Beth Cadman OBE retweetledi
The Continuity of Fink Haysom
Tribute to a Patriot. 18.03.2026
I met Fink Haysom and Mary Ann Calkin in 1979, at a time when South Africa was burning with repression and possibility. I was a young activist shaped by the aftermath of the Soweto Uprising and the brutal murder of Steve Biko. We had gone underground. Many were detained. Many others went into exile.
It was in this crucible that I encountered Fink and Mary Ann, among the first white comrades who treated me as an equal in struggle and in life. I was 25. Through them, and through the emerging union movement, I began to understand organisation, discipline, and the deeper meaning of working class solidarity.
Fink Haysom was, and remains to me, a deeply principled patriot. As a revolutionary, I bow my head to him. He carried integrity not as a slogan, but as a way of being, quiet, consistent, and unwavering. He sought common ground, mediated with humility, and stood firmly for justice without ego.
Like Nelson Mandela, he understood that compassion and forgiveness are the lifeblood of freedom.
But like all of us in the freedom struggle, the journey came at a cost.
It was not easy on our families especially our children. Our long absences, the constant danger, the demands of the struggle these left deep wounds. Many families were stretched, some broken. This is the unforgiving side of politics that history does not always record.
I know personally the pain that prolonged absence brings. The quiet cost carried by those who wait, who endure, who hold the home while we fight in the world.
And perhaps this is why the inner journey mattered so much.
Madiba often reminded us that the most difficult path is the one within from the cesspool of the mind, with its ego, cravings, and attachments, toward a place of pure compassion and forgiveness and seat of soul in a heart centered leadership.
It is a lifelong journey.
And in Fink, I saw someone who walked that path with sincerity. He had a good head and a good heart. And to hold both, in balance, is no small achievement.
What is striking about Fink’s life is its continuity.
There was no rupture between the struggle years and what came after. When he served alongside Madiba in the Presidency, it was not a shift into power, it was a continuation of service. The same values that guided him in the underground and in the labour movement integrity, dialogue, non-racialism, and justice remained intact.
And when he moved into his work with the United Nations, that continuity deepened rather than diluted.
He carried the lessons of South Africa into the global arena:
•the understanding that peace cannot be imposed it must be negotiated
•that dignity is the foundation of stability
•that reconciliation is not weakness, but strength
•and that humanity must always come before power
In conflict zones and fragile states, he did not arrive as a bureaucrat. He arrived as a comrade of humanity someone shaped by struggle, grounded in humility, and committed to building bridges where others saw divisions.
His life was not a series of roles. It was a single thread of service.
From the streets of resistance, to the Presidency, to the United Nations there was a seamless arc. No contradiction. No loss of moral centre.
This is what made him rare.
In a world where many are changed by proximity to power, Fink remained anchored. His journey reminds us that true leadership is not about position it is about continuity of values across time, place, and circumstance.
And perhaps that is his deepest lesson to us:
That the struggle does not end when freedom is won.
It simply changes form.
And those who carry it with integrity become bridges between worlds.
🙏🏾❤️
English
