1. Fieldmore saw the betrayal coming!

Comrades, today the ANC, SACP, and COSATU stand as shadows of what they once were — fragmented, weakened, losing credibility, losing members, losing their soul.

Fieldmore would not be celebrating.

He would be heartbroken.

But he would not be surprised.

He saw the degeneration long before many of us admitted it.

He saw it in exile.

He saw it in the rot of the 2000s. He listened to Chris Hani warnings “I fear that the liberators emerge as elitists.. who drive around in Mercedez-Benzes and use resources of this country to live in palaces and to gather riches.”

He saw it in the Zuma–Mantashe era — the period of factional purges, assassinations, and political gangsterism.

We sat together through long nights discussing:

• The purging of Mayor Zanoxolo Wayile here in Nelson Mandela Bay –

• The removal of Mncedisi Nontsele, who was also the Mayor of Queenstown,

• The assassination of Moss Phakoe — an ANC councillor and former NUMSA organiser — murdered for exposing corruption in Lichtenburg,

a town which today is a ghost town, collapsed by the very corruption he tried to expose,

• The murder of Jimmy Mohlala in Mbombela for exposing stadium corruption,

• Sindiso Magaqa, assassinated after exposing corruption in Umzimkhulu,

• Andries Tatane, murdered by police during a peaceful protest.

These were not isolated events.

They were symptoms of a liberation movement turning its gun inward.

And then came Marikana — the day the post-apartheid state openly chose capital over the workers who brought it to power.

The day the ANC lost its innocence.

The day Fieldmore said:

“This movement has chosen its class hat.”

2. NUMSA Special National Congress 2013 — Fieldmore’s fingerprints on history

Comrades, I unapologetically defend the resolutions of the NUMSA Special National Congress of 2013.

NUMSA declared that:

1. COSATU must leave the Alliance because the Alliance had become an instrument to silence workers.

2. The working class must build its own independent organisational and political power.

3. A United Front and the first steps toward a Workers’ Party must be taken.

4. Trade union independence must never be surrendered.

5. And crucially — NUMSA resolved that the SACP was no longer the vanguard of the working-class struggle.

The SACP leadership had:

• abandoned Marxism-Leninism,

• become defenders of neoliberal austerity,

• protected corrupt factions,

• and used its positions to attack independent worker power.

Therefore NUMSA resolved that no more workers’ money should be used to finance the SACP — because you do not fund a party that has deserted its class mission.

These were Fieldmore’s politics.

These were his teachings.

These were his fingerprints on that historic 2013 congress.

And today, when we see:

• deep austerity,

• privatisation through Operation Vulindlela and GAIN,

• a collapsing state,

• record unemployment among black youth,

• an ANC and SACP losing legitimacy,

we can say clearly:

NUMSA was correct.

Fieldmore was correct.

History has vindicated them.

3. COSATU Leaders — not workers — chose to expel NUMSA

Let us tell the truth.

It was COSATU leaders, not workers, who decided to expel NUMSA.

It was the bureaucracy, not the rank-and-file, that chose the boardroom over democracy.

Inside the ANC and COSATU, the Zuma faction was powerful, dominant, and ruthless.

This faction included:

• Jacob Zuma,

• Blade Nzimande,

• the current SACP General Secretary (then Blade’s loyal lieutenant),

• and Sdumo Dlamini, COSATU President — a hero to the pro-Zuma bloc.

Yes, a minority in the ANC tried to stabilise COSATU through a task team led by Cyril Ramaphosa — but that effort was powerless.

The Zuma–Nzimande–Sdumo axis controlled the levers of power and the machinery of intimidation.

These were the people who decided NUMSA must go.

They replaced debate with expulsion.

They replaced politics with purging.

They destroyed the unity of the working class.

Fieldmore warned that this would lead to today’s crisis.

4. After NUMSA, they came for me with the might of the state

After they failed to defeat me democratically at the 12th COSATU National Congress in 2012, they moved the battlefield:

• away from the congress floor,

• into the boardroom,

• into the offices of intelligence operatives,

• into the hands of compromised officials.

They trapped me in a honey trap. I have repeatedly apologise for falling for this.

My good name was suddenly associated with rape, not because of truth, but because I was a political threat.

My wife was approached to pay R2 million to the accuser.

The accuser wrote clearly that she had already received R1 million from my enemies.

We later learned this money came from intelligence slush funds — the same funds used in state capture.

When I laid charges of extortion, Gauteng police blocked and sabotaged the case.

Then they produced a fabricated “intelligence report” accusing me of receiving funds from a USA Endowment Fund to overthrow the ANC together with:

• Thuli Madonsela,

• Dikgang Moseneke,

• and several other Constitutional Court judges.

It was absurd — but deadly.

Naively, I took this report to the Intelligence Ombud, Faith Radebe — not knowing she too was tied to Zuma’s intelligence network.

There have been moments I considered testifying before the current Madlanga Commission to expose how state machinery is used to crush internal dissent.

This was the political climate in which NUMSA was expelled and SAFTU was born.

This was the climate Fieldmore analysed with frightening clarity.

5. Gqeberha — The City he loved — is suffering

Fieldmore’s heart never left Gqeberha.

But today, Gqeberha is a symbol of:

• collapsed municipalities,

• crumbling infrastructure,

• factories shut down,

• and deep unemployment.

Manufacturing — the backbone of the Eastern Cape — is dying.

Factories that once employed tens of thousands have closed.

• “Kukhumbule, Yehova okusihleleyo;

“Bheka uyibone ingcikivo yethu.

Ilifa lethu lisuke lenziwa elabasemzini,

Izindlu zethu zalunga kwabolunye uhlanga;

Sizinkedama asinabawo;

Oma banjengamahlolokazi

Amanzi ethu siwasela ngesilivere

Inkuni zethu ziza kuthi ngexabiso

Intshutshiso iphezu kwentamo yethu

Sidiniwe asinakuphumla…

When worker power collapses, the economy collapses.

6. NUMSA was 100% correct  and today is fully vindicated by today’s crisis  

When we look at South Africa today, NUMSA’s 2013 analysis is fully vindicated.

Austerity (the greatest in democratic history)

Between 2019/20 and 2026/27:

• Government non-interest spending is being cut by R270 billion —

destroying the capacity of the state to deliver services and transformation.

• Per-capita non-interest spending is falling by 23% —

from R34 600 to R26 400 —

at a time of rising inequality and growing service demands.

Privatisation by stealth

Operation Vulindlela

GAIN

SOE restructuring

Water commercialisation

Energy unbundling

Transport concessions

All of these validate NUMSA’s warning:

neoliberalism is tightening its grip.

Unemployment

Using the expanded definition:

• Overall unemployment: 42.1%

• Black African unemployment: nearly 50%

• Black African youth unemployment: >65%

• Women’s unemployment: higher than men across every measure

Poverty

• Poverty levels rising again

• 18.2 million people living below the upper-bound poverty line

• 5.6 million in food poverty

Inequality

South Africa remains the most unequal society on earth —

with wealth inequality worse than income inequality.

Corruption

Not only in government.

Private sector corruption — construction cartels, price-fixing, illicit financial flows exceeding R400 billion per year, corporate tax evasion, bank collusion, VBS-style looting by auditors and bankers — is the engine of national theft.

NUMSA warned in 2013:

• that neoliberalism would deepen,

• that privatisation would accelerate,

• that austerity would destroy the state,

• that unemployment would explode,

• that corruption would devour the movement,

• that the ANC–SACP leadership had lost its class compass.

Every single one of those warnings has come true — painfully, brutally, and undeniably.

Fieldmore was correct.

NUMSA was correct.

The working class was correct.

7. The  Fieldmore Mapeto engagement school must carry the Toch

This is not a memorial.

This is a continuation.

This school must produce:

• new commissars

• new organisers

• new thinkers

• new revolutionaries

• new Fieldmores

Let it restore:

• ideological clarity

• revolutionary ethics

• class analysis

• worker education

• internationalism

• and the fighting spirit of the working class

Let it re-teach the truths Fieldmore embodied.

8. Way Forward — Rebuilding Worker Power, Restoring Unity

Comrades, as we open this school in Fieldmore’s name, we must confront a simple truth:

Our history, bitter as it is, must not paralyse us. We cannot live in the past or bring forward the hurt and betrayal. If there is a possibility of uniting the workers we must embrace with a hope that all are working for the total liberation of the working class not to use unity to deliver us to class interests hostile to our class.

It must teach us.

It must unite us.

It must sharpen us.

Fieldmore understood that the working class cannot move forward unless it learns from the fractures, betrayals, defeats, and victories of its own struggle.

He would insist that this moment — this crisis — is not a moment for despair, but a moment for clarity and unity.

And today, we have a strong starting point for rebuilding that unity:

the 2025 SAFTU Labour School Declaration.

The Key Pillars of the 2025 Labour School Declaration

This declaration calls for:

• A militant fightback against austerity and the R270 billion in cuts destroying public services, jobs, and state capacity.

• Unified resistance to privatisation by stealth — Operation Vulindlela, GAIN, water commercialisation, SOE unbundling, outsourcing and concessions.

• Recommitment to worker control and internal democracy, so unions remain independent from party factions, corrupt elites, and the state.

• Rebuilding shop stewards’ committees, locals, regional structures, and sector formations that have collapsed under austerity and fragmentation.

• A living wage agenda, confronting obscene executive pay and demanding redistribution.

• Renewing working-class unity with students, youth, informal workers, the unemployed, women’s organisations, community movements, and civic struggles.

• Returning to revolutionary politics: Marxism-Leninism, Pan-Africanism, anti-imperialism, and the socialist mission that shaped Fieldmore’s life.

This declaration is not symbolic.

It is a roadmap.

It is a programme of revival.

It is a tool of unity.

But comrades — a declaration alone is not enough.

The Moment Demands Unity

This moment calls for real unity — unity grounded in political clarity, ideological honesty, worker democracy, and a shared programme of struggle.

Without unity, the working class will remain spectators while neoliberal forces determine the future.

Without unity, austerity will continue to devour our communities.

Without unity, the kleptocrats and neoliberals will continue to thrive while workers sink deeper into poverty.

We need a broader united front of the working class —

a front capable of confronting neoliberalism, privatisation, austerity and budget cuts.

A front capable of rebuilding confidence.

A front capable of returning power to the shop floor.

A front capable of defending the poor, the unemployed, and the working poor.

Reviving the Project of Working-Class Political Independence

Comrades, we must revive a critical conversation long overdue:

the bottom-up, democratic process envisaged by the 2018 Working-Class Summit Declaration

— the process towards establishing a mass Workers’ Party.

Not a party of elites.

Not a party of careerists.

Not a party of tenderpreneurs or corrupt officials.

But a party rooted in:

• workers,

• youth,

• students,

• women,

• the unemployed,

• community movements,

• and all progressive class forces.

A party capable of offering an alternative to neoliberal collapse.

A party anchored in the socialist values Fieldmore embodied.

The Scriptural Call to Rebuild

And so, like Nehemiah, we must rise:

UNehemiya 2:17 (IsiXhosa)

“Ndathi kubo: Niyabona ububi esikubo,

ukuba iYerusalem ilinxuwa,

namasango ayo atshisiwe ngomlilo;

yizani, sakhe udonga lweYerusalem,

singabi saba yincikivo.”

Comrades, our Jerusalem — our working-class movement — lies in ruins.

Our institutions are burnt.

Our structures are weakened.

Our unity has been broken.

But the scripture calls us:

yizani, sakhe — come, let us rebuild.

9. Conclusion — Fieldmore Did Not Die, He Multiplied

Comrades, Fieldmore Mapeto did not die.

He multiplied.

He multiplied in SAFTU.

He multiplied in NUMSA.

He multiplied in the United Front.

He multiplied in every worker he trained.

He multiplied in every comrade who refuses to bow to factionalism.

He multiplied in this school that carries his name and his politics.

Today we open the Fieldmore Mapeto Engagement School.

Let us also open:

• our courage,

• our unity,

• our clarity,

• our commitment.

Let us rebuild worker power.

Let us revive ideological discipline.

Let us restore the fighting capacity of the working class.

And let us take forward the torch Fieldmore carried with such discipline, humility, sacrifice, and revolutionary conviction.

Amandla!

Awethu!