TRIBUTE
ADDRESS BY THE PREMIER OF GAUTENG, MS. NOMVULA MOKONYANE AT
THE FUNERAL SERVICE OF MA VESTA SMITH, St. ANDREWS CATHOLIC
CHURCH NOORDGESIG.
14 September 2013
Programme Director
The Smith family
Deputy-President of the ANC, Cyril Ramaphosa
The Deputy-Secretary-General of the ANC, Jessie Duarte
Chairperson of the ANC in Gauteng, Paul Mashatile
The Executive Mayor of the City of Johannesburg, Cllr. Parks Tau
Members of the Gauteng Executive Council present
Members of the Provincial Legislature present
Veterans of our struggle
Distinguished Guests
Fellow Mourners
Comrades and Friends
Ladies and Gentlemen
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By some twist of fate the night of 9 September, 2013 swallowed one of our
own, Mrs. Vesta Smith, affectionately known within the community as Ma
Vesta or Ma Vee.
As we march on, in the last mile, towards the elections next year, we cannot
but deep of our revolutionary banner to bid farewell to a revolutionary, tireless
community worker and selfless leader. And it is, thus, important that we
should commit ourselves to serve the people in Gauteng and the country at
large, with the same excellence and doggedness she exhibited when she was
still alive. She became a leader in the struggle in her own right; and did not
only deal with issues related to women, but all issues that affected the
community.
Her commitment to the agenda of the transformation of our country found
expression in the myriad of the organisations that she participated in as an
activist. Her activism could be tracked back to her early days of seeing and
experiencing the poverty of her people and the tyranny of the apartheid
machinery. Born just merely nine years after the promulgation of the Natives
Land Act of 1913 and ten year after the formation of the African National
Congress, she found herself confronted by the reality of the situation, to either
become part of the problem or become part of the problem. To become part of
the solution to the challenges faced by her people meant demonstrating
selflessness and tenacity, at the risk of death and imprisonment at the hand of
the apartheid regime.
As a recipient of Supreme Counsellor of the Order of Luthuli in Silver for the
role she played in the struggle against apartheid, she contributed significantly
towards the building of a new democratic society that was non-racial and nonsexist, in a united South Africa. Without any doubt, banning orders, detentions
and harassment by the system never broke her spirit and belief in the future,
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free from apartheid. Instead, she resolutely resolved to intensify her fight
against institutionalised racism.
The clarion call to all of us is utilise the month of September as the Heritage
Month to educate our people about the country’s national symbols and
heritage as part of the process towards the building the new South African
nation.
The poem “The Flag” by poet-laurette Pablo Neruda, referred to as “’one of
the most important poets of the twentieth century”, by The New York Times,
strike a chord on the same matter:
Stand up with me.
But stand up,
you, stand up,
but stand up with me
let us go off together
against the devil’s webs,
against the system that distributed hunger,
against organised misery.
Let’s go,
and you, my star, next to me,
newborn from my own clay,
you will have found the hidden spring
and in the midst of the fire you will be
next to me,
with your wild eyes,
raising my flag.
Hence, in paying homage to this great lioness and heroine of our struggle, I do
not come with the eloquence of speech, but I do come with humility of
knowing and understanding the attendant challenge of eulogizing someone
who became a legend whilst she was still alive.
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The passing away of this Ma Vesta, one of the great stalwarts of the struggle,
has somewhat pricked our consciousness to the sanctity of life; that the
destiny of the life we live is not in our hands, but is in the hands of the higher
power, the omnipresent, omnipotent and omniscient one – the Almighty.
Programme Director,
As a victim of the notorious apartheid policies of forced removals herself, Ma
Vesta demonstrated a high level of political consciousness wherein she
participated in the anti-pass campaigns, attended the Congress of the People
in Kliptown and was an ANC volunteer. In the later years she was to serve on
the Executive Committee of the Black People’s Convention.
In the aftermath of the Soweto Uprising in June 1976, Ma Vesta was detained
at the Old Fort from August to December 1976 in terms of the Internal Security
Act together with Winnie Mandela and the late Fatima Meer.
Ma Vesta was resolute and demonstrably focused in the manner in which she
expressed her political activism. She was a founding member of the United
Democratic Front and was co-chair of the Federation of Transvaal Women as
well as member of the Federation of South African Women. She was also cochair of the Anti-President’s Council Committee and participated in door-todoor campaign to discourage people from voting for the Presidents Council.
Ironically, members of her own family were also not spared from the wrath of
the apartheid barbarism. In 1986, she got detained together with her three
sons and got held at the Johannesburg Prison for 10 months under the State
of Emergency Regulations.
She spent her adult life serving the community, worked to develop the Legal
Resources Centre (LRC) together with the late Judge President of the
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Constitutional Court, Arthur Chaskalson, and assisted detainees throughout
the 1980s. She worked at the Christian Institute with Dr Beyers Naude and
Horst Kleinsmidt until it was banned. She also worked at the South African
Committee for Higher Education as an administrator before joining the LRC.
Hers was a life born of struggle for the liberation of her people, and was
inspired by the spirit of our forebears - Sekhukhuni, the Rain-Queen Modjadji,
Hintsa, Mkabayi, Manthata wa Basotho, Makana, Shaka, Moshoeshoe,
Bambatha, and many.
In passing on, Ma Vesta joins the galaxy of stars of the struggle which
includes Lillian Ngoyi, Fatima Meer, Oliver Tambo, Ruth First, Moses
Mabhida, Charlotte Maxeke, Moses Kotane, Francis Baard, JB Marks, Bertha
Gxowa and many others who stood firm against the injustices of apartheid.
Fellow Mourners,
Ma Vesta is beckoning us all to catch the moment, seize the day, to capture
the moment of her heart and the benefit of her pain. She is saying that when
her chariot had come and we feel the whirlwind and the storm, we need to
catch what she has left behind because it is wealth to our collective memory
and consciousness.
And we should also know that there are some failures and tragedies that we
experience in life from which we feel we can never recover; wherein it seems
as if all of the exit ramps are closed and the detours endless. Yet, the
collective consciousness of our people’s hope always intercedes and
intuitively carries us forward to the next moment of expressiveness that lead to
the morning glory of our cherished freedom. So shall it be for the Smith family.
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As we join hands in committing the mortal remains of Ma Vesta to the soil, let
us honour her by accelerating delivery of service to our communities; and
inculcate a renewed zeal that must turn our anxiety into hope and our sense of
doubt to belief. Last, but not least, show respect toward each other – Re
bontsheng gore re na le botho/ubuntu.
To the Smith family we can only say that there cannot be enough words to
comfort you in this great loss of yours. Your loss is our loss, too.
Kindly allow this gallant fighter of our people to go to her last resting place in peace
and tranquility. She has seen more of the world because she stood on the shoulders
of giants, yet she herself, is ironically, a giant in her own right.
May her soul rest in peace
DANKIE. NGIYABONGA,
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