Tribute to one of the ‘finest’ former govt communicators, Mbulelo Musi

In the past week, we woke up to the sad news of the death of one of the finest former government communicators, Mbulelo Musi.

He joins several government communicators such as Parks Mankahlana, Ronnie Mamoepa, Thabo Masebe and many others who have since departed following our new dispensation.

Apart from serving as public servants, my interaction with Musi, aka “Moss Thema”, dates back to our years in exile.

Tribute

Several colleagues have paid tribute to Musi by highlighting his far-reaching contributions to building a South Africa envisioned in the Freedom Charter, which was adopted by various South Africans led by the ANC in 1955.

The 1976 student uprisings were to build up on the university student uprising that took place in the early 1970s.

Musi and many other young high school pupils were to take up the baton as they protested against the imposition of Afrikaans as the medium of instruction in township schools.

Like most activists who resisted the repressive laws of the apartheid regime, Musi decided to join the ANC and its military wing, uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK).

He received his military training ahead of me under the June 16 Detachment and I followed with my military training in 1978 under the Moncada Detachment.

Our paths first crossed when we were deployed in what was termed the “forward area” (Mozambique) in the 1980s.

We formed part of a unit that was responsible for supporting the mass mobilisation of people inside the country to fight against the apartheid regime.

This was to be one of the pillars of our struggle for liberation. We were based in Maputo in a house later termed “Internal House”.

Both of us had completed our training in political education at the Lenin Political School in the former Soviet Union.

Our mission involved analysing what was happening in the country at the time and influencing the pro-democracy political direction in order to intensify the mass mobilisation of people that was gaining momentum on the ground.

Endless discussions

The Musi being described by colleagues, describes the “Moss” I knew in the 1980s. The vibrant political discussions that took place at the Internal House not only provided high-class analysis of reports for adoption by the leadership, they also sharpened our training regime for the new recruits who were enroute to Angola and assisted with the debriefing of those activists who were still based in the country.

We had endless discussions as a collective on how to support the United Democratic Front, which was viewed as a vehicle to channel the mass mobilisation towards the common goal of liberation.

We supported the initiatives of community-based structures such as civic associations as they were at the coalface of dealing with bread-and-butter issues affecting communities.

Years later, after the unbanning of the ANC, our paths crossed again this time as public servants. Musi became a government communicator anchored on the solid political programme of the ANC.

Whenever we met, he would want us to reflect the current state of our struggle. Our political work was based on the basic principles of trust, honesty and ability to engage constructively with the people we served.

As a public servant in the department of social development, he used to speak at length about the plight of poor and vulnerable people they were interacting with on the ground.

Musi always expressed concern that our liberation history is not being properly preserved for future generations.

It is no surprise that he became actively involved with Freedom Park activities and many other historical events such as the commemoration of the Matola Raid of 1981, which he survived.

At the time of his death, he was involved in resuscitating the structures of MK military veterans and importantly, how ex-MK members can contribute towards the renewal of the ANC.

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-Williams is former director-general at Government Communication and Information Service