Opinion- Karl Marx said it is not the consciousness of men that determines their existence, but their social existence that determines their consciousness.
My consciousness was certainly determined by my existence. I grew up in the Magazine Barracks.
It was here that I saw first-hand the indignity that apartheid meted out to my family and my neighbours.
I saw the privacy of adults compromised, the indecent sanitary conditions, the poverty and the hopelessness of people.
It was in the shoe factory where I worked that I saw the exploitation of workers, the poor working conditions and the slave wages that took away the workers’ dignity.
I remember the day my father died, and the day my brother had to leave school to take my father’s job, so that we could keep our home in the barracks.
I remember how the police tortured and taunted me, simply because of my beliefs.
I saw and lived all this, and this is what shaped my consciousness.
This is what led me to join the Leather Workers’ Union, the Natal Indian Congress, the South African Communist Party and the ANC, so that I could work for the betterment of our people.
I have spent the last 70 years of my life involved in the political and civic struggles of our people.
Today, Comrades, I sit on my chair in the veranda of the house that I have lived in for the past 60 years and, as I read and watch the news, I wonder what in the consciousness of people makes them steal from the poor I wonder, Comrades, what in the consciousness of people makes them want to kill for power and I wonder, Comrades, what in the consciousness of people prevents them from sharing so that everybody can have a roof over their heads, a decent home to live in, quality education, decent sanitation and clean water?
Comrades, in the weeks and months leading up to June 1955, hundreds of volunteers, including myself, walked the streets and knocked on doors to ask ordinary people what their hopes and desires for a better life were.
They shared with us their hopes for better education, access to land, decent housing, and better health care, among others.
We recorded these hopes and took them with us to Kliptown, Soweto, and adopted them in the Freedom Charter.
Comrades, those hopes became dreams and those dreams were placed in the hands of the leaders of our movement, the Congress Movement, led by the ANC.
The Freedom Charter became our bible, and it was what guided our struggle for freedom.
All our actions through the four pillars of our struggle, mass mobilisation, building the structures of the underground, armed resistance, and mobilisation of the international community, were guided by the Freedom Charter.
Comrades, it pains me to watch the anger of our people as they protest against their poor living conditions. We know that the deep divisions that the system of apartheid left us with could not have been reversed in 23 years.
It pains me to watch the destruction of property that we so badly need for the reconstruction of our country.
It pains me to watch the rapid dismantling of our hardwon democracy.
And yet, while I am angry with all this wanton destruction, I am even more angry against those whose corruption made people believe that we could have delivered all the challenges the system of apartheid put before us within these 23 years.
How can we tell people to be patient when they see many among us stealing and getting richer?
Comrades, today our president, Cyril Ramaphosa, and the leadership of the ANC has the difficult task of dealing with the understandable anger of our people.
However, I do believe we have many people in our movement capable of leading this nation out of this apartheid mine-field... and yet we know that they cannot deal with these challenges alone They will need our support.
As I walk my last mile, I ask you, Comrades, to let my life, and the struggles of my generation, of the Mandelas, Sisulus, Mbekis, Kathradas and Slovos, not be in vain.
Let us depart this world knowing that the hopes and dreams we collected from our people in 1955 have been entrusted to comrades who will become revolutionaries of our vanguard movement Let our people say once again let me put my hopes and dreams in the ANC, let me vote for the only organisation that will deliver a better life for all.
Comrades, in the ANC that I grew up in, comrades do not kill each other politically or physically; comrades disagree with each other, comrades argue with each other This is our revolutionary training: to debate, to convince each other, but we do not kill each other.
Comrades, let the Order of Luthuli bestowed on me become the marching orders of our president, Chief Albert Luthuli, to unite.
My plea, Comrades, is for all of us to unite our movement, to see my movement united, to see my comrades working together again. This will mean more than the accolades of any award. I thank you Aluta Continua!