Other speakers at the celebrations included former presidents Thabo Mbeki and Kgalema Motlanthe, and former IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi.

"Today is indeed a celebration, but also a triumph, for it is only the few who get to reach such a milestone," Ramaphosa said.

"Bab’ Mlangeni, we give thanks for your health and well-being and remain immensely grateful for the incalculable contribution you have made to this country and its people. It is said that virtue is its only reward. 

"Today we pay tribute to a man whose life has been rich, but not in the material sense, rewarding, but not with title or position, and fulfilling, but never blighted by arrogance or conceit. I know this is a day tinged with sadness, because there would have been a seat reserved at this birthday celebration for Bab’ Mlangeni’s dear friend and comrade Denis Goldberg. Though we have all felt sorrow at his passing, we know it has been all the more difficult for you. We had become used to seeing you together at national days, at rallies and other public events," Ramaphosa said.

"You have been our conscience, encouraging and supporting us where we did well, and steering us back on course when we faltered. In doing so you have been consistent and principled. Your life has been one of struggle and sacrifice. We know of the young man who was forced to leave school at an early age to care for his family, about a bus driver who joined the worker’s struggle and then the ANC Youth League in 1951. 

"We know of the activist who was present at the Congress of the People in Kliptown in 1955; of the cadre who was sent to China for military training in 1961; and of the Rivonia trialist and political prisoner who spent 26 years on Robben Island," he said.

Then there was also the little known fact that Mlangeni once "moonlighted as a man of the cloth". Very few people knew that in the early 1960s, when he was wanted by the police, Mlangeni was Reverend Mokete Mokena of Dube, Soweto, replete with a certificate of priesthood, a collar and a porapora. Using this priestly disguise he was able to travel across provinces to organise meetings and address MK structures. 

Mlangeni was born into a world of segregation and dispossession where the insidious effects of the 1913 Natives Land Act deprived his family of their ancestral land, forcing them to live on three separate farms as labour tenants. The struggles waged by Mlangeni and the fighters of his generation were foremost in the service of the people of South Africa, but they were also for the cause of liberation of all who suffered under tyranny and oppression, Ramaphosa said.

"And he has not hesitated to speak out when necessary. It has been of great concern to him, and is a concern we share, that 26 years into democracy we have still not fully met the developmental aspirations of our people, and that this is an affront to human dignity."

The promise of a better life for all that was made in 1994 could not be deferred. The process of historical redress, particularly on the land question, had to be accelerated. The transformation of the economy so that it benefitted all South Africans had to be at the centre of the national effort.

"We must press ahead with policies of redress and affirmative action to bring more black men and women into the world of work. Bab’ Mlangeni, you have sounded the warning many times. You have constantly reminded us that our impressive Constitution means little unless the rights it guarantees are fulfilled.

"You have spoken at length of our responsibility as leaders of this country to meet the expectations of our people. Unless we make this a world that is truly free of the dompas of the heart and the mind, we will never be a united nation.

"Our guest of honour is the great link between our past and our future. In his life we gain insight into the importance of loyalty to a cause, the virtue of selflessness, and of unwavering commitment to the upliftment of others. We also draw lessons on the qualities of leadership, such as bravery, honesty, empathy, humility and being principled. Your life has been an inspiration, to me and to many others. Bab’ Mlangeni, we wish you the happiest of birthdays. 

"You are a national treasure, and we are thankful for your continuous presence in our public life and in the life of the ANC as a mentor, as a guide and, importantly, as a critic," Ramaphosa said.

African News Agency