Victoria Mxenge

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Victoria Nonyamezelo Mxenge [ mˈǁɛŋɛ ] (born January 1, 1942 in King William's Town , † August 1, 1985 in Umlazi ) was a South African human rights activist . She was murdered in 1985 by members of the Vlakplaas secret police unit , as was her husband Griffiths Mxenge four years earlier.

Life

Mxenge trained as a nurse in Alice , which she completed in 1964. In the same year she married the law student Griffiths Mxenge and moved to Durban , where she was trained as a midwife . She then began studying law at UNISA . Her husband was murdered in 1981 by members of the Vlakplaas secret police unit . Police alleged that the opposition African National Congress (ANC), of which her husband was a member, carried out the murder. She contradicted this version, took over her husband's legal practice and became more politically active. She was a noted member of the United Democratic Front (UDF) and the Natal Organization of Women. She was selected in 1985 as a criminal defense attorney for the Pietermaritzburg Treason Trial , in which members of the UDF and Natal Indian Congress were indicted. In late July 1985, Victoria Mxenge spoke at the funeral service of the Cradock Four , four UDF members who had been killed by police officers from the Security Branch . On August 1, 1985, she was shot injured and beaten to death in front of her children. She was buried next to her husband in the village of Rayi between King William's Town and Peddie . Around 10,000 mourners attended her funeral.

The Mxenge couple had two sons and a daughter.

aftermath

Mxenge is mentioned by name as one of four apartheid victims in the song Asimbonanga (Mandela) by the South African singer Johnny Clegg .

The murders of Griffiths and Victoria Mxenge were tried by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) from 1995 . The Vlakplaas -Polizist Marvin Sefako was accused by the ANC to have carried out the deed. He confessed that he and three other perpetrators injured Mxenge in the driveway with five shots and then killed them with an ax. He claimed to have acted at the behest of his superior Peter Swanepoel. An application for amnesty was not made.

In 2002, a Rhodes University dormitory was named after Victoria Mxenge.

In October 2005, the South African Ministry of the Environment christened a patrol boat the Victoria Mxenge.

Like her husband, Mxenge was posthumously awarded the Order of Luthuli in silver in 2006. The medal was awarded to her "for her outstanding contributions to the field of justice and her sacrifices in the fight against the oppression of apartheid in South Africa".

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Portrait on the Rhodes University website , accessed February 7, 2016
  2. ↑ a b c portrait at sahistory.org.za (English), accessed on July 11, 2012
  3. ↑ Sights in and around King William's Town ( Memento from December 26, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) (English, PDF), accessed on October 17, 2014
  4. ↑ Griffiths Mxenges' CV at saha.org.za (English), accessed on July 11, 2012
personal data
SURNAME Mxenge, Victoria
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mxenge, Victoria Nonyamezelo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION South African anti-apartheid activist and murder victim
DATE OF BIRTH January 1, 1942
PLACE OF BIRTH King William's Town
DATE OF DEATH August 1, 1985
Place of death Umlazi