Justice Home The Constitution Flag

Speeches

Home> Newsroom> Speeches

Address by the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services, Michael Masutha, MP, (Adv) on the occasion of the handing over of exhumed remains of 17 Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) Political Activists on 23 March 2018 in Queenstown, Eastern Cape

Program Director
Families of our departed patriots
Premier of the Eastern Cape; Mr Phumulo Masualle – in absentia
Member of the Eastern Cape Provincial Legislature, Honourable Nonceba Kontsiwe
Executive Mayor of Chris Hani District Municipality and Mayors of affected municipalities
Deputy Minister of Defence and Military Veterans; Mr Kebby Maphatsoe
Eastern Cape MEC for Sports Arts and Recreation; Miss Pemmy Majodina – in absentia
National and provincial leadership of the Pan Africanist Congress
Distinguished Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen
                                          
Molweni

Let me start by expressing my most sincere appreciation for the opportunity given to me today, to join you on this very important occasion.

At 6h00, on 6th April 1979, a young heroic son of our revolutionary struggle from Mamelodi was hanged by the racist minority regime in Pretoria. Solomon Kalushi Mahlangu walked to the gallows with unflinching courage and defiance in the face of his own demise. As the hangman was about to end his life, he said “Tell my people I love them and that they must continue the struggle, my blood will nourish the tree that will bear the fruits of freedom”. As if that was not enough, the apartheid regime was so ruthless that they had no shame in putting a rope around the neck of an 18 years old POQO cadre from Bhaziya in Mthatha, Bhekaphantsi Vulindlela thereby mercilessly ending his life.

This sombre occasion should remind us of the words of the late President Mandela when he summarised the death penalty and said “The death sentence is a barbaric act … It is a reflection of the animal instinct still in human beings”.   

To you families of our departed comrades, after travelling hundreds of kilometres from this province to Gauteng to witness the exhumation of their remains, you must be relieved that at last you can now close the chapter in this dignified and solemn occasion for your loved ones.

SILAPHA EMPUMAKOLONI NAMHLANJE UZONIKEZELA LAMATHAMBO OONYANA BESIZWE, SISITHI KUNI, NANI NIBALULEKILE KURHULUMENTE WE ANC NGENXA YEGALELO LALAMAQHAWE KWINKULULEKO YELILIZWE.

The remains we are handing over today were exhumed by the Missing Persons Task Team in the National Prosecuting Authority from pauper graves in Mamelodi and Rebecca Street cemeteries in Tshwane in August 2017 and in March 2018, in partnership with the TRC Unit in the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development. 

These exhumations form part of the Gallows Exhumation Project launched by Minister Michael Masutha in 2016, aimed at recovering the remains of political prisoners who were hanged on the Gallows prior to the suspension of the death penalty in 1990.  The bodies of the hanged political prisoners remained the property of the state and were given pauper burials in municipal cemeteries around Pretoria. Families were denied the opportunity to bury them. In all, 130 political prisoners from various political organisations including the PAC, the ANC, the UDF, and members of civil society were hanged on the gallows. The Gallows Exhumation Project aimed to recover the remains of 83 of the hanged whose remains had not yet been found or recovered.

At least sixty members of the Pan Africanist Congress’s armed wing Poqo were hanged in the 1960s. The seventeen PAC members being handed over to their families today were all part of the period of intense political protest in Paarl in 1962 when members of the PAC (Poqo) based in the single men’s migrant worker hostels in Mbekweni township undertook a series of campaigns and attacks on suspected informers and white residents. The period of protest culminated in a mass night time march on the white town of Paarl in November 1962 in which two whites were killed. In all, nine persons were killed by the PAC protestors that year and five PAC protestors were shot dead by police. Mass arrests and trials ensued in the years that followed, and twenty PAC members were ultimately hanged for the events in Paarl. Scores of others were sentenced to terms of imprisonment.  Some of those hanged were executed in 1963, while others were subsequently arrested and executed in 1967.

Ladies and Gentlemen
Those being handed over today are as follows:

The Missing Persons Task Team (MPTT) under the leadership of Ms Madeleine Fullard and the TRC Unit Project Team led by Mr Thapelo Mokushane have exhumed over 100 remains of the freedom fighters in line with the TRC recommendations.  On the Gallows Exhumation Project, out of 83 of those hanged, 46 remains of individuals belonging to both UDF and PAC have been exhumed leaving us with 37.

During apartheid rule it was common for black people convicted of murdering whites to be sentenced to death, but very rare for whites who murdered blacks to be given the death sentence.  A study of death sentences in one year found that 47% of blacks convicted of murdering whites were given the death sentence as opposed to no death sentences at all for whites convicted of murdering blacks. Between 1960 and 1990, at least 140 individuals were hanged for politically motivated offences.

Our country has since changed this reality and established a society that values human rights. As one of the leading nations in the promotion of human rights, South Africa has taken a progressive stance to end the death penalty. Our democratic constitution which has guided us for the past 20 years declares the right to life as a fundamental human right. The Constitution also implores us to uphold the dignity of all living human beings. We hope that the recovery of these remains will go some way towards relieving the decades of pain experienced by the families of those hanged, and at last allow them to be buried with the dignity they deserve.

I must take this opportunity and express our gratitude to the provincial government led by Premier Masualle and MEC Majodina for its support to this project, national Department of Defence and Military Veterans, Chris District Municipality which is hosting us today and other affected municipalities, Ekurhuleni Metro, Missing Persons Task Team under the leadership of Madeleine Fullard and Thapelo Mokushane of the TRC Unit team for all the hard work that yielded these results.

As we proceed to take these cadres to be with their forebears, let us then be reminded to constantly be on guard, to defend this democracy, for it did not come cheap.

Ndiyabulela
I Thank You