Speech by Deputy Minister of Defence and Military Veterans ...

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The first of this parades will be organized for on the 2 nd of August 2012, theanniversary of the commencement of the Wankie Campaign in 1967 in the thenRhodesia by MK members of the Luthuli Detachment. Similar appropriatehonours will be bestowed on other members of the non-statutory formations atappropriate occasions. Through the citations of these medals the Department ofMilitary Veterans hopes to preserve this military heritage and memorialize itsglorious actors.Chairperson, the performance plan of the Department of Military Veterans in thisfinancial year is indeed ambitious with respect to heritage, understandably so,because of the zeal to salvage the story of the soldiers who fought againstapartheid before it suffers the injustice of being obliterated from our collectivenational memory.To this end, the department will be collaborating with initiatives to establishtourism “Freedom routes” nationally and regionally under the South AfricanHeritage Council (SAHC) and any other non-governmental organization involvedin such endeavours. Important under the preservation of heritage this year, willalso be work to find and restore graves of South African soldiers who were inliberation armies at home and abroad to restore their dignity. A common headstonewill be designed for this purpose. This will include the erection ofcenotaphs in the former frontlines states where many freedom fighters parished,starting with the Memorial dedicated to the matyrs of the Matola raid in Maputo,Mozamabique in conjunction with the Department of Arts and Culture.Chairperson, Honourable Members, it is with an immerse sense of anticipationand bewilderment that the Ministry has stumbled over a real opportunity toretrieve the full story and gain access to the legendary maritime tragedy of thesinking of the troopship SS Mendi just five years before we mark the centenary ofthis occurance. Since the fateful morning of the 21 st February 1917, shortly after6
05h00 next to the Isle of Wight in the English Sea waters, when SS Mendi with823 men and officers of the 5 th Battalion, South African Native Labour Corps(SANLC) bound for France sank, very little official attention was paid to thisimmense human tragedy both in South Africa and Britain. It drifted into historicalobscurity. For much of the years since Mendi sank, it has been a story which,with few exceptions, has been largely forgotten in both countries.As a Ministry we have made contacts with the English Heritage and the WessexArchaeology which can give us a real possibility to:- Place the Mendi and those aboard her when she sank within the widersocial and political context of both early 20 th Century South Africa and thesystem of labour contigents that formed part of the war effort of the BritishEmpire during World War 1 (WW1).- Consider the meaning of Mendi and its social and political context forUnited Kingdom (UK) and South Africa today, taking into account thedifferent meanings of “place” that we are likely to attach to the wreckculturally.- Consider the importance of the wreck itself as a heritage site of significantinternational value as a war-grave under UNESCO.- Consider South Africa’s sole right over the wreckage and thereforeinvestigate the implications of the vessel’s ownership.Lastly, we can sponsor dialogue on what to do to the graves of the bodies whichwashed ashore in London that are in several cemetries there.The MENDI Project will naturally be a flagship project which belongs to a broaderprogramme of revising the policy of the Department of Defence (DOD) and theDepartment of Military Veterans (DMV) pertaining many military graves of SouthAfricans which lie in countries across the globe arising from many varied conflictsof the past.7
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Speech by Deputy Minister of Defence and Military Veterans ...

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