Media Statement

The African National Congress welcomes the Angola phase of the Exile Repatriation Project as an important act of historical justice and the fulfilment of a solemn obligation to those who gave their lives for our liberation. These freedom fighters, many of them combatants of Umkhonto we Sizwe, left their homes and families to confront an apartheid regime that denied the majority of our people their humanity and political rights. They fell in the struggle for a free South Africa, leaving families whose grief was compounded by separation and the inability to lay their loved ones to rest at home.

The physical and spiritual repatriation of our fallen comrades affirms that the passage of time does not diminish our responsibility to them. The ANC recognises the profound meaning of calling their spirits home in accordance with the cultural, traditional and religious practices of their families. For our movement, this process restores dignity, honours sacrifice and addresses the enduring wounds inflicted by apartheid. It must also sustain our national commitment to recovering and identifying mortal remains wherever possible.

Angola occupies an honoured place in the history of our liberation struggle. Its people stood with us when solidarity demanded courage and carried a heavy price. As we honour our fallen comrades, we reaffirm the bonds forged through a common struggle against colonialism, racism and apartheid. Their histories must be preserved and taught to younger generations so that the conditions under which our freedom was won, and the African solidarity that sustained it, remain part of our national consciousness.

The ANC stands with the affected families and calls on South Africans to honour these patriots through a renewed commitment to the society for which they fought. Their sacrifices place a responsibility upon us to advance the unfinished work of liberation by confronting poverty, inequality, unemployment and racism. Bringing our comrades home must deepen our resolve to build a united, non-racial, non-sexist, democratic and prosperous South Africa in which freedom finds expression in the dignity and wellbeing of every person.

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