Receive my sincere heartfelt revolutionary salutations as we celebrate A Humble Servant of the Students and the youth, a life short-lived. The Ngubeni family, the Wits University, the ANC, and the structures of the PYA, and the people of South Africa, have been robbed of a dedicated cadre of our movement.

I am here deployed by the Regional Secretary of the ANC, Cde Dada Morero. Sabelo was very close to the heart of the RS, and his heart represents the heart of the ANC in JHB; I am certain he will do his best to be at the funeral as he has already visited the Ngubeni family earlier in the week.

It saddens me when parents bury those who were supposed to bury them. As Cde Aluwani quoted President Mandela during the funeral of our stalwart Walter Sisulu, President Nelson Mandela further, on the occasion of Cde Walter Sisulu’s 90th birthday, said: “What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead.”

Cde Sabelo as a student activist fought for the plight of the poor and the working class. He fought against financial and academic exclusion and this was noticed through his role in the Right to Learn Campaigns and Fees Must Fall. He and his comrades fought tirelessly to ensure access for the marginalized. He led by example and subscribed to the principle of academic excellence as adopted by his organization, the South African Students Congress (SASCO) in 2005, Limpopo- his academic achievements speak volumes. He remained committed to his studies even when he was playing an active role as a student activist. A short life, well-lived. The brightest young person of our epoch.

As the ANC we are used to students formation coming to us for help mostly financial, however, the YL of Cde Sabelo and his collective reminded me of myself when I was in the Vaal where we were assisting the ANC than the ANC assisting us through community-based projects by ANCYL of Mxolisi Majombozi.

Cde Sabelo is fully described by guerrilla leader Ernesto Che Guevara’s September 1962 speech titled: The Cadres – Backbone of the Revolution, which asserted:

1.…” Cadre is a person whose loyalty is tested, and whose physical and moral courage has developed along with his ideological development in such a way that he/she is always willing to confront any conflict and to give his/her life for the good of the revolution.

2. “Cadre is a   person   capable of self-analysis, which enables him/her to make the necessary decisions and to exercise creative initiative in such a manner that it won’t conflict with ”
3. “Cadre is a leader of high standing, a technician with a good political level, who by reasoning dialectically can advance his/her sector of production, or develop the masses from his/his position of political ”
4. Lastly, “The first duty of a revolutionary is to be ”

Cde Sabelo was part of the ANC Youth League as the Branch Secretary, the Youth League of the ANC, a national liberation movement that appreciates that the history of the struggles in society is that of the class struggles. The Class struggle concerns the working class – those who do not own the means of production, and bourgeoisies who own the means of production and exploit workers.

Cde Sabelo was part of the generation that understands that the National Democratic Revolution (NDR) is not a class-neutral struggle, but a struggle of the working class in their pursuit of total emancipation from colonial, racial, and class oppression. In our country, elements of colonial, racial, and class oppression continue to define an absolute majority of our people, blacks in general, and Africans in particular. He knew that the struggle is not over, and he had an obligation to intensify it.

The ANC Youth League generation of Sabelo defined its generational mission by making a clarion call for economic freedom in our lifetime. The generation which is the vanguard of the Freedom Charter that defined economic freedom in our lifetime, implying the attainment of all freedom charter objectives as urgent as possible.

Cde Sabelo’s generation demanded:

• for the expropriation of land without compensation for equitable
• for the nationalisation of the strategic sectors of the economy such as mines and
• for free, quality and decolonised
• for generational mix in the elections of the leaders of the

To the ANC Youth League, Cde Sabelo understood the role of the ANC Youth League in championing the interests of young people and rallying them behind the mission and objectives of the ANC. The mission of safeguarding our generational mission of Economic Freedom in Our Lifetime.

Take your rightful place and reclaim the ANCYL from elderly people and democratise it with the leadership elected by its structures who will represent and champion the interest of young people and mobilise them behind the objectives of the ANC, not young people who will be using it for old people’s factional political agendas which has a potential to collapse the ANC.

To the PYA, in memory of Cde Sabelo, let us ensure that no student goes back home due to financial and academic exclusions. Let us ensure that a child of the working class gets an opportunity to study here at Wits like many that you have assisted working with Cde Sabelo.

To the ANC, as we go to local government elections, let us reclaim and sustain the glorious movement in power particularly in the City of Joburg in memory of Cde Sabelo. Cde Sabelo was not just a campus-based leader, he was on the ground, campaigning for the ANC and immensely contributed to the ANC’s victory in the last local government elections in November 2020. The ANC must truly utilise the “Through the Eye of a Needle” document as we select councillor-candidates. We must select selfless leaders to become councillors, not councillors whom nepotism will be an order of the day. They must be leaders who are not prone to corruption. Leaders of high moral standards. Leaders who prioritise the people. This will indeed make his soul rest in peace.

Let us all as men stand up and fight against gender-based violence (GBV) and femicide directed at children and women. Men must stop perpetuating violence against women, men must stop acting like animals, and respect and honour women. She is not your subject or object, she is an equal partner who must be treated with respect.

Comrades, students, and friends, COVID is real, I have no much to say as you all know the protocols, please follow them, adhere to them without a compromise. As President Mandela said: “it is in your hands”.

In conclusion, we must all commit to Cde Sabelo that as we say farewell to him, we are not saying farewell to the ideals he believed in, we are not saying farewell to his generational mission. As long as we are still alive, we who are part of his generation, his ideas will live forever as long as we are alive.

Long Live the Undying Spirit of Cde Sabelo Long Live! Nkomo! Mtungwa! Mazodwa! UGudlu kaDlomo UNkala kayibula- wa

Ngoba yasizanakubo eSobotsheni.