FORMER MK COMBATANT DIES
Former Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) combatant and SA National Defence Force colonel, Alfred 'Doempie' Molegang, died at his home in Valhalla in Tshwane on Tuesday morning.
Molegang, 69, succumbed to complications of his heart, liver and lungs. He was forced to retire from the army when his illness took a toll on him in 2002.
Doempie, as he was affectionately called, fled South Africa in 1962.
He underwent advanced military training in countries such as the Soviet Union and East Germany before his deployment into South Africa.
A member of the ANC's elite guerrilla Luthuli Detachment, he was deployed together with the late MK army commissar Chris Hani to Zimbabwe, then Rhodesia.
He also fought alongside Joshua Nkomo's Zitra forces, in a war in which the apartheid government's SADF soldiers aided Rhodesian president Ian Smith's regime.
Doempie was among the first MK guerrillas to be integrated into the new South Africa's SANDF. He rose within the army until he reached the rank of colonel.
He is survived by his wife Maria, five children, and six grandchildren.
Funeral arrangements are set for Saturday. A brief service will be held at 11am at his home in 61 Brouwervos Street, Valhalla, before his body is escorted to his final resting place by the military.
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31 Mai 2006 à 17:02 dans
- zsandf (anglais)
