ALI MPHAKI
THE family of Rev George Wauchope have announced that his ashes will be sprinkled in the Kliprivier in Soweto tomorrow.
Wauchope, one of Azapo’s founding members and leading Black Consciousness exponent, died in May this year with a warrant of arrest hanging over his head.
“From OR Tambo Airport the family will move to St Hilda’s Anglican Church, where a service will be held before his ashes are sprinkled into the river as per his wishes,” said family spokeswoman Joyce Kalaute.
Wauchope died in England, where he was living in exile after a warrant of arrest was issued by the South African police for murder following the internecine violence between Azapo and UDF supporters in the 1980s.
Wauchope sneaked into the country twice to bury relatives.
Azapo leaders have lambasted the government for not dropping the murder charges against him. The party has made three representations about his case to the three presidents of the new SA, in vain.
“Now that he is gone, we expect them to arrest his ashes when they are brought back home,” said Pandelani Nefolovhodwe, a senior member of the party.
“It is so ironic that Wauchope could not enjoy the freedom that he so much fought for. It just goes to show that ours is not a genuine freedom and much more needs to be done to liberate black people in this country,’’ he said.
Wauchope, who has been described as a faithful priest and a soldier for justice, left the country in the early 1980s, moving first to Zimbabwe, where he trained for the ministry. He left Zimbabwe for Botswana, where he became the rector of Francistown and archdeacon of northern Botswana.
After living in Botswana, he moved to Birmingham in England, where he was a tutor in mission education at the USPG-Methodist sponsored Selly Oak Centre for Mission Studies.
One of his colleagues in Birmingham, Rev Canon Edgar Ruddock, said: “George was a natural teacher and a great storyteller, and he was never afraid to challenge unthought-through assumptions.”
After a long struggle with cancer, he died on May 26 and was cremated in Birmingham on June 8.
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