This is part of the struggle against forgetting where we come from as a country, says Mathebula
ANC stalwart cum businessman Joe Mathebula wrote on his X account, formerly Twitter three days ago:”As we reflect: As part of my personal journey, last Tuesday, I went to salute and pay tribute to the Heroes of Matola raid. We continue to struggle against forgetting. our freedom was never free.” Mathebula was explaining why he went to Mozambique last week and visited the Matola Monument and Interpretative Centre that was unveiled in 2015 in honour of 16 uMkhonto weSizwe members killed in a raid by members of apartheid South Africa’s South African Defence Force on the night of January 30 1981 when they launched a night raid to the safe houses of ANC members.. Mathebula visited Mozambique on September 11-15 with his wife Tebogo.
He says:”It is easy to forget that lives were lost, sacrifices were made , blood shed by South Africans and the people of Mozambique, Botswana and Lesotho in the hands of the brutal apartheid regime.”
“The Matola, Gaborone and Maseru raids by the South African apartheid regime forces will remain an endilible scar in the historynof our country and Southern Africa,” he added. The Matola raid, also called Operation Beanbag, was one of the operations by the apartheid government to destabilise neighbouring countries thought to be assisting the ANC in the fight against apartheid. The apartheid government called those strikes “pre-emptive strikes” meaning “you attack them before they attack you.” In the same trip, Mthebula and his wife also visited Mbuzini, the place where Mozambique’s founder president Samora Machel died in 1986. A statue of the late leader was erected in the area. Mathebula went there to salue and pay tribute to his late hero. “This is part of our struggle not to forget our history. We must not forget where we come from,” he said.
