Members of the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the tripartite alliance commemorated the 15th anniversary of the death of struggle stalwart Joe Slovo at the Avalon cemetery in Soweto on Wednesday.

Slovo's wife Helena Dolny, her brother Martin, and Cuban ambassador Angel Villa were part of more than 200 people who chanted and danced near the late SACP general secretary's grave.

SACP leaders including general secretary Blade Nzimande and his deputy Jeremy Cronin attended.

During the ceremony, Dolny took a swipe at government minister's exhorbitant spending on new official cars.

"Before Joe started working in Parliament, we used to own a Volvo... As much as Joe loved the good life he did not change his car when he became minister," said Dolny.

"He would have been distraught if he read the papers today."

Slovo was hailed as one of the most visible faces of the non-racial struggle.

Nzimande said that he took Dolny's criticism with "the respect it deserves".

He also lambasted African National Congress (ANC) members who used their political connections to secure tenders, calling them "tenderpreneurs." Tenders, he said, were the biggest threat to the SACP's non-racial struggle. He called for the restructuring of the tender system, so that it was transparent.

"All tenders must be made public and all people who apply for them must also be made public, so that everyone can comment."

He said that his party's role was to act as an irritant to individuals in the ANC who were after their own financial gain and compromised the SACP's values with their "narrow black economic-empower[ment]" principles.

"Let us not be distracted by things that are not taking us anywhere," Nzimande said.

He said that 2010 was the year to grow the SACP.

The National Education, Health and Allied Worker's Union (Nehawu) commended the SACP for remembering "a great African revolutionary".

"We remember Slovo as a cadre who appreciated that the alliance between the ANC, the SACP and the Congress of South African trade Unions was founded on solid democratic and social responsibilities," union spokesperson Sizwe Pamla said in a statement issued later on Wednesday.

"As Nehawu, we say that while commemorating the life and death of Slovo, we do remember that he enjoined us not to mourn, but to celebrate the achievements he humbly helped realise."

Nehawu called Slovo a leader, patriot, fighter, negotiator, theoretician, an organiser and a nation builder.

Slovo died of cancer in 1995. He was an anti-apartheid activist, a founder of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the ANC's armed wing, and general secretary of the SACP in the 1980s.