'Are you looters or liberators?': minister Thulas Nxesi's tribute to Joe Slovo

SA Communist Party members were on Monday challenged to ask themselves if they were liberating the working class or looting.

At a commemoration ceremony for Joe Slovo, who died of cancer 25 years ago on Monday, deputy national chairperson of the SACP Thulas Nxesi urged members of the SACP to read Slovo's “inspiring” history to understand what he stood for.

“You must read the inspiring history of Joe Slovo so you understand what you are commemorating,” Nxesi said, addressing SACP members and members of the tripartite alliance at the Avalon Cemetery in Soweto.

Slovo was national chairperson of the party.

“You must understand what inspired him to join the SACP; what his role was. Today we are here because his ideas live with us, especially in this period where people are messing up the country which was liberated by Joe Slovo,” said Nxesi, SA's employment and labour minister. Previously, he was minister of public works and of sport and recreation.

Among those who attended the event were the party's general secretary, Dr Blade Nzimande, his deputy Solly Mapaila and Slovo's family. Nzimande is due to deliver a keynote address at the event.