13 December 2023
The Department of Military Veterans will join the community of uMkhonto we Sizwe military veterans, and the community of Hammanskraal, as they commemorate the life of the late Monageng Xoliso Mmakou, a freedom fighter. There will be an unveiling of his refurnished tombstone, as well as a public memorial lecture. The event will take place on the 14th of December 2023 at the Temba Campus of Tshwane North College (TVET) from 08:00 – 16:00.
Monageng Mmakou was one of the youngest victim of a bomb blast in a house in Manzini, Swaziland during the height of apartheid, and the struggle for liberation. Monageng was given a hero’s burial on the 4th of June 1980 in Hammanskraal. He was 18 years old.
He left the country for Swaziland in 1977 when he was still a student, seeking to oppose the apartheid government and continue with the struggle for freedom. He underwent military training in Angola as an uMkhonto we Sizwe combatant. He was then deployed to Swaziland to undertake MK covert military operations in South Africa, until he met his untimely death. His severely mutilated mortal remains were repatriated from a mortuary in Manzini, Swaziland, for a reburial at the Temba cemetery in Hammanskraal.
Among the speakers at this memorial event, will be the Deputy Minister of Defence & Military Veterans Mr Thabang Makwetla, and the former Chief of the SANDF General Solly Shoke.
The Department recognises and honours military veterans in life and memorialise them in death for their sacrifices on behalf of the nation. Whilst promoting and preserving the liberation history, it also symbolically expresses gratitude to countries that hosted South African exiles.
Ms Lebogang Mothapa
Lebogang.mothapa@dmv.gov.za Cell: 076 865 7188
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