The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) said they were absolutely devastated by the news of the legendary Hugh Masekela's death on Tuesday.
Masekela's signature music left an indelible mark wherever he went, whether that be on the African continent or in Europe. He will always be remembered for the contribution that he made to the South African arts.
However, it is the contribution that he made to the struggle against apartheid which will always inspire South Africans most.
Spokesman for the EFF, Mbuyiseni Ndlozi, said South Africa was indebted to him and others from his generation.
"In his late works, Hugh Masekela left a legendary musical 'Song of Migration' in which he tells the story of migration through song. In what is also biographical, Masekela's musical narrated how apartheid colonial capitalism disrupted lives and families, displacing them through wars, land dispossession, hunger and industry," said Ndlozi.
"The songs of migration are therefore the sounds through which our people in Southern Africa navigated these colonial disruptions.
"At the centre of this project is the land, the reality of the dispossession of African people from their means of subsistence. The imagery of the Coal Train in his song Stimela must be located precisely in this colonial condition. The story of industrial colonialism rests on this powerful image of the Coal Train which Masekela brilliantly communicated through song," added Ndlozi.
"However, even at his last breath, our people remain foreigners in the land of their birth, subject still to the colonial condition of the Coal Train. With his trumpet, he blew wind sounds of persuasion in Songs of Migration, which we must cherish as a testament of the landless till the day our land is returned to its rightful owners."
