PAC slams state at all levels for Poqo funeral snubs
PAC provincial secretary Sandla Goqwana has criticised the state for not showing support in the burial of 17 Poqo members, whose remains it exhumed and returned to their families in March.
The 17 Poqo members were among those hanged by the apartheid government between 1963 and 1967 and buried in unmarked graves after being charged for various political crimes during the apartheid era. Goqwana was speaking at the funeral of Jonathan Sogwagwa, who was hanged on September 27 1963, in Ntsingeni village in Cofimvaba on Saturday. He thanked the government for exhuming and handing the remains of the Poqo members over to the families “to give them dignity” of a proper burial.
“[But] there are issues that we are not happy with as the PAC in the Eastern Cape.
“In all the funerals of the 17 Poqo members who have been buried, no one came to represent the government. Even ward councillors did not attend the funerals,” he said.
The reburial was not a programme of the PAC but of the state, he added.
“After the decision by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission [TRC] to exhume these heroes and hand their remains back to their families, that process had taken more than 24 years.”
Goqwana said the families of the deceased had all been promised remuneration but to date that had not happened.
“They were promised tombstones and that the families and the communities that were affected were going to be looked after, but all those things never happened. It was only Chris Hani District Municipality which did tombstones for these heroes,” Goqwana said.
He said there was a resolution to name places and streets after those who had died, but to no avail.
“When these heroes are laid to rest, the government should have been here to recognise the role they played in the liberation of our people.”
Chief Zwelidumile Ndarala, speaking on behalf of the Sogwagwa family, said he was happy that Jonathan’s remains had finally come back home.
“I say to all families who still have family members that have not yet been returned home: be patient with the government,” he said. —