*Caption: Minister Nomvula Mokanyane during the wreath-laying ceremony at the Tamboville Cemetery, honoring the late ANC President who was born in 1917.

Written by: Menelisi Ndwandwe

October month is significant in the African National Congress (ANC) as it marks the Oliver Reginald Tambo Month.

At the annual wreath-laying ceremony in Ekurhuleni, ANC President Jacob Zuma announced that the 100^th birthday celebrations will be held in the Eastern Cape next year.

OR Tambo is the longest serving president of the ruling party, having served for 33 years during the apartheid era.

In Zuma’s column on the ANC website, he urged party members to recall and practice the best lessons that Tambo was preaching.

“OR Tambo was a solution-oriented leader who always sought to move forward on the basis of building consensus among all in the movement,” said Zuma.

“He had an ability to bring together people with different views on both strategic and tactical questions and inculcating in them the appreciation of superior logic earned. President Tambo’s great admiration from all his comrades affirmed him as an impartial leader belonging rigidly to no particular group or strand of thinking within the movement,” he added.

The Chief Executive Officer of OR and Adelaide Tambo Foundation, Linda Vilakazi praised OR Tambo as the advocacy of education.

“He was a great mathematician and scientist, he was passionate about education. He taught maths and physics with great desire, hence one of the schools he taught in is still today doing well in these subjects today,” said Vilakazi.

Yesterday, it marked 10 years, since the Johannesburg International Airport was renamed after OR Tambo. According to Vusi Mpanza, who lives in Auckland Park, he is reminded of Tambo everyday.

“The legacy of this struggle leader lives on. I am hoping the country can produce more leaders who are in the same calibre as Tambo,” said Mpanza.

This coming weekend ANC officials will deliver lectures about Tambo across the country.