Judges behind death sentences must hang heads in shame
Families of executioners of political activists won’t be allowed to rest
APRIL 6 these days has a dubious distinction. Some of our Afrikaner fellow South Africans regard it as the day civilisation came to our country in 1652.
They also refer to it as “Founders’ Day”.
However, when apartheid decided to hang Solomon Mahlangu in 1979, the best-known and best-loved anti-apartheid activist, who fought valiantly against it, in their notorious Pretoria jail, they made a crucial and fateful mistake by doing it on this day, April 6.
The age-old belief that “good triumphs over evil” comes to the fore, etched firmly in our conscience, in various other incidents in our history.
As far back as 1723 three slaves were sentenced to death, their heads impaled on poles to deter others.
As if that was not enough, modern bureaucrats in our time decided to name a street in a sprawling suburb of Cape Town “Drie Koppen”, for the three heads of these unfortunate folks.
The history books must carry their names.
When the hated Group Areas Act declared Sophiatown in Johannesburg a white area, the arch-father of apartheid, Hendrik Verwoerd himself, renamed it “Triomf” (Triumph).
As if it was not enough to hang 134 political prisoners, their bodies were never given to their loved ones. They were buried in unmarked graves.
Today our government has to spend millions to exhume their remains to be handed over to their next of kin for proper and dignified burial.
As if it was not enough to kill other heroes and heroines extra-judicially, like Anton Lubowski, Ahmed Timol, Neil Aggett, David Webster, Ashley Kriel, Anton Fransch, the Cradock Four and many, many others, some had their bodies burnt to ashes while their captors feasted nearby at their braais while singing Die Stem, as Julius Malema revealed recently, citing his abhorrence of this part of the anthem.
Those unprincipled judges, with the exception of one, Judge John Didcott, all white men and women, sentenced 4 110 people to death from 1910. Their consciences troubled them so much that they would seek permission from the state presidents at the time to commute sentences so as to avoid being labelled “hanging judges”, of whom there were quite a few.
That means the number 4 110 could be one-tenth of those actually sentenced.
Since Solomon Mahlangu and Andrew Zondo are our best-known heroes to die on the apartheid gallows, and the two judges who sent them there are also known, the time has come to research who the other 132 were.
In the case of Solomon Mahlangu, it was Judge Johan Theron, and in the case of Andrew Zondo, it was Judge Ramon Leon, the father of the founding leader of the DA, Tony Leon.
Soon after sentencing Zondo to death, it troubled Judge Leon so much that he joined an anti-death penalty group so that his legacy could be that of an anti-death penalty supporter.
Today anti-death penalty activists will never stop reminding the children, grandchildren and all the descendants of especially these judges, prosecutors and all others who voted for such an inhumane system, of the sins of their fathers.
Others who had a hand, direct or indirect, in the killing of so many people, instead of taking a firm and unambiguous stand, even today, against the greatest evil man can commit, the taking of lives, are equally guilty and their tainted legacies will live on.
Although our country celebrates quite a few historic public holidays for us to reconcile and find one another, to jointly build our beautiful country to what it could be, a home for all, very few of our white brothers and sisters have so far publicly expressed their regret for what happened in our dark history, and their profound absence speaks volumes.
So far the South Africa we are building is being built on the proverbial sand. Their sand castle will never hold against the storms that will face our country, simply because they are not only trying to exclude half the population, but also to excise them from future governments, instead of seeking to work together.
Will the sacrifices of all those who paid the ultimate price for the freedom we all now enjoy, their blood screaming from the soil where it was spilled, be in vain?