Lynette Johns
NELSON Mandela’s former principal private secretary, Virginia Engel, has died following a long battle with cancer.
Engel, 65, died on Monday night. She was employed in the position in 1997.
Engel had been an activist and trade unionist for most of her life. Her political life started when she was a pupil at Livingstone High School, which has a long history of political activism.
A statement yesterday by the Nelson Mandela Foundation said:
“On behalf of the chairman of our board, Professor Njabulo Ndebele, the trustees and staff, we send our deepest condolences to Desmond Engel and their three daughters, her friends, comrades and former colleagues.
“She worked with President Mandela until the end of his term of office and could not take up his offer to join him in his post-presidential office because of ill-health.”
Engel was deeply involved in trade unions and helped to establish the National Union of Textile Workers 40 years ago. The union would eventually morph into the Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers Union (Sactwu).
Yesterday, Sactwu general secretary Andre Kriel said he and the rest of the union would remember Engel fondly and with great respect.
“We are deeply saddened by her passing. She was one of our union’s first branch organisers in the Bellville area.”
Businessman Jonathan de Vries said he was a schoolboy at Livingstone High when he met Engel. At the time, she was a worker leader and was organising a boycott against Fattis & Monis.
“We were going to support the workers. I remember being smitten, she was one of my first heroines.”
Engel’s last position was as chief executive of the Hosken Consolidated Investment Foundation. Yesterday, current chief executive Corinne Abel said Engel “extended support and compassion to all those who surrounded her, near and far”.