Legacy of Bay hero will live on

[caption id="attachment_36112" align="alignright" width="300"] LIFELONG ACTIVIST: Michael Coetzee addresses a World Council of Churches conference against racism in Harare, Zimbabwe, in 1986[/caption]

IT is very difficult for young people today to imagine the supreme sacrifices the youth of 1976 made for us to achieve the freedoms we take  for granted.

The secretary of parliament, Michael Coetzee, who died on Friday, was part of that dynamic, passionate, idealistic, progressive and  self-sacrificing generation who became politically conscious in 1976.

Coetzee, who hailed from  a farm in the Loerie and Thornhill district, attended high school in Uitenhage where he was exposed to the Black Consciousness Movement, and was involved in setting up a branch of the South African Student Movement.

He was part of a group of pupils at Uitenhage High School in 1976 who boycotted  in solidarity with the pupils who faced the total onslaught of police  in Soweto.

After studying at the University of Western Cape, he returned to Port Elizabeth to play a crucial support role to the United Democratic Front  leadership, working closely with leaders such as Matthew Goniwe, a teacher from Cradock  who was assassinated with Fort Calata, Sparrow Mkhonto and Sicelo Mhlauli  after attending a meeting at Coetzee’s mother’s house.

Coetzee worked as a chemical analyst at Lennon  (now Aspen) in Port Elizabeth and during this time was involved in building the student and youth organisation in the Eastern Cape, as well as linking with trade union organisations and establishing  an Eastern Cape-based underground ANC network.

Coetzee was detained on several occasions by the security police and suffered  inhumane torture, including being suspended over the Van Stadens Bridge.

The unanimous appointment of Coetzee as secretary to parliament in 2011, the institution’s highest-ranking official, reflected  the recognition  from all political parties for the   dedication to the institution which he served as deputy secretary for several years before.

Coetzee succumbed to cancer on Friday after a long  battle, but his legacy as a valiant  torchbearer of our freedom and democracy lives on.