Municipality ups its services to celebrate Chris Hani month
TO HONOUR slain anti-apartheid activist Chris Hani, the Chris Hani District Municipality will unveil some of its service delivery projects and drum the values of the struggle stalwart into municipal employees.
The Chris Hani Memorial Lecture and the annual Chris Hani Freedom Marathon, which take place next weekend, are part of Chris Hani month celebrations.
The late Hani, former SACP general secretary and Mkhonto we Sizwe (MK) commander, was assassinated on April 10 1993.
Mayor Kholiswa Vimbayo said they would honour Hani by unveiling some community projects.
“The Chris Hani month programme incorporates the memorial lectures of Nelson Mandela, Albertina Sisulu and Chris Hani.
“We will be showcasing the multimillion-rand projects we support, launching and handing over agricultural equipment to enhance crop production, handing over lucerne equipment at the Qamata irrigation scheme.
“We will also have the popular Chris Hani Freedom Marathon, among others,” she said.
Last Friday, the municipality handed over a new tractor and agricultural equipment and a taxi rank in Ngcobo before ending with the Albertina Sisulu Memorial Lecture.
The mayor said: “We have this cooperative in a remote rural area called Gqaga in Engcobo, which is supporting the community of that dry area. We are assisting them with a tractor and working material so that the cooperative can grow and the members become able to feed their families.”
A member of the Gqaba agricultural project, Fikile Xaya, said the tractor would help them a lot as it would enable them to work the land.
“We have land which we are working on in our village and with these tractors we will be able to feed our families. We thank the municipality for the support.”
On Saturday, the remains of PAC members who were hanged by the apartheid government were reburied after being repatriated last month and handed to their families.
Tomorrow, municipal and government officials working in the region will be lectured on the values of Chris Hani.
“These are some of the events that will be taking place leading up to the marathon on April 28.
“We will be closing this year’s Chris Hani month celebrations on May 3 where we will be recognising the Lesseyton Methodist Church as a historic site,” Vimbayo said.
“We wish to develop that site in Lesseyton so that we can create jobs and alleviate poverty.
“We will be launching that site in partnership with the church.
“We have the responsibility to invite people to come on board and be there when we declare the site a heritage site,” she said.
● Former ANC president Richard Mahabane studied at the Lesseyton Methodist Theological School in 1908. He was ordained as a minister in 1914. In 1919 he was elected president of the SA Native National Congress and in 1924, ANC president up to 1927. He served another term from 1937 to 1940. —