Johannesburg - Growing allegations of fraud and corruption against senior ANC national and provincial leaders is worrying both its own former Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) soldiers and other ordinary members.
The ANC in Gauteng has also warned against being associated with acts of corruption, saying those implicated where doing it “for themselves and their friends”.
Ironically, these concerns were expressed during the exhumation of bodies of former MK combatants Charles Sandile Ngqobe and Leonard Tebogo Tume at the Dobsonville and Avalon cemeteries in Soweto on Friday.
The majority of the mourners were ANC members, including MK members dressed in their combat attire.
Both men were given pauper’s funerals following their involvement in bloody battles with the police in Soweto. The Kimberley-born Tume died in June 1980.
His remains were only discovered in 2011 following a search by the National Prosecuting Authority’s missing persons task team.
Ngqobe was killed in 1986 and his remains were also found in 2011. While their exhumations happened at different cemeteries, the different speakers told the mourners that Tume and Ngqobe’s only mission to join MK was to free South Africans from apartheid and poverty.
The speakers, including Rivonia triallist and former Robben Islander Andrew Mlangeni, praised the former freedom fighters for taking up arms at a young age.
Mlangeni also spoke out against chaos in Parliament, and said: “You took up arms as young people to liberate this country. You were the youth of 1976 who brought us (the) freedom we enjoy today.
“But I am disappointed with the youth of today. Funny things are happening in Parliament and it is done by young people.”
He did not mention the EFF by name when he addressed the bereaved families at Dobsonville cemetery. But just after that, ANC provincial secretary Hope Papo spoke and made a commitment that his party would rename streets and buildings, including hospitals, after people like Ngqobe and Tume “who sacrificed their lives for the people of South Africa”.
“They have to be honoured by the nation. They were buried in shallow and unmarked graves. To the apartheid regime, they were not human beings. They were animals who had to be treated like that,” Papo said.
It was apparent that Papo’s comments on honouring struggle heroes were a veiled attack on the DA after it had protested when Gauteng Premier David Makhura announced, during his State of the Province address last month that Zola-Jabulani Hospital would be named after Bheki Mlangeni, Natalspruit Hospital after Thelle Mogoerane and Far East Rand Hospital would be named after former journalist and struggle icon Ruth First.
According to Papo, Gauteng residents should prepare themselves for more renamings in honour of struggle heroes.
“It is non-debatable. We will honour them whether they like it or not,” he said.
However, Papo could not avoid talking about corruption within their ranks.
While not mentioning names, he said: “They are doing it for themselves and their friends.
“They cannot be associated with the ANC.”
At Avalon cemetery, former MK 1976 G5 Detachment Unit commander Leonard Rasegatla called on his former soldiers and ANC members to carry out an introspection of what had gone wrong within the ANC, and to “do it right”.
Rasegatla was paying tribute to Tume, who was part of his detachment. He described Tume as someone who joined MK not for personal gain but out of love for his country.
“His combat name was Norman Nkosi but we called him ‘Communist’. No ordinary person was called Communist. He was a shield of the people. He was a dedicated and selfless fighter,” Rasegatla said.
Tume was killed on June 13, 1980 at a house in Meadowlands, Soweto, following a gun battle with the police.
Rasegatla said local residents mistook him to be bank robber but his fellow fighters made an effort to convince them that “he was not a bank robber but a member of MK who came to liberate you”.
As he concluded his eulogy, Rasegatla urged ANC members to reflect about “how costly freedom has been” and he also asked them “to do a soul-search”.
Tume and Ngqobe are expected to be buried in the Northern Cape and North West respectively after a forensic analysis of their remains has been concluded.
Saturday Star