R30m to repatriate remains

THE Department of Sport, Arts and Culture plans to spend R30 million over the next 10 years on returning the remains of South Africans that lie outside the borders of South Africa.

This emerged this week when the department made a presentation on the policy to Parliament.

The move comes after the Cabinet in March adopted the national policy on the repatriation and restitution of human remains and heritage objects.

Vusithemba Ndima, deputy director-general for heritage promotion and preservation, said the policy presented an opportunity for the repatriation and restitution of the human remains of those who died during colonialism, apartheid and resistance.

Ndima said the remains could be those who fell in the line of duty, in military action or in civil society struggles against apartheid.

“They could also be the human remains of people whose corpses were collected illegally or unethically, which found their way into the repositories of institutions in South Africa or overseas.

“They could be the remains of people which entered the repositories of institutions for the purpose of racial research,” he said.

Ndima also said the policy also covered material culture, artefacts and documentation closely associated with human remains.

The government was undertaking repatriation and restitution on an ad hoc basis in the absence of national policy and guidelines when Khoi woman Sarah Baartman and struggle heroes JB Marks and Moses Mabhida were repatriated.

Ndima said the government was unable to undertake and carry the costs of the numerous requests it receives for repatriation and restitution from the public and stakeholders.

The new policy will be implemented in a phased approach, depending on the availability of resources.

There will be a Repatriation and Restitution Office in the 2022-23 financial year and repatriation would be handled in the following years from countries such as Botswana, Zambia, Angola and others.

Ndima said they were not looking at embarking on massive repatriation at one go.

“The policy will be reviewed at regular intervals for effectiveness, efficiency, consistency, progress and impact and finally after 10 years for continued utility and relevance.”

A total of R30 661 200 is the estimated cost over the 10-year period, with cases from as three in the first year up to 28.

Ndima said the government may not be able to carry the cost of all the requests for repatriation and restitution projects.

“Mitigation measures include the establishment of a special fund to carry these costs and requests for repatriation and restitution to be approved on a strictly case by case basis,” he said.

Parties welcomed the policy, but NFP and EFF warned against using political affiliation in the repatriation of the remains of people.

But, director-general Vusumuzi Mkhize said: “It is a policy to serve all South Africans”.

Minister Nathi Mthethwa also assured that they would not look at political affiliation of those to be repatriated.

“The fiscus does not belong to the ANC and I am glad when you come across some of these things you raise them and challenge us.

“I can assure you that we will definitely not do that,” Mthethwa said.

He, however, said not everybody would be repatriated for number of reasons. There could be instances where repatriation could be impossible because where bodies are lying there were infrastructure developments.

“Each case will be looked on its own merit,” he said.

Mthethwa also said they would have to look at concerns of some countries that regarded South African liberation heroes buried there as their heritage too.

“Moses Kotane and JB Marks indicated that they would be fine wherever they were buried but at the behest of their families, government undertook to repatriate them,” Ndima said.