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The EFF marks the 25th Anniversary of the death of Chris Hani who was shot dead by a racist in 1993. The assassination of Chris Hani was meant to suppress a radical approach and conception to the transition from apartheid to democracy. Hani represented not only a socialist radical left demand, but also an alternative international socialist ideal. 

The month of April is the dark hour in our history. It is the month in which the colonial forces was launched in South Africa with the arrival of Jan Van Riebeeck in 1652. It is the month in which a radical Pan-African Congress was launched rejecting a liberal conception of liberation without emphasis on the land that ANC had adopted. It is the month in which the boers hanged Solomon Mahlangu to reaffirm their power over blacks and ruling them in absolute fear. It is the month of the death of Oliver Tambo who carried the liberation project throughout the years of exile. 

In April 2018, the Mother of the Nation, Mama Winnie Nomzamo Madikizela Mandela has also fallen; consolidating it as the month of loss. 

The EFF knows that the spirit of Chris Hani; who fought for the realisation of the ideals of the Freedom Charter, lives on amongst us. This spirit, which gave a radical interpretation to these ideals, is not in the grave but in all the picket lines of Economic Emancipation Movement demanding the return of the land, free education, nationalisation of banks and mines, and provision of free quality housing, sanitation and healthcare. 

In his memory and that of Mama Winnie Mandela; who represented a radical left perspective in the liberation movement, and were both marginalised for it, we shall never retreat in demand of land expropriation without compensation. On this day, the occasion of Hani’s assassination, we vow that we shall fight fearlessly and selflessly for the realisation of economic freedom in our lifetime.

Issued by EFF