SACP Gauteng Lowers its Red Banner in mourning the passing of Comrade Mzikayifani 'Mzi' Elias Khumalo

12 August 2026

The South African Communist Party (SACP) in Gauteng Province lowers its Red Banner in profound sorrow following the untimely passing of Comrade Mzikayifani "Mzi" Elias Khumalo, a dedicated servant of our people, a seasoned cadre of the liberation movement and a committed activist of the National Democratic Revolution (NDR).

Cde Mzi passed away on 10 August 2026. We convey our deepest and most revolutionary condolences to his family, friends, comrades, the African National Congress and the broader Mass Democratic Movement, as well as the people of the West Rand and Gauteng whom he served with distinction over many years. Cde Mzi joined the struggle as a young activist, known simply as Cde Elias. From those formative years until his untimely passing, he dedicated virtually his entire adult life to the struggle for the upliftment and betterment of the lives of the downtrodden - the poor, the working class and black people who remain on the margins of society as a consequence of the enduring legacy of colonialism of a special type and apartheid.

His was not an episodic commitment to the struggle. It was a lifetime of service.

Cde Mzi understood through both political practice and lived experience that the formal defeat of apartheid in 1994 did not automatically liquidate the material conditions created by centuries of colonial dispossession and capitalist exploitation. Poverty, unemployment, inequality, spatial apartheid and the concentration of wealth and economic power remain stubborn features of our society. It is precisely for this reason that the NDR remains a thoroughgoing programme.

Throughout his political life, Cde Mzi served the people of the West Rand and Gauteng with commitment and dedication. His responsibilities included serving as Speaker and later Executive Mayor of the former Randfontein Local Municipality; the first Executive Mayor of the Rand West City Local Municipality; ANC Caucus Leader and Chief Whip in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature; MEC responsible for Cooperative Governance, Traditional Affairs, e-Government, Research and Development; and Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs. At the time of his passing, he also served as the Gauteng ANC Provincial Spokesperson.

These were not merely positions on a curriculum vitae. They represented different fronts of the same struggle, the struggle to transform the state into an instrument capable of improving the material conditions of the working class and poor.

The SACP will remember Cde Mzi as a cadre with a strong sense of what was right, coupled with an unwavering and decisive conviction once he had arrived at a position he believed served the interests of the movement and our people. He possessed clarity of thought, political courage and an exceptional ability to articulate the positions of the movement with precision.

We regarded Cde Mzi as a good nationalist in the revolutionary sense of the term: a cadre committed to the liberation of the historically oppressed black majority while understanding that genuine national liberation must ultimately find expression in the social and economic emancipation of the working class and poor.

The SACP has consistently understood the NDR not as an end in itself, but as the most direct route through which the working class can deepen democracy, transform the inherited colonial and apartheid social order and create the conditions for an advance towards socialism. Cde Mzi's contribution to this struggle has left a distinctive and indelible mark. H is passing comes at a particularly difficult moment for our liberation movement. The movement is confronting one of the most challenging periods since the democratic breakthrough. It faces declining popular confidence, organisational weaknesses, fragmentation, ideological contestation and the continuing material crisis confronting millions of working-class and poor South Africans. This moment demands organisational and ideological renewal. It requires the rebuilding of revolutionary discipline, political consciousness, ethical leadership and an unwavering connection between the movement and the masses of our people.

It is precisely at a moment such as this that cadres of Cde Mzi's calibre are most needed.

The renewal of the movement cannot be achieved through slogans, factional manoeuvres or the pursuit of positions. It requires cadres rooted among the people; cadres who understand that leadership is an instrument of service rather than personal accumulation; cadres capable of subordinating individual ambition to the collective interests of the revolution; and cadres who appreciate that the historic mission of the liberation movement remains the complete emancipation of our people from poverty, inequality, unemployment and exploitation.

For Marxist-Leninists, history is ultimately made by the masses, but revolutionary organisation requires conscious cadres capable of understanding the concrete conditions of struggle and acting decisively within them. The passing of Cde Mzi therefore imposes upon those who remain an obligation to produce, develop and nurture a new generation of politically conscious cadres capable of carrying forward the unfinished tasks of the NDR.

Cde Mzi touched the lives of countless people through his activism, political leadership and public service. His contribution to the West Rand, Gauteng and the broader liberation movement will not be forgotten.

The SACP Gauteng Province reiterates the revolutionary understanding that revolutionaries do not simply disappear when they die. They continue to live through the struggles they helped to advance, through the political consciousness they helped to build and through the generations of cadres who take forward the cause to which they dedicated their lives.

We therefore lower our Red Banner in honour of Comrade Mzikayifani "Mzi" Elias Khumalo.

The greatest tribute we can pay to Cde Mzi is not merely to mourn his passing, but to intensify the struggle to defend, deepen and advance the NDR; rebuild and renew the liberation movement; restore its connection with the working class and poor; and relentlessly confront the persistent structures of colonialism of a special type, apartheid and capitalist exploitation.

Hamba kahle mkhoto!

Issued by the South African Communist Party Gauteng https://www.sacp.org.za; 011 339 361/2

For further inquiries and information, please contact:
Nkosithethile Bonga - SACP Gauteng Provincial Spokesperson.
Phone: 0604028540

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FOUNDED IN 1921 AS THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF SOUTH AFRICA.

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