ANC wants to exhume liberation struggle hero's remains
Lebogang Mosikare | Monday October 25, 2021 13:32
Gaetsewe was buried in Francistown, Botswana on December 31, 1998. His family still lives at the Gaetsewe family compound in Area W (Itekeng ward), Francistown.
Gaetsewe was born in 1916 at Maruping village in Ga-Segonyana, Northern cape.
He spent many years in prison with the first president of a democratic South Africa, Nelson Mandela, and others at Robben Island.
Gaetsewe was a trade unionist, member of the ANC and general secretary of the South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU), Robben Island prisoner and banned person in South Africa.
In recognition for his contribution in the struggle against apartheid, the Kgalagadi District Municipality was renamed the John Taolo Gaetsewe District Municipality in 2008.
Speaking at family handover of the house that was built by the ANC for Gaetsewe’s children, a relative of the Gaetsewe family, Sarah Mereotlhe, said that they will at the earliest opportunity start the consultation process of exhuming the bodies of Gaetsewe and his wife with his family members in Botswana.
Mereotlhe said that people in South Africa feel very proud to be associated with Gaetsewe whom she described as a genuine politician.
“Gaetsewe was not a fake politician. We want to start to consult his family about the exhumation of his body and wife who were buried in Botswana because he was a great son of South Africa. We thank the Gaetsewe family for greatly cooperating with us to hand over this house. United we stand and divide we fall. Your father played a vital role in liberating South Africa.
The executive mayor of John Taolo Gaetswe District Municipality, Sofia Mosikatsi, thanked the municipality for contributing funds to build a house for Gaetsewe’s children.
“We were financially strained but with persistence we managed to build a house for the Gaetsewe family,” Mosikatsi said.
The first born of Gaetswe, Mmataolo Cynthia Bright , expressed gratitude to the municipality for building them a house in South Africa.
“Some challenges were encountered in carryingout this project but against all odds it was delivered. Thank God for guiding us throughout this process,” said an elated Bright.