General Secretary of Cosatu Zwelinzima Vavi tribute to Pretty Singonzo21 - 06 - 08 |
Tribute to Pretty Nomhle Singonzo- Shuping, Second Vice President of POPCRU By Zwelinzima Vavi, COSATU General Secretary, Kempton Park, 21 June 2008
Peace, my heart, let the time for parting be sweet.
Let it not be death but completeness.
Let love melt into memory and pain into songs.
Let the flight through the sky end in the folding of the wings over the nest.
Let the last touch of hands be gentle like the flower of the night.
Stand still, O Beautiful End, for a moment, and say your last words in silence.
I bow to you and hold up my lamp to light you on your way.
I chose these words from the poem written by Rabindranath Tagore at this moment when we pay tribute to Pretty Nomhle Singonzo-Shuping. We are here to extend our messages of solidarity to her parents, her children - Lebogang, Keitumetsi, Oganne and Letshego - and her entire family, friends and comrades.
Egameni lempula zikalujaca ezimanywe yinqola emasondo-sondo yabasebenzi iCOSATU, ndidlulisa amazwi ovelwano kubantwana begokrakazi, kubazali, izihlobo nezalamane, kootshomi nakuthi sonke thina singamaqabane womlweli wamalungelo wabasebenzi namahlwempu.
Ngalemini yokugqibela yokungcwaba okuseleyo kukaPretty ndifuna ukubhekisa lamazwi kubantwana, abazali, izihlobo nabangani – akuhlanga lingehliyo! Sonke silahlekelwe, sonke intliziyo zidandathekile, sonke sime nematha xasicinga ukuba ingomso loba njanina ngaphandle kwakhe.
Kodwa ndiyawazi umahluko phakathi kwethu njengamaqabane kunye nani bazali enakhululisa umntwana sade sambona ukuba ufanele ukukhokela umbutho wethu. Ndiyawazi umahluko phakathi kwethu nabantwana abazakubuya emadlakeni baqale ubomi bokungalufumani uthando lukamama. Ewe elethu inxeba linzulu kodwa elenu linzulu, libanzi, intlungu zalo ezinyamezeleki.
Nangona kunjalo kunyanzelekile ukuba niyamkele imeko eningenakuyitshintsha. Okwenzekileyo kuyafana nokudaliwe. uPretty ulufezile olwakhe ugqatso. Ayinguye ozakuza kuthi – sithi abazomkumlandela nganye nganye.
Stompi Mavi, one of my most favourite musicians who is also late, once wrote a song and sang it with that beautiful voice and said:
Mhlaba usisimanga,
Uvelisa zonke iziqhamo zempilo
Mondli woluntu lonke
Mfazi obele lingomiyo
Mhlana obeleka konke
Simanga sikaThixo
Kufa awunantloni
Uthule uthe cwaka kanti sowumoshile
Buka umzi wendlu kantu
Wawuqhatha umzimba nomphefumlo
Uwagqibile amaqhawe esizwe
Simanga sikaThixo
Ewe Bawo kunjenjenje kweli lizwe!
Comrade Pretty died like a soldier, with her boots on. The universal slogan of the working class "An injury to one is an injury to all" was to her not just a slogan but also a motto for life, a way of living. She is suspected to have contracted the disease that killed her on her recent visit to Pakistan.
In her quest for more weapons to arm her with knowledge to take forward the workers' struggle, she had no time for routine check-ups and proceeded to Turin, where her health took a turn for the worst. She had gone to Turin to seek more knowledge, to sharpen her weapons and improve her ability to represent workers' interests.
She had a passion for education and she led by example in this regard, as in others. Soon after the date of her untimely passing, Cde Pretty was due to complete a course at the Wits School of Public and Development Management (P&DM) where she had been studying together with other COSATU comrades. Cde Pretty was an inspiration to all of them and an example of dedication.
A champion of human rights, who understood that workers' rights are human rights, she was one of those who gave COSATU its uniqueness - a home for police, correctional services staff and every other profession and occupation that exists in our economy.
Pretty was a policewomen. Her colleagues in the CEC called her kaptein! She, together with the founders of her union, POPCRU, deserves special praise. Her name and those of her other colleagues must be written in diamond letters in the history books of workers' struggle.
It was in the middle of the state of emergency and one of the worst repressions ever to be launched by the apartheid regime, that Gregory Rockman and later Pretty Singonzo defied death to say no to the continued use of the sons and daughters of the working class to deny the most basic rights of our people.
They refused to fire and rejected the use of brute force. More: they organised the police officials and correctional services staff who had before been potent weapons for the illegal racist regime. These officers began to use their new-found organisational power to improve wages and working conditions, but most importantly for our so-called miracle, to develop a new relationship between the police and their communities at the time when most saw them as legitimate targets.
In doing so they made not only the workers' movement and ultimately COSATU, but also our revolution as whole unique and dynamic. I am not aware of any place in the world where police recruited to repress people refused to do so and instead joined the advancing forces of revolution.
As a national office bearer in POPCRU, Pretty was a member of COSATU's Central Executive Committee, the body that between our National Congresses and meetings of our Central Committee drives the implementation of our programmes. She was one of the most likeable persons I will ever come across. Full of smiles and love! Down to earth and never assuming! Beautiful inside and outside! Full of energy and drive to fight injustices everywhere, including within the union movement that she adored! Committed to unity of her union POPCRU and her Federation!
I know what pain Zizamele Cebekhulu, Abbey Witbooi, Ntombizakhe Funde, Themba Matsane and that entire NEC should be going through since this sad news hit us like a thunderclap. These comrades belong to a special class to me. I have a lifelong, very deep relationship with their union POPCRU. When it faced serious organisational challenges of disunity and instability, I did my best to help guide it in the direction of unity and progress. I remember so vividly Pretty’s smile when I received my honorary member award in the union’s last congress.
Pretty internalised Samora Machel's immortal words that women empowerment is not an act of charity but an essential part of the struggle for a total emancipation of humankind. Her peers in the COSATU National Gender Committee will sadly miss her. She was a pillar of strength to everyone she touched in her too-short life.
Singonzo was a mother in the true sense of the word. Together with other female members of the Central Executive Committee, she created an association of mothers to all of us. As we lay the remains of Pretty to rest, I want to also pay tribute to her female comrades and friends in the CEC, in particular Aquinas Tulare, Ntombizakhe Funde, Tshidi Dipholo, Violet Seboni, Alina Rantsolase and others.
They have always demonstrated unconditional and pure love toward their comrades. They have provided support to one another and indeed to all of us who at times needed a mother's love and support in the faces of tribulations of life and death. I want to thank them for the support they have provided to this family as well as to other families who faced similar situations in the past. I know they will continue to do this to many others in future.
Comrade Pretty departs at a time when workers are facing daunting challenges at the economic front. I have no doubt that as she reports to other great trade unionists she will have only one thing to say: that POPCRU and COSATU have, despite all manner of challenges, retained their revolutionary and transformatory characters.
Pretty will tell John Gomomo and Elijah Barayi that COSATU remains strong. She will report to JB Marks, Moses Kotane, Moses Mabhida, Vuyisile Mini, Ray Simons, Dorothy Mokgalo, Florence Mposho, Joyce Kgoadi and other heroes and heroines of the workers movement that we remain the most effectively organised leaders of civil society formations in our country.
We continue to be a dependable ally of the African National Congress and the South African Communist Party. We remain a conscience for our young democracy. We are fearless spokespersons of the most downtrodden in our society. True to the legacy of our fallen heroines and heroes we remain friends of workers and freedom fighters across our continent and the world over who do not fear championing their just course.
Because of this we want to advise all those here that we are mobilising for a series of strikes throughout the month of July. We are not going to turn the other cheek when the system of capitalism continues to ravage us, causing untold pain and suffering to so many. We have had enough of sky-high prices of food, petrol and interest rates. Our standard of living is going down. More and more of us are being pushed into desperation. Our dignity, which we fought so hard to regain in the April 27 1994 elections, is being eroded again by greedy capitalists who continue to assault our democratic gains.
We dedicate all our militant worker action in the coming month of July and August to Pretty Singonzo. Enough is enough!
In closing let me now speak to Pretty ndithi – Hamba mfazi omabele made angomiyo ahluthisa sonke isizwe sakowenu. Goduka ngoba ixesha lifikile. Hamba ngoba amawenu akubizile. Goduka siyakukhulula ngentliziyo ezimhlophe nangona zonakele ngaphakathi. Hamba ngoba asikwazi ukulijika kuhambo lwakho. Hamba gxarhela okunyathela phezulu olwakho ugqatso ulufezile. Goduka nathi sizakulandela. Hamba mbelukazi ndini – bhongo labazali bakho nesizwe siphela! Hamba Mampondise, Jola, Ngwanya, Qengeba, Mphakomo, Mntan’enyoka wena wakuloNkwakhwa.
When your time comes to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with fear and death, so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song, and die like a hero going home.
(from the teaching of Tecumseh)
To all of us let me repeat the words of the popular poet SEK Mqhayi when he said:Godukani bantu iphelile intw’ ebithethwa.
Enkosi and thanks for listening.
Patrick Craven (National Spokesperson)
Congress of South African Trade Unions
1-5 Leyds Cnr Biccard Streets
Braamfontein, 2017
P.O. Box 1019
Johannesburg, 2000
SOUTH AFRICA
Tel: +27 11 339-4911/24
Fax: +27 11 339-5080/6940/ 086 603 9667
Cell: 0828217456
E-Mail: patrick@cosatu.org.za