A Special Tribute
Max Madlingozi
Died - 28 May 2000
By David Makhura, Deputy General Secretary, NEHAWU
It is with great regret that we inform you of the death of Comrade Max Madlingozi, who passed away on Sunday 28 May 2000.
Comrade Max was an outstanding revolutionary who served his people in various capacities with relentless commitment and a distinct sense of humility. Comrade Max was also known as someone who had a very principled and unbreakable commitment to the cause of the working class and the poor in our country.
Comrade Max was a trade unionist and an ANC underground activist since the early 1970s. From 1974 he worked at General Motors in Port Elizabeth until 1980. He rose during this period through the ranks of the trade union movement as a workers’ leader. He served the workers as a shop steward and later became chairman of the General Motors plant.
In 1981 he was detained and put to solitary confinement and later released in February 1982. A month later he was served with a banning order for five years. During this time he studied part-time with the University of South Africa and fort Hare University and obtained a Diploma in Public Relations.
In 1986 the banning order was lifted and he went back to Delta (the then General Motors). He only worked for seven months and he was detained again under the State of Emergency until September 1987. After his release he went back to Delta. He resigned in February 1988 and focused fully on the organization of the trade union movement.
He worked with SARHWU, SAMWU, POTWA. Then, after they were fully established, he worked as the Eastern Cape organiser of the South African Allied Workers' Union (Saawu) and was one of the founders of NEHAWU, which was formed out of the merger of SAAWU, HAWU AND GAWU.
He went on to become an organiser of Nehawu in 1989 and subsequently became the Provincial Secretary of Nehawu in the Eastern Cape (which was then still called a region) in 1990-1993.
He became an ANC member of the Eastern Cape Legislature in 1994. He was the Deputy Speaker of the Eastern Cape Legislature from 1996 to 1999. He was currently the Chairperson of the Standing Committee of Health in the Eastern Cape Legislature. Cde Max was also a member of the Board of Trustees of Nehawu Investment Company (NIC).
He is survived by his mother, his wife, Nokhonza (Eugie - herself an activist of Nehawu), three daughters, his grand daughter, his brother and three sisters.
COSATU and NEHAWU would like to convey our deepest felt condolences to Cde Max's family. He will be dearly remembered and sorely missed by all his comrades in the entire national democratic revolution and the struggle for socialism in South Africa.
Hamba Kahle Qhawe la Maqhawe!
Lillian Malan
30 April 1960 - 28 April 2000
Lillian Malan sadly passed away on Friday 28 April. She died of heart failure, two days before her 40th birthday. She was a member of the SA Clothing and Textile Workers' Union.
Lillian Malan was born in Elsies River but grew up in Nyanga East. She joined the clothing industry in 1980 as an examiner at Ensign Clothing. In 1982 she made a change and joined Charmfit, where she worked until her retirement due to ill health. She served as a shop steward for sixteen years.
Lillian was the first woman to be elected as a regional chairperson in the union. She also served on the union's national executive committee. She was in the forefront of the historic wage strike for the clothing workers in 1996.
Many comrades will remember her laughter, warm and bubbly personality and fearlessness. Even during her illness, she managed to make people laugh. She leaves behind her only son Micario. The union mourns her death.
© COSATU