South African Arts and Culture Minister Nathi Mththwa is on a visit to the Russian capital with a mission to repatriate the remains of JB Marks and Moses Kotane, who are buried in Moscow.
Last year, President Jacob Zuma met with Russian president Vladimir Putin to arrange the return of the remains to the families.
Moses Kotane and JB Marks left South Africa for Russia in 1963 to lobby the international community to support the fight against apartheid. They both died and were buried in Moscow in the 1970s after short illnesses.
Mthethwa says the pair was instrumental in defining the freedom and democracy in South Africa.
“These are the fathers of our liberation struggle. Many people around the world know the lives of leaders like Sisulu, like Mandela. These two who we are to repatriate from the Russian soil were, if you like, the mentors of the Mandelas which the world came to know. They are outstanding leaders of our people. It’s through them that we saw the demise of Apartheid. It’s through their work that we saw other leaders emerging, leaders who are known to outer world today.”
President Zuma and Russian President Putin agreed to repatriate the remains in August 2014
Speaking at Moscow’s International Relations Institute, Nathi Mthethwa told students that the role the Soviet Union played in the fight against the apartheid is impossible to underestimate.
“When the African National Congress (ANC), which is the ruling party today, was listed as a terrorist group by many countries, it was the Soviet Union that supported our struggle unequivocally, offering education opportunities to political activists, providing military training to ANC and financial support to the entire movement.” President Zuma and Russian President Putin agreed to repatriate the remains in August 2014.
Russian communist lawmaker Vyacheslav Tetekhin is among hundreds of people who visits the graves every year to commemorate the South African activists.
“The symbols of the national liberation struggle in the form of the monuments and graves of comrade JB Marks and Moses Kotane were extremely important for us, because we felt a very close attachment of the Soviet people to the national liberation struggle, through the graves of these prominent figures of the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the African National Congress,” says Tetekhin.
According to reports, Moses Kotane will be reburied at this home in Pella and JB Marks in Ventersdorp in March.
The remains are expected to leave Moscow on Saturday following a memorial service and are expected to arrive in South Africa on Monday.
– By Anya Ardayeva
