Lyrics and Poem - Dedicated to Minus Mashinini

Lyrics and poem: M?nus Mash?n?n? Isoja loMkhonto Vuka Mathambo - Thetha iSizwe Silalele Vuka Mkhonto - Thetha iSizwe Silalele M?nus Mash?n?n? Isoja loMkhonto WeSizwe Vuka Thongo Lomzabalazo - ISizwe Silalele Salute Commander! Salute Commander! Bayekele! Bayekele! Bayekele! Bayekele! Bayekele! Bayekele! Bayekele! Sobafaka Intjayelo Yabona LabaBantu Abaz' Umlandu WaleNgoma Umuthi uqala kuphi - Usukahpi Bayekhe Mash?n?n? Bazozwa Ngenyoni ZeZulu Salute Tambo Salute Salute Slovo Salute Salute Biko Salute Salute Tiro Salute Minus Monument The late Saul Sibusiso Mashinini, nom de guerre Minus, Malankana, MaQuestion, Khosing was born to Catherine Mapule Nomoya Mashinini nee Moloi and Johannes Delane Mashinini in 1960. He was the first born in a family of seven boys and one girl. He skipped the country in 1976, soon after turning sixteen, and joined the ANC in Swaziland. On the 8th August 1976, when this Soweto born activist left the country, he was a student at Phuti Senior Secondary School in Orlando West. At the time the apartheid security police had swopped on the entire June ’76 student leadership. Saul served as a member of the Soweto Student Representative Council (SSRC) and the South African Student Movement (SASM). He was also a main character in a play: 'Whose to be Blamed' directed by Seth Mazibuko, which was a smokescreen to mobilise students prior to the June 1976 upheavals. Minus was the member of uMkhonto Wesizwe June 16th Detachment. As Head of Department of Ordnance, he was tasked with infiltrating armoury in South Africa and was responsible for smuggling Katyusha rocket into the country, which was used by Barney Molokoane and his unit to blow Sasol in 1985. Initially based in Somalia, he was subsequently deployed in Angola, Mozambique and Swaziland. Minus received military training in Angola, Tanzania, Ukraine (Kiev) Odessa and the Germany Democratic Republic (GDR), among many countries. He served under the late Andrew Mlangeni and Job Tabane nom de guerre, Cassius Maake. Minus who spoke several foreign languages fluently was working for the Angolan Embassy in Lusaka at the time of his mysterious demise. In 1990 October 20th, his badly decomposed remains was discovered in a Zambian morgue by his fellow comrade and confidante, the late Nelson Dladla. To this day Minus' cause of death still remains mysterious. The family was initially informed that he died in a car crash. When his mortal remains arrived home - one eye was gouged and his private parts were missing. The virtuoso, musical maestro, Blondie Makhene has produced, a song aptly called: 'A Song for Minus' to commemorate his phenomenal contribution to the liberation of the country. The song features young kwaito artists Thabiso 'Mzorino' Mthunzi and Kgaphe 'Kenti' Makhene.