THE Mlotywa family, from Nyanga Village in Ngcobo, has expressed gratitude to the government for helping with the exhumation and reburial of their loved one, Phineas Mlotywa, who was executed by the then government in 1965.
This comes after the remains of the late Mlotywa, a Pan Africanist Movement (PAC) member, were reburied at his home on May 2, as part of government’s Gallows Exhumation Project.
The project seeks to recover the remains of political prisoners who were hanged on the gallows for politically related offences prior to the abolition of the death penalty in 1990.
The Mlotywa family says that the reburial of their loved one has brought them closure, as they had no idea where he had disappeared to, until recently when government informed them that he was hanged. They then began a process to repatriate his human remains for a dignified reburial.
“We only found out recently of what happened to our family member and thank the government for making it possible for us to give him a dignified send off.
“What we knew was that he left for work in Johannesburg, and we did not know what happened to him until recently, when government informed us,” said family spokesperson, Siyabonga Mlotywa.
The late Phineas Mlotywa was one of the six prisoners who were recruited by the PAC while serving sentences at Baviaanspoort Prison for other offences. He was sentenced to death on April 14, 1965, for killing a fellow PAC member and cellmate, Mhlokonjo Madelela, on suspicion of reporting party activities to prison warders.
PAC president, Mzwanele Nyhontso, who attended Mlotywa’s reburial, called on government to assist the family of those who sacrificed their lives as political prisoners beyond just the exhumation and reburial.
“The reburial of political prisoners means a lot to us, but it should not just end there as some of these families are still living in abject poverty. We will only find solace when all APLA (PAC’s military wing) cadres are released from jail, when we take care of families of all these veterans beyond just reburial, because families are dying in hunger and suffering,” Nyhontso said.
Eastern Cape Department of Sport, Recreation, Arts and Culture MEC, Fezeka Nkomonye, who was also in attendance during Mlotywa’s reburial, responded to Nyhontso’s plea saying families of those who died in the liberation struggle can use the institutionalised government services.
“We know and understand that some of the political prisoners who died were breadwinners for their families. That is why we encourage families of these political prisoners, whose economic status is terrible, to come closer to government to benefit from services such as free education, housing, health services and the recent introduction of the social relief of distress grant,” Nkomonye said.
On May 26, a similar handover and reburial of the remains of political prisoners took place as Justice and Correctional Service Minister, Ronald Lamola, oversaw the reburial of Bonakele Ngcongolo and Notimba Bozwana at Qamata Great Place outside Cofimvaba.
The two were members of the PAC task force, who were charged with sabotage and were both sentenced to death and executed on February 11, 1964.
