Prayer for Solomon Mahlangu
The life of Solomon Mahlangu celebrated after 37 years he was executed.
The African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) laid wreaths at the grave to commemorate the death of hanged anti-apartheid struggle hero Solomon Mahlangu on Wednesday.
Mahlangu, an African National Congress (ANC) uMkhonto wesizwe soldier was executed be the apartheid government on 6 April 1979 after he was found guilty of terrorism two years before.
He was 22 years old.
Accompanied by Mahlangu’s family and Mamelodi religious leaders, the ANCYL first held a prayer service at the Kgosi Mampuru prison in the city centre where Mahlangu was hanged, then went to the Mamelodi cemetery where he was buried.
They also laid wreaths on his mother, Martha Mahlangu’s grave.
Mahlangu is known the words he is believed to have said just before he entered the Gallows for this execution: “My blood will nourish the tree that will bear the fruits of freedom. Tell my people that I love them. They must continue the fight.”
Fearing making him a martyr, Mahlangu was buried in an unmarked grave in Attridgeville but in 1993, he was exhumed and reinterred at the Mamelodi West cemetery.
Last year, on 36th anniversary of his death, the Tshwane metro accompanied Mahlangu’s family opened the newly renovated Solomon Mahlangu Freedom Square heritage site in Mamelodi.
The square commemorates struggle heroes and heroines of Mamelodi and narrates the heritage and history of the township and its people.
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