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On this, the 94th anniversary of his birth, on 27 October 1917, the Congress of South African Trade Unions, pays tribute to Comrade OR Tambo, one of South Africa’s greatest revolutionary leaders.
There could be no more appropriate time to remember a leader whose special contribution to the liberation struggle was his ability to build and maintain unity within the movement, unity which is more necessary than ever today, within the African National Congress and in the historic alliance between the ANC, COSATU and the SACP.
As his successor as ANC President, Jacob Zuma, said in his OR Tambo Memorial Lecture: “We are paying tribute to a man whose memory invokes admiration, respect, love and honour by ANC members and lovers of freedom and human rights worldwide who came into contact with him. Those who were in exile will confirm that to serve and be mentored closely by OR Tambo, to work with him and observe him in action, was the dream of any ANC cadre and leader.”

Without leaders like him, we would not be enjoying the democracy, freedom, peace and social progress that has characterised South Africa since 1994. Without him, we would not have today’s national commitment to a non-racial, non-sexist, open and free society.
OR Tambo held the ANC together in exile during challenging conditions, while ensuring that it never abandoned its values and principles. He would have been deeply hurt today by the succession of corruption scandals and the spread of the capitalist culture of greed and self-enrichment which is threatening to unravel the fabric of our movement and our society and undermine all the great progress we have made.

This is not what he sacrificed thirty years of his life in exile for, and we owe it to his memory, and that of all other struggle heroes, to rid our movement of this scourge and unite behind the principles that O R Tambo personified – of putting service to the people before any thought of personal enrichment. We must unite our revolutionary movement to take forward, complete the national liberation struggle and build a better life for all South Africans.
Long live the memory of Comrade OR Tambo, long live!