Farewell to friend and ‘true cadre’
Veteran journalist, activist and Mkhonto we Sizwe military commander Joseph Aranes was given a hero’s send- off in his home town.
|||Cape Town - Veteran journalist, activist and Mkhonto we Sizwe military commander Joseph Aranes was given a hero’s send- off in his home town Bonteheuwel on Saturday.
Tributes were made to Aranes as one who embodied the values of service, was compassionate for the vulnerable and an exemplary fighter against racism, inequality and injustice.
His funeral was held at St Matthew Catholic Church and brought together people from across the cultural, racial and class divides who had crossed paths, learnt from, worked with or fought in the trenches with Aranes.
Father Jerome Aranes likened Aranes’s unshakable faith in the human spirit to triumph over adversity, to that of Job in the Bible, who did not waver, despite the many trials and difficulties that beset his life.
He urged the packed church, filled with family, colleagues, friends and political compatriots to be strong, to view Aranes’s passing as a new beginning. “Death is the blowing out of the candle, because the dawn has arrived,” he said.
Aranes was the sixth of eight siblings born to Johanna and Owen Aranes. His sister, Ethal Kriger, said from a young age her brother had embodied the family ethos of always seeing to the needs of the less fortunate like “carrying boxes of food to the vulnerable in Bonteheuwel”.
She said this grounding had facilitated his progress from serving the needs of the people to taking political action.
“A profound sense of justice pervaded all his decisions” which took him to the epicentre in the fight against apartheid, where he emerged as a people’s leader.
“It was Joseph’s involvement that shaped many of the political and military struggles in Bonteheuwel. He was a great mensch who laughed from deep within and we were proud of everything he did,” Kriger said.
A tribute was read out on behalf of former finance minster Trevor Manuel who could not attend the funeral. He said Aranes embodied the spirit of the Rivonia trialists in their era, he was one of his era, like Ashley Kriel, Anton Fransch, Robert Waterwich and Coline Williams, who rose to the challenge of their time.
“We have lost one of the finest examples of our revolutionary spirit,” Manuel said.
Tony Yengeni, who was a Western Cape MK military commander at the time Aranes was recruited to lead military activities in Bonteheuwel, said he had met the young fighter in 1986.
“He was quiet, humble and represented the characteristics of a true cadre.”
He said many of Aranes military activities were not widely known. “We did many things together, and some of these things we will take to the grave,” he said.
Cameron Dugmore, speaking for the ANC, said “behind his gruff veneer, Joe had a heart of gold”.
He said Aranes was ”was 100 percent committed to the struggle”. The time had dawned for the ruling party “to answer Joe’s question and sort out our s**t in the ANC”.
Weekend Argus