The Individual, Auto/biography and History in South Africa

and Alie and Ursula Fataar had assisted Gool in transporting him to hospital for medical
attention. 148 Struggles immediately ensued over Tabata’s body and the quest to have
him buried at his birthplace in South Africa. Amina Hughes, Zimbabwe’s Deputy
Minister of Transport and close friend of Tabata and Gool, stepped in to liaise with the
South African Department of National Health and Population Development, which
eventually gave permission for Tabata’s remains to be transported to East London
airport via Johannesburg for burial at Lesseyton, near his birthplace at Bailey. A
condition was stipulated that the body had to be “embalmed and placed in a
hermetically sealed metal container, all enclosed in a wooden coffin”. The mortal
remains also had to be pronounced “free of any contagious diseases” and a Health
Clearance Certificate obtained from the South African Trade Mission. 149
Tabata’s youngest brother Max made his way to Harare to accompany the body back to
the Eastern Cape. However, its transfer to South Africa and funeral arrangements were
delayed while Jane Gool and other exiled UMSA members battled to secure indemnity
from the South African state in order to enter the country to bury their president. The
denial of indemnity would have meant that Tabata would be laid to rest in Harare. 150
Ten days after Tabata’s death, a memorial meeting was convened in the garden of the
Tabata‐Gool home as his body lay in state inside. In spite of having become the New
Unity Movement spokesperson in Harare, Alie Fataar officiated as obituary speeches
were made inter alia by Norman Traub, Leonard Nikane, and Max Tabata on behalf of
sister‐in‐law for providing me with copies of medical and legal documents in respect of Tabata’s death
and the transfer to South Africa of his body.
148 Even though Fataar had left the organisation and become the Harare spokesperson for the New Unity
Movement, he and Ursula, who lived nearby, didn’t break a personal connection with Tabata and Gool
(Alie Fataar, Address to the Memorial Meeting for Jane Gool in Cape Town, 18 May 1996, notes in
author’s possession). Jane Gool died in Cape Town on 6 May 1996.
149 Fax from Amina Hughes (Deputy Minister of Transport, Zimbabwe) to Mrs Bekker, Department of
National Health and Population Development, South Africa, 19 October 1990; Fax from G van der
Wateren, Department of National Health and Population Development to Amina Hughes, 19 October
1990; Ronald C Petzer (Embalmer and Manager, Funeral and Cremation Services), Certification of
Embalming and Placement in Coffin: I.B. Tabata, 22 October 1990 (all author’s possession, courtesy Sarah
Magdalene Tabata); Ciraj Rassool, Interview with Sarah Magdalene Tabata, Lesseyton, 12 July 1995,
assisted by Ayanda Bashe. Sarah Magdalene Tabata was the widow of an elder Tabata brother, Puller.
150 Musa Ndwandwe, ‘Tabata’s widow in bid to bury husband at home, South, 18‐24 October 1990; Ciraj
Rassool, Interview with Sarah Magdalene Tabata, Lesseyton, 12 July 1995, assisted by Ayanda Bashe.
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