Johannesburg - Theirs is a tale of two liberation stalwarts who defied apartheid’s suppressive laws to the bitter end. They were forced to leave South Africa in 1963 and both died from a stroke in Moscow.
They were buried side by side in the Russian capital, just when the liberation Struggle back home reached a point of no return in the 1970s.
Next Monday, the remains of SACP leaders Moses Kotane and John Beaver (JB) Marks are set to be returned to South Africa, 42 years since they were buried on foreign soil.
On Monday, Arts and Culture Minister Nathi Mthethwa announced details of the pair’s exhumation, repatriation and reburial.
“The story of Kotane and Marks and the generation they represent captures and reflects how courageous men and women stood up for moral principles in the face of our shameful history, characterised by a divisive colonial and racist past,” Mthethwa said, addressing journalists in Joburg.
As Mthethwa noted, the decision to repatriate Kotane was not without its hurdles.
President Jacob Zuma had to persuade Kotane’s 103-year-old widow MaRebecca, as she is popularly known, to allow the repatriation.
In 2012, MaRebecca said in an interview with The Star that her husband had insisted he be buried in the land in which he died because he believed he was working for the rest of humanity for a just cause.
Kotane’s son, Sam Kotane, 67, reiterated this on Monday.
“My mother was reluctant because apparently they (Kotane and MaRebecca) had discussions between them. My father said he didn’t know where he would end up, but he believed that wherever he ended up, he would be accepted,” Sam said.
“All along we have been trying to persuade my mother not to take this literally. We are saying that, as Africans, the spirit doesn’t end until it is brought back to its source. We’re happy the process is under way.”
Mthethwa said his department had prioritised the repatriation of Kotane’s remains because of MaRebecca’s age and health and that Marks’s family had approached the department.
“In both consultation meetings, the family (Marks’s) overwhelmingly agreed that the remains of JB Marks should be returned with those of Moses Kotane,” Mthethwa said.
The repatriation process starts in earnest this week, with Mthethwa leading a delegation to Russia on Monday.
A symbolic handover ceremony is due to be held at the South African embassy in Moscow later this week.
A reception ceremony is planned at the Waterkloof Air Force Base near Pretoria on March 2.
The reburial of Kotane’s remains is due to be held in Pella, Northern Cape, on March 14 and Marks’s in Ventersdorp, North West, on March 22.
In recognition of their contribution to the Struggle, Zuma has declared their reburial special official funerals.
Marks died from a stroke in 1972 and Kotane of one in 1978.
They had gone to Moscow for treatment. Marks left South Africa in 1963 to join then ANC president Oliver Tambo in exile, while Kotane left the country for Tanzania in the same year.
The Star