Johannesburg - Limpho Hani, wife of slain Chris Hani, used the unveiling of a memorial honouring him to clarify rumours about his alleged daughters.
Hani was shot and killed in the driveway of his Boksburg home, 22 years ago.
His widow said in Boksburg on Friday that a private investigator has found proof that the two women who had separately claimed to be the struggle stalwart’s daughters were not his children.
Tunyiswa Cleopatra Hani and Vanessa Hani, were reported to be the slain SACP leader’s daughters. In 2013, Tunyiswa accused Limpho of excluding them in an event commemorating Hani’s death.
“I ask journalists to do their research before writing stories about us… I will, however, give out this information from a private investigator I hired to investigate these people who claimed to be his children after he passed on,” Limpho Hani said.
She said information revealed that “Vanessa Hani” who claimed to be Hani’s child was actually a Mozambican who acquired her South Africa ID fraudulently.
“This Vanessa Hani’s real name is Phindile Madonsela. The investigator took this information to the Department of Home Affairs. The director general of the department wrote back to me in a letter dated August 2014,” she said, as she looked at reporters seated below the podium.
She said the department said after verifying the information from the two women and that of the private investigator, that it had found no evidence that Madonsela and the second woman were Hani’s children.
Hani said: “I will read a part of the letter to you journalists.. the director general said: ‘Regarding this matter, our records on the two individuals mentioned above do not show they are related to Hani, this is based on on documentary evidence submitted to the department, which does not prove Hani is their father’.”
Limpho accused journalists of being “lazy, reckless and vindictive”.
“Some still parade this Vanessa as Chris’s daughter, 22 years after he has passed on... what is the real reason behind all that?” she asked, adding that she was not emotional and just wanted to “set the record straight”.
She looked at President Jacob Zuma, who unveiled the memorial, and said she had planned to say more but was told to respect the leaders present.
“I respect you and I love you, president, but your presence here is stopping me from saying all that I wanted to say.”
She accused white people of writing black people’s stories without verifying facts.
“What we see are white people waking up and writing what they want to write about us, president. The perception is that our leaders, who are black, are generally corrupt,” she said in SeSotho, to the loud applause of the audience.
Earlier Zuma and Limpho laid wreaths by the memorial. The memorial, covering at least 50 metres across the cemetery, displays Hani’s face, and it is surrounded by four curved pillars. At the other side of the pillars is a memorial wall of remembrance.
An official from the Heritage Council explained the meaning of the memorial site, and what it symbolised, as Zuma and Limpho were walked through it.
Ekurhuleni mayor Mondli Gungubele, Public Works Minister Thulas Nxesi, Cosatu president Sidumo Dlamini also attended the event. Members of the SA Communist Party and the African National Congress sang struggle songs ahead of the unveiling.
Draped in red, green and yellow colours, they sang songs praising Zuma, struggle icon Oliver Tambo and Hani.
ANA