Monwabisi Kwanda Mbeki
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Monwabisi Kwanda Mbeki (1959 — missing since 1981) is the son of former South African President Thabo Mbeki and Olive Mpahlwa. His disappearance and presumed murder at the hands of apartheid authorities[1] has been a matter of international interest.[2]
Biography
[edit]Monwabisi Kwanda Mbeki known as Kwanda was born to then 16-year-old Thabo Mbeki and high school sweetheart Olive Mphahlwa in 1959, in Butterworth, Eastern Cape. Under Xhosa law, Thabo had to pay a penalty for making an under-age girl pregnant. He gave five head of cattle.
Kwanda lived with Olive's family until the age of ten, when he moved in with Thabo's mother, Epainette Mbeki (known as Ma Mofokeng), until he passed matric.[citation needed]
Disappearance
[edit]In 1976, Kwanda went into exile with one of Thabo's old comrades Phindile Mfeti. Kwanda had heard from Phindile that his father was in exile in Swaziland and decided to join him. Kwanda's voice was heard for the last time over a phone when he told Thabo's friend that he was in Durban. He disappeared in 1981.[3]
Truth and Reconciliation Commission
[edit]In 1998, both Thabo and Olive spoke at the TRC and found that the last place Kwanda was seen alive was at the ANC military base in Tanzania. It was assumed that both Kwanda and Phindile were killed by the Apartheid government's forces.[1]
In 2006, it was announced that a new enquiry was to be launched to try to find out what happened.[2] It was noted that hundreds of bodies of ANC members killed by the authorities of the time have never been located.[1]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c Search for Mbeki's long-lost son, BBC, Retrieved 25 May 2016
- ^ a b Fresh enquiry, The Independent, Retrieved 5 May 2016
- ^ Victims—Mbeki, Monwabisi Kwanda, SABC Truth Commission Special Report
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