Council okays plan to rebury bodies of heroes killed in exile

THE BUFFALO City Municipality (BCM) council has approved a policy which entitles families of fallen heroes and heroines from the metro who died in exile to R80 000 worth of compensation towards the cost of reburying their loved ones in South Africa.

But the official opposition in the council, the DA, refused to endorse the decision at last week’s council meeting.

BCM DA councillor Vaughan Holmes said the exhuming of bodies was the competency of the Department of Health and the Department of International Relations and not the council.

The policy, called the Exhumation, Repatriation and Reburial Policy, states that no race and sex will be discriminated against and multiculturalism and access will be encouraged.

It states that for an application to be considered, the applying families need to explain in detail which political party the deceased belonged to, the year the deceased went into exile, and the year and place where the deceased fell in action.

The political party will have to acknowledge the membership of the deceased in writing.

All the applications are to be submitted to the Department of Sports, Recreation, Arts and Culture for consideration and approval.

Presenting the report to the council, policy project specialist for economic development and agencies Noludwe Ncokazi said BCM, like all the municipalities in the province, was a participant in the exhumation, repatriation, and reburial programme driven by the department of culture.

“To have a standard approach in dealing with matters of exhumation, repatriation, and reburial, the department identified a need to develop a policy,” Ncokazi said.

She said one of the council’s obligations was to support and encourage initiatives and programmes that have a capacity to promote unity, peace, reconciliation and social cohesion.

“By engaging in repatriation programmes, the council is also trying to heal the souls of people.

“Many of these cadres were buried in exile in unmarked graves in countries like Lesotho, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Tanzania and Angola.

“Some of them are also buried outside the African continent in overseas countries while others disappeared without a trace,” Ncokazi said.

Holmes said such a mandate “rests fully with the national departments of health and international relations”.

“It’s not service delivery. If each burial will cost R80 000, where will that money come from?” he said.

... the council is also trying to heal the souls of people