Mboro boosts Motsamai
EFF offers ex-Apla cadre office job
EX-APLA combatant Kenny Motsamai knelt down and kissed the ground soon after stepping out of a correctional service facility yesterday.
“Izwe lethu,” he exclaimed, before saying anything else. This is a Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC) slogan meaning “our land”.
The PAC and EFF members gathered around him responded “iAfrika”, loosely translating to “it’s Africa”.
PAC and EFF members, about 300 of them, had gathered outside the Boksburg prison since early morning, singing and dancing, to welcome him.
After more than 27 years in prison, Motsamai, who was widely regarded as one of PAC veterans remaining in the country’s prisons, was granted full parole yesterday.
He walked out of the correctional service facility in Boksburg, Gauteng, a free man. Mantombi Magagula, his wife, screamed with joy upon seeing him.
Motsamai was 26 years old when he was imprisoned for killing a white traffic officer in Rustenburg during an Apla-sanctioned bank robbery. At the time, he had returned from Ethiopia for military training.
Motsamai’s lawyers Luleka Flatela and Dali Mpofu, the senior counsel, confirmed Motsamai was granted a full parole.
“I am now a free man,” Motsamai said. But he stressed his desire to see more PAC cadres being released.
“I’m happy to be free, but inside prison there are still Apla cadres. They are still in chains,” he said.
He vowed to work for unity in the PAC, a party that has been troubled by divisions for many years now.
“I’m a father. I don’t support divisions. I support unity within the organisation,” Motsamai said.
Mpofu said the EFF would offer Motsamai a job at its Braamfontein headquarters. Explaining the EFF’s support for Motsamai, he said: “There is a bond between the EFF and the PAC because there are things that we both believe in.”
Pastor Paseka Motsoeneng, popularly known as Mboro, has donated R40 000 towards construction of a car wash and chesanyama for Motsamai in Katlehong.
He promised to help promote it. “Please support that car wash. Let’s ensure that [that] car wash grows,” Motsoeneng said.
Phillip Dlamini, national chairman of the PAC, said the party hoped Motsamai’s release was the first of its more than 40 members still incarcerated for political acts.
“It’s a step towards peace. The only time we will say we have achieved it is when the last cadre is released,” said Dlamini.