WE MUST BE GRATEFUL FOR OUR FREEDOM
IT WAS with heavy hearts and deep sadness that we learnt of the passing of Mane Dipakeng Evelyn Nkadimeng on the morning of September 28.
Our heartfelt condolences go to the children, grandchildren, great- grandchildren, their relatives and loved ones. Last month, we bade farewell to Isithwalandwe Seaparankwe: Comrade John Kgoana Nkadimeng – Tau!
With so much pain and grief around us, and even as we mourn and honour the stalwarts, we are inspired to forge ahead with their struggle, drawing lessons from their exemplary lives – lives worthy of emulation.
The ANC waged the Struggle in many forms and on many fronts. The courageous generation of women such as Mane Nkadimeng were in the front lines of the struggle for liberation. They risked their lives in order to give birth to this democracy that we seem not to value as a precious achievement.
From the time she married Ntate Nkadimeng in 1958, they became inseparable. The countless times in which Comrade John Nkadimeng was detained, facing treason charges and ultimately convicted and incarcerated represented waiting.
Waiting for a baby to be born; waiting for that dreadful knock at the door from the Special Branch of the police; waiting to be charged; waiting to be released from prison; waiting to be reunited as family and comrades; waiting patiently for progress in the Struggle; waiting for liberation; waiting for the dawn of democracy and waiting for the fruits of freedom to reach the common people.
Revolutionaries know how to wait; they know how to be patient; they never despair. Reactionaries, opportunists, traitors, hypocrites and rentseekers, on the other hand, live in despair, desperate for instant solutions. They live a lie.
A comrade who was detained with Comrade John Mahwiri Phala, a colleague of Comrade John Nkadimeng in Sebatakgomo, reminded Comrade Phala how he believed in telling the truth. He proceeded to declare that he intended to tell the whole truth and everything he knew about Phala to their jailers. But the truth is not static. What he planned to tell the interrogators was not the truth but treachery. He did not know how to wait. No serious revolutionary needs to resort to a lie.
Mme Nkadimeng, in her quiet way, taught us that there is no better strategy than to fight with clean hands, to fight with the truth. These are the only weapons that inspire faith, confidence, dignity and morale. The best weapon is reason, morality, truth, the ability to defend an idea, a proposal, a position.
Mme Nkadimeng lost her mother at the age of 6 years. She left South Africa in 1979 to reunite with her husband who was exiled in Swaziland.
It was in Lusaka, Zambia, where she, being in charge of the ANC’S early childhood centre named after Dora Tamani, gave motherly love to the children of the movement, who fondly called her “Mane”. Her heart was more precious than gold and justifies the profound affection with which we cherish her memory.
Ben Okri’s poem says:
Be grateful for Freedom…
Fear not, but be full of light and love; Fear not, but be alert and receptive; Fear not, but act decisively when you should;
Fear not, but know when to stop; Fear not, for you are loved by me; Fear not, for death is not the real terror;
But life magically is.
Mane would say to us that we must be grateful for our freedom. She would assure us of her love. She would put us at ease that death is not real terror. May Mane’s soul rest in eternal peace.