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NUM: Castro Ngobese says hamba kahle qabane Fred Petersen

Castro Ngobese
Photo by Duane Daws
Castro Ngobese

4th March 2015

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/ MEDIA STATEMENT / The content on this page is not written by Polity.org.za, but is supplied by third parties. This content does not constitute news reporting by Polity.org.za.

The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) has learnt with the deep sense of pain of comrade Fred Petersen’s departure from the land of the living and to settle permanently in the land of the departed. Comrade Peterson died on Saturday 28 February 2015, after a long, unflinching and courageous battle with illness.

We lower our revolutionary red banners, not because of death’s orders, but as a sign of respect to our dearest comrade; friend; colleague and leader of workers comrade Petersen, who was genuinely committed to struggles of workers to extricate themselves from the shackles of poverty; starvation; deprivation and apartheid wages, that continue to characterise and define the racialised living conditions of Black and African workers, post the 1994 negotiated settlement.

Comrade Petersen departs whilst his union – Numsa, a union he helped to build is under extreme and sustained attacks from our political opponents who want to liquidate it and its elected leadership. His sad death enjoins us to close ranks and to defend our 350 0000 members from forces opposed to our political and organisational posture.

Whilst illness consigned him to his sick bed, comrade Petersen truly believed in the political correctness of the “Numsa Moment”, as encapsulated in our groundbreaking Special National Congress resolutions, as adopted in December 2013; to build a United Front that will link shopfloor and community struggles; including the exploration of the formation of a Movement for Socialism (MfS) – an independent political organ which shall both in theory and practice be committed in advancing the policies and programmes of the working class and the poor, post the 1994 negotiated political settlement. In his memory we shall forge ahead with the implementation of our Special National Congress resolutions, as mandated by workers. We shall not backtrack from this historic mandate in the face of malicious attacks by our detractors and class opponents.

Comrade Oom Fred, as he was affectionally called within the ranks of Numsa, was a true living expression of Che Guevara’s adage of a “true revolutionary is guided by great feelings of love”; He loved his family and children. Above all, he loved workers, and he was always in the company of workers; he fully understood their aspirations; desires; pain and suffering.

Born in Wynberg on 07 March 1953, a son to Elizabeth Alexander, who worked as a Domestic worker and daughter of a farm-dweller.

Comrade Petersen started working in 1972, as a Clerk. And he later joined the Public Servants League (PSL), now today called (Pawusa). In 1979, he was appointed as the PSL’s Deputy General Secretary (DGS). It was during comrade Peterson’s tenure as the PSL’s Deputy General Secretary, which led to Marcel Golding, being baptized and introduced into the politics of the progressive trade union movement, when he appointed him as the Researcher; and years later, Golding in his own right, became the Deputy General Secretary of the Mineworkers Union – NUM.

After comrade Petersen; Golding and others we were dismissed from the PSL, he went on to be a Trainee Researcher at South African Labour Development and Research Unit, based at the University of Cape Town (UCT) between 1984/5. He also worked on a voluntarily basis in organising the Health-workers, under the auspices of Cape Action League (CAL). Comrade Petersen was central in the formation of the Atlantis Workers Organisation (AWO), as part of educating and recruit workers around Atlantis to join Cosatu’s affiliated unions.

He joined National Automobile and Allied Workers Union (NAAWU) in 1987, as a full-time official and Organiser. During the same period on 23 May 1987, NAAWU and other unions merged to form the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa); and for the rest of his life Numsa was his master. In 1996, he was elected Numsa Western Cape Regional Secretary, a position he occupied with diligence; commitment and dedication until he retired in 2013.

He served Numsa for more than 26 years with iron discipline and loyalty until he retired in 2013. He was a living expression of Numsa’s battle adage “insimb’ayigobi”. His courage and loyalty to the cause of workers struggle did not flinch.

In this difficult and arduous period facing the progressive trade union movement, particularly Cosatu, we find inspiration by comrade Peterson’s examples of building worker-controlled; class orientated; democratic and internationalist trade union centers from below. It is within this context that we will continue to fight for an independent; militant and democratic trade union movement.

As we bid farewell to his immortal body, his spirit will continue to live amongst us, and inspire workers and many others to continue to fight for workers’ demands; aspirations and needs. Numsa calls on workers to honour the revolutionary life of comrade Petersen, by uniting beyond the colours of their union’s t-shirts or logos, and fight against inequality; massive retrenchments in major industries; deepening poverty in our communities; scandalous high levels of unemployment and rampant corruption which is slowly taking our country towards Mabuto Seseko’s Zaire.

As Numsa, we send our deepest condolences to his family, friends and entire workers of South Africa. His passing away is a huge blow to the trade union movement in South Africa and beyond our shores.

Comrade Petersen’s Memorial Service will take place on Friday 06 March 2015, at 15h00pm, Community House, Salt River; and Funeral Service will be on Saturday 07 , March 2015, starting at 09h00am, Calvinist Protestant Church, Retreat, Western Cape.

 

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