The 20th anniversary of Chris Hani's death was supposed to be a solemn and dignified event. Instead various organisations and political parties sought to use the commemoration events to score points and settle political scores. Due to these saddening developments one had to be reminded and dig deep into some of the prophetic statements said by leaders then in 1993 during his funeral.
Immediately the words that come to my mind were from Harry Gwala and Joe Slovo respectively. During the night vigil of Chris Hani held in FNB Stadium, Harry Gwala, the "Lion of Midlands" as he was known at the time; arrived at 12h00 in the night and delivered what has become a classical, rhetorical and frank speech. The speech was candid given that there were no cameras rolling and was not even covered by media.
He said "so many people now say Chris Hani was a soldier for peace. They say this as if Chris Hani now suddenly realised and regretted having taken up arms against the apartheid regime". He went on to say this memorable words in his characteristic firebrand tone, that I will always remember as if they were said yesterday, "Chris Hani was not a saint, he was a communist".
The following day during the funeral proceedings Joe Slovo who was addressing the mourners in his capacity as Chairperson of the SACP then, also delivered another scathing speech to De Klerk who was president at the time. De Klerk had sent a message of condolences to the SACP regretting the death of Hani. Slovo replied by saying to De Klerk that ‘we do not want your crocodile tears. Keep them to yourself".
I say both comrades Gwala and Slovo delivered prophetic words based on the following brief scenarios that I will paint below, given the events of last week:
Sanctification of Chris Hani by Cosatu General Secretary, Zwelinzima Vavi