OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Monday 5.30pm.
THE Pan Africanist Congress on Monday insisted on a full military funeral for the SA National Defence Force soldier who shot dead seven people at a Bloemfontein army base last week.
“His guilt has not been established yet. It would be premature to take away any of his rights,” PAC secretary-general Ngila Muendane told reporters in Pretoria.
He said Lieutenant Sibusiso Madubela’s family lodged a request for a military burial with the SA National Defence Force’s Umtata offices earlier on Monday.
Madubela was a member of the PAC’s now-defunct armed wing, the Azanian People’s Liberation Army, prior to the integration of the statutory and liberation movement forces from 1994.
Lieutenant Emoret Serfontein, a spokeswoman for the Orange Free State command, said that according to army policy, a soldier was not entitled to a military funeral if his or her death was linked to any criminal action.
“The police have identified Lt Madubela as the killer, and this policy will therefore apply,” she said.
Madubela’s funeral is expected to take place in Umtata on October 2. Madubela killed seven whites — six soldiers and a civilian woman employee — in a shooting spree at Tempe army base near the Free State capital last Thursday.
He wounded another five people before he was killed in a shootout with other soldiers.
Muendane claimed that Madubela had been a victim of racism since he became a member of the SANDF, and said it had been unfair to cut Madubela’s salary for allegedly being absent without leave.
Madubela’s pay was cut after he returned late from leave, according to the army.
Claiming that white racists were at the helm of the SANDF, Muendane said last week’s shooting should act as a wake-up call.
Describing Madubela as a clean-living, decent young man, he said the massacre was out of character with PAC orientation.
Muendane called for a independent judicial inquiry into the incident.