By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Sports, Arts and Culture Minister Gayton McKenzie says his department will work around the clock to repatriate the bodies of those who died outside the country fighting to liberate South Africa from the Apartheid regime.
McKenzie was speaking at the launch of the Heritage Month Programme at the Freedom Park Heritage Site and Museum in Pretoria.
As we mark 30 years of our country’s democracy, this heritage month we also remember the heroes and heroines who laid down their lives for us to achieve equal rights and freedom, said McKenzie.
“To pay tribute to these giants, the Department of Arts and Culture and its partners, including the National Heritage Council and the Department of Military Veterans, launch this year’s Heritage Month under the theme “Celebrating the lives of our heroes and heroines who laid down their lives for our freedom”.
This theme puts a spotlight on the Resistance & Liberation Heritage Route Programme, aimed at many functions including commemorating, celebrating, conserving and providing a durable testament of South African’s road to independence.
McKenzie also outlined upcoming events for Heritage Month, including the national Heritage Day celebration and the Indigenous Games Festival, both designed to promote cultural diversity and unity across the country.
He further took the opportunity to address Julius Malema again, stating he was not bothered by his insults. He highlighted his recent appointment by President Cyril Ramaphosa to represent him at events in Paris at the invitation of French President Emmanuel Macron.
“Macron invited Ramaphosa to functions in Paris. Ramaphosa said he shall be represented by the honourable Gayton McKenzie.”
“Now you hear that yesterday in parliament we had a fight. They called me a ‘lepantiti’. I can’t get angry because in life, you must always consider the source — who’s speaking — before you react.
“If Ramaphosa, whom we all love, recommends that I speak to his equal in France and sees me as worthy of sending to functions in Paris, how can I worry about people going through a serious divorce in the progressive alliance? When they say the revolution will eat its children, they are talking about that arrangement they are having there,” McKenzie said.