Daughter's quest for answers decades after father’s death

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Nomthandazo says she grew up knowing little about the circumstances around her father’s disappearance and death. “But my gran always cried, urging me to never give up on Dad, that’s why I kept believing that one day I would see him again,” she says.

Her father, Msongeleni Mthethwa, was born in eNgudwini in the Shayinja district of Eshowe on November 16, 1955. He moved to Durban in 1970 where he became politically active in the ANC. In 1981, Msongeleni, who was also known by the names “Otto”, “Gobinsimbi” or “Magujane”, left South Africa with Magwaza Maphalala, “Tunkie” Thulani Maphumulo and “Goso” Mhlawumbe Maphumulo to undergo military training with Umkhonto we Sizwe.

There was no hope when her father went missing. But that was to change when the Missing Persons Task Team under the auspices of the National Prosecuting Authority traced the burial site of her father to a cemetery in Thandukukhanya, exhuming his remains on August 9, 2012, with support of the Mkhondo Local Municipality in Mpumalanga.

“When listening to the story about my father, I was proud to learn that he was a hero and spilled his blood to end apartheid. Closure does not mean there was justice. Nomthandazo insists she’s grateful to the Missing Persons Task Team for closing the puzzle on her father’s disappearance. “I wouldn’t exactly say we are about conventional justice, if you are talking about justice in the courts.

 

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