When liberation movements were unbanned in South Africa in the early 1990s, hundreds of uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) fighters jubilantly returned to the land of their birth.
They came back after being forced into exile by apartheid repression, opting to undergo military training around the continent and beyond. However, not all families were reunited with loved ones. Some MK soldiers died in combat or in exile in foreign lands.
While the mortal remains of some were repatriated during the democratic dispensation, many others remained buried on foreign soil, many of them in unmarked graves.
The Eastern Cape government is the only province that has a policy that pays for the exhumation and repatriation of mortal remains of the province’s freedom fighters, that are returned home.
Spearheaded by the provincial department of sport, recreation, arts and culture (Dsrac), the provincial government will this financial year exhume and repatriate six more liberation movement soldiers who died in Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Tanzania, Zambia and the United Kingdom. In her 2015-16 policy speech, MEC Pemmy Majodina revealed that the province had allocated R800000 for this effort.
She said there were more than 200 Eastern Cape soldiers buried in exile. Majodina said in the financial year starting next month, the province would exhume and repatriate the remains of uMkhonto weSizwe soldiers Vuyani Ndinisa, Pascal Macamba, Mzuvukile Bata, Mthunzi Ngxwana and Mbuyiselo Phahlalala.
The province also plans to repatriate the remains of Azanian People’s Liberation Army’s (Apla) soldier Nkululeko Jako and would perform a ritual to bring the spirit of warrior chief David Stuurman back from where he died or was buried in Sydney.
The remains of Ndinisa, who died in DRC and Bata, who died in Tanzania, will be repatriated to King William’s Town, while the remains of Macamba, who died in Angola, will be returned to his East London family for burial.
The remains of Ngxwana, who died in Tanzania will return to Port Elizabeth, while the remains of Jako, who died in the United Kingdom, will come home to family in Elliotdale.
Phahlalala died in Zambia.
In the financial year ending this month, the province repatriated the remains of four ex-combatants, one of them MK soldier Thabang Bookholane, whose remains were returned from Mozambique to his family in Port Elizabeth two days ago.
A delegation led by Majodina and various military veterans, went to Mozambique this week and returned on Thursday with Bookholane’s remains wrapped in an ANC flag, before his body was handed over to his family for reburial next month.
Bookholane was one of the 13 ANC cadres gunned down in January 1981 in the Mozambique suburb of Matola. He was 22.
Bookholane left the country in 1977 to join MK when he was 18 years old. The 13 were ambushed by apartheid agents at an MK house in Matola and were buried at Lhanguene cemetery on the outskirts of Maputo, alongside Joe Slovo’s wife, bomb victim Ruth First, and Moses Mabhida.
Majodina said there were still more than 200 soldiers from the province who died abroad who had to be repatriated.
Welcoming the repatriation of Bookholane’s remains to Port Elizabeth on Thursday, family spokesman Tswelopele Bookholane said his family had been yearning for closure for decades.
“As the family we are very pleased by this gesture. It will go a long way towards us finding closure over the loss of our loved one,” he said. Majodina also committed themselves to repatriating Khoi chief Stuurman’s remains from Australia this year.
Stuurman was born in 1773, near the Gamtoos River. In1799 he rebelled against his working conditions as a farm labourer. He entered into an alliance with the Xhosas to fight the colonialists and was arrested and sent to Robben Island prison. In December 1809, Stuurman and others escaped, probably using whaling boats, to reach the mainland. Most were recaptured, but Stuurman escaped and was recaptured three times before being shipped to New South Wales, Australia, in April 1823, with 11 other South Africans.
He died there in February 1830. — asandan@dispatch.co.za
MK fighters’ remains return
They came back after being forced into exile by apartheid repression, opting to undergo military training around the continent and beyond. However, not all families were reunited with loved ones. Some MK soldiers died in combat or in exile in foreign lands.
While the mortal remains of some were repatriated during the democratic dispensation, many others remained buried on foreign soil, many of them in unmarked graves.
The Eastern Cape government is the only province that has a policy that pays for the exhumation and repatriation of mortal remains of the province’s freedom fighters, that are returned home.
Spearheaded by the provincial department of sport, recreation, arts and culture (Dsrac), the provincial government will this financial year exhume and repatriate six more liberation movement soldiers who died in Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Tanzania, Zambia and the United Kingdom. In her 2015-16 policy speech, MEC Pemmy Majodina revealed that the province had allocated R800000 for this effort.
She said there were more than 200 Eastern Cape soldiers buried in exile. Majodina said in the financial year starting next month, the province would exhume and repatriate the remains of uMkhonto weSizwe soldiers Vuyani Ndinisa, Pascal Macamba, Mzuvukile Bata, Mthunzi Ngxwana and Mbuyiselo Phahlalala.
The province also plans to repatriate the remains of Azanian People’s Liberation Army’s (Apla) soldier Nkululeko Jako and would perform a ritual to bring the spirit of warrior chief David Stuurman back from where he died or was buried in Sydney.
The remains of Ndinisa, who died in DRC and Bata, who died in Tanzania, will be repatriated to King William’s Town, while the remains of Macamba, who died in Angola, will be returned to his East London family for burial.
The remains of Ngxwana, who died in Tanzania will return to Port Elizabeth, while the remains of Jako, who died in the United Kingdom, will come home to family in Elliotdale.
Phahlalala died in Zambia.
In the financial year ending this month, the province repatriated the remains of four ex-combatants, one of them MK soldier Thabang Bookholane, whose remains were returned from Mozambique to his family in Port Elizabeth two days ago.
A delegation led by Majodina and various military veterans, went to Mozambique this week and returned on Thursday with Bookholane’s remains wrapped in an ANC flag, before his body was handed over to his family for reburial next month.
Bookholane was one of the 13 ANC cadres gunned down in January 1981 in the Mozambique suburb of Matola. He was 22.
Bookholane left the country in 1977 to join MK when he was 18 years old. The 13 were ambushed by apartheid agents at an MK house in Matola and were buried at Lhanguene cemetery on the outskirts of Maputo, alongside Joe Slovo’s wife, bomb victim Ruth First, and Moses Mabhida.
Majodina said there were still more than 200 soldiers from the province who died abroad who had to be repatriated.
Welcoming the repatriation of Bookholane’s remains to Port Elizabeth on Thursday, family spokesman Tswelopele Bookholane said his family had been yearning for closure for decades.
“As the family we are very pleased by this gesture. It will go a long way towards us finding closure over the loss of our loved one,” he said. Majodina also committed themselves to repatriating Khoi chief Stuurman’s remains from Australia this year.
Stuurman was born in 1773, near the Gamtoos River. In1799 he rebelled against his working conditions as a farm labourer. He entered into an alliance with the Xhosas to fight the colonialists and was arrested and sent to Robben Island prison. In December 1809, Stuurman and others escaped, probably using whaling boats, to reach the mainland. Most were recaptured, but Stuurman escaped and was recaptured three times before being shipped to New South Wales, Australia, in April 1823, with 11 other South Africans.
He died there in February 1830. — asandan@dispatch.co.za
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