Wednesday marked the ninth anniversary of the assassination of Chris Hani, the communist leader adored by millions of the poor but hated by right-wingers who plotted his death.
Paying tribute to the former general secretary of the SA Communist Party, the ANC said it was ironic that nine years after Hani was murdered by a right-winger, elements of the right wing were trying to regroup.
Hani, a popular ANC and SACP leader, was gunned down in his Boksburg driveway on April 10 1993 by Polish immigrant Janus Walusz, who has since been jailed for life for the crime.
His death threatened to spark nationwide unrest, but the ANC and the National Party averted this by speeding up talks for a transitional government.
The SACP used the day to launch the Chris Hani Health Trail, in line with the ANC's month-long focus on health.
"The SACP understands that the health of our people is also related to social and economic inequalities we inherited from apartheid: poor nutrition, unavailability of clean water and proper sanitation, unhygienic environmental conditions, unaffordability of drugs and medicines, inadequate health health services, low levels of education, the effect of rapid urbanisation, and social breakdown within communities," the party said.
The SACP's Mazibuko Jara said the Health Trail would require the SACP to work with other structures to fight the reservation of good health resources in private hands.
Jara called for a national health insurance scheme to cater for the poor, disabled, elderly, and people living with Aids. "These are the kind of struggles Chris Hani would have been involved in today."
The Gauteng Health Department on Wednesday introduced the inaugural Chris Hani Memorial Lecture at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital, which was addressed by Trade and Industry Minister Alec Erwin.