The homecoming of the mortal remains of struggle stalwarts Moses Kotane and JB Marks should mark a new chapter of many more returns of those who died outside the country. That is the hope that has been expressed by President Jacob Zuma.
Zuma was addressing hundreds of people who had gathered at the Waterkloof Air Force Base to receive the two remains from Moscow, Russia, on Sunday morning.
Among those gathered were the Kotane and Marks families, cabinet ministers, tripartite alliance leaders and ordinary members of the public.
Rather than being a solemn event, the ceremony at Waterkloof was celebratory.
Our veterans at the reception of the remains of Cdes JB Marks and Moses Kotane in Waterkloof pic.twitter.com/VQWM4zfA79
— ST Ndabeni-Abrahams (@Stellarated) March 1, 2015
In his address, President Zuma expressed the hope that the return of the two men’s mortal remains should be followed by other such homecomings.
“I don’t think that some of us will rest before some of our comrades that lie in other countries come back… They are not there because they were just visiting. They had taken a decision to fight … for this country.”
Arts and Culture Minister Nathi Mthethwa has been hard at work in the past year to ensure that the repatriation of the two stalwarts took place.
Mthethwa praised the government of Russia for the friendship it has shown to the country – now and in the past.
The family of struggle stalwart Moses Kotane says the return of his mortal remains to home soil from Russia fills them with mixed feelings.
Kotane was a towering figure in the fight against apartheid from the 1920s until the 1970s.
—
—
Tombstone of the Icon Moses Kotane in Novodevichy Cemetery, Moscow where every Russian wishes to be buried. pic.twitter.com/Kz98nP0rYe
— Jimmy Manyi (@KrilaGP) March 1, 2015
Kotane was a long serving General Secretary of the then Communist Party of South Africa, a member of the ANC’s National Executive and a leader of the Federation of Non-European Trade Unions.
He was one of the first people to be banned when the government clamped down on communists in the 1950s and was tried with other leaders of the Defiance Campaign of that era.
Welcome home Moses Kotane. South African hero, legend amongst men, son of the soil, Amandla! ð pic.twitter.com/UKj86nkHg1
— President Vusani (@Vusani_) March 1, 2015
Former Treasurer-gen of the ANC Moses Kotane with struggle icon Nelson Mandela (August 9, 1905- May 19,1978) #ANC pic.twitter.com/5Fw4avsJtM
— Bongani Siwela (@Lord_Siwela) March 1, 2015
- By
