SACP Press Alert, 31 December 2021

The South African Communist Party (SACP) will hold the 27^th annual Commemoration of Comrade Joe Slovo's passing in Soweto, Gauteng on 6 January 2021.

The SACP invites the media to cover the event.

Details of the Joe Slovo 27^th Commemoration are as follows:

Date:                      6 January 2022

Venue:                   Avalon Cemetery, Soweto

Time:                     11h00

Keynote Speaker:  Dr Blade Nzimande, SACP General Secretary, will deliver the Party's statement in memory of Slovo, and outline key working-class priorities for the new year.

Representatives of the Alliance components, COSATU and the ANC, will deliver their messages before the keynote address by Nzimande.

Young Communist League of South Africa National Secretary, Comrade Tinyiko Ntini, will deliver the YCLSA’s message of support prior to the Alliance formations’ messages.

A representative of the the Joe Slovo family will deliver a message to the commemoration.

JOE SLOVO: SUMMARY

Joe Slovo was the SACP National Chairperson and member of the SACP Political Bureau and Central Committee at the time of his death on 6 January 1995. He was also a member of the ANC National Executive Committee and the first Minister of Housing in the first democratic administration led by Nelson Mandela as the President.

Before then, Slovo was the SACP General Secretary. He was succeeded as the SACP General Secretary and the uMkhonto weSizwe Chief of Staff by Chris Hani.

While the history of the South African struggle for liberation and social emancipation is a collective history of the interrelated class, national and gender transformation struggles, the outstanding role played by dedicated individuals merits attention. Slovo was one of the great thinkers, strategists, tacticians and leaders of the struggle. He was involved in intellectual production and practical action to achieve democracy in South Africa, and to advance broader social transformation towards the goals of the Freedom Charter and beyond, under a socialist transition.