Thousands bid fond farewell to Oom Ray

By Sam Mkokeli Deputy Political Editor

STRUGGLE “Captain” Raymond Mhlaba was given a heroic send-off yesterday by the country’s leading political figures, who joined more than 10 000 mourners at a State funeral in Port Elizabeth.

President Thabo Mbeki and his predecessor Nelson Mandela – who was with Mhlaba on Robben Island -- paid tribute to Oom Ray, who died after a three-month battle with advanced liver cancer at St George’s hospital last Sunday – a few days after his 85th birthday.

Mhlaba was one of the few surviving Rivonia trialists. He headed the ANC’s armed wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe, was premier of the Eastern Cape from 1994 to 1997 and South Africa’s High Commissioner in Uganda from 1997 to 2001.

In his eulogy at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University’s Vista campus, Mbeki labelled Mhlaba a “titan” who stood firm during the darkest days of apartheid, fighting selflessly against oppression and minority rule.

Mbeki quoted American poet Walt Whitman:

O Captain! My Captain! our fearful trip is done;

The ship has weather’d every rack; the prize we sought is won;

The port is near, the bells I hear, the people exulting . . .

Mandela, who addressed the packed hall from a special podium on the floor to avoid the steps, said Mhlaba was one of the real great heroes of the struggle.

“Raymond Mhlaba was one of the most committed comrades I had the honour to know and work with in my many years in the liberation struggle.”

“What marks him above all in my memory is the absolute honesty and integrity of the man.

“His passing away removes from us one of the real stalwarts of our movement, a person who in his life and work embodied the highest values our struggle stood for and strove towards.”

Mandela, 86, whom Mhlaba had referred to as being like his elder brother, said Ndobe (Mhlaba’s clan name) was a man of few words, but acted decisively when the “moment of action arrived”.

“No wonder he was the first to be arrested during the defiance campaign, leading the campaign in Port Elizabeth.

He said: “In our many years in prison together, I got to know him as the peacemaker. Out of prison, Raymond continued that role.”

Mandela said Mhlaba was “a man of the people”, who served South Africa’s young democracy in different key roles, including as premier and as the head of the country’s mission to the Great Lakes region.

“He was humble and always prepared to listen to the views of others.”

In his key-note address, Mbeki called on South Africans to celebrate Oom Ray’s life, which he gave to the people in order to secure liberation.

“We should exult and ring the bells of victory that he (Mhaba) lived long enough to see our country freed from the curse of minority rule.”

Mbeki added: “My generation of the followers of (this giant) will perhaps experience a deeper sense of loss than others because it had the privilege to learn at the feet of (this) titan . . .”

He said the current generation of leaders should commit themselves to serving the people as Oom Ray’s generation did “with no expectation of personal gain or glory”.

“We must make an unequivocal undertaking to pursue the goals they set together with our people, to defend democracy that our people have won, ever loyal to the injunction that the people shall govern . . .”

“It is not possible to stand next to the still life of Oom Ray without being awed by what his generation of freedom fighters did to give us our humanity.”