IF THE dead could hear the living, the late SACP leader and Umkhonto weSizwe commander Chris Hani would have risen to reconnect with his supporters.
Yesterday, hundreds of SACP and ANC members attended Hani's 19th anniversary commemoration of his death at Thomas Titus Nkobi Memorial Park in Elspark on the East Rand where he was buried.
Wearing red SACP T-shirts, members in a marquee sang revolutionary songs celebrating his life .
Speaker after speaker, who included SACP general secretary Blade Nzimande, ANC Gauteng chairman Paul Mashatile, Ekurhuleni mayor Mondli Gungubele, Cosatu deputy general secretary Bheki Nthalintshali and SACP's Young Communist League secretary Buti Manamela, said Hani would have deplored comrades who were in politics today for self enrichment.
They said Hani would have stood up against corrupt business people and those who wanted leadership positions for personal benefit.
Nzimande said: "In remembering him, specially in the centenary of the ANC, we must keep focused on the priorities of the movement and condemn all forms of opportunism, self-seeking behaviour and populism.
"The most important lesson here is that genuine revolutionaries must not chase newspaper headlines and must seek to preserve the unity of the movement ."
Ntshalintshali said Hani would have taken a strong stance against labour brokers.
He said the government's intention to regulate labour brokers would not be enough to end exploitation of workers.
"One million [temporary workers] are employed through labour brokers. They are paid lower wages and get fewer benefits like medical aid and provident fund and no job security at all. They can be hired and fired at any time by a phone call from the client company to the labour broker."
Mashatile said his arts and culture department had undertaken to build monuments to honour all struggle heroes.
Hani was murdered by Polish immigrant Janusz Walus in his Dawn Park driveway on April 10 1993.