2 May 2006
Author and political activist Ellen Kuzwayo left "too soon," President Thabo Mbeki said at a memorial service at the weekend, praising Kuzwayo for the exceptional role she played both in the struggle against apartheid and the development of literature in South Africa.
"The child to which she had given birth still needed her, to nurture it at least to attain its mature infancy," Mbeki told hundreds of mourners who had gathered to pay their last respects to the anti-apartheid veteran at St John's Anglican Church in Soweto.
Kuzwayo died on Wednesday 19 April at the age of 91 following a long illness.
Mbeki said "Ma K", as she was affectionately known, had inspired many South Africans, especially women and young people, to understand the revolution against oppression.
"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'," Mbeki said, adding that the inheritors of Kuzwayo's legacy would ensure that the exercise of power was underpinned by humane values and principles.
Family member Grace Masuku, who was awarded the Order of the Baobab last week for her contribution to environmental conservation in the country, said she had dedicated her award to Kuzwayo for her teachings on serving the people.
"She instilled the culture of serving the people in me," Masuku said. "She taught me that with service came truth and loyalty, and she brought nothing to our lives than showers of blessings."
Call me Woman
Kuzwayo's published works include Call me Woman (1985) and Sit and Listen: Stories from South Africa (1996). The Universities of Natal, Port Elizabeth and Witwatersrand awarded her honorary doctorates in recognition of her work.
Born on 29 June 1914 in Thaba Nchu, Lesotho, Kuzwayo graduated as a lower primary school teacher at Adams College in Durban, and in 1935 as a higher primary school teacher. Her first teaching post was at Inanda Seminary in Natal in 1937.
After divorcing her abusive husband, Kuzwayo moved to Soweto, where she taught at a school in Orlando East between 1947 and 1953.
Kuzwayo went on to train as a social worker at Jan Hofmeyer School of Social Work, where she shared a bench with Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. Her first post as a social worker was with the Johannesburg City Council.
Following the Soweto unrest of the late 1970s, Kuzwayo was appointed a member of the Committee of Ten, set up to formulate recommendations on the running of civic affairs in Soweto following the demise of the despised Soweto Urban Bantu Council. She was the only woman on the committee.
Kuzwayo later became a founding board member of the Urban Foundation, a business initiative which pressurised the apartheid government into introducing a form of land ownership in order to facilitate the flow of private sector funding into housing in Soweto.
For her efforts, Kuzwayo was detained for five months at the Johannesburg Fort in 1977 and was released in March 1978 without being charged. She was subsequently appointed consultant to Zamani Soweto Sisters Council, the umbrella body of Soweto's women's self-help groups.
Kuzwayo was appointed a Member of Parliament in the constituency offices in 1994. She retired from Parliament in 1999.
Kuzwayo was buried at Soweto's Doornkop cemetery later on Friday. She is survived by her sons - Bobo and Justice Moloto - six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
SouthAfrica.info reporter and BuaNews
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