Macamba’s remains return to SA

AFTER being buried in exile for more than three decades, East London-born struggle activist Pascal Mlamli Macamba’s remains have finally returned to South African soil to be buried in his home town.

His remains arrived in East London yesterday evening with sports, recreation, arts and culture MEC Pemmy Majodina.

Macamba left South Africa in 1980 to join the ANC’s military wong, Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) in Angola. He died in 1982 aged 25. Two weeks ago, the MEC led a delegation and Macamba’s family members to his resting place of Mulemba in Luanda, Angola, to exhume and repatriate.

He will be reburied at Cambridge cemetery on Saturday.

Majodina said they heard about Macamba through his mother, who had knocked on their doors for years asking for help to bring his remains home.

“When other MK cadres returned home, Macamba wasn’t with them. This entire process [repatriation] has been an emotional one.

“Seeing the bones of someone who left the country to fight for its freedom but didn’t live long enough to see, has been quite painful. But this journey was good.”

At the height of his involvement in the struggle, two years after he left South Africa, he is believed to have contracted malaria.

He was buried in Luanda, where his bones remained until his repatriation.

Former political activist and MK cadre Phumzile Mayaphi, 60, first met Macamba in exile in Lesotho. He said he and Macamba were comrades who became friends.

“He didn’t have a long spell outside the country, but I remember him as a friendly and warm personality, a true people’s person. We endured being away from home together.” He described the outbreak of malaria that their camp experienced as deadly and vicious, but said Macamba held on to the cause until his death. “He knew why he had to leave the country to fight and he was committed to the struggle and the liberation of black people.”

Family representative and former Buffalo City Metro mayor Zukiswa Ncitha, who was part of the delegation that travelled to Angola, said she was the last person to speak to Macamba before he left the country. “I knew where he was going but I couldn’t tell anyone so I kept his secret.

“It’s a touching experience to collect the bones of the person you last saw alive and kicking.

“He was young, but he longed to see South Africa to have the freedom it has today.”

Macamba was born in East London on 30 March 1957. He completed his primary schooling in Keiskammahoek and moved to Mzomhle High School in Mdantsane.

He became involved in student politics at an early age and had to juggle multiple high schools and prison detentions before completing his matric in Alice in 1977.

In the same year, he enrolled for a bachelor of administration degree at the University of Fort Hare Alice campus, where his love and activism in politics grew. At the height of the class boycotts at the university in 1980, Macamba left the country to join the MK in Lesotho before moving to Angola for further military training. – nonsindisoq@dispatch.co.za