By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The African National Congress (ANC) supporters came out in their droves to celebrate the life its late deputy secretary-general, Jessie Duarte.
Duarte was described as a “disciplined comrade”.
She passed away on Sunday morning after a long struggle with cancer – and was buried on the same day as part of her Islamic faith.
The ANC said the party would be dedicating the week to honouring Duarte.
Duarte was an active politician from a young age.
She died while serving as ANC deputy secretary-general – a position she was first elected to at the ANC national conference in 2012.
All ANC provincial structures, leagues and regions will hold memorials in Duarte’s honour over the next few days.
Former president Thabo Mbeki warned on Thursday that the country faced a time bomb and could see an uprising similar to the Arab Spring triggered by mounting discontent.
Mbeki was speaking at the memorial service of the late Duarte,held at the Johannesburg City Hall.
Mbeki, who succeeded the country’s anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela in 1999, said the country was facing unsustainable levels of poverty and joblessness.
“One of my fears, comrades, is that one of these days, we… are going to have our own version of the Arab Spring,” Mbeki told mourners at a memorial service for Duarte.
Police harassment of a Tunisian street vendor triggered a nationwide revolt that toppled dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and sparked the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings.
“I’m saying one of my fears is that one of these days it’s going to happen to us,” said Mbeki who left office in 2008.
“You can’t have so many people unemployed, so many people poor, people faced with this lawlessness” — and “corrupt” leadership, he said.
“One day it’s going to explode.”
Mbeki took a swipe at President Cyril Ramaphosa’s government for lacking a national plan to tackle poverty, inequality and unemployment which stands at over 34.5 percent, and youth joblessness at nearly 64 percent, the highest on a global list of 82 nations.
The Thomas Piketty-backed World Inequality Lab ranks South Africa as the world’s most unequal nation for which wealth data is available.
That’s a legacy of the apartheid system that limited economic opportunities for Black South Africans, who make up about four-fifths of the population. Whites-only rule ended in 1994.
Ramaphosa was absent from the memorial service which was instead attended by his deputy David Mabuza.
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Video Courtesy of ENCA.