Eleanor Kasrils dies
2009-11-09 09:56
Johannesburg - Former president Thabo Mbeki on Monday conveyed his condolences to the family of former intelligence minister Ronnie Kasrils whose wife, Eleanor, died at the weekend.
"Mr Mbeki, who spoke to Mr Kasrils immediately upon learning of the tragic news, recalled Mrs Kasrils's role in the struggle against apartheid and her steadfast commitment to the building of a non-racial, non sexist and democratic South Africa post-1994," Mbeki's spokesperson Mukoni Ratshitanga said.
The Cape Times reported that she died aged 73 on Sunday after suffering a stroke.
It quoted Ronnie Kasrils as saying she collapsed at Constantiaberg Medi-Clinic in Cape Town.
The couple would have celebrated their 45th wedding anniversary next month - the "most wonderful, happy marriage", he said, adding that she did "some fantastic things" in her political work.
Tragedy
Mbeki said: "Comrade Eleanor's passing is not only tragic for Comrade Ronnie and his family. It is a tragedy for all of us who fought for freedom side by side with her.
"Sadly, yet another combatant in the noble army of freedom fighters has fallen."
Eleanor Kasrils was born in 1936 and joined the Congress of Democrats in 1960 after the Sharpeville massacre.
She participated in Umkhonto we Sizwe activities in Durban and was arrested in 1963 and went in exile with Ronnie Kasrils in the same year after escaping from custody.
She did work for the ANC in Tanzania and Britain and worked for the late ANC President Oliver Tambo.
Eleanor is survived by her husband, daughter Bridgette and sons Andrew and Christopher.
- SAPA