R2K Statement: Honouring a selfless activist as R2K turns 6
This week, marking the 6th year since the Right2Know Campaign launched, finds us mourning the loss of comrade Godfrey Phiri, a R2K leader who passed away suddenly on Tuesday morning.Comrade Godfrey was an elected member of R2K’s national working group, and R2K Gauteng’s elected coordinator. He was active in many other organisations and movements, including Amnesty International, the People’s Coalition Against Xenophobia, and the anti-corruption movement.The Right2Know Campaign cannot claim to be the work of any one person. R2K has been built with the combined energy and solidarity of many people, working across many struggles, across the boundaries of race, class, inequality, geographic space and from a range of political traditions.Comrade Godfrey Phiri was one such person, who joined R2K Gauteng in the early days. He had come to this country from Zimbabwe. Though he had fled the climate of oppression in his country of birth, he dedicated himself to fighting injustice and repression here in South Africa.
As tributes pour in from friends and supporters, we are struck by two things. Firstly, in a divided society, the diversity of the people whose lives he touched is remarkable. Godfrey was a bridge, a unifier, truly non-sectarian. Secondly, the remarkable consistency and commonality of adjectives people use – that Godfrey was dedicated, gentle, considerate, consistent, quiet, humble, fearless, humorous, & principled.
These are qualities of leadership that are lacking in the ‘big man’ culture that dominates many of our organisations, our communities, our country and world. Comrade Godfrey’s life is an indictment of the egocentric, exploitative, opportunistic, greedy, competitive and controlling notions of leadership that surround us – in politics and business, in homes and schools, and all corners of society. Godfrey’s life of service inspires a leadership that is deeply enabling and democratic. In a world short of vision and workable alternatives the best we can do to honour Godfrey to practice more democratic leadership in our lives.
In the six years since R2K was launched on 31 August 2010, we have long since transformed from a campaign to fight the Secrecy Bill, to a movement dedicated to fighting broader struggles for freedom of expression and the right to know.
We have fought the censorship and political capture of the SABC. We have fought the secret surveillance abuses and repression of the state spies and their partners in the private sector. We have mobilised against police brutality and repression of the right to protest, a freedom of expression issue which affects poor and marginalised people across the country. We have taken on the profiteering and greed of the telecommunications companies, who have robbed the poor of their right to access and share information by inflating the cost of data and airtime. In every community, in every corner of the country, ordinary people are struggling for their right to know.
We dare not waver. We dare not falter. Comrade Godfrey has left us, but his work is unfinished. We carry his spirit forward, with his humility, his courage, and his enduring hope that a more just world can be.
Holy Trinity Catholic Church, 16 Stiemens Street, Braamfontein
(Entrance on Jan Smuts Avenue)
