South Africa’s renowned anti-apartheid activist Jessie Duarte passes away at 68

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Cape Town: South Africa’s renowned anti-apartheid activist and a top leader of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) Jessie Duarte passed away early Sunday morning, her party said in a statement.

Duarte, born on September 19, 1953, was undergoing treatment for cancer and had been on medical leave since November 2021, Xinhua reported quoting the statement.

Duarte, once a personal assistant to South Africa’s liberation struggle icons Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisulu, had been serving as Deputy Secretary-General of ANC since 2012, a position in ANC’s “Top Six.” She was appointed as the acting secretary-general following the suspension of Ace Magashule in May 2021.

“She was both a tower of strength to the organisation as well as a matriarch and pillar of her family,” read the statement.

The party said her passing is a “great loss” to her family, the democratic movement and the country as a whole, commending her for dedication to a “united, non-racial, non-sexist, democratic, prosperous and just” South Africa.

ANC also said she is a committed gender activist and consistently committed to advancing the rights of the poor and marginalised.

Duarte will be buried Sunday afternoon in Johannesburg according to Muslim rites.IANS