Zuma was speaking at the party’s Freedom Day celebrations.
The event, billed as a Solomon Mahlangu lecture, saw several hundred supporters fill up the small square named after Mahlangu, where they were treated to a lengthy address by Zuma and entertainment by the local learners.
Zuma’s programme on Freedom Day began with a visit to the Khosi Mampuru Correctional Facility in Pretoria, where the young freedom fighter Solomon Mahlangu was held after his capture, arrest, and subsequent sentencing to death in March 1977.
Zuma had met Mahlangu personally when he was stationed in Mozambique and dealt with many exiles, including Mahlangu, who arrived in that country seeking military training in the wake of the 1976 Soweto student uprising.
The MKP leader also visited the Mamelodi Cemetery, where Mahlangu was buried, and later told those gathered for the lecture that Mahlangu, who was just 23 when he was hanged in 1979, was exceptional in his commitment to the liberation of South Africa’s black people.
It is this quest for liberation, he said, that the MK party has taken up after its realisation that the ANC has failed to restore the dignity and human rights of the majority of citizens.
Zuma urged those in attendance to mobilise ahead of 2026 local government elections to ensure a two-thirds majority for the party so as to enable it to change the material conditions of the poor and downtrodden.
--SABC--
H.E. President Zuma dedicated today to honouring the great uMkhonto weSizwe soldier, Solomon Kalushi Mahlangu, by delivering a Memorial Lecture and paying his respects at Mahlangu’s grave.
— uMkhonto WeSizwe Party (Official) (@MkhontoweSizwex) April 27, 2025
He was joined by Mam’Portia Mahlangu, Solomon Kalushi Mahlangu’s niece, who has recently… pic.twitter.com/uyRSLNgPwD
