As part of the RISE team Bhejane, the unit’s mascot, also travelled to Mayibuye in December 2017, where he met Mr. Khuphuka Mchunu, known as the Messenger of Mayibuye.
Baba Mchunu, now 82 years old, was removed from his home in 1963. After the first democratic elections in South Africa, land restitution became a high priority for the Ximba people. Baba Mchunu was one of the five people in Mayibuye that started the Mayibuye land claim process.
From 1996 to 2003 he walked the area on foot to organise claimants and the liaison committee, thus becoming known as the ‘Messenger of Mayibuye’. The land claim was restituted in 2007 and Baba Mchunu is the last of the original five people who started the process in the 1990s that is still an active trustee.
Mayibuye in isiZulu means: “to bring back or to return”. Thank you Baba Mchunu for being an inspiration to the people of Mayibuye.
