Durban – Thousands of people gathered on Sunday in a rain soaked marquee on the University of Zululand sports fields in KwaDlangezwa near Empangeni in KwaZulu-Natal for the special provincial funeral for struggle veteran and uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK) member Riot Makhomanisi Mkhwanazi.
Mkhwanazi, 83, died last Sunday after a long illness and is survived by his three children and seven grandchildren. Among the speakers at the funeral were President Jacob Zuma who read the eulogy.
Zuma and Mkhwanazi spent 10 years together on Robben Island and worked together in exile afterwards.
Mkhwanazi’s son Thokozani said: “I am honoured to have been given this chance to say a final farewell to my father. Dad always made us feel safe. Even one day when word came through that he was going to be ‘taken out’.
"He fetched his AK-47 from where he had hid it and stood guard the whole night, protecting his family. He could have relocated, but he decided to stay. He refused to be a victim of his circumstances,” Thokozani said.
Mkhwanazi was awarded the Order of Mendi for bravery by Zuma in 2014. Zuma praised Mkhwanazi for his years of dedicated service to the people of South Africa.
“I knew him personally and valued him deeply as an older brother, a friend, prison mate, and disciplined comrade. I can attest to his bravery and resilience and dedication to the cause," he said.
“He was never broken by prison, neither was he discouraged or overcome with the difficulties of life in exile, and on his release from Robben Island he continued where he left off in politics, demonstrating his struggle was only deferred while incarcerated. Today we lay to rest one of the best of our movement,” Zuma said.
Officials confirmed that about 3500 people attended, including struggle veterans, Mkhwanazi’s extended family, and a large contingent of MK veterans.
Zuma spoke for more than an hour, sharing anecdotes and stories from their past, often drawing laughs from the crowd, before departing to address the KwaZulu-Natal African National Congress Youth League in Durban.