Reburial of Leslie Massina - update
Patrick Craven
Reburial of Comrade Leslie Massina
Leslie Massina, founding General Secretary of the South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU), is to be reburied in South Africa on Monday 22 March 2010. He died in 1976 in Swaziland, where he had lived in exile following his release from the Treason Trial in 1961
We urge members of COSATU, ANC and SACP to welcome the arrival of his coffin in South Africa on Monday 22 March 2010 (Public Holiday). His body will be exhumed in Swaziland at 05h00. It will then be brought to Soweto, where it will be driven to 509 Masina Street, in Dube, Soweto, where it will arrive at 15h00 and be welcomed by leaders of the Alliance.
It will then proceed to 718 Kuluse Avenue, Mofolo Village, which was his family home, where it is scheduled to arrive at 15h30. It will then be taken to the mortuary of Thom Kight undertakers in 16th Street, Vrededorp, Johannesburg.
Comrades should assemble at 15h00 at 509 Masina Steet, Dube.
The funeral will take place on Saturday 17 April in Johannesburg. Details will follow.
Patrick Craven (National Spokesperson)
Congress of South African Trade Unions
1-5 Leyds Cnr Biccard Streets
Braamfontein, 2017
P.O. Box 1019
Johannesburg, 2000
SOUTH AFRICA
Tel: +27 11 339-4911/24
Fax: +27 11 339-5080/6940/ 086 603 9667
Cell: 0828217456
E-Mail: pat...@cosatu.org.za
PROFILE
LESLIE DUMA MASSINA
LESLIE DUMA MASSINA was born at Alcokspruit on 29 May 1921, he grew up at Nigel. In 1949 he married Agnes Nozizwe Nyanda. They lived at White City Jabavu in Soweto, and later moved to Dube, at 508 Masina Street. He lived in Dube until he left South Africa for Swaziland in 1961 where he was exiled, and met his death on 20 January 1976.
After completing his formal schooling, Massina went on to train and qualified as a teacher at the Stoffberg Teachers College, in the Orange Free State. Instead of working as a teacher, he worked at a laundry in Johannesburg. This is where he began his trade union and political activities. Throughout the 1940’s, 1950’s, and early 1960’s he participated in both Trade Union and political activities inside the country
Trade Union Involvement
v In 1946 Massina organized a union of laundry workers
v By 1949 Massina was serving in the Executive Committee of the African Laundry Worker’s Union.
v He was also elected secretary of the Transvaal Council of Non-European Trade Unions
v He visited Great Britain, Russia, Czechoslovakia, and other European countries as part of his Trade Union involvement.
v In March 1955, he played a major part in the formation of a new body of Unions referred to as SACTU, eventually becoming its first General Secretary.
v He was involved in the highly successful campaign for a national minimum wage of 1 pound per day.
On the Political Front
Leslie Massina served in the National Executive Committee of the ANC. He also served in the Tranvaal Executive Committee of the ANC. He engaged in mass struggles and suffered a spate of arrests and banning orders.
v He participated in the 1952/53 Defiance Campaign, a campaign of resistance against unjust laws. The unjust laws resisted included
the pass and curfew laws, as well as other laws that were in operation such as the:
§ Group Areas Act (1950),
§ Suppression of the Communism Act (1950),
§ Stock limitation Regulations,
§ Bantu Authorities Act (1951),
§ Bantu Education Act (1953).
v During the Defiance Campaign he was deputy volunteer-in-chief for the Transvaal
v In 19535 he became treasurer of the Transvaal ANC
v He participated in the Congress of the People Campaign, a Congress Alliance campaign which met at Kliptown in Johannesburg on 25/26 June 1956 to create the Freedom Charter. He was the Chief-In-Commander of the volunteers who collected demands from representative groups and were formulated in the Freedom Charter;
v He was one of the 156 whose home was raided in December 1956 as an attack on the Freedom Charter. He was arrested and charged with high Treason. He remained among the 30 whose daily court appearance continued up to 1960;
v Despite numerous banning orders, series of arrests, and a marathon of court cases, he actively participated in the defiance campaign of “pass” burning and stay-at-homes.
As a result of arrests, court appearances and banning orders, his normal life was disrupted.
On the community front
v He was elected as the first Dube Advisory person (Isibonda). He stepped down because of political commitments.
v He assisted people to obtain houses by talking for them at the Municipal Office;
v Although he was blacklisted, he managed to assist people who were unemployed to find work.
Exile
The overall effect of Special Branch harassment and other repressive measures by the State, prompted Massina to leave South Africa for Swaziland. This is where he lived and eventually passed away at the age of 54, in January1976. The particular set of circumstances in South Africa at the time, required that he be buried in Swaziland as he was among the most blacklisted by the apartheid regime .
Even in exile, Massina continued to advance the cause of the South African struggle. He contributed in ensuring refugees who had left South Africa for Swaziland were properly accommodated at the same time organized work for some, given the economic situation of the 1960’s in exile. When additional groups of South African refugees arrived in Swaziland in mid to late 1970’s, the foundation had been laid.
On 18 July 1978, the ANC/SACTU/SACP in exile placed a memorial tomb stone on his grave in Swaziland. This was a gesture of recognizing his contribution to the liberation struggle for the South African people.
On 20 February 2009, the Swazi Government granted permission for the mortal remains of Massina to be exhumed and repatriated back to South Africa to be finally laid to rest in Johannesburg where his family lives.
“Lala kahle Matsebula, Mkholo lonsundvu, lohamba ngeti nyawo takhe”.