Albertina Sisulu 'slumped in chair'

2011-06-03 07:20

ANC stalwart Albertina Sisulu is seen celebrating her birthday in this 2008 photograph. The anti-apartheid icon has died aged 92. (Werner Beukes, Sapa)

Johannesburg - ANC stalwart Albertina Sisulu, 92, collapsed and died in her Linden, Johannesburg home on Thursday night, SABC news reported.

One of her sons, Mlungisi, told the broadcaster: "Mama was sitting in a chair watching the news as they prepared supper. And you know, all of a sudden she slumped to one side... Paramedics were called. In the house she was with two of her grandchildren... and the ladies who keep the house."

Another of her children, her daughter Beryl, who is South Africa's ambassador to Norway, said: "I think I'm still in shock because I was talking to my sister who was in the same room with her and she said she was fine, and the next 20 minutes you hear that she passed away."

ANC spokesperson Brian Sokutu told the Associated Press that Sisulu "dedicated all her life to the ANC and to the defeat of apartheid and ushering in of constitutional democracy in South Africa".

She celebrated her 92nd birthday in October last year.

Her husband Walter, a former ANC president, died in 2003 aged 90.

The Congress of the People said she was one of the "truly great icons" of the national democratic revolution.

"Albertina Sisulu's life story is the narrative of the struggle for equality. South Africa is a poorer place for the loss of one of the true South African greats," spokesperson Phillip Dexter said.
 

- SAPA