South Africa Receives Remains of 42 Independence fighters who Died in Exile

Government officials and family members received the remains at Pretoria’s Waterkloof Air Force Base after they were excavated in Zambia and Zimbabwe for reburial in their natal nation.

According to officials, this was part of a government policy to provide closure to families whose loved ones perished away from home while serving in the underground structures of both the African National Congress and the Pan Africanist Congress.

Before South Africa’s apartheid system dissolved in 1994, many activists fled the nation to obtain military training elsewhere, intending to return home to launch an armed struggle.

Speaking at a Heritage Day celebration in South Africa on Tuesday, Deputy President Paul Mashatile said the repatriation was part of efforts to educate future generations about the role many people had in the fight against apartheid.

President Cyril Ramaphosa is slated to conduct a homecoming ceremony for the repatriated remains on Friday before handing them over to their families for reburial throughout the country. On Wednesday, the government announced that it was in the process of repatriating other South Africans’ remains from Lesotho, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Angola, Russia, and other nations.

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