Struggle activist Fort Calata’s family refuse to accept award
LUKHANYO Calata, the son of anti-apartheid activist Fort Calata, part of the group famously known as Cradock 4, has refused to accept the award in honour of his father by the Human Settlements department.
On Friday night, at East London International Convention Centre, the department hosted the Govan Mbeki Awards to celebrate the housing projects done by various units of the department.
Human Settlements Minister Nomaindia Mfeketo also honoured anti-apartheid Struggle stalwarts Mama Albertina Sisulu, the Cradock Four and the Pebco Three with awards.
The Cradock Four activists, who were killed by apartheid police in 1985, were Matthew Goniwe, Fort Calata, Sparrow Mkhonto and Sicelo Mhlauli.
But Lukhanyo and his family would not accept the award, even though they attended the ceremony.
When Fort Calata’s name was called out to be given the award by Mfeketo, the Calata family, led by Lukhanyo, went to the podium and talked to Mfeketo.
Mfeketo later told the crowd that the “Calata family is not accepting the award for reasons they said they will voice later”.
Three of the families of the Cradock 4 accepted the awards.
Lukhanyo, who is a journalist, told Independent Media yesterday that “Fort Calata does not need another award from the state”.
“What he needs is justice for his life.
“What he needs is justice for the people responsible for ending his life in such a brutal and ungodly manner. If we had accepted that award we, as his surviving family, would have made ourselves complicit in the denial of justice that the ANC and the government it leads has now been perpetuating for the last 24 years,” said Lukhanyo, who was 3 years old when his father was killed by apartheid agents.
“It is unfortunate that we had to take such a drastic step as we did on Friday night ,but how else were we to highlight our thirst for justice to the ANC and the government,” he said.
Earlier this year, Lukhanyo and his wife Abigail released a book, My Father Died For This, detailing the anguish surrounding Calata’s death.