The Department of Military Veterans to pay homage to Tata Madiba and victims of Maseru Raids

09 December 2013

The Department of Military Veterans together with the victims and survivors of Maseru Raids will pay homage to Tata Madiba and those who fell during the Maseru raids. As part of the 31st and 28th anniversary of Maseru Raids that took place on the 9th December 1982 and 20 December 1985 respectively, the Department of Military Veterans, together with the victims and survivors of the massacre will today pay homage to those who were killed during Maseru Raids as well as to Tata Madiba.

The Department of Military Veterans has facilitated the laying of wreaths ceremony, with 20 members of the families that were affected by the raids that took place on the 09 December 1982 and 20 December 1985 respectively.

"The visit to the graves of those who fell during Maseru Raids on this day, as well as on the 20th of December 1985 is indeed a reminder of the supreme sacrifices that were made by Military Veterans, the people of Lesotho and other parts of the African continent and the world in bringing about freedom, democracy, reconciliation, social cohesion and nation building."

The Military Veterans who fell during the raids were indeed following in the footsteps of the first Commander in Chief of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the first President of the democratic republic of South Africa and the first Patron in Chief of Military Veterans, the late Dr Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, whose death we also pay homage to" said the Director General Mr Tsepe Motumi.

The Maseru Raids refers to the brutal killing of a total of forty two (42) people. Thirty (30) members of the African National Congress (ANC) and its military wing Umkhonto Wesizwe (MK) and twelve (12) Basotho nationals, including nine (9) other people, seven of them South Africans and two Basotho nationals, during the military cross border raids by members of the former South African Defence Force in Lesotho.

Meanwhile, the Deputy Minister of Defence and Military Veterans Mr Thabang Makwetla, together with the founding members of Umkhonto Wesizwe, paid homage to Tata Madiba at his Houghton home yesterday.

The Department of Military Veterans plans to commemorate those massacres annually, working together with DIRCO as well as the Government of the Kingdom of Lesotho and the affected families.