/ 7 June 2012

Protest at clamps on ANC funeral

The family of murdered ANC activist Peter Sello Motau will appeal against tight restrictions imposed on his funeral in Soweto, attorney Amichand Soman said last night.

According to Soman, Motau’s father, David Mankurwa Motau, was summoned to Protea police station yesterday morning and told to bury his son today in Avalon cemetery.

Soman said it would not be possible to arrange the funeral at such short notice. The family, he said, would apply to hold the funeral on Sunday or on a day next week.

Restrictions published in a special Government Gazette yesterday forbid flags and banners, amplification equipment, non-clerical speakers and the attendance of more than 200 mourners at the funeral of Motau, gunned down two weeks ago in Swaziland.

Motau was killed with ANC executive member Job Shimane Thabane when their taxi was forced off the Matsapa-Mbabane road by a South African-registered BMW sedan. Slain with them was a Mozambican woman Eliza Tsinini. 

This article originally appeared in the Weekly Mail newspaper