Freedom fighter Bethuel Tamana laid to rest on home soil

Cape Town - A Special Provincial Funeral was held for anti-apartheid Struggle stalwart, Bethuel Tamana, on Sunday, who was finally laid to rest on home soil following the repatriation of his mortal remains.

Tamana was born in Retreat in 1937 and in 1962, he left South Africa and joined Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) where he operated under the alias Joseph Zame.

He died on April 29, 1984. The programme commenced at the family’s residence in Makhaza, Khayelitsha, followed by a formal programme at the Gugulethu Sport Complex. His remains were buried at the Welmoed Cemetery, in Eerste River.

On November 29, the remains were handed over to his family by the Western Cape Government during a private ceremony held at the St. George’s Cathedral.

The Special Provincial Ceremony was facilitated by the Western Cape Government, through the Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport, following the repatriation of the freedom fighter’s mortal remains from Lusaka, Zambia.

Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport Head of Communications Tania Colyn said: “As we lay Bethuel Tamana to rest in the soil of his birth, let us rededicate ourselves to the ideals he embodies – ideals of justice, equality, and a united, free South Africa. Let us ensure that future generations know and honour his story and those of others like him.”

Tamana was a member of the Luthuli Detachment and with some of his comrades, were captured and sentenced to death. The sentences were commuted to imprisonment and Tamana spent over ten years in the Khami Prison in Bulawayo.

In 1980, he was released with other political prisoners after Zimbabwe’s Independence. However, due to the political situation at the time, those who were freed were unable to return to South Africa.

The repatriation forms part of the Repatriation and Reburial Project for Liberation Stalwarts. In September, President Cyril Ramaphosa received the human remains of a number of liberation stalwarts who died while in exile, and buried in Zimbabwe and Zambia.

Former Deputy Minister in the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development, and current Chairperson of the Repatriation and Reburial Committee for the ANC in the Western Cape, Mcebisi Skwatsha said: “A lesson that can be learnt from this is the importance of dedication to a cause. The second thing is the bravery and selflessness of such individuals. Considering that he left South Africa in 1962, at the young age of 25 (he) was one of the first MK soldiers who waged a war against Rhodesian/South African Defence Force might and he being part of the Wankie and Sipolilo Campaigns…

“But also, one might not be surprised about such dedication because his own father John Tamana was part of those people who fought in the Bulhoek massacre near Queenstown in the 1920s, and his mother, Mam’ Dora Tamana, is a woman of stature who led and was a communist during those dark, early years…

“So I think this is a lesson to be learnt in a new South Africa and it has to be considered that this freedom did not come cheap.”

shakirah.thebus@inl.co.za

Cape Argus