Adelaide Tambo -01 -02-07

 

Adelaide Tambo

The Congress of South African Trade Unions mourns the sad passing of our great liberation struggle heroine, Adelaide Tambo. We dip our flags in honour of a revolutionary fighter who devoted her entire life to the struggle for freedom and democracy, and send our condolences to her family and all the thousands of South Africans who knew and loved her.

From as young as ten years old, Comrade Adelaide was drawn into the struggle against racism and oppression and for our people to be treated with dignity and respect. She never stopped fighting for the next sixty-seven years. While always being remembered as a loyal partner to one of our greatest leaders, O.R Tambo, she was a great struggle leader in her own right. Even her marriage to O.R. in 1956 was an act of political defiance, as it took place during the Treason Trial, when they knew that either could face arrest at any time.

When forced into a long exile in London, she threw herself into the battle to organise the ANC internationally and mobilise global support for the anti-apartheid struggle. On her return Comrade Adelaide represented the ANC in parliament and as a leader of the ANC Women's League.

COSATU members and all workers will always treasure the memory of a self-sacrificing servant of the struggle who was a perfect role model for the youth of today, Hamba Kahle!