SANDILE MOTHA
A LOBBY group named Msane Tribe Heritage Trust is leading a campaign to ensure that the renaming of Edendale Hospital under uMgungundlovu District does not see the light of day.
The move was sparked by the recent announcement by the provincial health department that it had decided to rename the health facility after ANC and SACP struggle icon Harry Gwala.
Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane – Zulu during her budget vote said this was to recognise the role played by Gwala while working at the hospital as a clerk.
“Harry Gwala was instrumental in fighting against the system. He mobilised workers and medical doctors to join the struggle risking his life. He subsequently lost his job for his political involvement. So this is a gesture of saying thank you to the struggle hero and that he might be gone but his legacy lives on,” said Simelane-Zulu.
But the Msane Tribe Heritage Trust has come out gun blazing, saying the late Saul Msane, a clergyman and early secretary – general of the ANC was more deserving of the recognition.
The lobby group said despite the role played by Msane in the liberation struggle, he was treated as an outcast by the very organisation he led with distinction.
“It appears as if there’s a concerted effort to erase his name from the struggle. As a community activist and political leader he organised informal classes and educated various communities in Pietermaritzburg to read and write. He also mobilised the community to join the struggle. He was also one of the key opponents of the 1913 Natives Land Act organising marches and pickets,” said Zwakele Msane, speaking on behalf of the trust.
He added that Harry Gwala had been widely recognised in both the province and the country.
“Most people are not aware or familiar with the prominent role played by the late Saul Msane because nothing has been done to preserve his legacy. So as the trust, we urge his party to also remember him hence we object the renaming of Edendale Hospital to Harry Gwala,” said Msane.
The Msane Heritage Trust broke into the public scene in 2015, demanding that a statue of Sir Theophilus Shepstone be removed from the provincial legislature.
It subsequently called for the erection of Saul Msane’s statue in its place.
Msane, who was widely viewed as a black intellectual, was born in Edendale area and was a prominent member of the Methodist church.
He was also one of the founding members of the ANC and became its secretary in 1917.
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) in the province also joined in the fray, saying the ANC had a tendency to think that it owned the struggle.
“We have long called for wider scope of names to be considered when it comes to renaming heritage sites and public buildings. Many traditional leaders such as Inkosi Langalibalele and Inkosi Bhambatha led the struggle in their own rights,” said Vusi Khoza, EFF provincial leader.
(Compiled by Inside Metros staff)