April 28, 2006
By Tammy O'Reilly
THE huge number of people who turned out to pay their last respects to veteran anti-apartheid activist Ellen Motlalepule Kuzwayo was testimony to her popularity and the high regard with which she was held in the community and in political circles.
President Thabo Mbeki pays tribute to 'Mother of Soweto', Ellen Kuzwayo
Kuzwayo passed away on Wednesday, 19 April at Lesedi Clinic in Soweto after a long illness. Among the hundreds of mourners who attended her funeral, at St John's Anglican Church in Soweto on Friday, 28 April, was President Thabo Mbeki and senior African National Congress officials.
Mbeki delivered a moving tribute that praised Kuzwayo as an individual and for the role she played in the country's history.
"Ellen Kuzwayo spoke to millions of the oppressed through her actions," he said. "We are free today because she and others like her refused to succumb to despair, because at times the goal of freedom seemed far and virtually impossible to achieve.
"Through her actions that demonstrated her willingness to sacrifice everything for the emancipation of her people, Ellen Kuzwayo succeeded in injecting deep into the souls of the oppressed the conviction that, 'It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees.'"
Kuzwayo was born on 29 June 1914 in Thaba Nchu, in Lesotho, and moved to Orlando East in Soweto in the 1940s, where she worked first as a teacher. Her concern for improving the quality of people's lives, however, led to her involvement outside the classroom in political and self-help movements.
She gave up teaching to concentrate on social work and earned herself the affectionate title of "Mother of Soweto". She also attended ANC annual conferences and was a member of the ANC Youth League.
Kuzwayo served as a Member of Parliament in the constituency offices from 1994, before retiring in 1999. She is survived by two sons, six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
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