The City of Ekurhuleni hosted a wreath-laying ceremony in Wattville on Friday morning, an annual programme aimed at honouring the life and times of Oliver and Dr Adelaide Tambo.
The Tambos, who were icons of the Struggle for liberation, were both conferred the Freedom of the City of Ekurhuleni in 2004.
Friday also marked Oliver “OR” Tambo’s 106th birthday.
The theme for this year’s programme was “Commemorating the 30th anniversary of the passing of OR Tambo”.
Tambo was born in the village of Mbizana in the Pondoland region of the Eastern Cape. The ANC said it took this opportunity to remember, honour, and celebrate Tambo.
OR, as he was affectionately known, was among the founding members of the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) in 1944 and became its first secretary-general.
He was elected to the national executive committee of the ANC in 1948 and he remained a member of the committee for 45 years until his death in 1993.
When the apartheid government banned liberation movements following the Sharpeville massacre, the ANC directed Tambo to go out of the country to mobilise support for the South African Struggle.
The ANC said it was through his stewardship that the party established its presence in many countries throughout the world.
He was instrumental in garnering international support and solidarity with the South African Struggle, including the isolation of apartheid South Africa.
OR Tambo is also remembered as a fierce gender activist who understood that the country’s freedom would never be complete until women were emancipated from triple oppression.
In his own words: “South Africa will never be free as long as women are not free. The mobilisation of women is the task, not only of women alone, or of men alone, but of all of us, men and women alike, comrades in struggle.”
It was on Tambo’s watch that Umkhonto we Sizwe, the ANC’s military wing, accepted and encouraged women to join the armed struggle.
Women were a pivotal element of the armed revolutionary battle, fighting alongside their menfolk and playing critical roles in the movement.
Throughout the difficult challenges of being exiled and spearheading the Struggle from outside the country, Tambo demonstrated his leadership by ensuring that the ANC remained united through all the difficulties it faced.
Among the many leadership attributes that Tambo possessed was the capacity to see ahead of his time and to recognise what will arise in the course of the Struggle. “Comrades, you might think it is very difficult to wage a liberation struggle, wait until you are in power. I might be dead by then. At that stage, you will realise that it is more difficult to keep power than to wage a liberation war. People will be expecting a lot of services from you, you will have to satisfy the various demands of the masses of our people,” said Tambo, speaking in Angola in 1977.
In his leadership, Tambo would never put his interests or even the interests of his organisation ahead of the wider interest of the Struggle and the wider interest of his people. He would always look for elements that would unite the organisation and not harp on things which disunite the organisation.
When he returned to South Africa after three decades of exile, Tambo told the ANC: “I have devotedly watched over the organisation all these years. I now hand it back to you, bigger, stronger – intact.”
Party national spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri said in his memory and in keeping with his illustrious legacy, the ANC called on all its cadres to direct their energies towards the unity and renewal agenda.
“Guard our precious movement. As we continue to pursue the ANC’s commitment to renew itself and occupy the space as a leader of society, we call on all our members and leaders to emulate the leadership qualities exuded by Oliver Tambo,” said Bhengu-Motsiri.
She further said: “We call on our members to develop and sharpen our shared understanding of the strategic and tactical goals that our movement seeks to achieve as adopted by the 55th National Conference and further enunciated in our 111th anniversary statement. We make a clarion call to our members and leaders alike to have a common commitment to act to achieve these goals, ready to make the necessary sacrifices.”
Bhengu-Motsiri said the party took this opportunity to remember and honour not just the longest-serving president but also the longest-serving member of its national executive committee.