Each of the 42 coffins that lined Freedom Park in Tshwane on Friday had a story to tell.
Among the family members there to welcome home the remains of freedom fighters who died in exile during apartheid in Zambia and Zimbabwe was Zinhle Kuzwayo.
Her father, former Robben Island prisoner Judson Kuzwayo, died in a car crash in Zimbabwe in 1985, aged 44. His remains were among those repatriated this week, and Zinhle, 63, says she has finally found closure after 39 years of trying to bring her father’s body home.
Not much has been written about Kuzwayo. But his youngest daughter, Fezekile, who returned to South Africa with her mother, Beauty, after his death when she was just 16, inadvertently and tragically went on to become more famous than her father.
Better known by her pseudonym Khwezi, in 2005 she accused Jacob Zuma of raping her while he was deputy president of the country and the ANC. Zuma was a family friend. He and her father had been close during their incarceration together on Robben Island.
Fezekile’s claims sparked a national debate about rape culture and she was attacked and vilified by Zuma’s supporters. She died in 2016 at the age of 41.
Zinhle told the Sunday Times this week she was overjoyed to finally have her father’s remains in South Africa.
“I am ecstatic. When I was born, he was already serving time on Robben Island. Today has given me the closure I have longed for all my life. Today, my father returned home.
“I have been trying to bring home his remains, but I was never able to afford to. At least the government has helped us. We are going to take him home to KwaZulu-Natal for burial, for him to rest in peace finally. That will give me peace too.”
Today is a good day. He did not leave me for nothing — he left for a cause that ensured freedom for everyone, including me
— Zinhle Kuzwayo
Kuzwayo served 10 years on Robben Island.
“I met him for the first time when I was 13, but even then I never got to spend any time with him, because he left for exile shortly thereafter,” she said.
After his release, he was employed as a researcher in the former University of Natal sociology department, but constant surveillance and harassment by the security branch drove him into exile, Zinhle said.
“I don’t have a lot of memories of my father, except that he was very dedicated to his political work and activism. He did not have time to spend with us as his family. We saw him occasionally, but then duty would call and he would leave. What I can distinctly remember, though, is that the little time he had for his family was full of love. But it wasn’t enough.
“Initially, I was very angry and did not understand. I grew up being called a child of a prisoner, but when I was older I began to understand what was going on. My other anger was due to my not knowing him as much as a child should know a father, and never having had time to bond with him.”
She described his return as a “surreal moment” that had extinguished her anger and pain.
“Today is a good day. He did not leave me for nothing — he left for a cause that ensured freedom for everyone, including me.”
In 1977, three years after his release from Robben Island, Kuzwayo left for Swaziland, where he became the commander of a unit called the political reconstruction committee.
Ivan Pillay, the former South African Revenue Service commissioner, remembered Kuzwayo from the time he spent with him in Swaziland.
“He was my first commander. It was Judson, myself, John Nkadimeng, Archie Abrahams, and a few others. Over the years it changed, as some people came and went.
“There was something distinctive about him. In contrast to what we would say about other people during that period, he was actually a very good man. He was very softly spoken, had a good sense of humour, and was a caring person. He was a very neat dresser. We didn’t have money for smart clothes, but he was always very well dressed. I remember he used to iron his clothes, and he always looked very well turned out,” said Pillay.
During his time in Swaziland, Pillay also met Kuzwayo's wife, Beauty, and their daughter, Fezekile, to whom he became an uncle until her death.
“Beauty came a few years later. She came with Fezeka, their child, and they stayed in Manzini. Fezeka grew up before us, and we were malume to her. When Judson went to Zimbabwe, they followed him.”
Kuzwayo was redeployed as the ANC’s chief representative in Lesotho in 1983, and then its chief representative in Zimbabwe the following year.
Beauty and Fezekile returned from exile alone. Pillay was one of the returnees who kept in touch with the family. He visited them fairly often on the KwaZulu-Natal south coast, where they first lived, and then in Durban, where they eventually settled. He said they were “always in touch” during this period.
His bond with the family was strengthened even further, he said, during Beauty and Fezekile’s darkest times in free and democratic South Africa.
During the rape trial, Fezekile was often threatened. Zuma supporters shouted, “Burn the bitch!” outside the court. Her home in KwaMashu was burned to the ground.
“When trouble erupted with Zuma, Fezeka and Beauty went to Amsterdam. She was given a safe space in the Netherlands. I visited them there, but over time they became homesick. They wanted to come home, but they were worried Zuma’s people would attack them. It was like a second exile for them.
“I spoke to Zuma and told him, ‘They want to come home but are scared of your people. What can I tell them?’ He said to tell them it’s OK, and eventually they did [come home], but life was never the same,” Pillay said.
He remembered Fezekile as a friendly and warm person, but someone who was troubled. “There was the loss of her father, the Zuma incident, and HIV/Aids, and unfortunately she died at a young age. Beauty never recovered — she died shortly after her daughter.”
Pillay said that after exile Judson’s family was never afforded a comfortable life. While they never starved, Beauty and Fezekile often needed financial support. A group of exiles would put money together and help them out.
He did not recall them having any close family ties.
“I have never met anybody from Beauty’s family. Their family was people from exile and some friends. In those years, we got a basic allowance after exile, before we were integrated into state institutions, and later on there was a struggle pension, which even I received. But it wasn’t a big amount,” he said.
“Then we noticed Fezeka was seriously sick, so we put money together and put her in a care home in Durban. I visited her during that time too. Beauty went downhill fast after Fezeka died — she simply never recovered.”
Beauty Kuzwayo died in 2019.
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