SOUTH African Communists paid tribute to stalwart of the liberation struggle and the fight for socialism comrade Apergis Eleftherios ahead of his funeral in Germiston tomorrow.

The party expressed its sorrow offering condolences to the family for the great loss of Mr Eleftherios – known affectionately as comrade Akis – who died on March 8.

He was born in Greece, arriving in South Africa in the mid-1960s as a young revolutionary who became immersed in the underground and clandestine activities organised against colonial and apartheid oppression.

Comrade Akis became a leader in the field of art and culture as one of the fronts for advancing the struggle for democracy and social emancipation.

He was one of the main organisers of the 1982 cultural and resistance conference held in Gaborone, Botswana which brought together exiled activists of the struggle for democratic national sovereignty.

The stalwart of the liberation struggle owned an art gallery in Johannesburg which displayed the work of African artists in defiance of the country’s apartheid laws which banned the works.

The gallery was the centre of underground organising at a time when the South African Communist Party and other liberation organisations were banned.

It served as a base for sending and receiving messages in pursuit of the struggle.

“Comrade Akis was a renowned revolutionary artist and poet and above all a communist vanguard cadre to the end,” the party said in a statement.

“He remained a loyal and at the same time critical member of our liberation movement, continuing his revolutionary contribution until the end. 

“He wanted the movement to acknowledge and solve its weaknesses. In this regard Cde Akis strongly believed that constructive self-criticism was necessary and intensifying the struggle against our own weaknesses as a revolutionary movement was essential for success,” the statement concluded.