Komani struggle stalwart Mciteka dies, aged 84
Komani and the EFF are mourning the death of SA struggle stalwart Ali Nur Mciteka, also known as M’Afrika.
Mciteka died at the age of 84 in his Kenyan home on Monday morning due to health complications and was buried on Tuesday according to the Muslim tradition.
Mciteka left SA in 1963 to join Umkhonto we Sizwe in Tanzania.
From 1964-1968, he went for a military training in Russia, Yugoslavia and Egypt and later became a military commander.
In 1970, Mciteka left the Morogoro camp in Tanzania due to disunity and went to Kenya.
After coming back to SA after spending 40 years in exile, Mciteka joined the EFF in 2013 and became an active member of the party until he passed away.
While in Kenya, Mciteka married Halima Wambui Mciteka and they were blessed with five children, one boy and four girls.
Ushura Mciteka said her father was an exemplary leader, a good father and the most loving and selfless grandfather.
“He served his people with distinction. “May he rest in eternal peace,” she said. Mciteka was born in Komani and attended primary school in Mlungisi before going to Freemantle Boys High School in Cacadu, formerly known as Lady Frere.
He completed his advance diploma in accounting in Nairobi Polytechnic University College in Kenya.
EFF Eastern Cape provincial elections task force (PETF) co-ordinator Sam Matiase said in a political tradition where the common honour for any man or woman was never a mister or miss, but simply “M’Afrika”, Mciteka was commonly known as M’Afrika.
“He had impeccable struggle credentials and counted amongst his peers and generation of political freedom fighters.
“He made a formidable contribution in the attainment of political emancipation in SA,” Matiase said.
Matiase said as a proud Pan-Africanist scholar and theorist, Mciteka dedicated his entire life to the struggles of the oppressed people in Africa and in the diaspora.
“He was genuine and staunch Sankarian revolutionary.
“He was staunchly guided by the principles of sacrifice, love for the people and oneself, simplicity, humility and modesty,” Matiase said.
He said despite Mciteka’s penchant and love for classics and obvious educational achievements, he was a middle-class person, but never looked down on the ordinary people.
“He lived among the working class in Komani, in Mlungisi location.
“He joined the EFF when for his advanced age, was not fashionable and often invited unguided rebuke from his peers.
“Neither did he join the organisation alone, he joined it with his entire family: his children here in SA as well as in Kenya.
“His siblings in Komani are active members and ground forces of the EFF. His sister, fighter Nqabisa Mciteka is a regional command team member in Chris Hani region,” Matiase said.
Matiase said in 2016, Mciteka became an EFF councillor candidate for the municipal %election because he was popular within his &'()&'*+)community. “He garnered an overwhelming support from voters.”
EFF member Luthando Amos, as a young men who grew up raised by his grandparents in Cala, said it was very easy to interact with M’Afrika when they met in August 2013 at the Hexagon Square during the recruitment drive after EFF’s formation.
“I understood why he joined the militant EFF because of the failure of the ANC to its people.
“He was also of the view that political freedom without economic freedom was meaningless. His military experience and expertise sharpened our way of thinking and of doing things. We will miss him and his contribution to the revolution for economic freedom, may his revolutionary soul rest in eternal peace,” Amos said.