Let's build on Bizos's foundation
In 1941 a war ship arrived in SA. On its way it had picked up a rowboat that had been drifting in the Mediterranean Sea for days.
On board was a 13-year-old boy who, with his father and a group of Greek soldiers, had fled their home country after Nazi occupation during World War 2.
Seven years later, the young man went on to study law at the University of Witwatersrand where he met fellow student Nelson Mandela. Theirs became a lifelong friendship that would shape SA’s constitutional democracy, inspiring generations of men and women to fight for freedom and social justice.
George Bizos died on Wednesday in his home in Johannesburg. He was 92 years old.
When receiving the news, President Cyril Ramaphosa described Bizos as an incisive legal mind, one of the architects of our highly regarded constitution.
“We dip our heads in honour of the contribution that George Bizos has made to our democracy … we will forever remember his contribution,” the president said.
Bizos’s was a struggle arguably birthed from his personal journey as a refugee seeking freedom from oppression and brutality. It is likely the motivation behind his dedicating his legal mastery and indeed decades of his life fighting unjust systems that brutalised and killed those they could not tame.
Families of anti-apartheid heroes Steve Biko, Chris Hani, the Cradock Four as well as those of the Marikana massacre can attest to Bizos’s commitment to this cause. Paying her respects to Bizos, Hani’s widow Limpho affectionately described him as “the most decent human being”.
Indeed, his greatest legacy was defined by the Rivonia Trial, a watershed moment in our history, one which demonstrated his selflessness and unwavering commitment to the freedom and human dignity of the men he represented.
There can be no question that our country, with all its troubles, is a better place than before because of deeply personal sacrifices of Bizos and many others of his generation.
Their courage in the face of cruelty and even death laid the foundation on which we ought to build a society free from prejudice. Long may his values live. Hamba kahle, Qhawe!