STAFF REPORTER
TEARS flowed at Pretoria Central Prison when families of hanged political prisoners visited the gallows for the first time yesterday.
Most of the families had also never visited the burial sites of their relatives.
An estimated 120 political prisoners were executed at the prison between 1961 and 1989.
As they climbed the 52 steps to the gallows, some relatives sobbed.
The event was part of the Department of Correctional Services’s Gallows Memorialisation Project to convert the gallows into a museum to honour the memory of Struggle heroes who paid the ultimate price for freedom.
President Jacob Zuma was due to officially open the gallows today.
Present at the event were Correctional Services Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula; her deputy, Ngoako Ramatlhodi; Tshwane mayor Kgosientso Ramokgopa; and about 300 relatives of those executed.
Ramatlhodi said that although they were honouring the memories of those who were executed for political reasons, it was difficult to separate them from the others who faced a similar fate for criminal offences.
“I am told that a young black guy was hanged at this facility simply because he had fallen in love with a young white girl. Those calling for the death penalty clearly do not understand what they are talking about. The hanging of people was a cold, heartless process.”
Ramatlhodi took a swipe at those who intimate that life was better under apartheid, saying it was an insult to the memory of all those who were hanged, including Vuyisile Mini and Solomon Mahlangu.
He said it was a shame that soon after the first democratic elections in 1994, some people in the department had decided to dismantle the gallows, thinking they were concealing “our painful past”.
After visiting the gallows, the families were taken to the Mamelodi, Atteridgeville or Rebecca Street cemeteries to see their loved ones’ graves.
The Vulindlela family, from the former Transkei, had five of their members executed in a group hanging in 1964. It was the first time the family had visited the graves.
Also present was Busiswe Boesman, 66, whose son Mangena was the last political prisoner to be hanged, in 1989.
Boesman, of Sterkstroom near Queenstown, said: “He was my first child and I want his bones so that when I die I can be buried next to him.” She added she would never forget or forgive what had been done.
The family of Mini, hanged in the 1960s, said that although it had taken a long time to memorialise the gallows, they were relieved it had finally been done.
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Having visited the gallows and for the first time seen where our family were buried will at least help us find some closure. This was both a painful and blessed day,” said Phumelele Gaqa, whose father was executed in the 1960s.