FORMER president Jacob Zuma has been told to stay away from Collins Chabane’s grave.
Zuma and his uMkhonto Wesizwe (MK) party members planned to visit the graveyard of the former ANC MP and minister in the Presidency.
His family said in a statement on Wednesday, 17 January, that they knew nothing about the former president’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 to personal harm nor 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 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.
He said his final resting place was a family property that was sacred to the entire Mhinga clan.
“The family expects no one at their graveyard on the said date. Let no one trample upon his soul and name for entrepreneurial political purposes. To the Congress Movement, led by the African National Congress and Umkhonto We Sizwe Military Veterans, the family expects you to protect and honour Collins’s name and all the heroes of the struggle against the exploitation of their sacrifices in pursuit of personal ambitions and division of the people,” said Nkondo.
