Mashatile honours the legacy of Solomon Mahlangu and touts ANC's rejuvenation

ANC deputy president Paul Mashatile commemorated the life and legacy of Solomon Kalushi Mahlangu with a memorial lecture on Sunday in Khayelitsha while other ANC leaders also undertook other activities in Mahlangu’s memory in Gauteng.

Mahlangu was a young uMkhonto we Sizwe combatant and liberation hero who was executed by the apartheid regime at the age of 22.

Mashatile used the lecture to not only remember Mahlangu but also as a way to bolster the ANC’s presence and reconnection with the community as the work began for the 2026 local government elections.

Mashatile said that he was honoured and pleased to have the opportunity to deliver the lecture.

“In the year 2025, South Africa celebrates 31 years of democracy, this being a remarkable milestone obtained through the unwavering determination of the people of this beautiful and resilient country.

“The reality is that for us to enjoy this democracy, countless South Africans paid the ultimate price with their lives. Many of the freedom fighters who gave their lives for a non-racial South Africa did not live to witness the democracy we enjoy today.

“One of those great leaders of our liberation struggle is the iconic Solomon Kalushi Mahlangu, a young activist who the apartheid regime unjustly executed on this day the 6th of April 1979, 46 years ago.”

Mahlangu was born in a township called Mamelodi, Pretoria in 1956, and who Mashatile said represented “a generation that was committed to ending racial domination, and segregation even if it meant death”.

Mashatile said that it was disheartening that some have such fond memories of an “inhumane system” that they would go far and wide to lobby for the protection of “Afrikaner privilege and (seek) assistance to establish independent states” within the country.

“As we continue on the path of justice and equality, may we never forget nor undermine the potency of comrade Solomon Mahlangu’s last words before he was hanged in Pretoria in 1979 - ‘My blood will nourish the tree that will bear the fruits of freedom. Tell my people that I love them, and that they must continue to fight, Aluta Continua.”

Mashtaile added that the ANC has decided to embark on a renewal process, which is about “servant leadership, putting people first, and rebuilding the ANC as the only vehicle that can be trusted to deliver not only services but also transformative change in the lives of the people of South Africa”.

“Hence going forward, especially in our branches, we must elect leaders who will place their energy and skills at the disposal of the organisation, and diligently carry out the task given to them - working towards making the ANC an even more effective instrument of liberation in the hands of our people.”

He said that such leadership must equally defend the integrity of the party and its principles.

“...And we can say, without fear or favour, that those who govern in the Western Cape - the Democratic Alliance - they will not care for the poor in this province…They are not putting our people first, and this is evidenced everywhere in black townships here in the Western Cape.

“They don’t prioritise services in these areas…and they don’t even come here,” Mashatile said. He said that in 31 years, the ANC has done so much, but the party still needs to do more as “all South Africans must have a better life”.

Mashatile also touched on land expropriation and BELA Act, adding that they are going nowhere.

He stressed that it is important for the country to be self-reliant and regardless of the U.S. cutting Pepfar, the people will get their medication. He highlighted that the country will also work and continue relationships with other nations such as Russia, India, China and the European Union.

“We must work with those countries, they want to work with us.”

While Mashatile led this year’s commemoration, there was also a series of symbolic, commemorative, and educational activities across the province and in Gauteng.

In Gauteng, there was a wreath-laying ceremony and a memorial lecture carried out by Mmamoloko Kubayi. There was also a ANC delegation at the Kgoshi Mampuru II Correctional Facility, where they retraced the symbolic 52 steps taken by Mahlangu to the gallows where he was hanged.

theolin.tembo@inl.co.za