S.Africa wants return of apartheid-, colonial-era remains
South Africa is determined to repatriate the remains of its people taken abroad during the colonial era and those who died in exile as anti-apartheid activists, the culture minister said Monday.
The government was in contact with foreign institutions over the return of remains of indigenous people, including from the KhoiSan group who are regarded as among the country's "first people", minister Gayton McKenzie told reporters.
Government teams would also visit neighbouring countries such as Angola and Zimbabwe to inspect cemetery records to trace people who may have died there during the struggle against apartheid so they could be repatriated, he said.
"These are acts of justice, remembrance and healing," he said. "They affirm our government's commitment to restore dignity, promote cultural restoration, and confront the painful legacy of colonialism and apartheid."
The minister of sports, arts and culture announced a plan to rebury the remains of 58 indigenous people who had been removed for study by museums and other institutions.
The remains were among those taken from graves during the colonial era, he said.
"They were displayed in museums, studied in labs, and held in foreign institutions without consent or respect. We are correcting these injustices," he said.
"We call on all institutions, both here and abroad, to engage in honest and action-driven processes of restitution and repatriation."
McKenzie cited as a success the repatriation in 2012 of the remains of a KhoiSan couple, Klaas and Trooi Pienaar, who were illegally exhumed in 1909 and shipped to Austria for study.
He also referred to the return in 2002 of the remains of a KhoiSan woman, Sarah Baartman, who died in France in 1815 after being taken to Europe and paraded as a spectacle in one of the country's most emblematic such cases.
Later, in the fight against apartheid which was ended in 1994, "thousands of our people went into exile during the liberation struggle," McKenzie added.
"Many never came home. Some died unknown, buried in unmarked graves, without their families having the chance to mourn," he said.
A mission was headed to Angola in the next weeks with a list of 400 people to find, he said.
The government was in talks with an Australian demining firm for help to access areas that were still mined after Angola's decades of civil war that ended in 2002.
More than 1,000 anti-apartheid activists died in exile in countries in Africa but also in Cuba and Europe, officials said in September when the remains of 42 exiles were returned.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Herald
an hour ago
- The Herald
'You are rude': McKenzie slams DA MP Jacobs' conduct in parliamentary meetings
'Jacobs knows that I haven't breached any act or law, hence he's talking about ethics. My ethics and his are different. We are not dealing with what he feels and what I feel. The act allows me to appoint Eugene Botha,' McKenzie said. 'I've breached no act. The PA is not the first party and certainly will not be the last party to do that. Your party in the Western Cape is riddled. When you say I've done something wrong, quote the act, not your feelings.' McKenzie also addressed Jacobs' conduct during the meeting, referencing a previous committee meeting where Jacobs grilled Safa president Danny Jordaan over his leadership and travel expenses. 'What I will never allow is for this honourable member to speak when I'm speaking. On a personal level, I want him to know that when he showed Danny Jordaan his finger, I will never allow him to do that to me. I respect you; respect me. When you speak, I am obliged to listen, and when I speak, you should listen. You should not come in as you feel. You can only interject with a point of order through the chairperson. 'You are rude. I will never stand for this rudeness of Jacobs.' TimesLIVE
The Citizen
a day ago
- The Citizen
Operation New Broom is echo of apartheid past
If Operation New Broom is the new face of immigration enforcement in South Africa, then shame on all of us. In a move that belongs more in the archives of apartheid than in a democratic constitutional state, the department of home affairs has launched 'Operation New Broom', a campaign whose stated aim is to 'combat illegal immigration' through biometric verification and mass raids. Sweeping with a 'broom' is no innocent metaphor, it's drawing a very intentional parallel between illegal migrants and rubbish, a dehumanising tell-tale signal of stripped rights, dignity and humanity. An affront to every value enshrined in our Bill of Rights. If this is the new face of immigration enforcement in South Africa, then shame on all of us. Barely two days after the campaign was launched on 21 May, more than 50 individuals, including children, pregnant women and asylum seekers, were rounded up during an early morning raid at the Plastic View informal settlement in Tshwane. Minister Leon Schreiber called it 'a new era of digital border enforcement'. What followed was hardly innovation; it was humiliation, institutional cruelty dressed up in the vocabulary of tech-enabled governance. Lawyers for Human Rights and 20 other organisations said the operation 'marks a troubling descent into repressive state practices reminiscent of the apartheid past'. That is no exaggeration. Operation New Broom is not a policy, it is abuse of power, a show of force for the sake of political optics, where the primary victims are those least able to defend themselves. Children were taken from schools and homes without due process. Babies were detained at the Lindela Repatriation Centre, a facility unfit to care for them. ALSO READ: Home Affairs launches Operation New Broom to tackle illegal immigration The constitution is clear: the detention of children must be a last resort and for the shortest appropriate period. These events lay bare a troubling trend: the creeping securitisation of SA's borders and the scapegoating of migrants to mask governance failures. This cannot be claimed to be part of an effort to address unlawful entry, it is a campaign showcase masquerading as immigration enforcement, a political theatre dressed as policy. A familiar playbook keeps unfolding: blame the foreigner, distract the public and dress up persecution as patriotism. Ahead of the 2026 municipal elections, politicians like Gayton McKenzie (Patriotic Alliance) have already begun calling 'Abahambe' (let them go) for the removal of migrants along ethnic and racial lines, embracing his xenophobic labelling. Taking centre stage globally and in SA at the same time was the media frenzy surrounding the 59 Afrikaners granted refugee status by the US on the basis of alleged racial and economic persecution. A sad irony that is difficult to ignore, particularly from within the African continent and SA itself, where the principles of Ubuntu, as enshrined in the constitution, call for compassion, shared humanity and the protection of the vulnerable. The Constitutional Court has repeatedly affirmed Ubuntu as a guiding principle not only in private law, but in matters of state conduct. ALSO READ: Big changes coming for ID, passport applications and birth registrations – Home Affairs It is meant to embody dignity, empathy and social solidarity – all of which are absent from Operation New Broom. Though the department has framed its action as lawful and measured and Cabinet has publicly praised it, nothing about the manner in which these raids were conducted passes constitutional muster. This is not a crisis that ends at the border. Migrants may be the primary targets today, but the machinery of arbitrary enforcement rarely limits itself to one category of individuals. Even SA citizens without access to proper documentation already encounter a contrarian bureaucracy on many levels. In August last year, 700 000 IDs were automatically unilaterally blocked by the department, some merely on the suspicion of fraud or due to duplicate IDs reflecting in the systems, with no prior warning or due diligence. The courts confirmed this to be unconstitutional because it lacked fair procedures, such as notice, investigation and an opportunity for appeal. The dysfunction is systemic and it does not discriminate as neatly as the policies claim to. Without constitutional watchdogs and public scrutiny, no-one is immune. Today's raid is tomorrow's precedent. Some have pointed to the use of biometric verification as a sign of progress and, indeed, it can significantly streamline processes and increase efficiencies on multiple levels. ALSO READ: EFF calls for treason charges against corrupt Home Affairs officials But in the hands of untrained officials and opaque institutions, such tools carry significant risk. Mismanagement is not a technical glitch, it is a gateway. Without safeguards, digital enforcement quickly slides into digital authoritarianism. Deploying facial scans and fingerprint readers without legal safeguards or oversight is not governance, it is surveillance. When the state uses such tools in vulnerable communities already suffering from economic exclusion and neglect, it amounts to profiling at scale. This is not a moment for silence or bureaucratic indifference. It is a moment to remember that democracy is measured not by how we treat the powerful, but by how we treat the most vulnerable. State-led roundups, data-driven profiling and the slow bleed of constitutional values is a recipe for instability. Amnesty is not capitulation; it is legal realism. It is an invitation to build a functioning migration system that does not rely on repression to operate. It is time for a new broom, yes, but one that sweeps away injustice, not people. One that restores rights, not just order. NOW READ: Trump-Musk breakup: Will 49 'refugees' return to South Africa?
TimesLIVE
2 days ago
- TimesLIVE
‘You can't put a price on justice': McKenzie on reburials of ancestral remains and exile repatriation project
The government doesn't yet know how much it will cost to rebury the remains of Khoe and San ancestors or to bring home the remains of freedom fighters who died in exile, but minister of sport, arts and culture Gayton McKenzie says the cost doesn't matter. 'It can't cost enough because people gave their lives. You can't put a cost to a life,' McKenzie said during a media briefing on Monday. McKenzie announced two major national projects: the reburial of 58 ancestral remains from the Khoe and San communities and the next phase of the Exile Repatriation Project, both backed by the government of national unity. 'These are not just projects — they are acts of justice, remembrance and healing. 'They affirm our government's commitment to restore dignity, promote cultural restoration and confront the painful legacy of apartheid. These initiatives are about re-humanisation. They are spiritual but, most importantly, they are necessary,' he said. McKenzie said the 58 ancestral remains originating from the Northern Cape would be reburied in consultation with affected communities, including the Nama, Griqua, Korana, and San. The process was being led by the Iziko Museums, the South African Heritage Resources Agency (SAHRA) and a local task team. 'It is not just about returning the remains to the soil. It is about restoring dignity. It is about fulfilling cultural and spiritual obligations. It is about healing the deep wounds of dispossession and, most importantly, historical erasure,' he said.
