The remains of 42 activists who opposed apartheid and died in exile in Zambia and Zimbabwe over 30 years ago were brought back to South Africa on Wednesday, marking the beginning of a government initiative to repatriate freedom fighters.
The South African government aims to bring back the remains of activists who fought against white minority rule from overseas to recognise their role in the struggle that ultimately led to the end of apartheid in 1994.
According to Obed Bapela, an international relations officer for the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party, over 1,000 anti-apartheid activists died in exile in African countries such as Angola and Tanzania, as well as in Cuba and Europe, as stated in an interview with the eNCA broadcaster.
“There are plans to also repatriate from other parts of the continent,” South African Defence Minster Angie Motshekga said at a ceremony at a military base near Pretoria to welcome the remains.
The South African officials in Harare and Lusaka received the remains earlier in the day.
The apartheid government’s banning of parties such as the ANC and Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) in 1960 accelerated the exile of South African anti-apartheid fighters.
The South African government announced this week that the repatriations from neighbouring Zimbabwe and Zambia on Wednesday marked the beginning of a process to expedite the return of liberation fighters through a “country-to-country model”.
Previously, repatriations were conducted individually, typically at the request of families.
The remains repatriated from Zimbabwe on Wednesday included those of PAC leader John Nyathi Pokela, who received a state funeral in Zimbabwe after he died in Harare in 1985.
Pokela was one of the ANC leaders who split off in 1959 to establish the PAC. After spending 13 years in jail on Robben Island, where anti-apartheid leaders such as Nelson Mandela were also held, he went into exile upon his release.
Mzwanele Nyhontso, South Africa’s rural development and land reform minister, stated at the handover in Harare that the repatriations were a significant step toward healing and closure.