By Aluwani Chokoe
Farewell, Geoff Makhubo.
How do we bid farewell to a human titan? A valiant fighter has fallen at his post, on the battlefield.
You too, Chairman, have walked along the road of the heroes and the heroines. You have borne the pain, as many others did, of those who have known fear and learnt to conquer it.
As you stand before God, we bear witness that you have used all the talents God gave you. The ministry of kindness to the less fortunate you have greatly fulfilled.
Your name, Chairman, though as a young boy opposed to the fascist apartheid regime at Morris Isaacson High School at the time, belongs to the army of great men and women who, through their dedication and discipline, rose from the gutter to make an indelible mark in our nation’s collective consciousness and helped to shape our country’s democratic dispensation.
The movement (the ANC) you led, is charged with a rather disconcerting task of leading the social emancipation programme to its logical conclusion, and the principle remained that there were necessary decisions that had to be taken in the interests of advancing the national democratic Struggle, particularly to address realities confronting the South African working-class youth.
This, you championed without fail. The working-class Youth of Johannesburg, and the country at large, can attest that you were a true soldier in the fight for Economic Freedom in our lifetime.
When Fidel remembered Che, and I share the sentiments when your name is mentioned, he asserted, “… that Che as a revolutionary united in himself the virtues that can be defined as the fullest expression of the virtues of a revolutionary: a person of total integrity, a person of supreme sense of honour, of absolute sincerity, a person of stoic and Spartan living habits, a person in whose conduct not one stain can be found. He constituted, through his virtues, what can be called a truly model revolutionary".
In your honour, we rejoice to contend against a river of tears. We rejoice to a life well lived. It was an honour to be borrowed, though briefly, a cadre of your calibre, who's equally an outstanding member of our society and glorious movement.
Aluwani Chokoe is an activist and a member of the SA Youth Council.
The Star