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Eastern Cape ANC heavyweight Noxolo Kiviet has urged the ruling party to treat families of struggle veterans the same – instead of what she called selective preference.
The provincial executive committee member and legislature speaker was speaking at the funeral of former Eastern Cape MPL Dolly Mzaidume’s daughter Bulelwa in Mbizana on Sunday.
“Generally there is an outcry that the ANC must take care of families of struggle icons that died in the trenches.
“If this outcry is not addressed it has a potential to become a wound that will not heal,” Kiviet said, adding that families of anti-apartheid veterans should be equally treated.
Kiviet called on National Heritage Council chief executive officer Sonwabile Mancotywa, who was also present at the funeral, to play his part in assisting the state to honour struggle veterans.
“When there are commemorations and honours given to our veterans, comrade Mancotywa you must help us as an institution that was set to preserve our heritage. When someone dies, they leave behind a family, and I feel that we do not give enough attention to these families,” she said.
Mzaidume served in premier Raymond Mhlaba’s executive after the fall of apartheid.
A committee room in the provincial legislature has since been named after her.
Kiviet said the provincial government should not lose the history of its legends, especially during heritage month.
This was echoed by Mancotywa, who said September was a very important month in the calendar of the country.
“I served with Dolly in the first executive of the democratic dispensation and she was very powerful during difficult times in the former Transkei,” Mancotywa said.
Some speakers insinuated that the governing party had failed the Mzaidume family as the former MPL’s gravesite had apparently been neglected.
However, Kiviet said the government was in talks with the family to properly honour Mzaidume’s gravesite.
This is not the first time the family has had an encounter with the state and the ANC.
In 2007 the Dispatch wrote about how the family was not consulted when a Mbizana ANC branch was named after Dolly Mzaidume.