Africa-Press – South-Africa. Former president Jacob Zuma and ANC treasurer-general Paul Mashatile are both expected to attend ANC events in Cape Town on Saturday.
Zuma is in town for an ANC Youth League event in Philippi on Saturday afternoon, while Mashatile is expected to attend the 33rd anniversary of the death of Anton Fransch taking place in Athlone.
The ANC Youth League’s Dullah Omar Region in Philippi is holding a political education session on Saturday afternoon, themed “Radical Economic Transformation in our lifetime”, with Zuma as their guest speaker.
Zuma’s spokesperson Vukile Mathabela told News24 that the former president would be honouring the invitation to speak.
In Athlone, the ruling party is paying tribute to Fransch, an Umkhonto we Sizwe commander from Bontehuewel on the Cape Flats, who was killed in what has become known as “The Battle of Athlone”.
On 17 November 1989, a 20-year-old Fransch, armed with a pistol and an AK-47, managed to hold off about 40 heavily armed apartheid policemen during a gun battle that lasted several hours.
He kept them at bay until he was eventually killed after they tossed a grenade through a window.
Western Cape ANC spokesperson Sifiso Mtsweni said Saturday’s event would commemorate the anniversary of the assassination of Fransch by the apartheid police.
Mtsweni said:
The programme will be hosted by ANC branches in Ward 49 and Ward 31, with support from the province.
Former ANC Western Cape secretary and MP Faiez Jacobs said honouring struggle heroes like Fransch was very important, to show people the role that coloured communities played in the battle for freedom.”Anton was part of the 1980s generation. They were ordinary high school kids doing extraordinary things to free our people. We hated apartheid with a passion and we were klipgooiers (stone throwers) who had nothing else to lose but our freedom,” he said.
Adding that ordinary Cape Flats communities had actively kept the United Democratic Front’s (UDF) flame alive during those days, Jacobs stressed that, contrary to what many believed, coloureds were actively part of the struggle.
“We want affirmation and recognition for the role our people played. It must be recognised.”
Jacobs said the fact that a national office bearer was attending the event was very significant, as it clearly indicated that the ANC recognised the important role that Cape Flats communities “played in our struggle”. “It shows the ANC is acknowledging our people, and in turn, we want our people to do the same and acknowledge the ANC.”Jacobs said Anton Fransch had decided to stand his ground and say “no” when the apartheid police came knocking on his door.
“Eventually they may have taken his life by bombing him, but he took many cops with him, injuring several others as well.”We know what our people did for the struggle. We were there in the struggle and our people were part o and fought a hard battle for, our freedom. Now is the time for the ruling party to do more for our struggling communities as a tribute to Anton and the role our fallen heroes played.”
For More News And Analysis About South-Africa Follow Africa-Press
