What was expected to be a heart-wrenching reburial of former Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC) cadres turned out to be a celebratory event that praised the lives, times and heroism of four revolutionaries that were executed by the former apartheid government.
Renowned as the Munsieville Four, Thomas Molatlhegi, Petrus Ntshole, Josiah Mocumi and Richard Motsoahae were condemned and sent to the gallows on 16 June 1964 for allegedly killing a black policeman although they adamantly maintained that they killed no one but were fighting for the land of their birth. The four cadres who were operating under the command of PAC’s armed military arm wing Poqo during the 1960’s were buried in separate graves at Mamelodi Cemetery.
Mogale City Executive Mayor Patrick Lipudi together with Justice and Correctional Service Minister Michael Masutha, assisted in the exhumation and reburial process. “We are grateful as a city to be part of this auspicious occasion where we rebury the remains of our fallen heroes,” Councillor Lipudi said.
“It is with great sadness that we have to remember their contribution in the liberation struggle of this country after being hanged by the apartheid regime. However, this occasion will bring closure to their families, the community of Munsieville and the entire South Africa,” he added.
Despite all vying for a landslide victory on 8 May, the day of National and Provincial elections, members of the EFF, ANC and PAC turned the Munsieville Indoor Sports Complex where this historical event took place into a lively celebratory event.
The occasion attended by PAC stalwarts, Robben Islanders Johnson Mlambo, Mike Matsobane, past and present PAC Presidents Motsoko Pheko and Narius Moloto was later turned into a military event when bullets were fired in the air – a military gesture to honour the fallen heroes.
The four coffins draped in the PAC flags were carried shoulder-high throughout the streets of Munsieville and were reburied at Munsieville’s Heroes Acre. This historic commemoration adds another feather in the cap of Munsieville’s already rich struggle history.