President Cyril Ramaphosa said the repatriation of the remains of 49 freedom fighters who lost their lives in Zambia and Zimbabwe during the apartheid era, is to restore them to their families, people and reinstate their citizenship.
Ramaphosa was speaking during the official repatriation and restitution homecoming ceremony for the remains of the freedom fighters, which was held at the Freedom Park Heritage Site and Museum in Tshwane on Friday.
The repatriation and restitution homecoming ceremony forms part of Heritage Month, observed under the theme: “Celebrating the Lives of Our Heroes and Heroines Who Laid Down Their Lives for Our Freedom”.
Ramaphosa said the victims left the country whereby their fundamental rights were brutally and cruelly suppressed by the apartheid government.
“Today, their remains return to a free and democratic South Africa.
It will forever remain a source of regret that they were never to see the dawn of the freedom to which they dedicated their lives.
It is fitting that we gather at Freedom Park to honour them.
It is here at Freedom Park that we remember our struggle for liberation and the many men and women who fought so that we may be free.
It is here that we celebrate the achievement of our democracy,” said Ramaphosa.
The president added that the government must ensure that the role played by freedom fighters is not forgotten.
He said the ceremony must build on the emerging government-wide collaboration on cultural heritage and the memory of all the freedom fighters.
“We must work with education and heritage stakeholders to ensure that the names and contributions of these African freedom fighters are known and appreciated by future generations.
We must build memorials to the sacrifice, resilience and solidarity that characterised this profound friendship between our countries.
We must undertake memorial activities that showcase the innovation of our people across all disciplines, spheres and industries,” added Ramaphosa.
Meanwhile, speaking at the ceremony, the Secretary General of the African National Congress (ANC) Fikile Mbalula, acknowledged the role played by neighbouring countries, as they accommodated freedom fighters who were in exile.
He said the countries embraced South Africans, supported our struggle, trained our people and provided liberation movements with the much-needed resources to wage our struggle in different terrains, and will forever remain grateful to them.
“Zambia led by President Kenneth Kaunda, gave home to the ANC and other liberation movements providing for ANC headquarters, training camps, and the education of our children and young people.
It did so while still busy rebuilding their own country, after just attaining their own independence in 1964.
The government and peoples of Zambia vowed that they can’t be free until all peoples of Africa and southern Africa are also free.
Zimbabwe too, like us, fought a long and hard struggle for independence, and freedom against a regime like the apartheid regime.
It was for this reason that we found common cause with the freedom fighters and freedom loving people of Zimbabwe,” said Mbalula.
His comments were echoed by Pan Africanist Congress president, Mzwanele Nyhontsho, whose party members’ immortal remains were part of those repatriated on Wednesday.
He also sought to assure other families that the remains of their loved ones would be repatriated too, at the appropriate time.
“There’s hope that even in the obscured family, who are never mentioned in the media whose son or daughter is among those who have never come home after many years in exile, whose story and background that led to their demise is still unknown.
There’s hope that one day they too will come home, and the extended family and their new generations will be on record for having paid the supreme sacrifice for national liberation.
Today, as it has happened before, faith is restored in our hearts and minds.
Healing is beginning to happen to those of us who are wounded, who are in pain, whose hearts are in pain, and whose sense of loss of our loved ones is shaken now positively, with compassion, love that we’re building one nation, we’re one people united in action,” said Nyhontsho.
Some of the repatriates include former PAC Chairman John Nyathi Pokela, who passed away in Harare, Zimbabwe in 1985, and former ANC Secretary General Duma Nokwe, regarded as the youngest person to have held the position.
They also include Florence Mophosho, who fought for the recognition of women’s rights and was a member of the African National Congress (ANC) NEC from 1975 until her death in 1985.
The remains of composer, musician and writer, Todd Matshikiza, who passed away in Lusaka in 1968, also formed part of the ceremony.
