Volume 9, No.3 - September 2000

Obituary

Bheki Mkhize - a great workers' leader

COSATU mourns the death on 30 July of the founder president of the National Education Health and Allied Workers Union (NEHAWU) Comrade Bheki Robert Mkhize MP. He was murdered by police officers in his house in Mahlabatini, KwaZulu Natal.

Bheki Mkhize was an active trade unionist for many years. After moving to Johannesburg from Kwa Zulu Natal in the 1970s he found a job as a security guard at Wits University. While there he did a correspondence course and matriculated.

He became a shop steward in the Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers' Union (CCAWU), later to become SACCAWU and in 1983 joined the General and Allied Workers' Union (GAWU) where he played a leading role. As a result of his militancy, Wits University sacked him. The workers came out on strike in his support and forced Wits to appoint an independent arbitrator, who ruled that the dismissal was unfair and he was reinstated. He stayed there until 1995

At this time he was also active in the SA Youth Congress and the United Democratic Front and was arrested and detained. In 1987 GAWU and the SA Allied Workers' union merged to form NEHAWU and Bheki was elected its founding president.

After the ANC was unbanned, he became an active member of the Johannesburg North West branch and 1995 he was redeployed to Parliament as an ANC MP. He served as a member of several committees, including the portfolio committees on labour and public enterprise.

Zwelinzima Vavi, COSATU General Secretary, issued this message on the occasion of Bheki Mkhize's funeral on 12 August: "On behalf of the two million members of COSATU and their families, I bring this message of solidarity, sympathy and condolence to the wife, children and the rest of comrade Bheki Mkhize's family.

"Like all of our people, COSATU is still reeling from shock of the murder to comrade Bheki Mkhize by the police

"I have known Bheki Mkhize since his days in the General Workers Union and later as the NEHAWU President. I last saw him on 30 April 2000 when he came to confront COSATU over our failure to allocate buses for the Diepsloot informal settlement for the May Day Rally at the FNB stadium. As usual he won that fight and even at that late hour we were forced to hire more buses for his constituency. Comrade Bheki Mkhize was tenacious and did not give in.

"This in itself will tell you of Bheki Mkhize's character - an organiser, mobiliser, disciplinarian and workaholic who did know the meaning of the word 'rest' or hanging on the shoulders of other people doing work. He was indeed a man of the people - down-to-earth to the last minute. He did not let the trappings of power go to his head.

"I had come to know Bheki Mkhize more in a period between 1990 and after the 1994 elections. I was the COSATU Western Transvaal Regional Secretary, based in the Vaal Triangle, when Bheki Mkhize warned that there were some people engineering a campaign of massive intimidation, targeting workers from KwaZulu Natal as well as certain communities in the whole of the then Witwatersrand area.

"Since then we worked very closely with the comrade. He became part of COSATU's violence monitoring team, together with our lawyers. "I know of nobody with more guts than Bheki Mkhize. Throughout that period he worked as our underground operative in the hostels. He infiltrated cells of these forces bent on using violence for political objectives. He had a network of contacts in every hostel. He knew every element in the hostels.

"Yet, armed with that information, we used to sit helpless, as in those days we could not phone and ask the then ministers and police leaders to intervene. They were part and parcel of the problem in our view.

"Bheki excelled in this extremely dangerous work. It is not that these forces did not know who he was. Throughout this period he survived countless attempts on his life. His dedication meant many sleepless nights. He never complained even once. He never expressed fear that his network or he himself might be exposed, leading to certain death of those involved.

"On behalf of COSATU members, I want to express our deeply felt gratitude at his contribution to the workers' struggle and the struggle for the freedom and democracy that our people are now enjoying. Bheki was certainly one of those that you could count on to be on the workers' and progressive movement's side.

"No one could doubt his bona fides. Today NEHAWU and COSATU are giants of no comparable proportion. Without people like Bheki Mkhize that could have been impossible. Thank you Bheki for this wonderful contribution.

"This heinous crime by the police should be condemned in strongest terms. In our eyes, Comrade Bheki Mkhize was murdered in cold-blooded by trigger-happy policemen. The transformation of the police service must be accelerated to weed out corrupt elements and those elements that do not understand their public duty."

Alexander Zharikov of the World Federation of Trade Unions has also expressed its deep grief at Bheki's untimely demise and conveyed its sincere condolences and solidarity to the bereaved family, NEHAWU and COSATU : "The WFTU fully supports the demand mnade by the South African trade union movement and democratic forces for a high level investigation into the police action which led to the death of Comrade Bheki Mkhize".