Liberal heroes’ deaths arrived a year before elections

TURFFONTEIN – First it was Chris Hani, then Oliver Reginald Tambo, followed by Walter Sisulu, now it is former president Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela.

All four of these men shared the same vision of a democratic South Africa that is not segregated by race or ethnicity, but who believed in unity as a nation. They all played an important role in ending the apartheid struggle, and they all passed away a year before national elections.

Chris Hani, who was born in 1942, was the General Secretary of the South African Communist Party and the Commander of Mkhonto Wesizwe (spear of the nation). Chris was shot and killed in front of his home at Dawn Park, in Boksburg on April 10, 1993, just before the first democratic elections on April 27, 1994.

Two weeks later than Hani, the nation once again mourned the death of Oliver Reginald Tambo. Oliver passed away on April 24, 1993. He shares not only the same year and month of death with Chris Hani, but also the same day which was on a Saturday. Oliver was elected as the Acting President of the ANC after the death of Chief Albert Luthuli in 1967. In 1985, Tambo was the president of the ANC till his death at the age of 75.

After ten years of democracy, ANC veteran Walter Sisulu died on May 5, 2003, also just before the third democratic elections in 2004. Walter Sisulu was born 1912, same year as the ANC was introduced.

Expectedly, yet unbelievably, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela is the fourth liberation hero who passed away a year before the elections. South Africa would not have been the same without these great men.

May all their souls rest in peace.

Mthunzi Tsetse