A bizarre plan to relocate the remains of President Thabo Mbeki’s father to a Port Elizabeth struggle museum has been slammed as illegal and immoral by his family, the Sunday Times reported in its first edition.
The plan, driven by Nelson Mandela metro mayor Nceba Faku and detailed by the municipality last week, is for anti-apartheid veterans Govan Mbeki and Raymond Mhlaba to be reburied at the Red Location Museum at its launch on February 13.
However, the president’s brother, Moeletsi Mbeki, co-executor of their father’s estate, said his father will never be moved from his grave and that any reburial would be illegal in terms of his will.
”It was my father’s will to be buried there [at Zwide cemetery]. The only way they can change it is by going to the high court to overturn my father’s will — and I will oppose that application if they do that.”
Govan Mbeki, a veteran of the African National Congress’s liberation struggle, died at his home in Port Elizabeth in August 2001.
Best known to younger generations for his relationship to his more famous son, ”Oom Gov” carved a place in history as a political leader and intellectual in his own right.
The ANC at the time of his death described him as a man who brought with him ”the rare qualities of selflessness and utter devotion to the cause of the oppressed and exploited millions of our country”.
Meanwhile, the family of Mhlaba, former premier of the Eastern Cape, have formally agreed to his exhumation and reburial. — Sapa