Long live the spirit of Collins Chabane, long live!
Long live the spirit of Collins "The Animal” Chabane long live!
Thank you programme director,
Honorable president of the Republic and of the ANC,
National Executive Committee Officials,
Leaders of the ANC in the province,
Leaders of COSATU,
Leaders of the SACP,
Second Deputy General Secretary of the SACP Solly Mapaila,All other leaders and veterans of our movement,
Leaders of our society in government
The family, the wife, the children of Comrade Collins Chabane:
On Sunday morning between half past two and three I received a call and on the other side it was the Director-General in the Presidency who was choking and couldn't say was exactly the reasons for his call. I could put together and make an idea of what he was saying.
So I hanged up the phone and called him again because I wanted him to reassure me that indeed what he was telling me he was certain of. He confirmed when I called him again that Comrade Collins Chabane is no more and that because I am in Polokwane because of the work of the movement that we had come to do that he had asked me to go to the scene to check what has happened.
When I arrived there I received a detailed briefing from the police who were extremely technical about what happened. Most of the things they said at the time I cannot even remember. "About two motor vehicles carrying so many occupants and passengers and all sorts of things” they said. Because I had already seen what was left of Comrade Collins car and I was anxious to confirm that it was him but I was also hesitant at the reality that we may have lost one of the rarest breed within our movement.
When I went on to see him and confirm that it was him together with his two protectors something in me died. I probably had the misfortune that yes we see Comrade Collins here smiling but each time I think of that day, each time I think of that morning it is that face that was lifeless it is that brain that had stopped to function, it is that cadre whose work has been stopped in its tracks, it is that soldier who knew that putting on the uniform of Umkhonto WeSizwe is not a fashion statement but a military action to end an oppressive and exploitative system of apartheid.
To put on military regalia is not about brandishing and bragging about what you stand for but it is about facing real ammunition and the bush something which I and those of my age may probably never ever experience because of the dedication and commitment of Comrade Collins.
The first time I saw Comrade Collins was in a youth league conference in 1994 when he was the Provincial Secretary of the ANC and he was speaking at that conference and right in the middle of his speech he burst out in this very short laughter - which amused me. No one laughs at a joke that he has just made the way Comrade Collins laughed. It was not even a paragraph laugh, it was an exclamation laugh then it ended there.
The next time I saw him was in 1996, I think I was fifteen years old at the ANC conference in Tivumbeni. Where I saw the animal at work and he was summarising a huge report that was going to be presented at that conference overnight reproduced and ultimately presented and such was the nature of the cadre that we have lost.
Very few leaders come and go without us remembering anything that had happened between their coming and going and yet this humble servant of our people, this humble servant of the movement, this humble father and husband has always ensured that with humility he dedicate himself to the needs, interests and aspirations of our people. Never an opportunist, never a populist! At all times he would be sitting there quietly and silently and yet his interventions would be always memorable. His interventions would ultimately be what guides the meeting, what guides society and also influence the cause of our history.
The greatest monument we can build for Comrade Collins is to go back to basics, is to remember that the challenges that confronts our movement need a special type of a cadre. It is to invest our resources in the political training of our young cadres. There is no other way in which we can expose the weaknesses of those opposed to our discourse except having well trained cadres of our movement. They will shout, they will hurl insults, they will bang tables because that is all they know.
We are soldiers, we are better equipped intellectually and otherwise to be able to engage them and to be able to expose the fury that their arguments and their positions contain.
Our reinvestments into political education are the key monument we should pay to Comrade Collins. The second monument is to build a cadre in the public service that will serve the needs, interests and aspirations of our people without expecting any reward, without pursuing any personal interest and without corrupting the system.
The last monument we can build is to serve our people with compassion and dedication without expecting any form of reward, without expecting that any personal wishes should be and would be of those whom we lead.
Whatever challenges that this community faces, those would be resolved but they would require the levelheadedness and maturity of Comrade Collins Chabane.
May his soul rest in peace!
