ANC MESSAGE ON THE OCCASION OF THE UNVEILING OF THE TOMBSTONE OF OLIVER TAMBO

The unveiling of the tombstone of past ANC President and National chairperson, Oliver Reginald Tambo, is an occasion for all South Africans to remember and celebrate the central contribution of this great leader to the creation of a democratic South Africa.

Tambo's tombstone will be unveiled at a ceremony on Sunday 19April 1998 at the Tamboville Cemetry in Wattville, Benoni, starting at 10h00. The unveiling will be attended by the family, comrades and friends of Oliver Tambo, including President Nelson Mandela and ANC President Thabo Mbeki.

In a life dedicated to the liberation of the people of South Africa, Tambo will be remembered in particular for his years as President of the ANC.

As the leader of the ANC throughout the three decades in exile, 'O.R.' Tambo was responsible for building the ANC into an organisation both within and outside the country which had the strength, cohesion and mass support to bring down apartheid and create a democratic South Africa.

 Comrade O.R., as he was popularly known, was a brilliant thinker, a person of great courage and transparent honesty and moral integrity. He sacrificed for the liberation of the people without complaining, being forced to live apart from his family, whom he loved dearly, for the greater part of his life abroad.

 Having been a founder member of the ANC Youth League, and rising to the position of ANC Deputy President, Tambo was designated - after the 1960 Sharpeville massacre - to travel abroad to set up the ANC's international mission and mobilise international opinion in opposition to the apartheid system. 

In 1967, after the death of ANC President General Chief Albert Luthuli, Tambo became Acting President until his appointment as President was approved by the Morogoro Conference in 1969. 

 During the 1970s Oliver Tambo's international prestige rose immensely as he traversed the world, addressing the United Nations and other international gatherings on the issue of apartheid. During his stewardship of the ANC he raised its international prestige and status to that of an alternative to the Pretoria Government.

 During this period, he helped to build one of the strongest solidarity movements the world has seen. Oliver Tambo also made an important contribution in furthering the cause of liberation of other peoples, including those of Angola, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Guinea Bissau, Western Sahara and Palestine.

 Always a strategist, Tambo foresaw in the 1980s that the apartheid regime would soon be forced to enter into negotiations with the ANC and other genuine representatives of the people. He therefore initiated and led the process which culminated in the adoption of the Harare Declaration and the UN Consensus Declaration on Southern Africa in 1989. These documents were to provide the framework in which the negotiations for a new constitution took place.

 In 1989 Oliver Tambo suffered a stroke, and underwent extensive medical treatment.

 He returned to South Africa in 1990, after over three decades in exile. At the ANC's first legal National Conference inside South Africa, held in Durban in July 1991, Tambo was elected National Chairperson of the ANC.

 When Oliver Reginald Tambo died from a stroke on 24 April 1993, he had been able to witness the first rays of the dawn of the democratic South Africa to which he had dedicated his life. 

As we unveil his tombstone, we must cherish his memory by rededicating ourselves to the achievement of a just, non-racial, non-sexist and democratic society, where all may have a better life - a nation at peace with itself and the world.

 Issued by:

Kgalema Motlanthe

Secretary General

African National Congress

PO Box 61884

Marshalltown 2107

Johannesburg