Chaos at Mama Sobukwe’s funeral
Government spokesperson says they had to withdraw due to ‘unruly’ PAC members, Johnnie Issac reports
THE Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) has blamed the Anc-led government for the chaos at Zondeni Veronica Sobukwe’s funeral yesterday in Graaff Reinet in Eastern Cape.
The funeral degenerated into chaos after PAC members refused to follow the government’s special official state funeral protocol.
This led to anarchy caused by the state’s withdrawal of the official status.
Mama Sobukwe, as she was affectionately known, was the wife of anti-apartheid activist and PAC leader Robert Sobukwe who died in 1978.
Chaos began when the coffin of Mama Sobukwe arrived at Graaff Reinet Botanical Gardens where the state funeral was scheduled to take place. PAC members – including veterans of its former army, Azanian People’s Liberation Army (APLA) – joined the police parade and sang the party’s songs of liberation, along with the police band.
They forced themselves inside the venue and demanded to put PAC branding along the state symbols.
Government officials – including Deputy President David Mabuza, Defence and Military Veterans Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-nqakula, Minister of Sports Thulas Nxesi and other officials from both the national and Eastern Cape provincial governments – abandoned the chaotic event and handed it over to the PAC.
Government spokeswoman Phumla Williams said the disruptions led to the government withdrawing out of respect for Mama Sobukwe.
“It is sad that we had to withdraw as the government. Mama Sobukwe was granted category two of the state funeral which meant that the people of South Africa are saying to this gallant, ‘thank you very much, we appreciate your activism’. However, because of the disruptions the government had to pull back and cut short the programme.”
She said it was not safe for Mabuza to deliver the eulogy as per the programme, due to “unruly” PAC members.
Deputy National Police Commissioner Lieutenant-general Lebeoana Jacob Tsumane said the mixing of the national flag and the PAC’S rendered the official funeral status meaningless.
“When the president announces that there’s going to be a special funeral we need to put things together according to the procedure. Part of the procedure is that the flag is wrapped around the coffin. We have to respect that for the sake of the country and the constitution,” said Tsumane.
He said it is not allowed to mix the flag of the country with that of a political party.
“We have to protect the purification of the national flag.”
PAC activists said it was the arrogance of Mapisa-nqakula that collapsed the dual funeral. PAC leader Luthando Mbinda said the chaos was bound to happen because the party had been excluded from the official programme.
“You cannot talk about Mama Sobukwe without talking about the PAC and you cannot talk about the Sobukwe family and leave out the PAC.”
He said Mama Sobukwe was neglected by the government when she was still alive and was treated in a similar manner as the apartheid government treated her husband.
“The intention to honour Mama Sobukwe was good but the failure was to try and exclude the PAC from the proceedings. She was never given any recognition when she was still alive. She was treated in the state hospital which sometimes ran out of medication for her. We cannot have a situation where our freedom fighters are treated like this by the so-called democratic government and be given a very nice funeral.”
Another PAC leader from a different faction, Narius Moloto, received a hostile reception. He was manhandled by former APLA members at the congregational church service that took place at the Graaff Reinet Methodist Church in the morning.
Moloto left the funeral venue at the same time when government officials were leaving. He called those who were disrupting the proceedings “political hooligans, not disciplined members.”
Mbinda said what happened to Moloto was a lesson that the PAC is not about individuals.
“Whatever happened to him today, the ancestors of the organisation were telling him something,” said Mbinda.