Chikane a natural leader not a populist – Bloem

United Democratic Front (UDF) founding activist Moss Chikane was a natural leader, a political intellectual and not a populist, said Cope spokesperson Dennis Bloem as he paid tribute to his comrade who died on Wednesday.

Bloem said when he was working in the then Orange Free State as a UDF mobiliser, he received guidance from Chikane who was the party’s secretary in the Transvaal Province.

“Chikane was very central in the then Transvaal. I used to interact with him as he was my leader,” he said.

He said Chikane was convicted of treason together with Cope president Mosiuoa Lekota, Transnet interim chairman Popo Molefe and 18 other UDF activists.

He said Chikane encouraged him to focus on the liberation struggle by “telling me that the main goal is the freedom of the people”.

“He was a selfless cadre who would always share his knowledge with us,” said Bloem.

“Chikane was arrested in 1982 after an uprising against PW Botha’s tricameral parliament, as he was at the centre of mobilising the whole country to rise up”.

Bloem said he was part of the group that worked with Chikane to form the UDF before it was launched in Cape Town in August 1983.

In a statement yesterday, family spokesperson Chikane Chikane said that the late leader had been unwell for some time and was in and out of hospital.

Chikane was elected as a Member of Parliament in 1994 following South Africa’s first democratic election.

In 2005, Chikane was appointed as South Africa’s Ambassador to Germany and in 2010 he was posted to Zambia where he also served a full term as an ambassador.

Chikane is survived by five sons and a daughter, three brothers and four sisters.

The family will announce his funeral arrangements in due course. | African News Agency (ANA) | Bongani Hans