The Order of Luthuli in Silver

Jameson Nongolozi Mngomezulu Awarded for:

Dedicating his life to the struggle for a democratic, free and non-racial South Africa.

Profile of Jameson Nongolozi Mngomezulu

Jameson Nongolozi Mngomezulu was born in Ingwavuma, KwaZulu-Natal, and was an active African National Congress (ANC) and Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) member when he was sent to Swaziland as a base commander. When MK started to wage its guerrilla warfare, he was operating in the underground structures in Ingwavuma.

Mngomezulu was an elderly person of over 60 years of age and had known the ANC when he used to work in Johannesburg in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Mngomezulu assisted ANC cadres to infiltrate South Africa. He was one of the most active members of MK who operated on the border of KwaZulu-Natal and Swaziland, with the area of Ingwavuma being a strategic place for infiltrating cadres. It was also one of the first places that the cadres would reach when coming from Mozambique via Swaziland.

Mngomezulu would send the guerrillas to his sister, Nokuhamba Nyawo, to look after and would then skip them across into Swazi­land. He would ask his sister and other family members to be on the look-out for police and emerge with guerrillas only when it was confirmed safe.

Virtually his entire family became active recruiters and underground activists for the ANC, going out to buy food and other necessi­ties.

When the police were searching for him, he also went across to Swaziland. He was subsequently abducted from his home in Swaziland in June 1985 and taken to a place called Moolman outside Piet Retief in KwaZulu-Natal. He was later moved to a farm, Leeuwspoor, which was close to Jozini, the headquarters of the northern Natal security police.

The apartheid security police wanted information from Mngomezulu on the names and number of freedom fighters who had infil­trated the country to be able to trace them.

They also wanted to establish the extent to which there had been infiltrations in rural areas and if what they considered the “terrorist threat” was larger in the rural areas than in the cities.

He was tortured to reveal and betray his comrades but to no avail. He was severely assaulted to the point of being barely conscious, which is when the security police lost hope of ever getting any information from him. He went into a coma and died on the farm. His body was blown up at a missile range near Sodwana Bay. He died a gruesome death at the hands of an immoral and corrupt system. His sacrifices will never be forgotten.