Reburial of Comrade Leslie Massina
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. He died in 1976 in
Swaziland, where he had lived in exile following his release from the Treason
Trial in 1961
We urge all members of COSATU unions, the 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 along Masina Street, in Dube, Soweto, to 718 Khuluse Street, 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
The funeral will take place on Saturday 17 April in Johannesburg. Details will follow.
Born in 1921 in
Pimville, Johannesburg Leslie Massina left school to become a factory worker.
In 1946 he organised a union of laundry workers and was later elected secretary
of the Transvaal Council of Non-European Trade Unions. During the 1952 Defiance
Campaign he was deputy volunteer-in-chief for the Transvaal, and in 1953 he became
treasurer of the Transvaal ANC.
Comrade Massina left South Africa in 1954 without a passport, and attended an
international trade union conference. He visited Great Britain, Russia, and
other European countries. After his return to South Africa in 1955, he was
elected to the national executive committee of the ANC and became the first
general secretary of the South African Congress of Trade Unions. He was also a
member of the Dube location advisory board in Johannesburg. He was one of the
accused for the full length of the Treason Trial, from 1956 to 1961.
He was banned from trade union activity in 1960 and he left South Africa for
Swaziland in early 1960s, where he died of natural causes in 1976.
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