Work to Immortalise Sekhukhune Struggle Heroes Begins

Research on the Sekhukhune uprisings is set to begin in earnest next week.

Teams from Greater Sekhukhune District Municipality (GSDM) and the Freedom Park Trust will embark on a preliminary research on Monday, 07 March 2008, that will be used as a content of the package for the 50th anniversary of the Sekhukhune uprisings scheduled for May. 

A preparatory meeting between the two teams took place last week in Pretoria.

It followed hot in the heels of the high-profile meeting between GSDM executive mayor, Cllr Namane Masemola, and Freedom Park chief executive officer (CEO), Dr Wally Serote.

That meeting agreed that the two institutions will jointly host the anniversary to honour heroes and heroines of the liberation struggle, who fought gallantly against the apartheid government in 1958.

After the research has been completed, the information will be kept at the Freedom Park’s archives and the names of the individuals will be engraved on the wall of remembrance in the park’s garden.

The two institutions will also enter into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) before the ceremony.

The celebration will take place in two legs. The first one will take place in Pretoria on May 24, where Gauteng-based residents with roots in Sekhukhune will also attend.

The second celebration will take place in Fetakgomo, the location where these individuals staged protests against white domination.

Freedom Park will also visit Tjate Heritage Site – where the BaPedi people, under the leadership King Sekhukhune I, tirelessly fought against British and Voortrekker colonialists in the 1800s.