Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma Minister in the Presidency for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma. File Picture: Nhlanhla Phillips/ Independent Media
Durban - Minister in the Presidency for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma said it was crucial that all South Africans acknowledge the role that military veterans played in the Struggle for a democratic South Africa.
Dlamini Zuma was speaking in uMgababa, south of Durban, Sunday, at an event to remember those who had lost their lives during the political violence in KwaZulu-Natal, and uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK) veterans who were killed in the Struggle against apartheid.
She said it was important for current and future generations to remember that the freedom being enjoyed “was not free, and many people made the highest sacrifice for it”.
“The ANC and MK is a multi-racial organisation and MK fought for this freedom, but it is also important to understand what they were fighting for and what they were fighting against.
“If we do not understand this, then we will miss the critical issues that we still have to deal with and those that have been addressed.”
She said the Department of Military Veterans had been created to address the welfare, economic participation and activism of war veterans.
“We must encourage this department to do what it was established for, to address the concerns of military veterans.
“We have to salute the contributions of the hundreds of thousands of MK soldiers and the millions that sacrificed, so that we may enjoy this democracy.
“Practical and implementable solutions need to be found to guarantee the livelihoods and empowerment of the veterans of the liberation Struggle.”
She called for more co-ordinated and impactful efforts on the scale of case studies such as those in places like Zimbabwe and on either side of the Vietnam War to look at how other countries had honoured the contribution of their veterans.
The event also remembered the thousands of people killed in the province during the 1980s and early 1990s – the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) reported that more than 20 000 people were killed in KZN during the height of political violence.
UMgababa was a volatile area, according to a TRC special report, with ANC and IFP supporters killed while the apartheid South African Police and South African Defence Force deliberately did not intervene.
Buhlebezwe Gumede, who belongs to the ANC’s Wanda Cele branch in uMgababa, said the inter-party violence that took place in the province had affected the psyche of the community.
“Many from the community joined MK to take up arms in the Struggle against the apartheid government, and many were left orphaned as a result. It disturbed the lives of all people and many of us would leave our homes, sleep outside wherever we could and then go to school.”
When Gumede was in Grade 8, his older siblings advised him to leave uMgababa because teenage boys were to be targeted.
“Many of us had older siblings who were involved in the Struggle, and the aim of the perpetrators was to target any teenage boys. “My family advised me to go to Murchison near Port Shepstone, but when I arrived the political violence had reached there too, and I had to return.”
Gumede said more than 30 years had passed since the height of the violence in the province, but it was important to remember the terrible sacrifices that many had made.
“People were not killed for ordinary crimes, they were killed fighting in the Struggle to liberate the people of the country.”
Related Topics: