17 December 2021

The South African Communist Party (SACP) in Gauteng Province and nationally has learned with shock and sadness the passing away of the SACP Gauteng 13^th Congress Provincial Executive Committee (PEC) member, Comrade Duma Nkosi.

The SACP takes this opportunity to convey its message of condolences to Comrade Duma’s wife, children, relatives, comrades, and friends.  Also, we wish to express our message of solidarity to all fraternal structures and organs of state that Comrade Duma served or was associated with. We are indeed saddened and devastated that he passes away at the time when his wisdom and expertise to rebuild our revolutionary movement were most needed.

Comrade Duma was not an ordinary member but held in high esteem within and beyond the revolutionary circles of the African National Congress (ANC)-headed national liberation movement as a stalwart. He was elected to the PEC of the SACP in our 11^th Congress in 2011, and ever since has served the people of Gauteng with grace and courage.

Prior to this, Comrade Duma held many senior and prominent positions including being a Member of the National Assembly from 1994 to 2001. He returned to the national parliament in 2019. He has been a member of the Gauteng Provincial Legislature and a senior civil servant in the Department of Economic Development. Comrade Duma was the Chairperson of the South African Local Government Association (SALGA) in Gauteng and graciously served the people of Ekurhuleni as the Executive Mayor for the Metropolitan Municipality between 2001 and 2008. As a long standing activist and leader of the working class, he served as first President of the South African Commercial Catering Workers Union (SACCAWU).

In all these positions, comrade Duma’s praxis was guided by the Marxist-Leninist theory and as such was not shy to expose and, where necessary, confront capitalist exploitation. Even this was done with the utmost care and love for the people. As a people’s leader comrade Duma walked side by side with the masses. A master of leading from behind, often we would not notice his presence and influence.

However, it was through hard work within the working-class communities that comrade Duma excelled. He was a true organic leader who emerged in the anti-apartheid organs of popular power to rise to play a prominent role in our revolutionary struggle. He understood such communities as a critical site of the struggle and hence he was attached to these communities to the end.

It is this lesson that, in his honour and in picking up the spear, we will be determined to advance by building a popular left front that will confront the multiple crises facing South Africa such as the intractable high levels of unemployment, poverty, inequality. These challenges and the associated crisis of social reproduction require a discipline offense by the working class fundamentally at the terrain of the national democratic revolution.

We will invoke Comrade Duma’s memory while drinking from the fountain of the wisdom he left us to remind ourselves of the battles that lie ahead towards the full transformation of our society, particularly in building sustainable communities – one area that he dedicated his life to.

May the revolutionary spirit of Comrade Duma Nkosi live forever!!

Contact:

Jacob Mamabolo

SACP Gauteng Provincial Secretary

Mobile: 082 884 1868