South African History Online

7 November 1992.

Chairperson;
The family and relatives of the deceased;
Comrades and
Friends:

We have gathered here today for the sad purpose of laying to rest the mortal
remains of comrade Reggie Hadebe, who was gunned down by a secret murder squad
while he was on a mission of peace.

As we meet here our hearts are full of grief. Our eyes burn with the salt of
bitter tears. We are thus afflicted because we have lost a young hero of our
struggle.

Our nation has lost a patriot who would have contributed significantly to the
freedom of all our people and the betterment of our lives.

His family has been deprived of a son and a father. Because he loved these
dear ones, he was prepared to make all the necessary sacrifices so that they, if
not he, could live in conditions of democracy, peace and prosperity.

Millions mourn with us today and with the Hadebe family, regardless of
whether they are members of this family and regardless of whether they are
members of the organisations to which all of us present belong.

They mourn with us because they are part of the greater human family which is
inspired by the common ideals of human decency, compassion and respect for life
and the existence of all living species.

And yet, somewhere out there, there are some who have gathered to rejoice at
our sorrow. These have met to celebrate a victory which consists in their
successful execution of a brutal and cold-blooded act of murder.

These killers perform their victory dance to the rhythm of the heart-rending
cries of the orphans, the wailing of the widows and the widowers and the agony
of those who have been driven away from their homes - the hundreds of thousands
who have been made internal refugees in the land of their birth.

These murderers, like the carrion birds, feed on death. The blood of the
innocents is their elixir of life. They treat the sacred graves of the martyrs
as a tribute to their crimes.

As yet we do not know who the murderers of Reggie Hadebe are. We do not know
who pulled the trigger. Nor do we know who planned the evil deed or gave the
order that it be carried out.

But we know the purposes of the assassins. We know that, having failed to
hoodwink the people to support racial discrimination, domination and arrogance,
they now want to terrorise the people to accept unacceptable schemes that would
perpetuate the system of apartheid.

They want to drive the masses of the people away from their genuine
representatives, the ANC and the rest of the democratic movement and thus weaken
and ultimately destroy the popular organisations of the masses.

They desire to establish the conditions whereby naked terror will oblige all
who seek peaceful and genuine change to abandon this path. Thereby they aim to
derail the process of change itself and permit the emergence of the situation
which will justify their intended campaign of genocide against the people.

Far too many people have died in this province and elsewhere in our country.
Each death that has occurred has been one death too many.

Each death that has occurred has been a condemnation of us who are alive -
broadcasting the accusation that, for known and unknown reasons, we were too
weak to stop the murderers.

I know that in these circumstances, there are some who argue that no person
of conscience dare stand up and urge us to be tolerant and understanding.

I know the conditions which drive some to state that those who have not
experienced the pain you have suffered, should not have the audacity to implore
us to enter into a dialogue with those responsible for the violence.

You justly ask the question - when those who have appropriated state power to
themselves have failed to carry out the attendant duty of the protection of life
and property, why is it that they argue that we should allow a state of
lawlessness to continue by not taking the law into our hands?

How indeed does one answer the question - what moral right do those have, who
have failed to use their power to protect the people, to condemn our acts of
self-defence as expressions of unacceptable violence and intimidation?

Anyone who knows the suffering that our people have borne will also
understand the fire of revenge that burns in our very souls; the instinct to
carry the deadly weapons of vengeance in our hands; the sense of puzzlement when
those who have suffered unjustly are asked to carry the olive branch and revere
the dove of peace!

As we stand around the still body of a young democrat, Reggie Hadebe, we know
under what circumstances he met his death. We also know what he meant to us, our
country and people. We have a vision of what he could have done, if he had
lived, to advance the cause of the people .

He is now dead. Nothing anybody can do will bring him to life. None of the
praises we will and must sing to him and his honour, will enable him to
discharge his duties to his family, his organisation and his country.

And all this has become true because somewhere in the bosom of our country
there are people to whom true freedom is like a noxious weed which must not be
allowed to take root.

Death has become commonplace because somewhere in the bosom of our
communities there are people to whom liberation fighters, such as Reggie Hadebe
was, are vermin that have to be be exterminated without mercy and the people he
led taught the lesson of subservience.

Out of this cauldron of evil, is it possible for every one of us to emerge
without feelings of anger and hatred? Does not our very humanity drive us to
behave as ordinary human beings, repelled by the callous acts of the murderers,
angered by their deeds and driven to a sense of bitterness which we sought to
avoid?

Indeed, who can fail to understand the demand that those who do nothing to
bring the warmongers to heel cannot sit in judgement, mouthing pious statements
about the imperatives of peace and tolerance.

Comrades and Friends:

We must nevertheless remember that this is an occasion sacred to the dead. It
requires that we speak with due respect for all those who have departed.

It demands that we who are alive, and can speak in defence of our own
actions, do not put on the still shoulders of the dead the responsibility for
more deaths, which those who are no longer with us, cannot account for.

Difficult as it may be, it requires that we should commit ourselves in word
and deed to the cause which had sent Reggie Hadebe to Ixopo when he met his
death.

Reggie went to Ixopo to discuss ways and means of saving lives and not
causing more deaths. His mission on that day was, as it had been on other
occasions, to stop the carnage that has engulfed this province for so many
years.

To honour his memory and pay tribute to this young hero we must cast
ourselves in the mould of the peacemakers and not the war-mongers.

There are some in our country who seek to project the Zulu speaking people as
lovers of war and violent conflict. They are trying to create a situation in
which this great people become identified with death itself.

We must stand up and challenge these false and insulting images. We must
speak up so that all may hear and say that the Zulu people love peace and value
life.

Throughout their known history they have never resorted to weapons of war for
terrorist purposes. When they took up arms it was for a just cause. That is the
true meaning of the battle of Isandhlwana. That is the true meaning of the
military uprising that Bambatha led which ended in the Nkandla Forest.

Today, there is no cause more just than the struggle to end the criminal
system of apartheid and transform South Africa into a united, democratic,
non-racial and non-sexist country.

This is the cause to which great leaders of our people such as John
Langalibalele Dube, Pixley ka Isaka Seme, Josiah Gumede and Chief Albert Luthuli
dedicated their lives. It is for the victory of this cause that they would have
been willing to take up arms.

Never would they have visited their wrath on the black victims of the system
of white minority domination. Neither should we, who call ourselves their
followers, direct our anger away from the system of apartheid, unleashing it
instead against our own people whose only desire is freedom, peace and a better
life.

In this regard, we need to recall the clarion call made by Pixley ka Seme at
the founding of the ANC 80 years ago when he said that "we must bury the demon
of tribalism".

Those who try to ride on the backs of tribalism today should know, as Seme
knew, that they sit on the back of a demon which will take them down a road of
conflict and immense suffering. We call on them to abandon this destructive
course.

The day of freedom draws ever nearer, thanks to the struggle that the
millions of our people, including the heroic masses of this province, have
waged, sometimes under the most difficult conditions.

How soon we will attain our liberation will depend on what we ourselves do.
The campaign of murder which has claimed the life of Reggie Hadebe does not take
us closer to our goal. It serves to postpone our own emancipation.

To save lives and liberate ourselves sooner rather than later, we must bring
the carnage to an end. The killings must stop and stop today and not
tomorrow!

I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute and our respects to our
leaders and the leaders of the Zulu people, from Shaka to King Goodwill
Zwelithini.

We urge his majesty, King Zwelithini, in an earnest appeal to him to use his
power to lead us in a determined effort to end the killing of his people, be
they Zulu or Venda, Sotho or Xhosa, Shangaan or Ndebele, be they black or white,
young or old.

We trust that His Majesty will note our concern and respond to our plea. His
contribution to the restoration of peace will earn him the everlasting gratitude
of all our people and those in the rest of the world who wish us well.

We also appeal to all traditional leaders in kwaZulu to support His Majesty
in his search for peace. We call on them in their own right as leaders of our
people to ensure that those they lead and serve should stop killing one
another.

They should also create the conditions which will allow for people to express
their political preferences without hindrance and without this resulting in
violence.

The whole country draws great inspiration from the example set by the people
of Mpumalanga and the leaders of both the IFP and the ANC in this area. We
congratulate this community for stopping the killings and for creating an
atmosphere in which everyone can live in conditions of peace, and engage in the
process of rebuilding what had been a shattered community.

We also welcome and would like to use all the authority at our command to
encourage local initiatives taken in other areas of Natal and elsewhere in the
country to bring together people from various organisations, in the interests of
peace.

We also call on the South African government to discharge its
responsibilities to all our people by acting without fear or favour to stop the
murderers, regardless of their political affiliations or their station in
life.

There can be no more excuses for the failure to protect the lives and
property of the people. The need for various political organisations to meet to
help resolve the conflict cannot be used as a shield to justify the absence of
vigorous government action to end the violence.

We also address a special appeal to the police to carry out their duties as
any police force anywhere else in the world would. By law, you bear the first
responsibility for the maintenance of peace.

Throughout our country, the people would like to see a situation where you as
policemen and women become loved and admired members of our society. All of us
look forward to the day when all our communities will be pleased to cooperate
fully with you to ensure peace in our localities.

You must act in such a manner that no longer should it be said that you are
part of the problem rather than part of the solution. Our own doors are open for
you to come into our midst to work out practical measures to ensure proper and
impartial policing and to remove the atmosphere which results in our seeing one
another as enemies.

We extend the same call to all the armed forces in our country. We say that
it is only freedom and democracy that will guarantee a better life for all of
us. You, as the police and the army, must therefore lend all your weight to the
process of the transformation of our country into a non-racial democracy.

This means that you must not only be the keepers of the peace. You must take
pride in carrying out this mission and strive to be seen to accomplish it, as a
token of your commitment to serve all the people of our country.

We take this opportunity once more to welcome the international observer
missions both to our country and to this solemn occasion. We are confident that
as they get to understand better the challenges that face us, they will take all
necessary measures to enhance their own capacity to help us.

Various accusations have been levelled against the people's army, Umkhonto we
Sizwe, that this formation of heroic men and women has turned its weapons
against the people.

But I know it as a matter of fact that neither its commanders nor any of its
combatants who are loyal to the cause of the people can ever be driven to carry
out acts of banditry against the very people whom Umkhonto we Sizwe was formed
to serve.

There can be nobody who carries the proud title of a combatant of Umkhonto we
Sizwe who would carry out acts of terror against the people. If there are some
who have done so, by that act they have defined themselves as no longer members
of the people's army.

Let the matter be clear once and for all that we will never allow it that
anybody should, in the name of the ANC and Umkhonto we Sizwe, carry out acts of
violence against the people, whatever the political affiliation of the people
concerned.

We can never seek to become the government of South Africa by climbing to
that position on the corpses of the innocent people of our country. If we were
to embark on this criminal path we would deserve the condemnation of all our
people and the whole world and lose our very right to exist.

It must also be clear to all self-defence or self-protection units that their
task is to protect the people and not to wage war against the people. These
units must understand that they are not secret societies or underground
groups.

They must be openly accountable to the communities in which they are based,
deriving their legitimacy from their acceptance by the people as their true
defenders, enjoying the support of the people as a result of their correct
behaviour.

I would also like to inform this gathering and our country as a whole that
the leadership of the ANC has taken various decisions intended to help us focus
more sharply and continuously on the continuing crisis facing us in this
province.

Among other things, we have therefore established a special sub-committee of
the National Working Committee on Natal and decided that the next meeting of our
National Executive Committee will be held in Natal.

It is vitally important that we continue from where Reggie Hadebe left off
and ensure that the ideals he was working for come to fruition.

We therefore support the proposal that a special meeting of the Natal-KwaZulu
Regional Dispute Resolution Committee convenes as a matter of urgency. Given the
crisis that confronts us, we also endorse the suggestion that such a meeting
should also be attended by members of the National Peace Accord Executive
Committee, the National Peace Secretariat and members of the international
observer missions.

From its deliberations should emerge a set of emergency interim measures that
would be binding on all participants, aimed at addressing the violence that has
engulfed this region. We believe that no one who loves peace can oppose this
serious proposal which is directed solely at saving the lives of our people.

Apart from addressing this question with the immediacy it deserves, the
meeting we are suggesting could also lay the basis for various bilateral
meetings as well as prepare for the meeting of signatories of the National Peace
Accord which will also have to be convened without undue delay.

Comrades and Friends:

Whatever the origin of the current wave of violence, we are all caught in the
spiral it has generated. This calls for careful, honest and critical
self-examination of ourselves as individuals and as organisations. Each
organisation is duty bound to put its house in order.

This is no longer the time for finger-pointing and mutual recrimination. It
is not our quarrels that will bring about peace but our cooperation in rooting
out the scourge of violence. Such cooperation will not be brought about by the
setting of pre-conditions but by working together to create a climate which will
allow us to address all problems facing the country, in conditions of peace.

The struggle for peace is not a prerogative of leaders only. It is a
challenge that faces all our people in their entirety. We therefore call on
everybody in all walks of life to engage in the common effort to secure an end
to the violence. Let all of us consider ourselves members and activists of a
common front of the people of South Africa for peace and democracy.

Our freedom is in sight. Let us do nothing which delays the coming of that
glorious moment for which Reggie Hadebe and others before him laid down their
lives. Let the vision of peace and democracy be indelibly inscribed on our
hearts and minds. Let that vision instruct our thoughts, our words and our
deeds.

As leaders we must live up to the expectations of the people and become daily
combatants for peace and life and for a new South Africa that will know no
conflict and no deaths caused by political intolerance or the pursuit of the
ambitions to which we are all prey.

We extend our deepest condolences to the Hadebe family and can only comfort
you by assuring you that your grief is ours as well and by repeating the words
so deep with meaning - kuf' ayayo!

May our dear comrade, Reggie Hadebe, rest in peace! Hamba kahle qhawe
lamaqhawe!

Issued by: African National Congress
Department of Information and
Publicity
51 Plein Street
Johannesburg 2001
PO Box
61884
Marshalltown 2107
Tel: (011) 330 7277
Fax: (011 ) 333
8870