A TUMULTOUS journey for six Eastern Cape families finally ended at the weekend when the remains of the Langa Six, hanged during the 1960s, were returned home
Families of the PAC members came from as far as Lady Frere, Ngcobo, and Willowvale for an official handing over ceremony which took place in Cofimvaba on Saturday.
They will now be laid to rest by their families at a later stage.
The Langa Six - Zibongile Dodo, Nontasi Sheweni, Jim Ngantweni, Donker Ntsabo, Veyusile Qoba and Mqokeleli Nqulwana - were members of the party's armed wing Poqo, which later became the Azanian Peoples Liberation Army (Apla).
That was the first attack of the armed struggle against apartheid.
They were all migrant labourers in Cape Town and were in their late 20s, with the exception of 38 year-old Sere involved in two incidents where policemen were killed in Langa, Cape Town in 1962.
Sheweni, Ngantweni and Ntsabo, all from Cofimvaba, and Dodo from Lady Frere, were sentenced to death in 1967 following their involvement in a 1962 attack on police vehicles in Langa, Cape Town, where a policeman was killed and others injured.
Ngcobo resident Qoba was found guilty of the same incident during a separate trial and was hanged in March of 1968.
Nqulwana was sentenced to death for his involvement in a fatal attack of a policeman, also in Langa in 1962, and was hanged in November of 1967. All the men were buried in pauper's graves in Rebecca Street cemetery in Tshwane the same day of their execution.
On Saturday, the PAC paid tribute to its "martyrs" in a ceremony that saw high ranking party members, attend.
The presentation to the families was the culmination of a journey that started with the exhumation of the remains at a cemetery in Tshwane in February.
The NPA could not explain why the families had to wait eight months until the handing over. NPA Spokesperson Mthunzi Mhaga said there had been no need for DNA tests because there was no doubt about the remains.
Addressing their loved ones, emotional family members said it brought some closure to be able to bury the remains on home soil.
"You are back home now after being on your own in Pretoria. After this we will be given your bones so that you can be next to your father, where we know your soul has been," said a family member.
Another family member, a cousin of one of the six, said the pain of not knowing where he had been buried proved hard to bear.
The journey was largely due to the tireless work of the National Prosecuting Authority's (NPA) Missing Persons Task Team, which is charged with the duty of investigating the nearly 500 cases of missing persons that were reported to the Truth and Reconciliation Committee (TRC) but remained unsolved.
The Task Team has been investigating cases of people who disappeared under political circumstances from 1960 until May 1994.
Inside the venue the mood was sombre as the six's family, PAC members and leadership including former and current party presidents Clarence Makwethu and Letlapa Mphahlele, pictured.
Others in attendance included Arts and Culture MEC Xoliswa Tom, Intsika Yethu local municipality leadership, including mayor Sithembele Plata, and regional ANC leadership.
Addressing the crowd, Mphahlele paid tribute to the dead, saying the occasion had even brought the ANC and PAC together.
He also said Cofimvaba, and other rural areas, should forever be remembered for producing struggle heroes such as former MK commander Chris Hani.
"However as the PAC, we are concerned there is no development in rural areas like Cofimvaba and others which have produced heroes. Apla and MK members were from rural areas and what they fought for is still not there.
"When will the return of our land happen," Mphahlele added to applause.
MEC Tom said the sacrifices made by those who fought for liberation should be given worth by deepening democracy and making freedom work.
Though for the six families there was a sense of closure, the task team is facing a huge backlog as to date only 65 of 470 remains have been tracked down and exhumed. Of the ones found, 41, which includes the Langa Six, have since been handed over to families across the country.
Remains of PAC men exhumed
A TUMULTOUS journey for six Eastern Cape families finally ended at the weekend when the remains of the Langa Six, hanged during the 1960s, were returned home
Families of the PAC members came from as far as Lady Frere, Ngcobo, and Willowvale for an official handing over ceremony which took place in Cofimvaba on Saturday.
They will now be laid to rest by their families at a later stage.
The Langa Six - Zibongile Dodo, Nontasi Sheweni, Jim Ngantweni, Donker Ntsabo, Veyusile Qoba and Mqokeleli Nqulwana - were members of the party's armed wing Poqo, which later became the Azanian Peoples Liberation Army (Apla).
That was the first attack of the armed struggle against apartheid.
They were all migrant labourers in Cape Town and were in their late 20s, with the exception of 38 year-old Sere involved in two incidents where policemen were killed in Langa, Cape Town in 1962.
Sheweni, Ngantweni and Ntsabo, all from Cofimvaba, and Dodo from Lady Frere, were sentenced to death in 1967 following their involvement in a 1962 attack on police vehicles in Langa, Cape Town, where a policeman was killed and others injured.
Ngcobo resident Qoba was found guilty of the same incident during a separate trial and was hanged in March of 1968.
Nqulwana was sentenced to death for his involvement in a fatal attack of a policeman, also in Langa in 1962, and was hanged in November of 1967. All the men were buried in pauper's graves in Rebecca Street cemetery in Tshwane the same day of their execution.
On Saturday, the PAC paid tribute to its "martyrs" in a ceremony that saw high ranking party members, attend.
The presentation to the families was the culmination of a journey that started with the exhumation of the remains at a cemetery in Tshwane in February.
The NPA could not explain why the families had to wait eight months until the handing over. NPA Spokesperson Mthunzi Mhaga said there had been no need for DNA tests because there was no doubt about the remains.
Addressing their loved ones, emotional family members said it brought some closure to be able to bury the remains on home soil.
"You are back home now after being on your own in Pretoria. After this we will be given your bones so that you can be next to your father, where we know your soul has been," said a family member.
Another family member, a cousin of one of the six, said the pain of not knowing where he had been buried proved hard to bear.
The journey was largely due to the tireless work of the National Prosecuting Authority's (NPA) Missing Persons Task Team, which is charged with the duty of investigating the nearly 500 cases of missing persons that were reported to the Truth and Reconciliation Committee (TRC) but remained unsolved.
The Task Team has been investigating cases of people who disappeared under political circumstances from 1960 until May 1994.
Inside the venue the mood was sombre as the six's family, PAC members and leadership including former and current party presidents Clarence Makwethu and Letlapa Mphahlele, pictured.
Others in attendance included Arts and Culture MEC Xoliswa Tom, Intsika Yethu local municipality leadership, including mayor Sithembele Plata, and regional ANC leadership.
Addressing the crowd, Mphahlele paid tribute to the dead, saying the occasion had even brought the ANC and PAC together.
He also said Cofimvaba, and other rural areas, should forever be remembered for producing struggle heroes such as former MK commander Chris Hani.
"However as the PAC, we are concerned there is no development in rural areas like Cofimvaba and others which have produced heroes. Apla and MK members were from rural areas and what they fought for is still not there.
"When will the return of our land happen," Mphahlele added to applause.
MEC Tom said the sacrifices made by those who fought for liberation should be given worth by deepening democracy and making freedom work.
Though for the six families there was a sense of closure, the task team is facing a huge backlog as to date only 65 of 470 remains have been tracked down and exhumed. Of the ones found, 41, which includes the Langa Six, have since been handed over to families across the country.
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