Group Areas Act haunts Fynn after death
They are more than 22 Fynns buried in the area
THE infamous Group Areas Act was late anti-apartheid champion Morris Fynn’s greatest bugbear.
Ironically, decades after the act forced him to leave his Mtwalume ancestral home, a local chief is now in the headlines for trying to stop his family from burying him there.
However, Morris might now be dead, but he has obviously not been forgotten by his comrades in the ANC, who remember him cocking a snook at the Durban apartheid establishment in the ’80s and braving the wrath of the dreaded security police by sawing down ‘whites only’ signs on the beachfront.
The saw can still be seen in the KwaMuhle Museum in Durban.
His angry friends took to the streets twice at Mtwalume (most recently, Thursday last week), blocking roads to Turton Health Centre and Umzumbe Municipality.
The subject of their wrath was iNkosi Bhekizizwe Luthuli who they alleged tried to stop 85-year-old Fynn’s burial and also for ‘corruption’.
The African National Congress sub-regional leadership wanted iNkosi Luthuli to be investigated by the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs.
Among other allegations made to the MEC for Cogta, Nomusa Dube-Ncube, iNkosi Luthuli was said to be charging ‘new citizens’ in the area R3 000 and he also apparently demanded 10 percent if a property was sold.
Mr Fynn was a direct descendant of Francis Fynn, the Scotsman who married a Zulu princess and was subsequently appoint ‘chief’ by both King Shaka and King Faku of the Pondos.
Much of Fynn’s ancestral land is still the subject of land claims by subsequent settlers, particularly around Gamalakhe. The courts threw out the claims recently, but there are now attempts to revive them.
Morris Fynn had to leave his home in Mtwalume because of the Group Areas Act and settled in Umbogintwini. In 2009 he was honoured by the eThekwini Municipality as a ‘living legend’.
He died at his home two weeks ago.
He was also known as ‘iNkosi YamaKhaladi’ and his family decided to bury him at Mtwalume. However, iNkosi Luthuli apparently threatened them and warned that he would ‘demolish the grave’ if ever they proceeded.
“Everybody knows that it is the family’s right to bury Mr Fynn on this farm,” said Howard Msomi, sub-regional secretary for the ANC.
Iris Cupido,45, Mr Fynn’s daughter, told the Herald that it came as a shock to them.
“The body had to be returned to the mortuary in Wentworth after the service in Durban,” she said.
“We received an email from the Ingonyama Trust telling us that our father could not be buried at his Mtwalume homestead.”
She said there were 22 Fynn graves already there.
MEC Nomsa Dube-Ncube was called in to resolve the impasse and the burial went ahead last Saturday.
She told the community: “We will also investigate some of the issues you have raised. If need be, legal action will be taken.”
iNkosi Luthuli slammed the phone down when contacted for comment.
