ANC stalwart and former MP, ambassador and mayor Ruth Mompati has died at the age of 89 after a short illness, ANC deputy secretary general Jessie Duarte told ANA.
Mompati was a former typist at Mandela Tambo attorneys, leader of the anti-pass law march on August 9, 1956 and a negotiator at the Groote Schuur talks in 1990.
The district municipality in the North West where she was born and later served as mayor is named after her.
Mompati was born in Tlapeng village, near Vryburg, in the then Western Transvaal on September 14, 1925.
She started working as a teacher in the area in 1944 but her teaching career was curtailed in 1952 when she got married and had her employment terminated under apartheid laws.
She later relocated to Soweto where she worked as a typist for Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo at their law firm and became an active member of the ANC.
During this period, she became a member of the ANC Women’s League National Executive Committee, became involved in the 1952 Defiance Campaign and helped form the Federation of South African Women.
In 1994, she was elected among a first generation of ANC MPs to the National Assembly, where she served until 1996 before being posted to Switzerland as an ambassador for four years.
Her life and career came full circle in 2000 when she returned to Naledi municipality in Vryburg to serve as mayor until May 2010.
She was granted an honorary Master’s degree in education by the North West University and an honorary doctorate by Medunsa.
May her soul rest in peace. Amen
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