On Friday, we mark the centenary of Oliver Reginald Tambo's birth in Nkantolo, Mbizana, in the Eastern Cape.
Tambo died on April 24 1993, just two weeks after the assassination of Chris Hani, his protégé and popular hero of the liberation struggle.
Twenty-six years earlier, on August 3 1967, the two men had stood together on the northern bank of the Zambezi River as Tambo bade a solemn farewell to the brave youngster who was about to embark on a mission that eventually took him and some of his comrades through three fierce battles in the Hwange Game Reserve, in a country that has since been reclaimed by its natives as Zimbabwe.
After those encounters, Hani's group retreated into Botswana where they arrived kitted out in Rhodesian African Rifles army fatigues, boots and all, while others sourced their victuals from captured "skaftins" (lunch boxes). Here was proof positive of success in battle, never mind that the mission itself had to be aborted.
By April 1993 these two men who had stood together and set their sights across the Zambezi had fulfilled their earthly mission. They embodied the best that could ever be asked for of a freedom fighter. Their unfinished business was consummated on April 27 1994 when South Africa achieved democracy.
In the narration of Tambo's contribution to the liberation struggle an important detail is often omitted: his physiological limitations.
A chronic asthmatic, he would disregard the painful wheezing and breathlessness that are symptomatic of asthma attacks. In planning work and travel these impediments were hardly taken into account. Flying economy class when smoking was still permitted in sections of an aircraft could be challenging.
Tambo's tenure as ANC leader was arduous. In 1981 he suffered a mild stroke. A few others followed, culminating in a devastating one in 1989 that left him partially paralysed, with slurred speech.
This happened towards the end of the marathon preparation of the Harare Declaration, the document that laid the basis for the ANC's participation in the negotiations for the establishment of democracy in South Africa.
It had fallen on Tambo to travel to several "front-line states" - South Africa's neighbours, in the parlance of the time - to brief the leaders on the ANC's negotiations strategy. It was important for the liberation movement to ensure that the Organisation of African Unity and the UN General Assembly endorsed the ANC's position.
Tambo is often lauded as the longest-serving president of the oldest liberation movement in Africa. He wasn't chuffed by that.
A more appropriate acknowledgement would be that he succeeded in maintaining ANC unity during 30 difficult exile years and returned the organisation to the country stronger and more united, despite crises that popped up along they way.
One of the difficulties the liberation movement faced, predictably perhaps, was securing Western government support for the struggle against apartheid.
These powers were not going to offer support to people they handily dismissed as terrorists.
US president Ronald Reagan and UK prime minister Margaret Thatcher opposed sanctions against the apartheid regime, claiming this would harm the interests of its intended beneficiaries.
When US secretary of state George Shultz finally arranged for Tambo to address a joint sitting of Congress, the ANC leader had occasion to remind his august audience that during the American War of Independence their forebears had gone to war against Britain on the slogan of "no taxation without representation".
In South Africa, he said, people were fighting for fundamental issues such as the right to vote, to equal treatment, to equal education, etcetera. His intervention drew wide applause.
Notwithstanding rejection by their governments, Tambo managed to establish strong relations with the ordinary people through collaboration with churches and community organisations, in some cases even municipalities.
The anti-apartheid movements sprouted and mushroomed across Europe while in the US powerful lobby groups such as TransAfrica denounced the apartheid government and called on US companies to divest from South Africa.
The deep mutual respect between Olof Palme, Swedish prime minister, and Tambo, and the commonality of their views on nonalignment, no doubt played a major role in Sweden becoming arguably the strongest supporter of the ANC in exile.
Eschewing the supply of war materiel, Sweden provided funds, material and technical support that helped keep body and soul together for thousands of ANC operatives.
By the time the ANC returned to South Africa following its unbanning it had established 27 missions abroad. These were de facto embassies to people looking for information on South Africa.
Tambo's diplomacy had obviously won the day.
One is sometimes asked about the sorry state of leadership today and the fate of Mandela and Tambo's legacy. People ask how things would have been if these leaders were still around.
It's a hypothetical question, of course.
It can be said with absolute certainty that Tambo, ever so adamant about ethics and morality in leadership, would not have befriended the Guptas.
He would not have kept liars and mediocre ministers in his cabinet.
He would have absolutely insisted that our young people are provided a decent education.
Neither would he have allowed a statement to go unchallenged that alleged that all national executive committee members were corrupt.
And South Africans would not be aware of the phenomenon of state capture.
• Msimang is chairman of Corruption Watch and one of the ANC Veterans 101..