ANC PAYS TRIBUTE TO STRUGGLE STALWART JOHNNY ISSEL
It is with great sadness that the African National Congress (ANC) has learnt of the death yesterday (23 January 2011) of struggle stalwart, comrade Johnny Issel (65) who succumbed to heart failure at the Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town.
Founder of the United Democratic Front (UDF) and member of the Umkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans' Association (MKMVA), comrade Issel - a selfless cadre of our movement who put the liberation of South Africa above anything else - will be remembered for his immense contribution in the fight against apartheid during the most repressive period against the majority of our people. The epoch was marked by bannings, arrests and killings of activists by the apartheid regime.
Joined by the late Oscar Mpetha and Dullah Omar, comrade Issel will be remembered for mounting a serious offensive against the apartheid regime in the 1980s - in a push for a free and democratic South Africa. For his sacrifice, comrade Issel and other activists paid dearly - having endured imprisonment and torture at the hands of security police.
In the 1980s he helped to establish Grassroots - a community newspaper based in Athlone. He also served the Food and Canning Workers' Union as an organiser.
Among the torchbearers for a liberated South Africa, comrade Issel believed that freedom came with responsibility and that the struggle to redress socio-economic imbalances would continue beyond 1994. He also firmly believed that the ANC had a huge responsibility - as Government and as a liberation movement - to achieve the pledge contained in the Freedom Charter.
Having served the ANC with distinction, comrade Issel became the first ANC Western Cape Organiser in 1990, after the unbanning of the movement. He then served as Member of the Provincial Legislature (MPL) in the Western Cape from 1994 to 1999. After 1999, comrade Issel served in various roles, which included business and projects aimed at supporting rural communities in the Western Cape.
As we mourn the death of this cadre of our movement, we call on all our people - particularly in the Western Cape - to observe a moment of silence in honour of one of South Africa's greatest sons who could not rest until constitutional democracy became a reality.
At this dark hour of need, our thoughts are with the Issel family, particularly his children and grandchildren. May his memory and legacy live on forever.
Statement issued by Jackson Mthembu, National Spokesperson, African National Congress, January 24 2011
ANC WESTERN CAPE:
ANC salutes stalwart Johnny Issel
The ANC in the Western Cape dips it banner to the activist and ANC stalwart Johnny Issel who died yesterday.
Mr. Mandla Dlamini, spokesperson of the ANC in the Western Cape, says Issel has served the ANC with distinction and loyalty. As a co-founder of the UDF he worked to overthrow the cruel NP regime, started many branches for the ANC, was detained as a political activist and after the unbanning was also one of the first public representatives of the ANC in the Western Cape Provincial Parliament in 1994.
Johnny Issel was born in the province and served his people here most of his life. He dutifully kept the ANC flag flying high while many of its leaders where in confinement or exile. He was also decorated at national and provincial level for his services to his country and her people.
"This campaigning colossus' devotion to the ANC and its noble cause of serving the poor was legendary. Even after a series of health setbacks Issel continued his community work and actively promoted the ANC.
"We have lost a valued cadre and friend. We honour Johnny Issel and will remember him as one of those people who lived for his beliefs until the last moment. We shall not drop his baton, but pick up on his work to continue the struggle until our people are fully liberated from poverty, the results of centuries of oppression and racial discrimination. These ideals he stood and fought for.
"We join his family, friends and comrades to say: ‘Long lives the spirit of Johnny Issel!' And the ANC commiserates with all in this time of loss and his burial today," says Dlamini.
Statement issued on behalf of the ANC Western Cape by Cobus Grobler, January 24 2011
MKMVA WESTERN CAPE:
MKMVA WESTERN CAPE MOURNS THE UNTIMELY DEATH OF OUR COMMANDER JOHNNY ISSEL
(17 August 1946 - 23 January 2011)
Today, the MKMVA in Western Cape dip our revolutionary banner in memory of comrade Johnny Issel who died on 23 January 2011. Johnny Issel was one of the greatest heroes in our struggle against apartheid, a trade union and grassroots activist, an MK commander, but above all a special human being who dedicate all his life in selfless service to others.
Comrade Johnny Issel was one of the founding members of the UDF in the Western Cape, and his lifetime contribution will remain cherished in the annals of our people's struggles and our personal accounts of liberation. Johnny Issel has his place forever in the people's gallery of liberation fighters who fought for and sacrificed so much for our freedom.
We call on all the progressive people in the Western Cape to honour comrade Johnny's memory in building a strong united and non racial ANC, who will work tirelessly to eradicate poverty, hunger and underdevelopment. Comrade Johnny's soul will only rest in peace if we defend the movement he loves so dearly against those who are hell-bent to destroy it by their intoxication of crass materialism and the perverse obsession with power.
Hamba kahle comrade Johnny Issel, We will pick up your spear and not forsake your legacy.
Statement issued by Desmond Stevens, MKMVA Western Cape Provincial Secretary, January 25 2011
NUMSA:
Hamba Kahle Comrade Johnny Issel
The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) mourns the untimely departure of Comrade Johnny Issel. Comrade Johnny passed away on Sunday 23 January 2011.
Cde Johnny is a symbol of an all round cadre of our Congress Alliance, a political commissar of our people's army uMkhonto weSizwe, a foot-soldier of workers struggles at the factory floor, an ardent and principled Communist, UDF activist and community struggles organizer. In Cde Johnny, we have lost a Cadre that is need today? A Cadre that despises Capitalism and crass materialism with passion, a Cadre that agitates eloquently a Socialist orientated NDR, a Cadre that clearly nips in the bud African Chauvinism that is growing with our peoples formations, a Cadre that visibly uses the might of the pen to accentuate similarities between GEAR and the New Growth Path.
We remain inspired by the words of Cde Johnny, during the 20th anniversary of the UDF, when he said "Since the coming of the nineties, things seem to change within our country. A new culture arrived with the nineties. It brought and legitimized the ‘market'. And in a very short space of time it took control of practically every aspect of our lives. Though the market had been with us for a long time, it remained condemned, the domain of decadent white society. And whereas some of us were quite skeptical about it at the beginning, we eventually succumbed. Today, it regulates and controls all of our lives. It determines how we conduct our politics. It writes the scripts of our locally produced soapies. Increasingly our young minds at school are imprinted with the dictates of the market. Drilling them in the art of selling themselves." These words of wisdom are startling reminder that our revolution was never about managing Capitalism, but to overthrow the system and usher a new, humane and caring system of Socialism.
Cde Johnny passes away at a time where the mouthpiece of the ruling class and capitalist exploiters, the Democratic Alliance, are opposed to the proposed labour law amendments. His departure is a sad blow in our quest of exposing the DA as a conservative and racist party that continues to protect the interests of the apartheid and white oligarchy.
We call on the people of the Western Cape, to genuinely honour Cde Johnny by dislodging the DA in the forthcoming local government elections in 2011. The aspirations and the interest of the Western Cape working class are best represented by the ANC-led Alliance.
As Numsa we find solace in that Cde Johnny's name will be engraved in gold plates in our hearts for all the sacrifices he made so that our country could be free from oppression and colonialism. We are certain wherever he is in the nooks and crannies of the universe; he is in the capable hands of Joe Slovo, Chris Hani, Harry Gwala, Moses Mabhida, Ruth First, Lillian Ngoyi and many other great heroes of our revolution in the land of the departed.
We send our sincere condolences to his family, friends, the ANC, SACP, COSATU, MKMVA and the entire mass democratic forces. Cde Johnny has not departed, but he has joined the immortal living in ideas.
Statement issued by Karl Cloete, NUMSA Deputy General Secretary, January 24 2011
COPE(L):
Hamba Kahle, Johnny Issel
COPE President Mosiuoa Lekota today paid tribute to Johnny Issel, who passed away yesterday. Lekota had worked closely with Issel, a founding member of the UDF.
"On behalf of the Congress of the People, I would like to extend my sincere condolences to the family, friends and comrades of Johnny Issel. We will miss him as a comrade and a friend.
"I remember Comrade Johnny Issel as being a singularly determined man. Without his leadership and vision, the struggle in the Western Cape would not have been as concerted, and certainly it would have been far less effective" said Lekota.
"He was driven by his staunch beliefs in the principles of freedom, equality and non-racialism. These are principles that must drive any organization. Comrade Johnny was fearless during the struggle and after it, never afraid to question the status-quo."
From the Congress of the People, "Hamba Kahle Comrade Johnny Issel"
Statement issued by COPE President Mosiuoa Lekota, January 24 2011
SACP:
Statement on the Passing away of Comrade John James Issel
The South African Communist Party dips its red flag in honour of Comrade Johnny Issel who passed away on Sunday 23rd January 2011 in Groote Schuur hospital. Comrade Issel was an outstanding Revolutionary who performed diligent political work as an MK Commander, Trade Unionist, Organiser par excellence, Communist, UDF leader (co-founder) and great political & ideological Commissar. Such has been the contribution of Cde Issel that President Zuma in his February 2009 State of the Nation Address acknowledged Cde Johnny Issel's role in SASO alongside Steve Biko and others.
Comrade Johnny Issel was responsible for producing, amongst others, gallant MK fighters in the persons of the great combatants of our revolution Ashley Kriel, Anton Frans and many others. In his contribution to defining the Congress tradition, Cde Issel in a 2003 interview clarified the left traditions in the Western Cape as follows:
"There were three major groups on the left. One such group positioned itself at the leadership of the emerging independent trade union movement and held a critical position towards the ANC. Then there were the remnants of the old Unity Movement. Their base was within the non-racial sports movement, a few civic organisations and the municipal workers union. The largest, by far, were those who pledged allegiance to the Congress Movement. They were quite amorphous at the beginning but found greater cohesiveness from the time of Hennie Ferrus' funeral. Tensions in the Congress group were around tactical rather than ideological differences: an example being whether ANC symbols should be displayed at public gatherings. Later tensions were around the popularization of the ANC and recruitment into the armed struggle. These, however, were never of an antagonistic nature. The political culture at the time allowed for differing opinions. Nobody felt threatened by holding a different view. So, when the forces were called to work for the launch, all were united in a single unit."
The SACP shall continue to build on Cde Issel's selfless sacrifice to work towards the total emancipate the working class and the poor in our society from capitalist slavery, oppression and exploitation. Cde Issel despised crass materialism and accumulation of personal wealth which is threatening the values of our National Democratic Revolution today. Let us pick up Cde Johnny Issel's spear to advance a Radical Socilaist Oriented NDR.
Throughout his political life comrade Issel remained a staunch and active Marxist Leninist even when he converted to Islam. Today we pay tribute to a great combatant of our people, a courageous warrior and victorious fighter of our liberation struggle, we call on our people particularly in the Western Cape Province, to give him last respect by mobilising our people to register and vote for the ANC led Alliance to win the coming local government elections convincingly for him and many martyrs of our glorious liberation struggle.
On behalf of all our members we extend our deep felt condolences to his family, relatives and friends, and extend a hand of comfort for the pain we all feel. To all revolutionaries we call on them to pick up his spear and fight on until the birth of a Socialist South Africa.
Long live his undying spirit!
Hamba kahle qabane, qawe la maqawe!
Statement issued by the South African Communist Party, January 24 2011
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