The remains of five men who fought the apartheid regime in the 1980s and whose fate remained unknown until this year were returned to their families on Sunday during a moving ceremony that paid tribute to them as ”giants” in South Africa.
About 400 people attended the ceremony held at Freedom Park in Pretoria, marking the first time that the remains of hundreds still missing from the apartheid-era were returned to their families.
The five men were all trained guerrillas of the African National Congress’s armed wing, Umkhonto weSizwe (MK), which fought the apartheid regime until its collapse in 1994 when the ANC swept to power in elections.
”Freedom isn’t fought for with pawns,” Minister of Defence Mosiuoa Lekota told the families. ”We had to employ young people in this noble cause.”
”If there was a way we could have brought freedom and democracy without losing the lives of your children, we would have,” he said.
”But the leaders of our people had no other way. Your sons are giants of our people who will be talked about long after you have gone.
”They will inspire generations of young South Africans to make the country what it needs to be,” he said.
Oscar Meleka and Jabulani Ndaba were killed by police on April 13 1988 at Hammarsdale in the eastern KwaZulu-Natal province.
Mzwamadoda Bonga and Vusumi Ngwema were shot dead by police at Piet Retief near the Swaziland border on January 30 1983.
Reginald Kekana was fatally injured by a hand-grenade blast at Mabopane outside Pretoria on May 4 1986.
Their remains were unearthed in March from unmarked graves and identified by DNA testing with the assistance of Argentinian forensic experts.
Some members of the families wept as a military honour guard carried the coffins of the five into a specially erected marquee.
Speaking for the families, Daris Mofokeng, sister of Kekana, said it is important not to seek revenge for the deeds of the past.
”Forgiveness is the key. That is the way that leads to healing. God has forgiven us our trespasses in the past, maybe he will do the same for them,” she said.
President Thabo Mbeki in 2003 tasked the National Prosecution Authority (NPA) with investigating the whereabouts of apartheid victims who went missing between 1960 and 1994.
The effort aims to bring closure for families of disappeared activists, presumed murdered.
It arose out of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which, during its amnesty hearings from 1996 to 2003, unearthed information on the assassination of anti-apartheid activists.
Of the 477 cases identified during the hearings, the NPA believes at least 23 are immediately solvable. — Sapa-AFP