OMEN
04-28-2006, 08:36 AM
Johannesburg - Senior African National Congress officials, including President Thabo Mbeki, paid their last respects to Ellen Kuzwayo at St John's Anglican Parish in Soweto on Friday.
Mbeki told hundreds of mourners that South Africa was free because people like Kuzwayo refused to succumb to despair.
"Through her actions that demonstrated her willingness to sacrifice everything for the emancipation of her people, Ellen Kuzwayo succeeded to inject deep into the souls of the oppressed the conviction that 'it is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees!'
"I ask that we mourn her departure because she left us too soon, because she left us before the new society, for which she had fought throughout her life, had established firm roots."
Kuzwayo died last Wednesday and she will be buried at Doornkop Cemetery on Friday.
Kuzwayo is a former ANC Women's League president and was also the secretary of the South African Native National Congress, forerunner of the ANC, in the Free State.
She was elected to parliament as an ANC MP in 1994 and served until 1999.
Kuzwayo is survived by her sons, Bobo and Justice Moloto, six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
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Mbeki told hundreds of mourners that South Africa was free because people like Kuzwayo refused to succumb to despair.
"Through her actions that demonstrated her willingness to sacrifice everything for the emancipation of her people, Ellen Kuzwayo succeeded to inject deep into the souls of the oppressed the conviction that 'it is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees!'
"I ask that we mourn her departure because she left us too soon, because she left us before the new society, for which she had fought throughout her life, had established firm roots."
Kuzwayo died last Wednesday and she will be buried at Doornkop Cemetery on Friday.
Kuzwayo is a former ANC Women's League president and was also the secretary of the South African Native National Congress, forerunner of the ANC, in the Free State.
She was elected to parliament as an ANC MP in 1994 and served until 1999.
Kuzwayo is survived by her sons, Bobo and Justice Moloto, six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
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