The community of Lenasia came out in their numbers to pay their last respects to Pfananani ‘Skele’Mudogwa (31), who was being buried on Christmas eve.
The community has been in a week-long mourning period and kept his memory alive by holding night vigils everyday since his demise.
It’s been a week of mourning for Lenasia Ext 13 residents following the killing of Pfananani ‘Skele’ Mudogwa who was killed allegedly by the CPF. Residents have been marching down the main road seeking justice for Skele and six others who were shot with live ammunition. #sabcnews pic.twitter.com/09Gh0kSvUH
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They also marched to the Lenasia police station on Thursday morning to hand over a memorandum of demands to station commander, Theledi Zacharia Gopane.
The People’s Parliament of Soweto at the funeral of Pfananani Mudogwa calls for action to be taken to the courts and not the streets. #SABCNews pic.twitter.com/OrlMUUVRiV
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He is lauded as a hardworking, disciplined and humble young man by his colleagues at the Stretford Clinic in Orange Farm and those who knew him. The young man also owned a panelbeating business, also ran a food delivery service business. He had big dreams of addressing and changing the unemployment crisis in his community.
His uncle says he leaves a huge gap.
“His colleagues say he was someone who did not know the boundaries of his scope of work. They say if someone was dropped off at the clinic and needed resuscitation he would be on the floor doing the job.”
His funeral is reminiscent of send-offs awarded to heroes who had fallen during the liberation struggle. It was marked by chanting, dancing and regular gunshot fires. Mourners from various organisations sang struggle songs as they commemorated a life taken too soon.
National organiser of the People’s Parliament of Soweto, Thabang Moloi sent out a firm message to the community to organise and fight for Skele and ensure that justice is served.
Moloi has added that the black nation thought that everything was going to be fine, that now that a black government is in charge things would be ok, but they were fooled. He says that everything in South Africa is falling apart and black people area still suffering.
Gun shots being fired as funeral attendees sing and dance. pic.twitter.com/aa6G8xasPW
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He says shying away from the truth and not confronting it must come to an end.
“Pfana is dead today. He died for a land that his forefathers have been fighting for. He died to have something that you want as a black South African. He is asleep today fighting for what is right for him to get. You, black people, have nothing. That you must know,” Moloi adds.
Skele’s business partner, Elliott Ntombela says now that Skele is no more the workshop will never be the same without him. He has referenced to the day that he told him that he was starting to build on a piece of land not knowing that would be the land he would die for.
Ntombela says that the last vehicle he had bought from an auction and fixed, Skele refused to sell that van.
“He said he was not going to sell the van because he had two ceremonies to perform and he needed that van to do so. Little did I know that one of the ceremonies would be his funeral.”
He was laid at the Olifantsvlei gravesite in the South of Johannesburg on Saturday afternoon.
Funeral procession leaving the home of Pfananani Mudogwa in Lenasia to his final resting place- at the Olifantsvlei gravesite, South of Joburg.#SABCNews pic.twitter.com/B8kg4TxQQl
— Bregabytes (@Bregabytes) December 24, 2022
