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Black SA soldier reburied in France


The remains of a black South African soldier who died nearly a century ago during World War One, has been reburied alongside 600 of his white compatriots at the South African war memorial in northern France.

Private Myengwa Beleza was one of the first black South African soldiers to be killed in France during the 1914-1918 war.

Beleza died in November 1916 and was buried in a civilian cemetery at the port city of Le Havre because the apartheid government did not allow black soldiers to be buried at the memorial.

Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa was among some 250 people who attended the weekend ceremony at the Delville Wood memorial near the scene of a World War I battle in which many South African soldiers perished.