heroic leader who understood the historic role of our party and the struggles of our people in the semi colonies and semi colonies. A leader who understood the role of our party in the struggles of our people for the resolution of the national, class and gender questions.

He grappled well with the understanding that one of our most important tasks is to bring our party close to the people.  A leader who throughout his entire revolutionary life, entrusted upon himself the most important task of educating workers and other strata of our society about the ideas of our revolutionary theory. 

He was a true student of Marx and Lenin who refuted all the attempts by revisionists and anarchists to distorts our scientific theory as a cornerstone of the struggles of our people.A leader who understood that during the struggles for the achievement of the aims of the national democratic revolution, the working class has learned to organise itself, discover its class interest and educate itself about the very process of our struggle.

He understood the historic question that the fact that our class struggle has assumed a democratic form, does not signify that our party has abandon her historic role of leading the working class struggles. He understood profoundly that such distortions would constitute betrayal of our national democratic revolution and therefore the postponement of the socialist revolution.

He was never confused by the bulk of revisionists and anarchists of our modern times who think that our vanguard party is allergic to the fundamental question of state power.  He understood that the socialist revolution is not a single act or a battle on one front, but an all round series of battles on all fronts, which the state power is one of them.

We will always remember this young revolutionary leader for his respect of our fundamental principle of democratic centralism and inner party democracy and discipline. Throughout his life he distinguished himself as a custodian of the true traditions and discipline of our party. He was never a rebel without a cause.

We will always remember this young revolutionary who understood that to be elected into the positions of leadership is not necessarily a virtue, but a responsibility to learn. He was always the first to embrace internal party disciplinary processes. He understood well that contradictions are the ones that make society to grow and develop. 

Never did he ever wanted to undermine the democratic processes of the collective leadership of our party. He was always an exemplary leader who respected party inner democratic and disciplinary processes. He was a leader who never wanted to listen to only what he wanted to hear.

When he recently faced party internal disciplinary measures he never attempted to join counter revolutionary forces. He never sung the sirens songs of the enemy of our revolution. He was never confused by the likes of counter revolutionary elements masquerading red berets in their thirst to power.  

Therefore we will never allow ultra lefts and anarchists to distort the noble values and traditions he fought and died for. We must never allow ultra lefts and revisionists of our modern century to alienate the mortal remains of this hero of our people from the party he respected most.

We must never allow the rank breaking forces to use the occasion of the passing on of this revolutionary leader of our people to attack the Communist party and its collective leadership. Those who are using his name to attack the party and its internal disciplinary processes are hellbent to their counter revolutionary motives. 

It must be made clear that at the end of the due internal disciplinary processes his name was cleared by the Central Committee and the general membership of our party. It will only be those harboring double standards that they cannot appreciate this historic record. A record of a revolutionary leader who stood true to the traditions of our inner party democracy.

In his memory we will defeat the rank breaking forces of anarchy and revisionism. We will defeat reckless adventurism and infantile disorder. His names will go into the chapters of our history books as being amongst those young revolutionaries who never succumbed to the forces of counter revolution. 

We pay our last respects to a revolutionary whose ideas were consistent with the traditions and principles of the international proletariat movement. The ideas that the working class is the only force capable of leading the struggles of our people to its eventual end.

We pay our last respects to a revolutionary who understood the essence of our historic slogan that men make their own history,but they do not make it in just as they please, that they do not make it under circumstances chosen by themselves, but under circumstances directly encountered, given and transmitted from the people.

As we say farewell to this young revolutionary leader of our movement, we borrow the most profound words by our former President of our movement and our Republic, Cde Thabo Mbeki. During the funeral service of our late secretary general Cde Alfred Nzo, he has to convey the following profound words of condolences" 

Alfred Nzo lies in front of us in his small house of wood, cold and still and without a voice.

While he lived, his humility, his self-effacing ways, his constant humour, his loyalty to principle, his avoidance of the self-serving theatrical flourish, his refusal to be defeated, the certainty his very being carried of the inevitability of the realisation of our hopes, brought light and joy to all our nights of despair.

The gods themselves would lose their patience with us if we permitted that time should persuade us that this jewel on our crown has lost its sparkle, merely because the soil we tread will have taken into its bosom the small wooden house that Alfred Nzo now occupies.

Whatever the direction we turn our ears - towards the Limpopo, towards Hoho, in the direction of uKhahlamba and Kgalagadi - the same message reaches us - Alfred Nzo's work is not yet".

Today over ten years after the death of Comrade Alfred Nzo, as we accompany to its final resting place the mortal remains of this young revolutionary leader of our generation, we again repeat the revolutionary words by the former President of our movement and the Republic Thabo Mbeki as we say"

Nkosiphendule Kolisile lies in front of us in his small house of wood, cold and still and without a voice.

While he lived, his humility, his self-effacing ways, his constant humour, his loyalty to principle, his avoidance of the self-serving theatrical flourish, his refusal to be defeated, the certainty his very being carried of the inevitability of the realisation of our hopes, brought light and joy to all our nights of despair.

The gods themselves would lose their patience with us if we permitted that time should persuade us that this jewel on our crown has lost its sparkle, merely because the soil we tread will have taken into its bosom the small wooden house that Nkosiphendule Kolisile now occupies.

Whatever the direction we turn our ears - towards the Limpopo, towards Hoho, in the direction of uKhahlamba and Kgalagadi - the same message reaches us - Nkosiphendule Kolisile's  work is not yet".

In your memory we will continue to defend, deepen and advance our national democratic revolution.

In your memory we will continue to build on the unity and cohesion of our revolutionary alliance.

In your memory we will continue to take forward the struggles of our people into our socialist future.

In your memory we will continue to build on the unity of our progressive trade union movement.

In your memory we will continue to defend our National liberation movement against counter revolution.

In your memory we will ensure that the ANC gets an overwhelming majority during the forthcoming National general elections.

Farewell to you our most outstanding son of our national liberation movement. Farewell to you our outstanding heroic revolutionary leader of the South African Communist party. Farewell to you our most organic shop steward of our progressive trade union movement. Farewell to you our most beloved true representative of the struggles of our people.

Phatse Justice Piitso is the former Ambassador to the republic of Cuba and the former provincial secretary of the SACP writing this article on his personal capacity.

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