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Pulane Koboekae remembers
Pulane Koboekae cast a thoughtful eye at the seven knots hanging over a trapdoor in Pretoria Central Prison where his brother Richard Motsoahae was hanged by the apartheid regime in South Africa in 1964.
Then she took out a white handkerchief and sobbed silently.
"It has opened old wounds, I feel mixed feelings, I feel sick, but also relieved," said Koboekae, a 66-year-old retired nurse with trembling lips.
"We have been waiting for this for a long time," she said, the day of August last year, when her brother's remains were finally cremated, 54 years after her informal burial in a church. anonymous.
Motsoahae was an activist of the Pan-African Congress, an anti-apartheid movement that separated from the African National Congress (ANC) in search of a more drastically "Africanist" program.
Motsoahae and three other people – the so-called Krugersdorp Four – were hanged for killing a policeman – among the 135 political prisoners executed by the apartheid government, which ended with the first democratic elections organized in the country 25 years ago.
Richard Motsoahae was one of four members of the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC) executed by the apartheid regime for his role in the killing of a police officer. By Phill Magakoe (AFP / File) Those executed at the gallows were buried in a hurry, often anonymously, sometimes in mbad graves.
Koboekae remembers the day of the execution of his 23-year-old brother "as if it was yesterday". She was only 13 years old.
"I stayed home alone and was not allowed to visit her in prison," she said softly. "I was sent to school and when I came back, I was alone."
Relatives such as Koboekae are finally closed decades later thanks to Gallows' exhumation program, created to find the remains of hanged activists and return them to their families for burial.
"I was five years old"
The project is a fallout from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, set up by the post-apartheid government, led by the ANC, to investigate atrocities committed by the wholly white state.
The bodies of about fifty executed militants have been found and reburied until now.
Families of anti-apartheid activists hanged at Pretoria Central Prison can go to the gallows as part of a grieving process involving the discovery, burial, and restitution of the remains of their loved ones. By Phill Magakoe (AFP / File) As part of the exhumation program, bereaved families are invited to visit the prison and the gallows as part of the resolution of their loss.
Recently, family members of seven hanged prisoners went to Pretoria Central Prison – renamed from Kgosi Mampuru II Correctional Center – which was the seat of capital punishment in apartheid South Africa.
The prison briefly hosted Nelson Mandela pending his trial.
The guide Abram Rahlogo detailed the last walk of a prisoner, his hands cuffed behind his back, from the cell to the gallows, past the chapel.
One of the visitors, 59-year-old Lazare Molatlhegi, was photographed touching him.
"I know these strings are not the ones they've used, but it's a rope exactly like the one that killed my brother." I was five years old at the time ", did he declare.
The 31-year-old brother of Molatlhegi, Thomas, was one of four Krugersdorp.
After an emotional one-hour visit to the prison and the gallows where they pbaded the coffins that will receive the remains of their relatives, the families went to the Mamelodi cemetery, a town in Pretoria where black prisoners were buried. .
The graves of seven men were exposed, freshly dug up, the soil carefully dusted off the bones.
Koboekae leaned over the grave to look at his brother's skeleton, of which only the bones of the leg remained intact.
"A strange feeling"
"It's a strange feeling – I would never have thought of seeing my brother's skeleton someday … It's a little unreal." That's the sort of thing that's going on. "We see on TV things that happen to other people," she said.
Special counseling was offered to the bereaved before ending up in the mortal remains.
"The process of decomposition … we explain to them how it works," told AFP a member of the pathology team who conducts exhumations, under the guise of anonymity.
"Some are worried or scared when they see broken bones … They are afraid that their loved ones have been tortured," said the expert.
In South Africa, 135 political prisoners were executed by the apartheid government, an exclusively white party, which ended with the first democratic elections held in the country 25 years ago this month. this. By Phill Magakoe (AFP / File) In this case, there was no torture.
"We know when the bones are broken before death, it's post-mortem, they (the loved ones) are very interested in the explanations, it helps them, that's part of the closure," said the pathologist. .
For Peggy Seloro, 77, the experience was nonetheless overwhelming.
She has trouble breathing, seems to faint and must be supported and calmed by her family members.
His brother Petrus Ntshole was only 22 when he was executed, another member of the Krugersdorp Four.
& # 39; Closing a chapter & # 39;
Koboekae left the cemetery stoically, preparing to wait several months before the remains of his brother were handed over to the family for burial.
On leaving, she pbaded a small monument in the shape of a pyramid on which was engraved the name of his brother.
Nyanya Yawa, Katyana Zoya and Mpitizeli Zoya, both dumb, share a grave in Mamelodi West Cemetery, where executed black prisoners were buried under apartheid. By Phill Magakoe (AFP / File) "I'm proud of him, they were fighting for liberation," she said.
"I could not attend his first burial, but at least I will be able to attend his second He will be buried with his family, which is important to us.
"He's going to close a chapter – it's closing."
Last month, Justice Minister Michael Masutha handed over the remains of Motsoahae to his family, as well as those of eight other executed militants.
"We hope that the families of these militants hanged in the gallows of apartheid will find peace and closure," Masutha said.
"Rest in peace the heroes!"
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