The African National Congress has paid tribute to Gavin Watson, the late CEO of African Global Operations, who was killed in an accident in Johannesburg on Monday morning.
ANC national spokesperson, Pule Mabe, said Watson together with his brothers, Ronnie, Cheeky and Valence associated themselves with the struggle for liberation at an early age.
He says they fought side by side with many compatriots against apartheid.
“It was in his home province of the Eastern Cape, where Comrade Gavin Watson made the admirable and brave choice of disassociating himself with the privilege that came with being a white male in apartheid South Africa and choosing to participate actively in pursuing the ideals of a free, democratic and non-racial South Africa,” Mabe said.
“The Watson brothers were well-known activists in the United Democratic Front (UDF) and within the African National Congress underground structures at the time”.
Mabe said, “Gavin in particular, also played a significant role in providing support, through the family businesses to many activists and operatives of uMkhonto weSizwe who were being pursued by the police and fleeing Port Elizabeth and the Eastern Cape as a whole, at the time”.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Alliance said that Watson’s death will have a material impact on the work of the Zondo Commission of Inquiry into State Capture.
DA national spokesperson, Solly Malatsi, said the police, therefore, need to conduct a thorough investigation into his accident, adding that “any whiff of foul-play needs to be dispelled through a proper police probe.”
