He addressed scores who had come to the late icon’s memorial service in Middelburg.
Mpumalanga SACP leader Bonakele Majuba has called for the intensification of the fight against women abuse in South Africa.
Majuba said this should happen in honour of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and as SACP this year they will do just that in their Red October campaign.
He described Mama’s life as a “life well spent and a life well lived”.
“As communists here in Mpumalanga we lower our revolutionary banner in honour of comrade Winnie for the role she played in liberating the people of this country under difficult conditions,” he said.
Majuba shared the stage of the Sydney Choma banquet hall in Middelburg on Monday afternoon with veterans league treasurer Norah Fakude, ANCYL deputy president Desmond Moela, SANCO provincial chairman JJ Skhosana, ANCWL provincial chairwoman Busi Shiba as well as Cosatu national deputy secretary Solly Phetoe.
ANC national treasurer Paul Mashatile addressed the memorial service as a keynote speaker.
Majuba said without women and “people of the stature of comrade Winnie” South Africa would not have been liberated from Apartheid suffering.
“We must all of us intensify the campaign of making sure that women in South Africa can be able to move in the streets freely and safely, without any intimidation,” he said.
He said this was one of the objectives of the national democratic revolution.
Madikizela-Mandela died on 2 April 2018 at the age of 81.
She was at the Milpark Hospital in Johannesburg.
Majuba said Mama suffered during Apartheid and could not live freely.
He said the Apartheid regime made sure the Mandela Football Club was “infested with spies because they never wanted comrade Winnie to be free”.
He said the youth then looked up to Winnie for encouragement with her slogan “freedom or death”.
“Without women and people of the stature of comrade Winnie it would have been difficult for us to attain the freedom that we have.
“As part of our Red October this year we came up with a theme that says we must fight against the abuse of women in honour of comrade Winnie,” Majuba said to applause.
(edited by MLM)
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