The late former defence minister and Cope leader Patrick “Terror” Lekota was hailed as a man of unwavering commitment to a non-racial and non-sexist SA, during his memorial service in Soweto on Wednesday.
Leaders of the United Democratic Front, Cope and the ANC, and scores of people descended on the Regina Mundi Catholic Church in Moroka to pay tribute to Lekota.
Speaker after speaker claimed Lekota as part of their own movements, including Nomvula Mokonyane of the ANC, who gave a keynote address.
Lekota spent most of his early years in the trenches of the ANC and despite having moved on to form Congress of the People in 2008, the ANC still considered him as having been one of their own.
His life in the ANC saw him reach the higher echelons of power. He was elected the party’s national chairperson in 1997, a position he held until 2007.
Mokonyane said that as much as he could be claimed by members of Cope, UDF and the Black Consciousness Movement, he also belonged to the ANC.
“We are gathered here with the Lekotas because it’s not only you but we as the ANC who have played witness to the life of Lekota. We are grateful for his contributions to the liberation struggle of our country,” said Mokonyane.
“He may be claimed to be a member of Cope, he may have come from the Black Consciousness [Movement], but he is also ours.”
Mokonyane said Lekota believed in democracy, accountability, honesty and that “freedom carried with it a responsibility of placing the interests of the people first”.
“What is of importance on behalf of the ANC is that we wish to thank the family for sharing Terror Lekota with the people of South Africa, for affording him the opportunity to spend most of his time under the mass democratic movement, even him carrying a central role in the ANC in the liberation struggle,” she said.
Those attending his memorial service included defence deputy minister and UDM leader Bantu Holomisa, City of Johannesburg mayor Dada Morero, Rev Frank Chikane, former foreign affairs minister Naledi Pandor, Mbuyiseni Ndlozi and member of the ANC integrity commission Sue Rabkin.
Lekota, who died last week, will be laid to rest in a special official funeral category 2, with ceremonial elements led by the SAPS, at his hometown of Bloemfontein on Saturday.
Members of political opponents Cope and the ANC rallied behind Lekota at the service on Wednesday, singing, dancing and chanting his name.
There was a sea of yellow, black and green as members of Cope and ANC donned their different but similar party regalia.
Mokonyane said the contradictions that emerged between him and the leadership of the ANC, which led to him forming a splinter party, should not undermine the role he played as a member of the Black Consciousness Movement, who joined the ANC while in prison and came out to build the UDF.
“He worked tirelessly with us in the ANC on the ready-to-govern programme. He was among those who assisted in ensuring that we all worked together and embraced the fact that we didn’t take this country through arms but through a negotiated settlement.”
UDF representatives described Lekota as having been critical in just 18 months of helping them building the organisation and its alliances into “formidable fronts” which eventually went on to “take down apartheid”.
They hailed his unwavering stance on non-racialism and a non-sexist SA at the height of apartheid as one of the most transformational stances one could have taken at that time.
Even in the new democratic SA, Lekota remained committed to a better nation and, right until his death last week, had never been followed by any scandals of corruption, said the UDF representative.
TimesLIVE
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