ANC Activist’s remains exhumed from a pauper’s grave in Zamdela

SASOLBURG - The remains of a late ANC activist were exhumated by forensic experts in Sasolburg last week. James Booi, who was sentenced to two years in prison for political activism and the fight against apartheid in 1965, died at the age of 62 before completing his remaining sentence at the Groenpunt Correctional Facility in 1966. According to his daughter, Nombulelo Booi, her father served a one-year term at Robben Island before being transported to Groenpunt. News24 reports that after his death, Booi was buried in an unmarked grave in the Zamdela Cemetery. His family spent 56 years looking for him. The exhumation follows after the National Prosecuting Authority’s Missing Persons Task Team tracked his movement from Robben Island to Groenpunt. Family, friends and comrades of Booi gathered in Sasolburg earlier this month, as forensic experts battled to remove his remains from its water-riddled grave, before placing his bones in a bag to be taken to his final resting place in the Eastern Cape.

PHOTO'S: (Metsimaholo Local Municipality on Facebook)