The death of struggle stalwart Henry Mutile Fazzie is a great loss and a setback for the ANC project to record and preserve the movement's history, it said on Tuesday.
Fazzie, 87, died in hospital in Port Alfred, Eastern Cape at the weekend.
ANC spokesman Jackson Mthembu said Fazzie's death was a great loss, particularly in view of the crucial role he had played in South Africa's liberation.
Fazzie was due to be interviewed by the ANC's Archives Unit.
“His personal account to the Archives Unit project, would have covered his role in the ANC and unions in the 1950s, military training in exile in the 1960s, his capture in South Rhodesia, imprisonment on Robben Island, his role in the Port Elizabeth Black Civic Organisation (Pebco) and the United Democratic Front (UDF), among others,” Mthembu said.
He was instrumental in organising a consumer boycott of white shops and businesses in Port Elizabeth during the 1980s.
After his release from St Albans Prison in Port Elizabeth in the 1980s, Fazzie was active in the SA National Civic Organisation, Mthembu said.
He became a Member of Parliament in 1994.
Fazzie is survived by his wife, Hilda, children and grandchildren.
A memorial service in his honour will be held at 2pm on Wednesday at the Ethiopian Church in Alexandria, Eastern Cape.
A funeral service will take place at 9am on Saturday at the same venue. - Sapa