Ronnie Kasrils is a true example that to be a revolutionary is not an inherent or a permanent feature
During my tenure as an Ambassador of our country to the Republic of Cuba, I had a rare opportunity to interact with one of the commanders of the Cuban revolution who was amongst the group of revolutionaries led by Che Guavara, which undertook a three months tour to our continent in 1964, to foster relationships with our progressive governments and the African liberation movement in general.
This was a group of extraordinary heroic revolutionaries who defended their newly declared socialist republic from the US led military invasion during the historic battle of Playa Giron. The battle was historic from the point of view that it was the first military defeat of the US superpower in the Southern Hemisphere.
This revolutionary embrace of a tour of immense acts of solidarity and internationalism eventually saw the involvement of thousands of Cuban internationalists in various battles with their fellow liberation movements from our continent, as they strove to emancipate themselves from the yoke of colonial intrusion and domination. We graciously pay tribute to these many of the heroic combatants from the womb of the other mother, who stood and fell gloriously by the oppressed people of our continent, living their heroic bones to fertilise our motherland.
It was the determination of the Cuban internationalists together with the combined military force of the combatants of our national liberation movement that liberated our people from the racist Apartheid military zone in Southern Africa. It was during the heroic battle of Quito Guanavale that the people of Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia, Mozambique, Angola, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia and South Africa liberated themselves from racists oppression, white domination and super exploitation by the apartheid regime
During our rare interaction, he taught me a lesson that dialectical and historical materialism defines that to be a revolutionary is not necessarily an inherent or a permanent feature. The reason why from time to time, revolutionary movements must subject its members to a rigorous political education classes, irrespective of the positions they hold.