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Today, 5 May 2010, is the seventh anniversary of the sad day in 2003 when South Africa lost one of its greatest heroes - Walter Sisulu.

For COSATU this was an especially difficult time, as we had also just lost 51 of our members who were drowned when their bus plunged into Saulspoort Dam while taking them from Kimberley to the May Day rally in Phuthaditshaba on 1 May 2003.

Walter Sisulu occupied a special place in the history of our liberation movement and in the hearts of South Africans. COSATU paid its special tribute to his memory at its 8th National Congress in 2003 by posthumously awarding him our highest honour - the Elijah Barayi Award - in the illustrious company of Chris Hani and OR Tambo.

He exemplified the qualities we need in our leaders more than ever today - selflessness and dedication to the struggle, and a willingness to make great sacrifices in order to transform the lives of working people and the poor. The biography of Walter and Albertina Sisulu (In our Lifetime, by their daughter-in-law Elinor Sisulu) tells the story of a rural boy, son of a domestic worker, later an urban worker, nurtured within the ANC, and becoming one of the foremost architects of a non-racial, non-sexist and revolutionary organisation. He was as old as the ANC itself and was at the heart of more than half a century of mass struggles. He played an unparalleled role in revitalising the ANC in the 1940s and inspired countless younger activists to join the struggle. He was in the thick of the major struggles in the 1950s and spearheaded the defiance campaign. Arrested at Rivonia, he joined Cde Mandela in making a brave, defiant speech from the dock, fully expecting to be sentenced to death. He was sentenced to life imprisonment and was in jail, mostly on Robben Island, for 25 years. But he refused to be broken by the barbarism of the prison regime and struggled to transform his jail into what became known as the "people's university", conducting political classes and, later, teaching the younger cadres about the ANC and what it stood for. Walter Sisulu never wavered in his determination to defeat the racist apartheid regime and win the freedom which we enjoy today. He devoted his whole life to the struggle and was prepared to sacrifice everything, his family life and even his own life. He was an intellectual giant and a man of honour, dignity and integrity, yet also a very unassuming and humble comrade. He would have shared our disgust at the recent invasion into of parts of our movement of an alien culture of greed and materialism. The best monument that we can build in honour of Comrade Walter is a thoroughly democratic South Africa. Let us pay tribute to his memory by deepening the struggle for a better life for all, tackling the huge challenges of unemployment, poverty and inequality, ridding our ranks of corruption and the pursuit of material wealth and building and strengthening our revolutionary movement.