By Major Marumo Machete
As an officer in the people’s National Defence Force, I count myself blessed to have been among those privileged to walk in the shadow cast by giants like Andrew Mokete Mlangeni, the last man standing among his generation of luminaries.
A freedom fighter and soldier to the core, who had been prepared to lay down his life for his people and his country, he loved the military and we loved him back. Just before lockdown, he was inducted as the honorary colonel of the SANDF headquarters unit and last year, one of our historic regiments, the South African Irish, was renamed the Andrew Mlangeni Regiment in his honour.
Seaparankoe Ntate Mlangeni was a paragon of virtue and a moral compass at a time when society has often been found wanting. He came from a generation of upright men who did not consider themselves to be infallible. Like them, he remained humble and was not one to beat his own drum.
His nephew, journalist and author Lucas Ledwaba said Ntate Mlangeni represented a generation that embodied the true spirit of selflessness.
“These are men and women who gave up the best years of their lives, sacrificed the stability and happiness of their families, their ability to earn an income and raise their children with love, so that they could fight against an unjust system, a cruel system that dehumanised both oppressor and oppressed.
“They never saw their sacrifice as a passport to amass riches, but rather, as a service to mankind, they did not expect their feet to be washed by the poor and the oppressed, instead, they washed the feet of the poor and provided hope and comfort where there was none.”
Ntate Mlangeni’s biographer Mandla Mathebula singles out his selflessness and humility as virtues that guided his life.
“Mr Mlangeni was a man who preferred to operate from the background, working hard to execute whatever task he was assigned by his movement without glamour and glitz.
“He was humble and respected all people irrespective of class, race or any status. He was down to earth but firm in his beliefs and outspoken on issues of corruption.”
Ntate Mlangeni’s existence imbued our lives with meaning. He was a lighthouse that illuminated our way as a military striving to navigate the kaleidoscope of challenges of this day and age. Being a soldier through-and-through, he always felt at home among the men and women in uniform - the soldiers of the SANDF.
I had the privilege of meeting him last year and seeing this in practice at the SANDF Charity Golf Day last November, which was held to raise funds to help those bright young minds who would not otherwise be able to access the halls of higher learning and take their rightful place as leaders of the nation in due course.
Even though he was 94 then and wheelchair-bound, nothing would have kept him away from his twin loves of golf and the people’s defence force. Last year was no different from years past when he would have swung a club with the generals down the fairway, while inspiring the younger soldiers, all of them a little overawed by this great African and real-life hero in the flesh in the quiet enclave of the Thaba Tshwane Services Gold Club.
A giant has indeed fallen. All of us, our country and our SANDF, have lost a selfless servant, a humble leader of the Mass Democratic Revolution and a courageous freedom fighter who never lost his way nor stilled his voice in the face of oppression to condemn injustice wherever it occurred.
On behalf of my brother and sister officers of the SANDF, allow me to salute this towering figure of our time and thank him for a lifetime of exemplary leadership and service to this nation.
We are poorer for his passing, but richer for having known him.
Machete is a staff officer at Defence Communication. He writes in his private capacity.