On this day in history of our country two events occurred. One, the arrival of the of the employees of the Dutch East Indian Company at the then Cape of Good Hope in 1652, which in our view represented an embryo of the emergence of class society in our country. Two, the brutal killing of a young (23) Solomon Kalushi Mahlangu in 1979 whose life was cut short, a struggle hero who’s last words were, “My blood will nourish the tree that will bear the fruits of freedom. Tell my people that I love them. They must continue the fight.”, epitomised freedom in the broadest sense of the word.
It is no shocker that South African Students and young people in general, in their quest for freedom invoke Solomon Mahlangu through the song about his noble name for continued resilience and commitment to total liberation of the marginalised Africans in our land. We, the South African Students alongside other dejected majority young people who are not found in institutions of higher education and training, non economically active invoke the spirit of Kalushi ka Mahlangu because of our firm belief that he represents “ freedom”, the freedom associated not with just political and civil rights but also substantive freedom from abject and grinding poverty and unemployment, from social deprivation and hunger and disease, and from the crass individualism and materialism that blights our democracy; a freedom which sees the progressive realization of the social, economic and human rights that are fundamental to living full, decent, productive, rich and rewarding lives.
SASCO invites all freedom loving South Africans to join the continuing struggle for the full realisation of free quality and compulsory education for all as envisaged by our forebears. The education that is free from ideological stranglehold, free from colonial domination, free from market fundamentalism and freed from being a commodity to be bought and sold driven by capitalist economic mode of production.
As an organisation our inherent view is that free education is a cornerstone of total liberation from the triple challenges of unemployment, poverty and inequality. The struggle for economic freedom in our lifetime is incomplete without the full realisation of free education as we have defined it in our Strategic Perspective on Transformation (SPOT) document. The best and lasting tribute our movement can give to Solomon Kalushi Mahlangu would be an appreciation that education is a major area of transformation and a crucial sphere of national development in our nation.
Long Live Solomon Mahlangu Long Live!
Issued by SASCO
Bamanye Matiwane
President
Buthanani Thobela
Secretary General
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Luvuyo Barnes
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