'Never again,' Mabuza pledges at commemoration of Mahlangu's hanging

The death penalty will “never ever happen again” in South Africa. 

Deputy President David Mabuza made this vow minutes after he emerged from the formerly notorious Pretoria Central Prison.

Scores of political activists from the PAC and ANC were executed at the prison gallows between 1961 and 1989 before a moratorium on the death penalty was declared by former president FW de Klerk.

Mabuzu was among those attending the annual memorial service for Solomon Mahlangu, an uMkhonto weSizwe operative who was hanged at the prison 39 years ago, on Friday.

He made the pledge moments after he and several cabinet members arrived at the prison’s “death factory”, now known as Kgosi Mampuru II Correctional Centre, to acquaint themselves with the brutal manner in which the apartheid regime executed political prisoners and common law offenders alike.

The government delegation and ANC senior officials such as the party’s secretary-general Ace Magashule and treasurer-general Paul Mashatile were retracing Mahlangu’s last steps before his execution.

But before he was put to death, Mahlangu had the opportunity to declare: “My blood will nourish the tree that will bear the fruits of freedom. Tell my people that I love them. They must continue the Struggle.”

As Mabuza and his entourage, including the Mahlangu Royal Family, left the so-called death factory, the deputy president vowed it would never happen again.

In paying tribute to Mahlangu, Mabuza said he and ANC veteran and Struggle icon Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, who passed away on Monday, represented the “embodiment of the country's liberation Struggle.

“They played their different roles. We are encouraged by their deeds and action to continue the journey to freedom,” Mabuza told the special memorial service.

He said Mahlangu was killed because the authorities wanted to preserve apartheid.

“We salute all those who were hanged there. They propelled the country to our new dispensation. We must not go back.

“We must never again give people authority to terminate life.” Mabuza said the sacrifices made by Mahlangu and Madikizela-Mandela showed that the “revolution was not free”.

In an apparent plea to ANC members, who were split during the party's elective conference last year, Mabuza urged them to rise above petty squabbles and to focus on the gains of freedom.

“We must fight racism, sexism and inequality, which is pervasive in the country.”

The Saturday Star