About 60 years after anti-apartheid activist James Booi disappeared and was later buried as a pauper at the Zamdela Cemetery in the Free State, he will finally be buried in his home city of Gqeberha.
His family, who attended the exhumation in Sasolburg in June, have expressed relief about the reburial since Booi’s remains were located three years ago.
Booi is set to be reburied at the Heroes Acre on July 30 with the assistance of the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality.
The plan to rebury Booi was unveiled in the council on June 28, with all political parties throwing their weight behind it.
His grandson, Welile Booi, said the family had lost hope that they would locate his body and rebury him.
“It has been many years since our grandfather died and most of his children have also since died.
“This has taken so long,” Welile said.
Booi had seven children, four of whom have since died.
Booi, from Gqeberha, was one of the hundreds of people arrested in the early 1960s after the ANC and the Pan Africanist Congress were banned.
He was sentenced to imprisonment on Robben Island.
In January 1966, he was transferred from Robben Island to Groenpunt prison in Deneysville in the Free State.
He died on March 15 1966.
The reburial follows work done by the National Prosecuting Agency’s missing persons task team and the department of military veterans which was tasked with expediting the repatriation and reburial of the remains of victims.
The task team’s investigations led them to an unmarked pauper’s grave in the Zamdela cemetery in the Metsimaholo local municipality where Booi had been buried.
The Nelson Mandela Bay Veterans League spearheaded the location, exhumation and reburial of Booi’s remains in 2014.
Welile said the reburial would help the family find closure and healing.
“The exhumation [in June] was very emotional for us because our parents died without knowing where their father was.
“As a family, we believe that his spirit has been roaming and it has been longing to be brought back and that is why our lives felt stuck,” Welile said.
“I think bringing his spirit will not only bring spiritual healing but our lives will improve for the better.”
According to African spirituality and ancestry, when a spirit has not undergone traditional rituals it could affect the livelihoods of those that are left behind.
Welile said the reburial would mean they could finally perform the necessary rituals for Booi.
“This is very emotional for us but we are happy that it is finally going to happen because even my father would be emotional when asked about this and died without knowing where his father was buried,” Welile said.
Sports and recreation portfolio head Bassie Kamana said the metro had been in touch with the family to discuss the logistics of the reburial.
“It is critical for the family to at least know and see where his remains are for them to finally have peace as he died and was buried during a very dark time during apartheid,” Kamana said.
The municipality’s budget and treasury department has ensured that R260,000 is available for the reburial.
A council report shows that some of the costs will be R48,850 for a headstone, base curbs and slabs.
A further R2,200 will cover the cost of the inscription of Booi’s name and profile on the wall of remembrance, with R1,900 to be spent on the burial plot.
An additional R5,500 will cover the hall hire and sound system, with R3,000 used to transport mourners.
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