Masutha launches Gallows Exhumation Project
Exhumations of the remains of political prisoners hanged during apartheid will be begin on 4 April 2016.
PRETORIA - Justice Minister Michael Masutha has promised the families of political prisoners who were hanged during apartheid at the Kgosi Mampuru Correctional Centre that exhumations will begin early next month.
The minister launched the Gallows Exhumation Project at the maximum prison in Pretoria this morning.
He says exhumation processes will begin on 4 April, just two days before the 37th anniversary of the hanging of Umkhonto we Sizwe veteran, Solomon Mahlangu.
#ExhumationProject Solomon Mahlangu's death certificate. MR pic.twitter.com/YplCm7pWAQ
— EWN Reporter (@ewnreporter) March 23, 2016
Masutha says his ministry will be working with the National Prosecuting Authority's missing persons task team.
The department's Truth and Reconciliation unit will then arrange for the remains to be formally handed over to the affected families for dignified burials.
#ExhumationProject Masutha says in 1988, SA had second highest number of executions in the world. MR
— EWN Reporter (@ewnreporter) March 23, 2016
The human remains of 47 political activists. who were hanged in the gallows during the 1960s and 70s. have already been exhumed, and 83 families are still waiting to bury their loved ones.
WATCH: #ExhumationProject from the gallows, the corpses would drop into the water. MR pic.twitter.com/jkgC4pILwE
— EWN Reporter (@ewnreporter) March 23, 2016