Johannesburg - Marumo Molusi - one of the people who led the 1960 anti-pass law march along with PAC founding president Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe - has died.
Molusi, 87, popularly known as Son of Soil in PAC circles and neighbouring countries for his dedication to the ideal for the formation of the “United States of Africa”, died of natural causes on August 12 following a brief admission to Edenvale Hospital.
At the time of his death, Molusi was living at Itlhokomeleng Old Age Home in Alexandra.
He was born on June 18, 1928 in Bakgoro Borra-Molusi, Bodibe, in what is known as Lichtenburg in North West. He became active in ANC politics while a student at Tiger Kloof Educational Institute and became part of the ANC Youth League when he moved to Joburg in the 1940s.
Molusi was part of the ANCYL group who forced the ANC to adopt the radical 1949 Programme of Action, which culminated in the bus boycotts in Alexandra and the famous 1952 Defiance Campaign, among others.
PAC spokesman Kenneth Mokgatlhe said surviving PAC members would remember Molusi as a strong supporter of founding ANCYL president Anton Lembede’s views on Africanism.
“Molusi naturally aligned himself to Sobukwe after the ANC abandoned the 1949 Programme of Action and it adopted the Freedom Charter in 1955,” he said.
It is recorded in history that it was Molusi who handed a letter to Oliver Tambo on November 2, 1958 “while leaving the hall with Robert Sobukwe, Potlako Leballo and numerous others in a bid to pursue a genuine Africanism agenda”.
In that letter, they stated their intention to form an Africanist movement. They formed the PAC at the Orlando Communal Hall in Soweto on April 6, 1959, where Sobukwe was pronounced the founding president.
In less than a year, Molusi flanked Sobukwe when they led the anti-pass march on March 21, 1960 at Orlando police station.
Another PAC leader, Nyakane Tsolo, led a march in Sharpeville, where 69 people were killed and 100 others injured.
Molusi and Sobukwe were jailed for the role they played in the campaign.
After serving time in jail, Molusi became instrumental in the formation of Poqo, the PAC’s military wing, and later the Azanian People’s Liberation Army.
“Marumo was incarcerated several times, including on Robben Island, for PAC underground activities,” Mokgatlhe said.
Some of his family members, including nieces and nephews, joined him in his search for freedom. One of them was Modisaemang Molusi, who enlisted in the PAC army in 1977.
“I was joining rangwane (my uncle’s) footsteps. He moved from city to city, town to town and country to country championing the ideals of Africanism and the United States of Africa,” he said.
Cope leader and former Robben Island prisoner Mosiuoa Lekota also paid tribute to Molusi.
“Like myself, Marumo Molusi was in and out of Robben Island. Incarceration took its toll on his health, as it did with many inmates,” Lekota said.
“He struggled with ill-health for a long while. We mourn his passing but we celebrate his life and the use to which he dedicated that life so selflessly and so nobly. We agreed on many things but we also had fundamental political disagreements.
“Even so, we held him in high esteem for the courage of his conviction and the price he was prepared to pay for his political beliefs.
“The men and women who shaped our present day history are leaving us one by one. With their passing, our country is losing that spirit of selflessness and sacrifice that once prevailed among us. Go well, my brother. You served our nation well and our prayers are with you,” Lekota said.
Molusi will be buried at his ancestral home in Lichtenburg on Saturday.
The Star