South Africa's struggle hero Zola Skweyiya dead at 75

Cape Town, South Africa (PANA) – Liberation hero Zola Skweyiya died in Pretoria in the early hours of Wednesday following a long illness. He was 75.

The ruling African National Congress described him as “a gentle giant of our struggle”.

Skweyiya was born in Cape Town in 1942 and joined the ANC in 1956. He was forced into exile in Tanzania in 1963 and he later moved to Zambia. The ANC sent him to Germany to study law and he obtained a degree from the University of Leipzig in 1978.

After his return from exile in 1990, Skweyiya was elected to Parliament in 1994, and he joined Nelson Mandela’s Cabinet as Minister of Public Service and Administration in the same year. He was moved to the position of Minister of Social Development under President Thabo Mbeki in 1999. After 15 years in the Cabinet and Parliament, his retirement from both was announced in 2009.

He was appointed by President Jacob Zuma as the South African High Commissioner to the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland in September 2009.
-0- PANA CU/MA 11April2018