This Day in History: March 8, 1986
Additional Date: March 8, 1986
Moses Mbeki Mncane (Baba) Mabhida, trade unionist, politician, Umkhonto weSizwe commander and Secretary-General of the SA Communist Party, died of a heart attack in Maputo, Mozambique, and was buried there in a temporary grave on 29 March 1986. In 2006, Mabhida's remains were transferred to South Africa by the South African government for reburial at his home in KwaZulu-Natal. The ceremony at Herry Gwala Stadium on 2 December 2006 was marked by controversy as a section of the mourners disrupted the speech of State President Thabo Mbeki.
Click here to read the funeral speech by the African National Congress (ANC) president Oliver Tambo in 1986.