Mzwandile Masina, ANC regional chairperson in Ekurhuleni
The month of September will go down in history as one of the most tragic months in the ANC and the entire mass democratic movement.
During this month, two painful realities confronted us - the first being that one of the most fierce defenders of the principles of the organisation, Andile Lungisa, began his prison sentence on a charge of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm.
The case, which is snaking its way through the legal system, is one that will define far more than just his place in the organisation. It will define how citizens of our country respond to a judiciary that is at times questionable in its approach to the pursuit of justice.
But it is a month that will also be remembered for a tragedy far more devastating - the death of one of the most dedicated activists of our generation, Songezo “Madiba” Mjongile. Comrade Songezo lost a short but painful battle with cancer - a deadly killer that continues to claim millions of lives around the world.
But this death hit home, not only because it claimed a life so young, but because it did so at a time when the ANC is in desperate need of activists with the level of dedication and passion that comrade Songezo always displayed.
It was in the Congress of South African Students (Cosas) that comrade Songezo cut his teeth and where I first met him. He had succeeded comrade Moses Makwakwa, and would be succeeded by comrade Lebogang Maile, another great product of the student movement. It was a different epoch - an era when student politics were defined by a dynamic understanding of the complexities that characterise South African society.
That the Cosas of comrade Songezo was a different organisation is not an economisation of truth, for it was an instrument of both radical change and intellectual astuteness. This was a generation of high school students who articulated, with extraordinary clarity, the necessity for a decolonial education system that was rooted in a people-centred developmental agenda.
In the ANC Youth League, where he served in the national executive committee and national working committee, his commitment to the principle of decoloniality was amplified.
We worked together to ensure that comrade Malusi Gigaba would emerge as the president of the Youth League in the 1996 conference - a conference that marked an era of intellectual revival in the organisation.
This commitment to youth development also saw him play an instrumental role in the drafting of the National Youth Policy that is lauded as one of the best in the world.
It was in this regard that comrade Songezo became instrumental in the drafting of the Black Industrialist Policy that aimed to leverage the state’s capacity to unlock the industrial potential that exists within black-owned and managed businesses that operate within the South African economy.
In his final days, he proclaimed, to loved ones and to the public through social media, that he wanted more than anything else, a united ANC that would champion the cause of radical transformation to ensure a better life for all.
Knowing him as I did, as a brother, a friend, and a comrade, I do not doubt that this was not simply words, but a call to action to all of us to do better.
Comrade Songezo loved the ANC and he loved his family. His love for his wife and children was unwavering and defined the man that he was. In his memory, may we never falter in our battle for the soul of the true ANC - a people’s organisation.
* The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.