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Nyerere: Force for African Liberation and Renaissance

By the Congress of South African Trade Unions, 14 October 1999

The Congress of South African Trade Unions has leant with grief, the passing away of former Tanzanian President, Julius Nyerere today, Thursday, October 14 1999. On this sad day, we send our deep felt condolences to the people of Tanzania and comrade Nyerere's family.

He led his people to independence from British colonial rule in 1961. As a true internationalist, comrade Nyerere helped build all the other liberation movements fighting against colonial rule in the continent.

Indeed the struggle against the white colonial domination and Apartheid would not have been as far- reaching as it has in the absence of the brave and noble initiatives of comrade Nyerere. He housed our liberation movement, including our predecessor, the South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU) and vigorously exposed the evils of apartheid to the world M-^V an initiative which, among others, brought the apartheid regime to its knees.

Today Africa is poorer.

Comrade Nyerere's death is a loss to the entire African continent, the African Renaissance initiative in which he was so passionately committed and involved, through among other things, mediation in conflict areas and the economic renewal of the continent.

COSATU calls on the continent's leaders to emulate the cause for which comrade Nyerere stood. These include, among other things, an end to dictatorships and wars in Africa, the respect of trade union and human rights, and speeding-up the process of economic renewal.