BLOEMFONTEIN -President Cyril Ramaphosa has bestowed a Category 1 Special Provincial Official Funeral on struggle stalwart Dr Pule Elias Matjoa, who will be laid to rest in Bloemfontein today – Saturday, 9 May. The freedom fighter died at age 88 on 1 May – on Workers’ Day. Matjoa’s funeral service will be at Gospel Workers Ministries Church in Heidedal, starting at 09:00.
A qualified dentist, Matjoa was the last surviving member of Nelson Mandela’s 12 Disciples, a group of young anti-apartheid activists from Bloemfontein. They went into exile in 1960 as part of building the African National Congress (ANC) abroad. He served as ANC Deputy Director of Intelligence and an uMkhonto weSizwe combatant who once guarded Cuba’s coastlines.
Matjoa’s passing marks the end of a significant chapter in the story of the Free State’s contribution to national liberation and South Africa. He studied dentistry in Cuba while in exile and worked in the Ministry of Communications in Tanzania. On returning to South Africa in the early 1990s, he decided to practice in the public sector, at the Pelonomi Regional Hospital in Bloemfontein, becoming the first black dental surgeon in the Free State.
In 2012, the South African Dental Association honoured him with a Lifetime Achievement Award, recognising his immense contribution to mentoring scores of young black dentists into specialisations like Orthodontics and Maxillofacial Surgery.
Their story as Nelson Mandela’s 12 Disciples was notably documented in the 2005 award-winning film directed by Thomas Allen Harris, titled Twelve Disciples of Nelson Mandela: A Son’s Tribute to Unsung. The group included figures such as Benjamin Pule “Lee” Leinaeng (a central figure in the documentary), Joseph Shuping “Coaps” Coapoge, Selebano “Tlhaps” Matlhape, Theodore “Max” Motobi, Percy Mokonopi, Mochubela “Wesi” Seekoie, Billy “Marakas” Mokhonoana, Matthew Mokgele, Bethuel Setai, Peter Swartz, and Moses “Dups” Modupe. The group attended school at the Sehunelo High School, formerly Bantu High School.
