By Pallo Jordan
Chris Hani has left an indelible mark on the politics of South Africa. A committed communist from the age of 20, he received acclaim as a champion of the oppressed, the poor and the excluded. An independent opinion poll in November 1992 found that, next to Nelson Mandela, he was the most popular political leader in South Africa. He had topped the poll in the ANC's own leadership elections at its conference in July 1991.
Uniquely among the ANC's younger leaders, he could strike a chord with the residents of the urban townships and agricultural workers and those in the teeming squatter camps that today surround every South African city. Yet he was equally at ease among erudite classical scholars, and he surprised no lesser person than Dr Gerrit Viljoen, then minister of constitutional affairs, with his knowledge of Latin and Greek literature.
In the townships, young and old saw in him an implacable opponent of apartheid and economic exploitation. There are two main strands in Hani's political career. He had more than amply demonstrated his military skills and leadership during campaigns in Zimbabwe (1967), Angola (1983-84) and inside South Africa for 28 years. This had won him the respect and admiration of the combatants of Umkhonto we Sizwe. In urban townships, his record as a military commander stood him in good stead with the militant youth who had seen the need to oppose apartheid with arms in hand.
Hani was also a political strategist of great talent whose individual contribution to the development of the ANC and South African Communist Party's political program is widely recognised. He often referred to his class background — the son of a peasant migrant worker and an illiterate peasant mother from Cofimvaba, Transkei — and his intellectual training as the foundations of his political ideals. Throughout his adult life, he held fast to the view that the national emancipation of the black majority in South Africa would never be complete while economic inequalities remained in place.
With South Africa moving towards democratic change, he increasingly saw his role as that of building and leading a strong Communist Party that would be relevant to the challenges this country and his people faced. A warm, humane person, he was known amongst his friends and colleagues for his great sense of humour. His murder has left a noticeable gap in the leading ranks of both the ANC and SACP. He will be sorely missed.
He was a very dear friend of mine. We had known each other from the age of 18 or 19. We met in Cape Town, where I grew up and his father worked. We had a number of interests in common: he had studied classical literature, I classical history, and we worked together in the ANC. We shared a common commitment to socialism, although I was never in the SACP, as he was.
[Pallo Jordan is a member of the ANC National Executive.]