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30 January 2006: No 07/06

TAKE NOTE

The 89TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE SINKING OF SS MENDI

On the 24th February 2006 war veterans together with their families will once more come out in their numbers to commemorate the 89th anniversary of the sinking of SS MENDI. Government officials, foreign diplomats and local and international organisations will join the veterans and business community in a wreath laying ceremony at the Avalon Cemetery in Soweto.

This greatest military disaster struck South Africa in the early morning of 21 February 1917 when over 600 black South African troops sank with SS MENDI, including troops from the High Commission territories of Basutoland, Bechuanaland and Swaziland.

The troopship SS MENDI, crowded with troops, was making its cautious way to France. Suddenly, another vessel appeared out of the fog, and collided with her. The SS MENDI quickly sank into the icy waters of the English Channel.

More than 20,000 black men, although prevented from bearing arms, volunteered to render in service under the South African Native Labour Contingent in support of the Allied armies in France.

In honour of these fallen heroes her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the former President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, officially unveiled the Mendi Memorial & Garden of Remembrance at Avalon Cemetery in Soweto, which included all those who gave their lives during World War I and II.

In July 2006 a veteran’s delegation and relatives of the fallen heroes of SS MENDI will join the 90th anniversary commemoration of the Battle of DelvilleWood in France. They will proceed to lay wreaths at the site of the MENDI wreck in the English Channel, and visit World War I cemeteries in France and England where members of the South African Native Labour Contingent are buried.