Chris Dlamini

The Congress of South African Trade Unions dips its banners in honour of one of our greatest heroes – Chris Dlamini - who passed away on 19 November 2009 between 21h00 and 22h00 after a brave battle with a ruptured ulcer. We send our condolences to his wife, Busi, seven children, seven grandchildren, two brothers, two sisters, and his many friends and comrades.

Comrade Chris Ndodebandla Dlamini was the founding 1st Deputy President of COSATU and devoted his whole life to the struggle for workers’ rights and national liberation. He epitomised the spirit of commitment and dedication to the revolution.

He first became involved at only 12 years old after he heard Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisulu speak in his township to canvass support for the ANC. He told the Financial Mail in June this year: “I was a child. We heard there were these two men addressing people and we went and listened. I already had politics in me. My parents had been married in Swaziland so their marriage was not recognised. My father lived in a hostel in Johannesburg. Whenever he visited my mother and I, he would be arrested and would have to pay £1 to be released.”
He began work in 1963 as a warehouse manager in Springs, and in 1973 became a founder member and treasurer of the Engineering and Allied Workers Union. The first protest which he led won the workers an extra Christmas bonus for the workers.

He later started work for Kellogg’s in Springs and joined the Food and Allied Workers Union (FAWU). He became a shop steward in 1979, a position he held until 1994. He was the union’s President from 1979 to 1993, and the President of the Federation of SA Trade Unions (FOSATU) from 1981 to 1985, in which capacity he played a crucial role in the formation of COSATU in 1985.
He was renowned for his ability to manage the sometimes fierce debates between the different unions which came together to form the new federation. At its founding Congress, he was elected as COSATU 1st Deputy President, where he remained until 1994, when elected to Parliament where he served as an ANC whip.
Chris’s life was not without hardships. He was twice detained under the Internal Security Act, for three days in 1982, for a month in 1984 and for 10 days in 1986.

In 1997 he resigned from Parliament to become a diplomat in North Korea, China and Mongolia.

In 2001, he returned to the union to run its Investment Wing until 2006 when this Investment Wing was integrated into the office of the General Secretary.
Comrade Dlamini has never lost contact with his trade union roots. He attended COSATU’s 10th National Congress in September 2009 and told the Financial Mail that he is completely supportive of Cosatu’s current demands. “Unions, he said, “should be part of drafting any new government policies and programmes affecting workers, jobs and the unemployed. But they should always exhaust negotiations before resorting to strike action”.

He never left the struggle to become rich but ended his life on his smallholding in Leslie, near Delmas, Mpumalanga, where he had a few sheep, some goats and hens. “I don’t have many resources for farming. I’m struggling but surviving,” he said.

Comrade Chris Dlamini will always be remembered for his total commitment to the workers’ struggle, to which he devoted his whole life.
There will be a memorial service on Thursday 26 November at 15h00 in Johannesburg at a venue to be announced. His funeral will be held on 28 November 2009 in Swaziland.