Cape Town - The human remains of 55 South African exiles, notably liberation stalwarts, buried in Zambia and Zimbabwe are expected to be repatriated to South Africa.
The remains are to be reburied in their provincial homes, with a homecoming ceremony to be held at Freedom Park Heritage Site and Museum in Johannesburg later this month.
In Lusaka, Zambia, about 150 South African exiles died between 1964 and 1994, most of whom were buried in Leopard’s Hill Cemetery, Lusaka.
The remains of 33 exiles will be repatriated from Zambia, including seven ANC military wing cadres who had drowned in the Zambezi on September 13, 1988.
The Exile Repatriation Project is headed by the South African Heritage Resources Agency (Sahra), an agency of the Department of Sport, Arts, and Culture and other government departments involved.
The human remains are expected to arrive at Waterkloof Air Force Base on September 25, and will thereafter be stored at the Military Hospital for forensic and DNA testing.
An official homecoming ceremony and launch of the project is expected to take place on September 27.
President Cyril Ramaphosa will launch the exile repatriation programme by the National Policy on Repatriation and Restitution of Human Remains and Heritage Objects, to be implemented through Sahra.
During a media briefing on Wednesday, presidential spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said, “The repatriation is in line with the pronouncement by President Ramaphosa in the statement of January 8, 2020, and subsequently Sona (State of the Nation Address).
“In that pronouncement, he made a commitment that the repatriation and reburial of liberation stalwarts, namely Dumalisile Nokwe and Florence Maphosho, in Zambia and Basil February in Zimbabwe would mark the Road to Freedom and Democracy. The two countries were strategically prioritised for the implementation of the project.”
Ahead of the global lockdown as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic in the same year, the Department of Military Veterans (DMV) undertook a visit to Zambia to conduct an audit of graves.
On September 12, 2023, a decision was made to broaden the initial plan to include countries with a higher concentration of South African remains, ie, Angola, Tanzania and Zambia.
A visit to Zambia was undertaken from November 19 to 30, 2023, and 35 graves in Leopard’s Hill Cemetery in Lusaka were identified and a potential location of the seven graves of ANC military wing cadres that died in a drowning accident in 1988 was identified in Livingstone Cemetery.
A visit to Zimbabwe took place from March 3 to8 this year and through the assistance of a Zimbabwean task team comprising various government departments, the graves of South African liberation Struggle combatants were identified in Warren Hills Cemetery in Harare.
Sahra said: “Only three Wankie campaign graves inclusive of that of Basil February were identified in Bulawayo’s cemeteries and further research and visits to the battlefields and Rhodesian forces’ command centres would yield positive information and results.”
The exhumations in Lusaka took place from September 4 to 7 and in Livingstone Cemetery from September 11 to 13.
From August 30 to September 1, representatives from the families were brought in to perform spiritual repatriations ahead of the exhumations in Lusaka.
From September 8 to 10, this was also done at the Livingstone Cemetery.
Present with the family were representatives from the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture, Sahra, the Missing Persons Task Team under the National Prosecuting Authority and Freedom Park.
Sahra senior manager: Heritage Conservation Management, Ben Mwasinga, said, “In respect of the families, we choose not to provide details on the persons buried in Zambia yet.
“These people are buried in different locations depending on their place and cause of death while in exile during the liberation Struggle. They were in Zambia in exile for the liberation Struggle during the apartheid regime, fighting for the now democratic South African we live in.
“Remains were discovered through existing registers and records from institutions like special pensions, the Department of Military Veterans and cemetery records.
“They were buried by other soldiers of the ANC military uMkhonto weSizwe who were in exile with them, with the assistance of the Zambian government. Some of their families attended the funerals from South Africa in Zambia and Zimbabwe.”
Mwasinga said a few South African not aligned to mainstream political movements such as artists, teachers, and nurses, migrated to Zambia to escape apartheid repression, notably among them the legendary playwright, composer and jazz pianist Todd Matshikiza, who passed away in 1968 and was buried in Leopard’s Hill Cemetery in Lusaka.
“The South African community grew exponentially in Zambia and senior leaders of the African National Congress settled with their families in Lusaka as the liberation movement’s operations were increasingly being run from there.
“Livingstone, in the south, was a gateway for ANC cadres and by the 1980s had set up a transition camp and other safe houses leading to cross-border raids and assassinations, with a few casualties,” Mwasinga said.