Struggle veterans remember MaRuth

PAYING RESPECT: Sophia Williams-de Bruyn, Ruth Mompati, Ahmed Kathrada and Winnie Madikizela Mandela at the repatriation of the remains of Moses Kotane and JB Marks earlier this year.

PAYING RESPECT: Sophia Williams-de Bruyn, Ruth Mompati, Ahmed Kathrada and Winnie Madikizela Mandela at the repatriation of the remains of Moses Kotane and JB Marks earlier this year.

Published May 14, 2015

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Zaakirah Vadi

Anti-apartheid activists Ahmed Kathrada and Sophia Williams-de Bruyn have described the passing away of Struggle stalwart Ruth Mompati as a great loss of a noble freedom fighter.

A former teacher and secretary at Mandela and Tambo Attorneys, Mompati passed away early on Tuesday morning at the age of 89 following a short illness.

Sophia Williams-de Bruyn and Ahmed Kathrada and his foundation have joined South Africans in extending their condolences to Mompati’s family and friends.

“I extend sincerest and deepest condolences to MaRuth’s family and her extended family. Our thoughts and prayers are with you throughout this difficult time. May perpetual peace and rest be granted unto her,” said Williams-de Bruyn.

Alongside Helen Joseph and Lillian Ngoyi, Williams-De Bruyn noted Mompati’s significant role during the women’s anti-pass law demonstration of August 9, 1956.

“This she did so that our country, this nation, derives a better future of justice, equality, non-sexism and non-racism,” she explained.

“I will always remember MaRuth as a courageous and dedicated freedom fighter,” Kathrada added. “May the memory of her contribution to our country be found in the historical archives of our non-racial, non-sexist, democratic South Africa,” he said.

Kathrada fondly remembered meeting Mompati in the early 1950s. Their work in the liberation struggle led to a further co-operation around the “late 1950s or early 1960s when Mompati and Comrade Flag Boshielo left South Africa”.

“Together with a handful of comrades, I was closely involved in all the practical arrangements, which by their nature had to be done secretly, namely transport to Bechuanaland (now Botswana) by road, and taking a plane from Bechuanaland to Tanzania.

“In fact, MaRuth and Flag left from my flat in Market Street,” recalled Kathrada.

“We were also together at a public event on December 13, 2014 at the Mandela Remembrance Walk from Freedom Park to the Union Buildings.

“Recently though, the Struggle stalwarts were seated alongside one another during the homecoming of the mortal remains of Moses Kotane and JB Marks at the Waterkloof Air Force Base,” Kathrada said.

Kathrada, Williams-De Bruyn and Mompati served as members of the National Orders Advisory Council.

l Vadi is the communications officer of the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation

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