Thousands of people gathered on Saturday at the reburial of an Umkhonto We Sizwe (MK) soldier who died during apartheid in Kimberley.
This after Minister for Justice and Constitutional Development, Michael Masutha, handed over the remains of Tebogo Leon Tume from Kimberley and Phemelo Ntehelang from Kuruman, to their families in July this year.
According to the spokesperson for MEC of Sports, Arts and Culture in the Northern Cape, Conrad Fortune, Tume was killed in Soweto during battles with the apartheid police in the 1980’s and was buried as a pauper at Avalon Cemetery, while Ntehelang was killed by the former notorious Vlakplaas Commander Eugene De Kock in 1989 and was buried in a shallow grave.
Fortune says they will be laying both MK soldiers with dignity and pride so that their families can find closure.
“Today is Tume’s funeral and next week we will hold the reburial of Langa. This also forms part of our heritage month programme, for us to remember where we come from and where we are going, also remembering what role these former soldiers played in the struggle for freedom that we are enjoying now,” said Fortune.
The Deputy Minister of Military Veterans, Kebby Maophatsoe, will be presiding over both funerals respectively.
REFILWE GAESWE
