The young lion roars no more
Magaqa was radical and uncompromising
Born: 1983 Died: September 4, 2017 Funeral: Venue not yet finalised Burial: Saturday September 16 2017 A radical and militant voice has been muzzled, a young lion has been permanently silenced, and we will hear his revolutionary songs and sense of humour no more.
We have been robbed of a comrade, a brother and a fellow economic freedom fighter.
The 1944 generation declared its generational mission as “Freedom in our Lifetime”.
It is a mission that influenced the 24th national conference of the ANCYL to declare “Economic Freedom in our Lifetime” as its mission.
Sindiso Magaqa was part of this generation that turned the national discourse from one of a cosmetic rainbow nation to one of economic freedom for the economically marginalised black African majority.
It is a generation that believed that a true rainbow nation will only be realised when there is an economic equilibrium between black and white.
Magaqa, like the 1944 generation of the ANCYL, was uncompromising and unyielding on the autonomy of the league.
It is a conviction he was prepared to, and did, suffer for.
At the height of the disciplinary hearings in the ANC, he was sanctioned to a threeyear suspension, with a provision that his suspension will be suspended on condition that he apologises to Cde Malusi Gigaba and the ANC as a whole.
The majority of us felt that given the fact that [then president] Julius Malema and Floyd Shivambu had already been suspended and expelled, he, at least, ought to apologise.
We impressed upon him to apologise as we felt that the (ANCYL) NEC was going to be more depleted in the absence of all of them.
He refused for some time, but at the end grudgingly agreed to do it, and grudgingly sent a one-line apology at midnight to the media and the ANC.
Obviously, the apology did not receive maximum publicity. There was an endless debate within the organisation whether he indeed apologised or not, but we argued that he did and the ANC argued that he did not. As a result, he never came back to resume his duties as secretary-general of the ANC Youth League .
Here is a man who was prepared to sacrifice and lose everything he had in defence of the autonomy of the league.
We convey our heartfelt condolences to his wife, children and the family in general, his friends, comrades and the whole community of Umzimkhulu in KwaZulu-Natal.
Comrade Nobhala, go and tell Peter Mokaba, Parks Mankahlana, Patrick Mbulawa and many other fallen heroes of our Struggle that all is not well in the movement ... but we are soldiering on like you did. Till we meet again.
‘‘ We’ve been robbed of a comrade, a brother and a fellow fighter