SACP's condolences to Sarah Carneson & Chumani Nqakula
The SA Communist Party has offered its sincere condolences to the families of SACP veteran Sarah Carneson and Chumani Nqakula.
Chumani Nqakula is the son of Defence and Military Veterans Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula and former SACP leader and former Cabinet minister Charles Nqakula.
The defence and military veterans ministry announced earlier on Sunday that Chumani Nqakula had been murdered.
“He was allegedly killed by someone he knew on Saturday, 31 October 2015, at Bezuidenhout Valley, Johannesburg. The perpetrator has been detained,” the department said in a statement.
He was reportedly stabbed.
In its message of condolences on Sunday, the SACP commended police for “moving swiftly by arresting the suspected murderer who killed Chumani”.
“Justice must be seen [to be] running its course in this murder case and other killings that are committed in our country,” the party said.
Sarah Carneson, who had “died at old age”, was a trade unionist and member of the SACP.
“Comrade Sarah, whose parents were founding members of our party, which was founded in 1921 as the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA), became a trade unionist and in her own right an SACP activist in 1931 at the age of 15. She joined our Young Communist League in 1934.
“As part of her service to the people, comrade Sarah taught workers to read and write at the SACP’s night schools. In 1938 she began working for the National Union of Distributive Workers and also became the secretary of the Tobacco Workers’ Union. In 1954 she was banned by the apartheid regime under the Suppression of Communism Act and could no longer hold office in any union. She went underground in 1960 as part of the SACP’s underground organisation and struggle.
“In 1967 comrade Sarah was imprisoned for breaching her banning order, and shortly after her release she went into exile, in 1968, so that she could work for the trade union movement and continue the course of struggle for political liberation and universal social emancipation.
“Comrade Sarah returned from exile in 1991 and together with her husband, comrade Fred, who also became a stalwart of the SACP, from 1936, settled in Cape Town,” the party said.?