President Jacob Zuma says a special meeting of the ANC-led alliance will be called soon. President Zuma was delivering a special eulogy at the funeral of struggle veteran JB Marks.
“You are not aware, how much our enemies are mobilizing to destroy us. And if we are divided, we are an easy prey. We need to be united. We need to talk about things that we cannot talk about, openly. We need to talk about things that we talk about openly, in the corridors, openly in the meeting of the three leaderships. I think we now have all our ancestors of the alliance in South Africa, when these two have come back. Very soon an instruction is going to come.”
Zuma has called on the alliance partners, ANC, SACP and Cosatu, to meet and iron out their differences.
“If needs be perhaps both the Central Committee of Cosatu and NEC of the ANC must have a joint meeting to discourse the unity of the alliance.”
Zuma has warned the alliance partners to be ready for a serious instruction for this meeting from the ANC, “because we cannot continue like this. You are not aware how much our enemies are mobilising to destroy us and if we are divided we are an easy prey.”
“We need to talk about things we cannot talk about openly,” added the President.
Cosatu Secretary General Zwelizima Vavi also had a similar tone in his speech.
Vavi says the infighting within the trade union is threatening the hard work J.B. Marks and Moses Kotane put into the unions
He has called on leaders to be humble and selfless like JB Marks.
“He was completely dedicated, that’s why he served the ANC and SACP. He was completely disciplined to the core.”
Vavi says the infighting within the trade union is threatening the hard work J.B. Marks and Moses Kotane put into the unions.
“Cosatu is facing disunity, undermining the work of Marks and Kotane.”
Vavi urged people to follow in the steps of Marks to fight unemployment and poverty. JB Marks’s mortal remains have finally been laid to rest in Ventersdorp, his home town in North West. The liberation icon has been honoured with a special official funeral, following the repatriation of his remains from Moscow.
Marks would have turned 112 yesterday, Human Rights Day. From the 1920’s, he was prominent in the SACP, the ANC and the mineworkers’ labour movement before going to Russia, where he died in 1972.
Despite the cold and wet Ventersdorp weather, all the stops were pulled to ensure that uncle JB Marks’ reburial succeeds. The icon has also been honoured with a special monument next to his grave.
– By Sentleeng Lehihi
