3 January 2021
The South African Communist Party (SACP) conveys its heartfelt condolences to the family of Comrade Koena Wilson Ramotlou, the General Secretary of the South African Municipal Workers’ Union (SAMWU). Following hospitalisation on 6 December 2020, Comrade Koena died yesterday, 2 January 2021, aged 41 years old.
The SACP also sends its condolences to the entire membership of SAMWU, Cosatu and the Alliance.
Comrade Koena was elected General Secretary at SAMWU’s 12th National Congress in December 2020. Previously, he was the union’s Deputy General Secretary, having been elected at the union’s 11th National Congress in 2015. He served in various responsibilities in SAMWU, starting in the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality before he was elected as the union's Deputy General Secretary. He was intimately involved in the efforts to strengthen the unity of SAMWU, Cosatu as well as the entire trade union movement.
His contribution to the national democratic revolution started at a younger age, however, particularly when he served in the student movement. In the late 1990s, he was the Gauteng Provincial Chairperson of the South African Colleges Students' Association. He also served in the Provincial Executive Committee of the Young Communist League of South Africa (YCLSA) in Gauteng Province, contributing to actively building the SACP and the YCLSA, rooted in Marxism-Leninism. He also was an activist of the ANC Youth League and served in the Reginald Task Team of the Ekurhuleni ANC Youth League, and also served in the SACP Oupa Pasha District leadership.
In memory of Comrade Koena, the SACP calls for the strengthening of the trade union movement, principled defence of workers’ rights and deepening of political education and ideological development among workers for the attainment of socialism. The fight against monopoly capital necessarily means that workers must unite in the fight against the looting of national resources, both of which will not be defeated without worker unity.
ISSUED BY THE SOUTH AFRICAN COMMUNIST PARTY | SACP
EST. 1921 AS THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF SOUTH AFRICA | CPSA
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