Apla soldier’s remains repatriated from UK

THE remains of former liberation soldier Nkululeko Jako, who died in exile in 1983, have finally been brought home.

Jako, a member of the Azanian People’s Liberation Army (Apla), died in the UK.

His remains were brought to South Africa by sports, arts and culture MEC Pemmy Majodina, who went to Birmingham with a delegation for the repatriation process.

Buffalo City Metro mayor Xola Pakati was one of those in attendance at the welcoming ceremony.

Majodina’s department said she went to the UK to oversee the exhumation and repatriation of Jako’s remains.

Speaking at the welcoming ceremony yesterday, Majodina said it had been a difficult matter to handle.

“It was not easy to get the remains of someone who left the country in the 1960s. It was said that the English authorities even asked for his dompas numbers, which I did not have,” Majodina said.

“However, we managed and we are satisfied as a department that we have helped so the family can close this chapter.”

Jako’s widow, Shumikazi Jako, said words could not explain the joy she was feeling.

“By the time he died, I together with the children had already joined him in England. I am very happy that our children and future generations will be able to point out his grave. Our family is overwhelmed,” she said.

Phumla Jako-Dlamini, the couple’s eldest child, was part of the delegation that travelled with Majodina.

“This will bring closure to our family. We grew up not knowing our father and it was an honour for me to bring him home,” she said.

Jako only had one sibling, Bongiwe, who is no longer alive.

Bongiwe’s daughter, Weziwe, said her mother had dreamed of the day when her brother’s remains would be brought home.

A special unit in the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has spent years exhuming struggle victims’ remains and releasing them to loved ones following DNA testing.

After the NPA began its work, the Eastern Cape government in 2013 adopted a policy on the exhumation, repatriation and reburial of the remains of conflict victims.

More than 10 bodies have been exhumed and returned to their Eastern Cape families since then. These include:

● Mlungiseleli Velaphi, whose body was handed over by then justice minister Jeff Radebe, together with four others, to their families in an official ceremony in East London in March 2014.

Velaphi, of NU2, Mdantsane, was killed in Venda on March 28 1988.

● In August 2014, the remains of Duncan Village’s Bongani Ngamlana, Reuben Rhigala from Cofimvaba and Samson Mnoneleli Kana of Port Elizabeth, who all died in exile, were transported from Lesotho after successful exhumations. —