MUSINA – THE late Genl Gabriel Mutheiwana Ramushwana used to secretly meet and train Umkhonto we sizswe (MK) soldiers in the former Venda homeland.
This was according to South African National Military Veterans Association (SANMVA) president Kebby Maphatsoe who was addressing mourners at Ramushwana’s funeral in Musina recently.
Ramushwana passed away at 1 Military Hospital in Pretoria after a long illness.
Maphatsoe said Ramushwana was born on July 1 1941 in Campbell township, Musina. He was the first born of Tom and Mukondeleli and had four siblings.
“During his schooling he developed a love for the Afrikaans language. He completed his matric in Tshakhuma and started working for the crime investigation department of the former Venda homeland in 1966. In 1985 he was transferred to the Venda Defence Force and later appointed as chief of staff.
“In 1990 he was involved in a military coup d’état as Venda was ungovernable by then.
“Immediately after taking over the Venda government he announced that he would work with all liberation movements, including the ANC and that was evident in that he appointed a balanced cabinet, from all structures, to advise him on the way forward to a new democratic country.
“He also accompanied later former president Nelson Mandela to Oslo, Norway when Mandela received the Nobel peace prize.
“He visited ANC leadership in Lusaka and thereafter hosted the first face to face MK and Azanian People’s Liberation Army meeting at and the first historic MK conference at the University of Venda,” he said.
“He led the Venda Convention for a Democratic South Africa’s (Codesa) delegation which was comprised of people from across the spectrum.
“He helped the Venda public servants to access their pension funds.
“He later on brokered peace between the Pan Africanist Congress and the then South African (SA) government in Harare, with the assistance of Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe. He hosted a quo vadis SA conference in Venda, which included most of the South African political role players. During that period he was a member of the Joint Military Coordinating Council mapping the creation of the new South African National Defence Force.
“In 1994 before the first democratic general elections, he was appointed the commander of the National Peace Keeping Force by consensus of all role players. After the establishment of the new democratic government, he resigned from the military and joined politics.
“He was elected as a councillor in the Musina Municipality, and served as chairperson of the finance committee,” Maphatsoe said.
Ramushwana is survived by five children, 15 grandchildren and two sisters.
Musina mayor, Mihloti Ramoyada said Ramushwana had played a major role in the development of service delivery while he was still a councillor at the municipality.
