Tribute to the fallen heroic son of the South African working class and the leader of our national liberation movement, Cde Crosby Moni.

Our country and the people mourn the passing on of one of our most industrious sons of our national democratic revolution, Cde Crosby Moni. We have lost a calibre of one of our most finest and most revolutionary leaders whose humility and exemplary leadership represented the best forms of the true traditions and culture of our national liberation movement. 

The mortal remains of this heroic son of the South African working class will be accompanied to its final resting place tomorrow at his home village of Comfimvaba in the Eastern Cape Province. He was indeed one of the most extraordinary volunteers of our national liberation movement.

We convey our heartfelt condolences to his family, relatives and friends. Our country and the people appreciate their generosity for having given us such a distinguished selfless and the most loyal servant of our revolution. 

Cde Crosby Moni was a true revolutionary leader whose ideas and contribution to the cause of the struggle for the liberation of our people will forever inspire the generations of man to come. He will be counted in the history books as amongst those heroes and heroines of our struggle who volunteered their entire life for the cause of the freedom and dignity of our people.

He belonged to the category of the best of our cadres embedded in the basics of our revolutionary theory. A category of the most nourished leaders who understood the fundamental question that the unity of our revolutionary Alliance and our people is the precondition for the success of our National democratic revolution. He lived his entire life inspired by this paramount historic task we all strive to achieve.

We will be accompanying to its final resting place the mortal remains of one of our most outstanding organic intellectuals who mastered the dialectical relationship of the national, class and gender contradictions at the core of our national democratic revolution. A cadre who understood that our revolutionary theory is the only weapon to distinguish truth from falsehood.

We will be accompanying to its final resting place the mortal remains of a revolutionary leader who understood the fundamental question that our national liberation movement is the leader of our national democratic revolution. A revolutionary leader who understood that the Communist party is the vanguard and a political leader of the working class. More importantly a revolutionary leader who understood that a trade union movement can not assume the vanguard role as the political leader of the working class.

A revolutionary who carried to the end the traditions that our immediate aim is to win the objectives of our national democratic revolution whose its main content is the national liberation of the African people in particular and the black people in general. That our immediate task in the current phase of our transition is to carry forward our struggle for radical transformation of our socio economic landscapes.

We will be accompanying to its final resting place the mortal remains of a trade unionist who throughout his life agreed with the notion that the posture and character of any revolution is determined by concrete material circumstances and not our individual wishes. A leader of a trade union movement who understood that to take a short route to socialism is in itself a postponement of the very same revolutionary struggle for the victory of the working class.

He comprehended the most complex question that what ever a revolutionary does at all times write his own history. That revolutionaries are produced by their own deeds and discipline. That to be a revolutionary is not about how often you can repeat the rhetoric of our revolutionary movement.

That to be a revolutionary is not necessarily about how often you can sing and dance our revolutionary songs and slogans, not how best you can wear and display the revolutionary regalia of our movement, but in our exemplary leadership, character, consciousness and discipline in accomplishing the tasks of our national democratic revolution.

He was a party leader who mastered the theoretical grasp that between capitalism and a communist society lies a period of the revolutionary transformation of the one into the other. That historical greatness of any revolution is measured by the extent to which it makes possible the transformation of society.

Throughout his life he shared our common perspective that those who seek to break the revolutionary Alliance led by the ANC are the enemies of the future of our people. That such people are nothing else but agents of neo colonial forces who seek to reverse back the gains of our national democratic revolution.

Cde Crosby Moni was a member of the party who understood that the strategic approach of the enemy of our revolution is to isolate our movement and its leadership from the masses of our people. That the unity of our National democratic revolution is still the principal enemy of the forces of imperialism and neo colonialism.

In memory of this outstanding son of our national liberation movement we will defend, deepen and advance the cause of the struggle of our people. We will make sure that we carry forward the noble ideas he fought and volunteered his life for. We will make sure that we defend our people, our movement and our revolution.

In memory of this heroic son of our vanguard party we will make sure that the ANC gets an overwhelming majority in the next coming national general elections. We do so because the ANC is the only genuine political movement that represent the wishes and aspirations of our people.

In memory of this great leader of our trade union movement COSATU, we will ensure that we go all out to reach our people and explain to them the achievements of our democratic government led by the ANC. There is no a single government in the history of the whole world that has made such tremendous achievements within a short period of twenty years of its transition.

In memory of this all round cadre of our civic movement we will ensure that we mobilise our mass democratic movement for the victory of our national democratic revolution. We will ensure that every citizen of our country register as eligible voters in the forth coming elections.

In his memory we will ensure that the process for the socio economic landscapes of our people is accelerated. We will ensure that our people get access to essential services such as water, electricity, education, health, safety and security and decent jobs. Ours is a revolutionary programme to reverse back the centuries legacy of apartheid racist policies. 

The people of our country take their pride on the wonders of your leadership and your commitment to the revolution. You have instilled hope and confidence to the millions of our people. Through your leadership the revolution has succeeded to provide the poor of the poor with free education, free health, security, creation of sustainable jobs, eradication of poverty, and more importantly the building of a non racial, non sexist, democratic and prosperous South Africa.

You have succeeded to leave on a distinctive revolutionary mark in the cause of the struggles for the liberation of our people against oppression and exploitation by imperialism and neo colonialism. You have distinguished yourself to be the most loyal servants of the people.

We say farewell to you Qabane, farewell to you the heroic son of our people. We salute you.

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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