It is with immense sadness that I, at the request of the IFWEA General Secretary Saliem Patel, on behalf of IFWEA’s global knowledge community of worker educators, share the news of the untimely death of Crystal Dicks at the age of 53 years on 6 October 2025. Crystal’s passing has hit all of us in the South African and international labour movement hard.

Speaking for myself, I have lost someone who has been a feature in my professional life for several decades.

I first met Crystal as an avid young reader during my years of service as librarian at Grassy Park public library in the 1980s. From a family of readers, Crystal, her sister Dee and her brother Rudy, frequented the library and were active participants in the education and cultural outreach programmes provided by us staff and a coterie of community minded volunteers.

As that turbulent decade of South African anti-apartheid struggles unfolded, I witnessed with great admiration how Crystal and her siblings emerged naturally as leading youth activists in the broader Grassy Park/Lotus River community.

I next met up with Crystal in the run up to the first democratic elections in 1994, as fellow volunteers in the ANC’s electoral campaign in Grassy Park/Lotus River. A B.Comm student in her early 20’s, it was no surprise that Crystal had evolved into a tireless and canny community organiser. In the campaign she distinguished herself, making astute and substantive contributions in discussions, always quick to suggest and volunteer, fully delivering on the tasks she took up. These lifelong traits of hers were invaluable for the often-challenging campaign in our vast neighbourhood.

With a population of over 60 000, it was and still is characterised by stark socio-economic inequalities and divided political loyalties. Apartheid’s legacy affected how people chose to identify themselves and hence who they gave their political allegiance to. Crystal’s unwavering activism was crafted in this exquisite school of politics, struggling collectively for political support and power even though the odds are not always in your favour.

On completion of her studies, she began carving out her lifelong role as a worker educator in 1998, when she took up the position of project officer at the Development Institute for Training, Support and Education for Labour (DITSELA). Working alongside founding director Chris Bonner and her staff of dedicated worker educators, Crystal excelled at designing and implementing education to advance the rights and organisational capacity of workers and women in South Africa, becoming a programme manager for Ditsela and highly respected in the South African labour movement as an educator.

In 2004 she successfully completed a MSc. in Organizational Change and Development (with distinction) from Manchester University. In the same year, she began working for the International Federation of Workers’ Education (IFWEA), and I was privileged again, to work in close proximity with her as a Vice President and subsequent General Secretary of IFWEA.

Crystal worked on two pioneering international education programmes in IFWEA from 2004 to 2008. Both had as their focus the provision of education, information and resources for trade union organisers in the informal economy, popularising the experiences of African and Asia-Pacific informal economy associations in this regard, as well as contributing towards further building their capacity to organise and educate.

In the course of her work for IFWEA, Crystal developed education materials which were ultimately widely replicated and translated into several languages. She also developed education materials which contributed towards building solidarity and support among British trade unions and their members for trade unions organising informal economy workers in developing countries. As was customary with Crystal, although she started off her international work for IFWEA as a part-time project officer, she swiftly progressed to managing both projects.

How will my time with Crystal live on for me, and the hundreds of worker educators she interacted with? What was she to me, and what can I tell you about our interactions?

Our primary relationship, born in a library, remained throughout. I will miss an avid and discerning fellow reader. Discussions with her on books were lively and rewarding. It was always one of our first exchanges when we met – “what are you reading, what can you recommend?”

She was fierce. Oh, she was fierce. She held strong opinions of how things should be, and never hesitated to advocate for these, whether on a macro political or micro-organisational level. I often struggled to persuade her to compromise for less than the ideal in a given situation, to accommodate for a lack of available resources or a lack of support for her desired action or outcome. Not that I ever hesitated – I relished these sometimes-heated exchanges with her, even though I knew I would not emerge completely unscathed. They challenged my naturally pragmatic bent to the ultimate, and our joint decision on how to proceed was always the better result. And with Crystal, I was sure that there would always be a joint outcome.

This, because she was the quintessential organisational cadre. The collective was her guide, at all times. She gave her all, and when she did, she was resolute till the end. You did not get more “full-on” that Crystal in her work. But, for optimum functionality, she needed to believe in and trust the organisation she was giving her time and loyalty to, as well as receive the trust of her organisation’s leadership. For she was at her best when she could craft her own design of what her contribution should be. She always did her level best to prove that she was worthy of such trust. She needed to be given free reign to execute her work, and she deserved it.

Crystal had her challenges and dark moments, as do we all, but Lord, was she fun! We basked in that wide, beautiful smile, and that ringing laugh which proclaimed her presence before you even saw her. Her astute, “sideways” views of people and situations and her occasionally outrageous but accurate, if not always kind, comments were tempered by her capacity to put aside past judgements and differences and just have a meal, a drink, and a laugh the next time you met. I think this was what I loved the most about her. By her being like this, without ever saying anything, she made me view people whom we knew mutually, and whom I would perhaps not have forgiven easily, afresh, laying aside petty resentments.

We did not see one another that often in recent years, but no matter how busy, I would always make myself available if she sought me out, and I would invariably emerge happy for our re-connection afterwards. Now that I know this will not happen again, I wish I had told her how very special I thought she was.

Hamba Kahle, Qabane, phenomenal woman that you were!

Sahra Ryklief