OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Tuesday
THE South African government is preparing to bring home the bodies of freedom fighters that died in exile, the justice ministry has announced.
“The government wants to ensure that those who died outside the country are brought back for a proper burial. The preparations are being made,” said ministry official Paul Setsetse.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), which investigated human rights abuses that took place during the previous apartheid regime, recommended that the government repatriate the bodies of anti-apartheid fighters.
The cabinet has appointed a team to decide on the logistics of this task, as well as the TRC’s recommendations on compensating victims of apartheid, Setsetse said.
“The TRC process will not be a complete one if people are still buried somewhere outside of the country. Part of the reconciliation process is to trace the missing persons and give them a proper burial,” he said.
Setsetse could not say how many freedom fighters died outside of the country.
The African National Congress, which led the anti-apartheid struggle and was elected to power in 1994, said in a statement to the TRC in 1996 that between 1960 and 1993 some 400 of its soldiers died of natural causes while in exile and nearly 450 were killed.
Another 34 were executed by order of its military council, 45 committed suicide and 23 were missing, the party said, adding that the record was not exact.
The deaths occurred mainly in southern African countries, including Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
ANC national spokesman Nat Serache said: “We had hundreds that fell in combat (outside of the country). Some were ambushed in Angola, some died of malaria, some died of natural causes.”
The party welcomed the move to return their remains, he said.
“It is not going to bring back the comrades concerned but at least their families will have the opportunity to give them their last farewell, their last respects,” he said.
The bodies of a handful of deceased exiles have already been returned on the initiative of the TRC, Setsetse said. – AFP