WESLEY SEALE
Standing in the blistering spring sun on a sports field in Gugulethu in October 1999, we had come to bury our leader and comrade, Wanga Sigila.
Paying tribute to Sigila, who was serving as the deputy president of the South African Students Congress (SASCO) when he met his untimely death in a fatal car accident, the then president of the ANC Youth League, Malusi Gigaba, said:
“It was for this reason that his entire young life was devoted to struggle.
As he struggled to change the conditions in which he studied; as he struggled to change the education system to make it accessible to the majority of black youth in particular; as he fought for a universal and quality education and training, he was driven by this deep desire to build a better life, not just for himself, but for the majority of his people.”
Not forgetting the internationalist that he was, Gigaba went on to state that Sigila “stood in deadly opposition to oppression and exploitation, knowing that injustice and inequality were not the destiny of humankind.”
These words of Gigaba went through my mind after reading the last column of my leader and comrade, the now late Buyile Matiwane.
The column, in these pages, was published a day after the sad news reverberated throughout the country that this student and young leader was no more.
Also serving as SASCO’s deputy president at the time of his untimely death, “Prof” or “Gaba”, as he was affectionately known by comrades and confreres, was also serving on the provincial conference preparatory committee of the ANC Youth League in the Western Cape.
As photos and collages began spreading, my memory of my being utterly impressed with him came to mind after our first meeting in the old Town House Hotel in Cape Town. His ideas were lucid and his politics was solid.
Yet like all solid comrades we would often have our clashes too but this never diminished the respect we had for each other.
Comrade Buyile, like his predecessor the late Wanga Sigila, was also an internationalist through and through. Fittingly, as if he was paying a personal tribute, his last column was titled: “A long and worthwhile relationship with China.”
As he narrated the story of young Lerato Mashele, ‘Prof’ mentioned how excited Lerato was in the training and upskilling programmes that were on offer by Cosco, a Chinese shipping company operating in Africa.
In other words, ‘Prof’ had that ability to blend youth empowerment, through skills development and training, with internationalism.
In particular, his passing is a great loss for the strengthening of people-to-people relations between China and Africa, and China and South Africa in particular.
Like the late Wanga Sigila and in the words of Malusi Gigaba, ‘Prof’ “knew that humankind's destiny lay in freedom, justice and equality; in a society where everyone produced for society and not for private wealth, and he fought to bring this society about.”
In paying tribute to the late Comrade Matiwane, the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China said that “he had made contributions to the development of China-South Africa and China-Africa friendly relations by enhancing youth exchanges and cooperation between the two sides. He stood out as a fine model of contemporary China-South Africa friendship.”
If anything, the late Comrade ‘Prof’ ended his column with the exhortation to embrace our accelerating relationship with China “and ensure that the future is one of shared prosperity.”
As we travel to Engcobo this weekend to lay this internationalist but young son of the African soil to rest, let us remember the generational task that Gaba would want us to fulfil.
When thinking back to that day in Gugulethu now more than two decades ago, the struggle song often reserved for Oliver Tambo, awulale ngxolo, would frequent my mind and I would softly sing: Wanga Sigila, awulale ngxolo…
Sadly, now it will have to be changed to: Prof Matiwane, awulale ngxolo.
Seale is a former member of SASCO and the ANC YL. He has a PhD in international relations.