THE Nyathi family celebrated quietly when Piccanin Bhangula Nyathi’s body was lowered into his grave on Saturday, 11 June.
They never lost faith that he’d come home – even if it took 46 years for him to find peace in his final resting place in the kasi cemetery of Shatale, Bushbuckridge in Mpumalanga.
His eighth child Dansile Nyathi-Malope (57) told mourners that her dad went for a lung check-up when he was transferred to Kalafong Hospital in Tshwane from nearby Masana Hospital, now Mapulaneng, in 1976.
But he never returned.
“The family became worried. We went to the hospital but officials sent us from pillar to post. I was 11 years old. Those were hard times. It was during the Soweto Uprising of 1976,” she said.
The Kalafong Hospital eventually told them Nyathi had died and he had already been buried in a pauper’s grave.
“We had nightmares and bad luck followed us. Dad would come to us in dreams, saying he was not resting in peace and we must come and take him home,” she said.
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She said in February last year, God performed a miracle and they found his name in the hospital records, which led them to his burial site at Mamelodi Cemetery.
“We did his exhumation and now we’re happy that we have been buried him in a dignified manner,” she said.
Retired head of the Mpumalanga Department of Community Safety, Security and Liaison William Mthombothi (68), who is Nyathi’s cousin, said: “He had royal blood with wealth and cows. He was a second person to own a car in this village in the early 70s. He brought us up and we shared a bicycle with his son.”
Church of the Nazarene Reverend Eric Makhubela said: “We are the symbol of hope to many. You were like the Israelites who carried Joseph’s bones to his rightful place of rest. May God bless you as you celebrate the legacy of Nyathi.”
