Johannesburg - The mother of late African National Congress Youth League president Peter Mokaba, Priscilla, has removed his name from the ANC memorial plaque at the graveyard where he was buried in protest against the league for not consulting her.
Inscribed on the memorial plaque, which has been erected on the main gate of the Mankweng Cemetery outside Polokwane, are 16 names of fallen anti-apartheid activists.
Sources allege that Priscilla, 76, regards some of the people whose names are on the plaque as sellouts and informants of the apartheid government.
“She did not even come to the unveiling ceremony of this memorial plaque,” said a source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The Star was notified of the sullied plaque on Sunday when President Jacob Zuma visited the tombstone of Mokaba, a former deputy minister of environmental affairs and tourism during Nelson Mandela’s presidency.
Zuma and Priscilla led a delegation of ANC and youth leaders to lay wreaths at the tombstone for the former firebrand youth leader, who coined the infamous “Kill the boer, kill the farmer” slogan.
But while Zuma lauded the “lion of the north” as an exemplary leader worth emulating, on the memorial stone at the main gate Mokaba’s name was not on the list of those regarded as “fallen heroes and heroines”.
While she admits to defacing the memorial stone, Priscilla denies denouncing anyone as a sellout.
“That one (the allegation) comes from them. The fact of the matter is (erecting) that stone without consulting the family,” the former political prisoner said during an interview at her Mankweng home.
“Some of those people I don’t even know them, others were not even buried there. I doubt if their families were consulted,” she added.
Mokaba said she did not oppose the erection of the plaque in honour of her late son, but she did not want it to be in the graveyard.
“He can’t have two tombstones in the graveyard. They could have put it at the University (of Limpopo) or any other public place,” Priscilla said.
Mokaba said she took the matter up with the disbanded provincial ANC leadership, who had apologised.
The Star