An event to celebrate the day on which freedom activist, Mr. Chris Hani, was killed, has been canceled after a boycott by SACP leaders who were angry that Hani’s family was “not invited”.
Yesterday, it was 33 years since Hani was killed. It was planned that flowers would be placed on his grave, and speeches would be made by the leaders of the ANC, SACP, Cosatu and Sanco alliances. SACP leaders decided to boycott yesterday’s event after finding out that Kurhuleni Municipality, which organized the event, did not invite Hani’s family.
The Deputy Chairman of the SACP, Mr. Thulas Nxesi, said that they will not continue with the event because the municipality did not contact the family when the event was planned.
“It was not well coordinated here in the government. The communists, I think the workers also said that, they said they will leave if there is no family. We will leave the government to continue with what it has planned. You will see how it goes. It shows that we still have to sit down and discuss how we do things. It should not be that we start brainstorming and end up not coming out with something meaningful. We apologize for that.”
The representative of the Kurhuleni Municipality, Mr. Jongizizwe Dlabathi, said that they will try to do better next time.
“We have heard the complaints of the SACP, we will try to communicate properly with the family in the future. We decided to stop the event because we want to properly plan the event to remember Hani. We do not want to continue with the event when there are plans that were not done well.”
ANC Treasurer, Dr Gwen Ramokgopa, said Hani’s family did not come because of an illness in the family.
“I had the opportunity to speak with Hani’s wife. The family has been arrested by the police, so they cannot come here. We all sympathize with the family. That’s why we decided to stop the event so that the family will have a chance to mourn. We will organize the event again.”
People who came to the event left in awe. As it happens, the ANC and the SACP are facing each other following the decision of the Communists to contest the upcoming local government elections independently.
ANC leaders are threatening to get themselves into trouble if members of the organization choose to campaign for the SACP in the elections.