Umkhonto, We Size operative Solomon Mahlangu was hailed as a national hero at a wreath-laying ceremony held in his honour at the Mamelodi cemetery on Saturday 6 April.
Speaker after speaker described how Mahlangu unselfishly sacrificed his own life for the liberation of the oppressed black majority of South Africans from the clutches of the white, minority apartheid regime.
Solomon Kalushi Mahlangu was born on 10 July 1956 in Pretoria and was a student at the local Mamelodi High School before skipping the country immediately after the June 1976 students’ uprisings against the system of Bantu Education in particular and the apartheid regime in general.
In exile he joined the then banned ANC and received military training in Mozambique and Angola as an Umkhonto We Size operative.
He returned to the country on 13 June 1977 fully armed as a soldier together with two fellow combatants Mondy Motloung and Johannes “Lucky” Mahlangu.
But the trio were accosted by the apartheid security forces in Goch Street, Johannesburg, resulting in two white civilians being killed in the crossfire and two being injured.
Mahlangu and Motloung were eventually apprehended by the security forces while Johannes “Lucky” Mahlangu managed to escape.
Subsequently, the murder and terrorism trial began in November 1977 with Mahlangu the sole accused as his co-accused Motloung had been declared unfit to stand trial due to the brain damage he had suffered as a result of being brutally tortured by the apartheid forces during interrogation.
Although the judge accepted the fact that Motloung was the one who had actually killed the two white civilians, he nevertheless convicted Mahlangu of all the charges against him by invoking the ” common purpose” clause.
In March 1978 he sentenced him to death by hanging and Mahlangu was eventually hanged on 6 April 1979.
“My blood will nourish the tree that will bear the fruits of freedom and tell my people that I love them and that they must continue with the struggle,” said Mahlangu to his mother Martha, on the eve of his hanging at the Pretoria Central Prison (now Kgosi Mampuru Correctional Centre).
The wreath-laying ceremony on Saturday marked 45 years since his hanging and he was 22 years old at the time.
The proceedings started with government, ANC and Tripartite Alliance officials and the Mahlangu family members visiting the gallows precinct at Kgosi Mapuru Correctional Centre; the place where Mahlangu was actually hanged.
At the Mamelodi Cemetery during the wreath-laying ceremony, Tebogo Tladi from Hammanskraal told Tshwane Talks that she personally knew Mahlangu when she was 16 years old as he used to visit her father who was also an Umkhonto, We Size operative in Soweto and also responsible for helping those who, like Mahlangu, wanted to skip the country and join the ANC in exile.
Oarabille Mokaila, who was 2 months old when Mahlangu was hanged, said he attended the ceremony in order to support the Mahlangu family and learn more about the country’s liberation history.
“I am here to honour Solomon Kalushi Mahlangu as he sacrificed his life and died for us like Jesus Christ did,” said Solly Phiri, who confessed he was only five years old when Mahlangu met his fate at the gallows.
Tshwane ANC Regional Secretary George Matjila said Mahlangu’s name must never be forgotten as he played a major role in the liberation of South Africa.
Co-ordinator of the ANC Women’s League in Tshwane Dorris Maja said she celebrated Mahlangu’s legacy as he made his mark countrywide in the liberation of South Africa.
“Some opportunists are distorting our history or trying to make our history their own,” said one ANC official in reference to the formation of MK Party, which shares the same name as the original armed wing of the ANC Umkhonto We Sizwe, which was formed by the late former president of South Africa and statesman Nelson Mandela in the 1960’s.
“Solomon Mahlangu’s blood truly nourished the tree of liberty, but our revolution is under threat now and unity is more important now more than ever,” said member of the SACP Central Committee Politburo Reneva Fourie.
Speaking on behalf of the Mahlangu Royal family, Chief George Mahlangu said:
“The ANC and people like Solomon Mahlangu are the ones who freed us from the chains of apartheid, just like the Biblical Moses who led the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt.”
“The Solomon Mahlangu family knows that I have never failed to attend their son’s commemorative event. My comrades and I are the ones who applied for permission from the government in 1991 to exhume the remains of Solomon Mahlagu so as to give him a proper funeral in Mamelodi,” said Deputy Minister of Defence and Military Veterans Thabang Makwetla.