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The South African Communist Party (Sacp) and Cosatu in Gauteng Province calls on workers in the public and private sector to sacrifice their resting period over the weekend to attend the funeral of Mama Winnie Mandela to be held this coming Saturday at Orlando Stadium. We recognise that Gauteng province is a predominantly workers’ and working class province.

This clarion call recognizes that most workers could not attend the memorial service held yesterday due to the fact that their employers expected them to be at work.

We recognize that weekends are the only times that workers have to rest and spend time with their families away from brutal class exploitation.

We therefore call on workers and all communists, in their overwhelming numbers, to join millions of the revolutionary people to pay their last respect to the mother of the nation, uMama Winnie Madikizela Mandela.

Whilst we applaud the remarkable work done by the provincial government yesterday with a befitting memorial service, we appeal to the hosting Premier, Honourable David Makhura, who is also Acting Provincial Chairperson of the ANC, to decisively intervene and ensure that our law enforcement agencies create favourable conditions for a swift and smooth access to Orlando Stadium.

We are deeply convinced that workers and the working class broadly may feel alienated and estranged from Orlando Stadium considering heavy handed security arrangements as was certainly perceived during the government memorial service held yesterday.

We appreciate the revolutionary role played by uMama Winnie Madikizela Mandela to unite the working class and revolutionary people during difficult times of our struggle for national liberation to create a non-racial, non-sexist, united and prosperous society free of all forms of exploitation.

Issued by the Sacp and Cosatu Gauteng province