Address by Marius Llewellyn Fransman, ANC Western Cape Chairperson and Deputy Minister of International Relations and Cooperation at the Ashley Kriel 25th Memorial, July 9 2012

Comrades and friends,

Today we celebrate the memory of Ashley Kriel one of the bravest sons of the Cape Flats - indeed of our country and our liberation struggle. 

It is no coincidence that his example of sacrifice, activism, bravery and leadership in the face of all odds continues to inspire all who knew him and those who never knew him.

Generations to come will also learn about this young man and derive inspiration to commit themselves to the cause of justice, democracy and freedom for all humanity. This is the nature of true revolutionaries. 

I pay tribute today to Cde Ashley Kriel with words of Cuban revolutionary Jose Marti when he said:

"I who live though I have died
Claim a great discovery,
For last night I verified
Love is the best remedy.

When weighed by the cross, a man
Resolves to die for the right;
He does all the good he can,
And returns bathed in the light"

The pain of losing a son, a brother, a cadre and comrade lingers always in the hearts and minds of his loved ones. 

That pain is only made lighter through the realisation that Ashley did not die in vain and his legacy continues to inspire and lift us higher in our quest to complete the task and cause for which he paid the ultimate price.

Ashley faced the brutality of the apartheid machinery's kragdadigheid but remained un-flinched in his commitment to liberate our people from the shackles of white rule and oppression. 

The records of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the testimony of Melanie and Michelle remind us of the inhumanity and brazen behaviour of his killers.

We are reminded of the callous premeditated threat of one Captain Mostert whilst searching for Ashley when he said and I quote "as ons vir hom kry, gaan ons hom so plat soos 'n hasie skiet, ons gaan hom dood skiet."

The events that ensued demonstrate how the apartheid apparatus connived to cover up the real story of how they had tortured and beaten Ashley in the house located at No. 8 Albermarle Street, Hazendal.

At first saying that he had shot himself when all the evidence pointed to a brutal and bloody perpetration of torture with traces of blood scattered through the house.

In fact the height of cowardice is demonstrated by the fact that he had been shot in the back of his head.

In the aftermath of Ashley's murder they had the audacity to say: "jou ma wil mos nie gehoor het nie, nou het ons hom vrek geskiet." 

I recall these events not because you don't already know these details but because we have witnessed that brutality raise its head in Hangberg, Khayelitsha and Grabouw.

We meet today at a time when the crisis in schools, shortages of handbooks and school closures reminds us of the struggles and sacrifices of Ashley Kriel, Anton Fransch, Robbie Waterwich, Colline Williams and others of their generation who made schools and communities sites of struggle. 

Today the harsh realities that communities face as they struggle with the legacy of apartheid remains real as we contend with unemployment, violence, gangsterism and drugs. We must take a page from the lives of our young heroes and fight these manifestations wherever its raises its ugly head.

We can only pay true tribute to the sacrifices of Ashley and others like him by rebuilding the grassroots structures that helped our communities shake off the shackles of oppression and apartheid. We must reconnect with our communities and live out the everyday struggles that we face in Bonteheuwel, Hazendal, Langa, Mannenberg, Gugulethu, Philippi and Khayelitsha. 

Ashley and the young heroes of the 80's and 90's understood the power of community mobilisation and committed their lives to making a difference regardless of where the site of struggle was located. They truly lived the words of Cde Che' Guevara when he said: "As long as there is even one human being suffering anywhere in the world, our struggle cannot be over".

To our young people here on the Cape Flats, the Western Cape and our country at large we want to say that you have an important role to play. The youth of Ashley's generation lived by the slogan "Each one Teach One" and this bore testimony to their resilience that no matter what obstacle we are confronted with we must commit to building a culture of learning and education so that we can lay strong foundations for this phase of our liberation-the struggle for our economic emancipation - to ensure that South Africa truly belongs to all who live in it.

Unemployment is not coincidental. The scourge of gangsterism and drugs that we experience is not coincidental. The culture of violence, rape and crime that we witness is not coincidental. It is the legacy of trauma.

It is the legacy of dispossession. It is the legacy of alienation of generations of our young people. It is the legacy of being uprooted and flung far away from the economic centres, with no or little skill to participate in the mainstream of the economy.

The Ashley Kriel's of today must take up the struggle for economic emancipation through rallying our youth to be skilled, educated and for taking their place in the boardrooms of power, the engine rooms of our economy and battlefields against those who continue to perpetuate white privilege. 

Last week addressing the Social Cohesion Summit President Zuma said: "We are under no illusion that it is going to be easy. The South African Nation is a product of many streams of history and culture, representing the origins, dispersal and re-integration of humanity over hundreds of years. We have to build one national identity out of multiple identities based on class, gender, age, language, geographic location, and religion.

"Whilst we have made progress in institutionalising the principle of an inclusive citizenship since 1994, there are certain matters that still cause divisions and frustrations. 

The challenges of poverty, unemployment, homelessness, landlessness and the divisions around race, class and gender make it difficult to arrive at a socially cohesive and united society as fast as we would want to."

As we grapple with these myriad challenges we once again acknowledge the broad shoulders on which we stand. It is the legacy of Ashley Kriel, Basil February, Solomon Mahlangu and countless others like them. 

We acknowledge that the Western Cape as the last outpost of white privilege requires us to mobilise all progressive forces in order to realise the economic liberation of our people as the basis for building our national democratic society that is non-racial, non-sexist, democratic and prosperous. 

To the Kriel family, his neighbours, comrades and friends we pay tribute in the words of the Cuban revolutionary:

I have a white rose to tend
In July as in January;
I give it to the true friend
Who offers his frank hand to me.

And for the cruel one whose blows
Break the heart by which I live,
Thistle nor thorn do I give:
For him, too, I have a white rose.

I thank you.

Issued by the ANC Western Cape, July 9 2012

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