Government has failed Chris Hani, says widow
CHRIS Hani’s widow, Limpho Hani, has slammed the ANC government for having failed her husband and what he stood for.
Limpho Hani, who took part in various celebrations in her husband’s memory, said his death was not worth her children growing up without their father.
The ANC and its alliance partners hosted a wreath-laying ceremony headed by ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula and other leaders, including Solly Mapaila, at Thomas Nkobi Memorial Park in Germiston.
“This government has failed him, and all of us. I assure you that countless of our people have died for our so-called freedom.
“This is not what they had in mind when they laid down their lives. It was not worth his life.
“It was not worth me being a widow,” Hani said.
“It was not worth my children being fatherless and it was not worth my grandchildren not knowing him,” she said, while being hosted by the City of Ekurhuleni during a ceremony held in his memory.
Hani was gunned down on April 10, 1993, at the age of 51. At the time, he was the general secretary of the South African Communist Party (SACP), and a member of the ANC’s national executive committee.
Yesterday marked 31 years since the death of the SACP and ANC leader at his home in Dawn Park, Ekurhuleni.
Hani was gunned down by Polish-born Janusz Walus in the driveway of his home in Boksburg.
SACP leader and ANC MP Dr Blade Nzimande said: “Comrade Hani hated corruption. So does the ANC. We do need to do all we can to ensure that those implicated to have their hands dirty in the corporate capture of the state must be dealt with.
“We must not allow them to use any excuses or any methods to try to run away from accounting for their crimes.”
Nzimande said that in spite of the challenges of the past 31 years since Hani’s death and the country’s political freedom, there had been many achievements that the former chief of staff of uMkhonto weSizwe would have been proud of.
“As the government, we want to say today, Chris, as some of us would call him, would have been very proud of these achievements.
“Of course, we are under no illusion that we still have a lot to do to take this country forward,” he said.
Mbalula said Hani epitomised morality and what was good about leadership.
“Comrade Chris Hani was the epitome of revolutionary morality, whose heart and mind were always one with the toiling masses of our people.
“Comrade Chris Hani would have undoubtedly appreciated the gravity of domestic and international challenges arrayed against our national transformation agenda, and would have provided ideological and political clarity on how to navigate them,” he said.