Minister Michael Masutha: Handover of remains of MK Soldiers at Freedom Park

Program Director Reverend Maphatsoe
Families of our departed heroes
Deputy Minister Kebby Maphatsoe
Premier of Gauteng Honourable David Makhura
Executive Mayor of the City of Tshwane Honourable Sputla Ramokgopa
MECs and Councilliors present
Provincial leadership of the ANC and Alliance Partners
Members of MKMVA
Comrades
Ladies and gentlemen

We are gathered in this historic hill called the Freedom Park to officially hand over mortal remains and bid farewell to these warriors of our struggle for liberation and democracy. Today’s gathering is a sombre occasion that is a true reflection of what our late struggle heroes and heroines fought for, their names are engraved in this precinct and their images decorate these walls as a sign of acknowledgment of sacrifices they made. Phadi family; Tume family; Phato family; Lithoko family; Hlatshwayo family; Sono family; Shabalala family; Ntehelang family; Teme family and Ngqobe family, today your sons walk in the company of our forebears such as OR Tambo, Nelson Mandela, Chris Hani, Govan Mbeki, Robert Sobukhwe, Steve Biko, Julius Nyerere, Kwame Nkrumah, Patrice Lumumba, Che Guevera and many more. It is therefore befitting that we chose this Freedom Park to bid farewell to these gallant fighters.

Families of our heroes

Allow me to speak to our departed cadres as if they are present here. I am doing so because of the ultimate price they paid and the dedication they put to a cause to dismantle the monster called apartheid. The reason I am addressing them directly, is that although they were cowardly slaughtered during the white minority rule, their spirit moves in this Freedom Park.
Jacob Phadi
Mojau Teme
Mzwakhe Phato
Archie Letlhoko
Bheki Hlatshwayo
Lolo Sono
Moses Ntehelang
Tebogo Tume
Sboniso Shabalala
Charles Ngqobe

You gazed at the mountains that your parents can never imagine, you crossed rivers, the names of which you do not know, you were amongst people who spoke languages you can never decipher and ate food that is foreign to your taste buds. You remained resolute in the face of death and died with your boots on. You refused to grovel before a regime that trampled on the rights of the majority. Like the families of many other missing South Africans, your families lived with the pain of your disappearance for many years. Today we are able to fully acknowledge and register our appreciation of your role in the struggle for freedom. You lost your lives during the trying and testing times of the 1980s. This was the period of detention, death, imprisonment, banning of organizations and a state of emergency. Despite those conditions, you decided that your mission was the freedom of your country and your people from apartheid oppression. Generations to come will know the outstanding heroism and bravery you displayed. They will salute you for your dedication to this country and its people. They will know how your families were harassed and persecuted by the apartheid state by virtue of being related to you as fighters of freedom and justice.

Comrades, Ladies and Gentlemen

Let me share with you some of the circumstances in which these men perished. We acknowledge that this process is very traumatic to all involved, especially to you as families, but take solace in the knowledge that our cadres will now be buried in a dignified manner. I would like to remind all of us that we are here, not only to handover their remains, but to pay tribute to them.

Mojau Teme was one of four MK members shot dead in an ambush by members of the Western Transvaal Security Police on 27 June 1986 at Nietverdiend near the Botswana border. The four crossed from Botswana in a bakkie driven by a police informer who drove the vehicle to a pre-arranged spot where the four were shot dead. All four MK members were buried as unidentified paupers in a field beside the old cemetery at Lethabong village near Rustenburg. The Missing Persons Task Team (MPTT) excavated the field and located the remains of four individuals with multiple gunshot wounds.  Three have thus far been identified through DNA tests, namely Mojau Teme, Richard “Bushy” Lentsela and Duncan Molehe. The fourth MK member has not yet been identified.

Archie Lethoko was one of six MK members killed at Alldays, Limpopo, on 10 and 11 July 1986 in a pre-arranged ambush, after the group crossed into South Africa from Botswana. The driver of the kombi, Matthews Sehlwane, was a South African policeman who drove the kombi to a pre-arranged spot where members of the security forces opened fire, killing all six. Three were identified and buried by their families, namely Walter Alset from Mamelodi, Tlabane Mmogaoshoa and Lenepha Montgomery Moloi, both from Soweto. The other three were buried as unidentified paupers and their remains were recovered by the MPTT. Two have been identified, namely Archie Lethoko and Sipho Kolisi. The sixth MK member is still being identified. The perpetrators applied for and received amnesty from the TRC.

In essence, they were ambushed with the assistance of askaris, by the notorious regime which worked tirelessly to preserve a system that sought to suppress the struggle for freedom. Majority of their identity was confirmed through DNA tests. The gruesome nature of the killing of the rest of these comrades can never be over emphasized.

Honourable Premier
Our department has had several handovers and reburials of our combatants in Gauteng and other provinces.  The TRC list had nearly 500 names of those who died during the conflicts of the past. The TRC unit and Missing Persons Task Team (MPTT) have exhumed, handed to families and facilitated reburials of 100 remains of the activists. This leaves MPTT with huge number remains of our struggle heroes and heroines whose graves are yet to be located, exhumed and given dignified reburials. I am advised that there were 140 political prisoners hanged between 1960 and 1990, of which 60 have already been recovered and rest will be recovered by end of this year. These include comrades from PAC’s POQO, MK and UDF. There is a lot of work to be done but as government, we shall soldier on fully alive to the fact that these cadres did not die in vain.

Program Director

date on what many have raised as a fair concern with regards to some alleged political offenders who are serving time in our correctional centres. You will recall that a Special Dispensation was adopted in 2007 in order to facilitate the granting of Presidential pardon for alleged political offenders in terms of section84(2)(j) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996.

After consultation with the office of the President, we have resuscitated this process and it is now at an advanced stage. We shall announce details of this process in due course. In the meantime the Department of Correctional Services is finalising the processing of parole applications for all the remaining offenders who qualify and have reached their minimum detention period for being considered for parole in terms of the Correctional Services Act. It is important to state that those offenders who have been released, and those who await release, have participated in all the required rehabilitation programmes and will be monitored closely in the community by parole officers.

This sombre occasion reminds us of the adversity that we had to face during the struggle for political freedom and very importantly, gives us resilience as we now seek to consolidate the socio-economic freedom of our people. We shall continue to draw strength from their great works and sacrifices because we know what they stood for. Working together as South Africans we must roll up our sleeves and ensure the achievement of all the socio-development goals of our country in the memory of our heroes. We must work harder to ensure that we eradicate poverty; we improve education, health, rural development, create decent jobs and develop our rural areas to improve the quality of life of all. That is what our compatriots lived for, to see a South Africa whose people live in peace and harmony, where children do not go to bed hungry because there is no food, and where all citizens are safe and secure in their homes and communities.

Our quest has been made much more plausible with the adoption of the Constitution, which guarantees the rights of everyone. It was equally important that we recognise our grim past through the testimonies presented during the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). A nation that does not acknowledge its past stands a chance to wonder forever without direction. As a caring government and in recognition of the suffering that our departed cadres’ families endured, President Zuma passed regulations that paved the way for our department to process provision of medical, housing and education support to the victims who were and are dependants of the cadres. 

Ladies and gentlemen, this handover ceremony marks the end of a long and painful process to determine the whereabouts of these remains and positively identify them as those of our fallen comrades. Of course, we would not have come this far if it weren’t for the tireless efforts of many dedicated people. I would therefore like to thank the Missing Persons Task Team, as well as the anthropologists who were involved in the process of identifying and matching the remains to their families. It is also important to acknowledge the roles played by the different stakeholders in the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development, the Department of Military Veterans, the local metros and municipalities, the Ex-combatants Foundation, members of the faith community and the Department of Social Development and City of Ekuruleni.

Allow me to express my gratitude to the families for allowing us to convene in this manner as we do this handover with the dignity that it deserves. Although their families loved them, they surrendered them to the revolutionary struggle because they loved freedom even more.

As we proceed to hand over these comrades, I recall those passionate words of Mark Anthony when he first saw Julius Caesar shortly after he was assassinated and said: “O mighty Caesar! dost thou lie so low? Are all thy conquests, glories, triumphs, spoils shrunk to this little measure? Fare thee well”.
Indeed Ahambile Amaqhawe Sikhapha iiNyamazana.
 

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