The remains of communist stalwart and liberation hero JB Marks are to be reburied in Ventersdorp this Sunday – a town still known to many in South Africa as the birthplace and burial ground of the once feared Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB) leader Eugene Terre’Blanche.
Terre’Blanche is buried under the shade of a bluegum tree at the foot of a koppie on his farm. The remains of Marks – which were returned from Russia along with those of struggle icon Moses Kotane – are to be buried in a grave in the Tshing township, which this week was surrounded by a steel fence.
Terre’Blanche’s family are unwilling to speak to media, his daughter Bea saying only: “Nee, ons is bietjie moeg van publisiteit [No, we are a bit tired of publicity]”.
When asked about her view on the reburial of Marks in the town, she replied: “Ons voel niks daaroor nie [We feel nothing about that].”
On the western fringes of the town is the Marks family home, one in a row of humble red-brick houses in the Toevlug township.
Grandma Maria Marks, wife of the late Matthew Marks (JB Marks’s brother), is the family elder.
Two pictures of JB Marks, one in colour and the other black-and-white, have pride of place on the lounge wall.
Grocery store owner Mohammed Kibra said he had encountered incidents of racial discrimination in his eight years of living in Ventersdorp.
Manuel Canara, a Portuguese national and tyre distributor, said he would not care whether a customer came from the AWB or the South African Communist Party.
Chantelle Fourie, a young mother, said if JB Marks was born in Ventersdorp, then why would there be a fuss if he was buried in his hometown.
“I would not have a problem at all with the man being buried in Ventersdorp,” she said.
Outside the town’s main grocery store the Mail & Guardian team was approached by the Afrikaans speaking Martins Khumalo, asking for money to buy bread.
Asked whether he knew the name JB Marks, Khumalo kept on mumbling “die kliniek [the clinic]”, and then switched back to his request for money to buy bread.
It was clear even after we gave him a handful of coins and samoosas that the man had no clue who the much-admired liberation fighter was.
Johnny Masilela is a journalist and author