Human remains of five UDF political prisoners to be exhumed

As part of the Gallows Exhumation Project, the department of justice says it will exhume the remains of five United Democratic Front (UDF) political activists at Mamelodi cemetery on Friday.

The project entails the exhumation of the remains of 83 political prisoners who were hanged at Pretoria Central Prison gallows and buried in unmarked graves, now Kgosi Mampuru II Correctional Centre. A total of 130 political prisoners were hanged at the gallows between 1960 and 1990.

“The bodies of the hanged political prisoners remained the property of the state and families were denied the opportunity to bury them. As a result, although the families knew that their loved ones had been executed on the Gallows at the then Pretoria Central Prison, they were unaware of their burial place,” the department said in a statement.

The names of the deceased victims whose remains will be exhumed are:

1. Lungile K. Rewu – from Port Elizabeth,
2. Thobile Richard Lloyd – from Port Elizabeth,
3. Kholisile Dyakala – from Port Elizabeth
4. Zwelidumile Mjekula – from Port Elizabeth and
5. Jeffrey Mangena Boesman – from Sterkstroom.