SPORT, Arts and Culture Minister Gayton McKenzie said the Repatriation and Restitution Office, working closely with the National Prosecuting Authority’s Missing Persons Task Team, was developing implementation plans to roll out the exhumation and repatriation of mortal remains of South Africans who died in exile.
McKenzie said his department has adopted the national policy on repatriation and restitution of human remains and heritage projects that was subsequently endorsed by the Cabinet in March 2023.
“A Ministerial Advisory Committee was formed to investigate the formulation of guidelines for each aspect of the policy, thus prioritising collective repatriation of mortal remains of former South African exiles, as opposed to individual ad hoc repatriations that have previously taken place.
“The phased implementation plan follows a country-to-country approach, initially focusing on SADC countries with a high concentration of graves, particularly Angola, Tanzania and Zambia,” he said.
He made the comment when he was replying to parliamentary questions from EFF MP Eugene Mthethwa, who asked about his department’s plans to have the remains of one of the country’s finest writers, William Bloke Modisane, repatriated from Germany.
In his written response, McKenzie said the recent repatriations that included Zimbabwe were partly responding to the presidential pronouncement in his State of the Nation Address in 2020, where he included the name of Basil February, killed in combat in August 1967.
The recent repatriations culminated in the Homecoming Ceremony in September 2024 included the mortal remains of one of the finest writers, composers, and playwrights, Todd Matshikiza, exhumed from Leopard’s Hill Cemetery in Lusaka, Zambia.
The minister said the Repatriation and Restitution Office, which was established within the South African Heritage Resources Agency, worked closely with its key implementing partner, the Missing Persons Task Team, in developing implementation plans to roll out the exhumation and repatriation of mortal remains.
“They are currently devising a strategy of negotiating with countries with minimal numbers of graves, particularly in Europe, including Russia, the United Kingdom, the former Yugoslavia, France, Poland, and Germany, for exhumations and repatriations, within the next five years.
“That reassures everyone that the department and its entities have a database of all graves of South Africans who died on foreign soil during the anti-apartheid Struggle for liberation. William Bloke Modisane will, therefore, indeed be coming home,” he said.
mayibongwe.maqhina@inl.co.za