The Mamelodi home of Martha Mahlangu, mother of struggle icon Solomon Mahlangu, will be turned into a museum.
President Jacob Zuma, speaking at Martha Mahlangu’s funeral in Pretoria on Saturday, said the arts and culture department and the City of Tshwane would head the project.
“The museum, together with the Solomon Mahlangu Square and Solomon Mahlangu highways, will stand as constant reminders of the legacy of freedom that Mama Mahlangu and her son Solomon left for us,” Zuma said in a eulogy prepared for delivery at the funeral.
He described her as a source of strength.
“Mama Mahlangu was a pillar of strength not only to her family, but also to society in general.
“We have lost a great patriot and a resilient mother, who will be remembered for her humility, dignity and her commitment to building the South Africa that her son died fighting to achieve.”
Convicted
Her son was a member of the ANC’s armed wing Umkhonto weSizwe (MK).
He was hanged at the Pretoria Central Prison on April 6 1979 after being convicted of the murder of two white civilians in Johannesburg two years earlier.
Zuma said: “As we pay tribute to this selfless patriot, we also remember all parents who went through similar pain, whose children were brutally murdered by the apartheid regime in its desperate attempts to stop the dawn of freedom.”
Zuma said he had hosted Martha Mahlangu and other struggle veterans in Cape Town last month during the state of the nation address.
“It now seems as if she had come to bid us farewell,” said Zuma.
The elderly Mahlangu died at the Steve Biko Academic Hospital in Pretoria on March 12.
Her full civic funeral was attended by Gauteng premier Nomvula Mokonyane, Tshwane mayor Kgosientso Ramokgopa and several ministers and deputy ministers. – Sapa