Northern Cape Premier Ms. Sylvia Lucas will mark the 2018 Freedom Day be unveiling a monument in honour of Batlhaping Dikgosi Galeshewe and Luka Jantjie as well as Batlharo Kgosi Toto on Friday, 27 April 2018. The event will be held at the Kuruman's First Eye/ Information Centre in the John Taolo Gaetsewe District. It will be marked under a theme “The year of Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela: Towards full realisation of our freedom through radical socio economic-transformation". Premier Lucas will be accompanied by the MEC for Sport, Arts and Culture Ms. Bongiwe Mbinqo-Gigaba, other members of the Northern Cape Executive Council as well as mayors and councilors of the John Taolo Gaetsewe District and Local Municipalities. The unveiling forms part of the provincial government's initiative to commemorate 121st anniversary of the 1897 Langerberg War of resistance which is a commemoration of our heroes and heroines project incorporated as a national flagship.
The Langerberg War of resistance of 1897 saw thousands of members of Batlhaping and Batlharo community scattered across various parts of the country. This was after being disposed off their land at the Langerberg Hills outside Olifanshoek during a battle now called the Langerberg War. According to Kgosi Jantjie, the battle started when Batlhaping Kgosi Galeshewe Mothibi was chased out of his land by the British in the Phokwane area. He and his men fled to the Langeberg area to join Kgosi Jantjie and Kgosi Toto in a battle that lasted almost eight months.
Research indicates that thousands of Batlhaping and Batlharo men, women and children were displaced while some taken to the Western Cape farms as indentured labourers. This was after the brutal killing and beheading of Kgosi Luka Jantjie and the imprisonment of Kgosi Galeshewe and Toto as well as their followers. Kgosi Galeshewe was sentenced in the Kimberley court where six other men were sentenced to death.
Freedom Day commemorates the historic occasion in 1994 when South Africa achieved democracy, where all its citizens became free from racial discrimination and oppression. The first democratic elections were held in South Africa on 27 April 1994, resulting in an unrivalled milestone in the history of South Africa.
On this day, South Africans will celebrate and reflect on the progress we have made since then and recommit ourselves to work together to move South Africa forwad. The 2018 Freedom Day marks 24 years of freedom from apartheid colonial oppression and 2 decades of constitutional democracy. It also coincides with the 100 years since the birth of our first democratically elected President Nelson Mandela as well as the 100 years since the birth of Ma Albertina Sisulu.
Members of the media are hereby invited to the Freedom Day Celebrations to be held on the 27 April 2018 in Kuruman from 10h00 at the Information Centre (The First Eye). For more information around the Freedom Day Celebrations you can either contact Mr. Conrad Fortune @ 079 8730679 or Mr. Morapedi Sekhoane @ 078 944 0200
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Issued by: Communications Unit
Northern Cape Sport, Arts and Culture Department
Tell: 053 807 4782/ Cell: 078 944 0200
