7 June 2014, Tshwane
The Communist Party has learned with sadness the passing of Epainette Nomaka Mbeki (98), this morning at St Dominic hospital in East London following her admission two weeks ago for medical observation. At her age, in our culture we say MaMbeki has actually taken leave from our noisy sphere to a rest with complete life experience. MaMbeki was an activist in her own right. She became actively involved in our national liberation movement as led by the African National Congress and the struggle for socialism as led by the Communist Party. She was one of the first women to join the Communist Party, actually the second African woman in 1937 to do so after Josie Palmer.
"Throughout her life, MaMbeki maintained contact and lived with and among the masses of our people, majority of who are the working class and poor especially in the countryside. She was humble, and was never swept away by the fact that she was the mother of our second President of a democratic South Africa", said SACP General Secretary Comrade Blade Nzimande from St George Conference Centre in Irene, Tshwane, where he is attending ANC National Executive Committee Lekgotla. The South African Communist Party sends its heartfelt condolences to the entire Mbeki family and indeed our national liberation movement, the people of South Africa, our continent and the world as a whole. May her soul rest in peace!
Issued by the SACP
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