FORMER president Jacob Zuma would not have gone to Collins Chabane’s grave without permission.
Zuma told Daily Sun on Thursday, 18 January that he was a traditional man who respected culture and tradition.
“It is unfortunate that a poster was circulated prior to Zuma having approved it. He respects culture and tradition. He knows that some families have certain rituals that they perform before someone can go to a grave. He would not have just showed up without the family’s approval. This narrative that MK is ill-disciplined is not true,” uMkhonto Wesizwe (MK) spokesman Nhlamulo Ndlela said.
He was responding to news that Chabane’s family had barred the statesman and his new political home MK from visiting his grave.
The family released a statement on Wednesday, 17 January, that they knew nothing about the Zuma’s visit.
“Collins Chabane family rejects the purported visit to his grave by an organisation calling itself uMkhonto Wesizwe,” they said in a statement.
The Chabane Foundation chairman, Professor Muxe Nkondo, said since the release of the pamphlet by the MK announcing its intended visit to General Peter Dambuza and Collins Chabane’s graves, the family of Chabane and the Collins Chabane Foundation has been inundated with calls expressing shock and “disgust at this un-African practice” and revision of history.
“They are here and everywhere, scouring graves, opening wounds and awakening resting souls. They are looking for votes and to resuscitate broken carriers. It was Moses Mabhida, then General Dambuza and now Collins Chabane. When will it end?” said Nkondo.
He said the foundation would like to make it very clear that Chabane’s family, the Mhinga Royal House and the foundation have not given MK permission to visit the family graveyard, where the late Chabane has been laid to rest.
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“The family is opposed to the envisaged visit as insensitive and trampling on the spirit of their loved son, brother, uncle, husband and father. Collins Chabane was not a coward. He enlisted as a soldier of Umkhonto We Sizwe to fight for his land, country and people without regard for personal harm or benefit. He made his views known without saying much,” Nkondo said.
He said Chabane lived and died as a member of the African National Congress (ANC).
He died in a car crash on the N1 near Polokwane, Limpopo in 2015.
Nkondo said Chabane was quiet, disciplined, committed, and dependable.
“He was humble and hated self-promotion. He rejected careerism and selling out no matter how difficult the sacrifice required of him. Let no one change his commitment to the liberation struggle, the transformation of our country and unity of the struggling people led by the Congress Movement,” he said.
Ndlela said it was unfortunate that the family released a statement without engaging Zuma first.
“He would have gone to the family himself and apologised, and he would have told them that the pamphlet went out at the back of an invitation by the people of Limpopo to have Zuma speak to them. This has created an impression that this was a concluded and approved programme,” he said.
