Akin to a restless voice echoing from the wilderness, the galvanizing spirit of a true African martyr, Kgoshikgolo Mampuru II brought together multitudes who descended on the humble village of Mamone, Sekhukhune in Limpopo for King Mampuru II’s annual commemoration day on 26 January 2019. Kgoshikgolo Mampuru II of the Bapedi ranks among many other distinguished African liberation heroes who refused to recognise and submit to colonial rule.
Kgoshikgolo Mampuru II paid the ultimate price when, in a humiliating manner, he was stripped naked, and in full public glare, was executed by the then Republican Government at the then Pretoria Central Prison on Thursday, 22 November 1883. His mortal remains are yet to be located to this day.
His great-grandson and reigning King of the Bapedi, Kgoshikgolo Billy Mampuru III said that the events of the morning of Kgoshikgolo Mampuru II’s brutal demise 136 years ago opened a wound that is yet to be healed. “Unlike many people who were executed before and after him, whose mortal remains have been found, exhumed and reburied, it is still a mystery where Kgoshikgolo Mampuru II was buried,” he posited.
Minister Michael Masutha recommitted that government will continue to spare no effort to ensure that the mortal remains of this gallant liberation icon are located and that he is accorded a befitting reburial. The event was attended by former President Jacob Zuma, Deputy Minister of COGTA Obed Bapela, Bishop Barnabas Lekganyane of the ZCC, and kings and chiefs from other royal houses in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Botswana.
