Dignitaries visit Sisulu family home

2011-06-03 12:05

Johannesburg - An emotional Valli Moosa left the Johannesburg home of ANC stalwart Albertina Sisulu on Friday.

Moosa, the former minister of tourism, said it was with great sadness that he heard about Sisulu's death on Thursday night.

Sisulu, 92, died on Thursday night while watching television at her home in Linden.

Gauteng Premier Nomvula Mokonyane also visited the house to pay her respects to the Sisulu family on Friday.

Mentor

"Ma Sisulu was my mentor, she made us value ourselves. She taught us how to be decent and look presentable and to never go to bed an angry person," she said in a statement issued ahead of her arrival.

Sisulu was a strong believer in the leadership of women.

"She believed in the collective. She showed the way in terms of how people need to behave in the struggle," said Mokonyane.

Sisulu had opposed "Bantu education" and ran schools in her own home. She took part in the launch of the Freedom Charter and participated in the 1956 women's march to the Union Buildings in Pretoria in protest over the apartheid laws.

She remained a humble leader regardless of many ups and downs in her political and personal life, said Mokonyane.

After the death of her husband Walter, former president of the ANC, in 2003, she continued to champion the cause of the vulnerable, including children affected by HIV and Aids and those with special needs.

Funeral arrangements would be communicated later.

Tributes

Mokonyane was accompanied by Minister in the Presidency Collins Chabane.

A family friend Nosizwe Nokwe arrived at the house on Friday morning.

Nokwe said her family had three generations of friendship with the Sisulus.

"I was shocked to hear of her death because she was in good health. "She was always spritely and full of life... she was one in very many," Nokwe said.

Earlier, the Sisulu family set up a table with refreshments and food for the journalists lining the street outside the house to interview people arriving to pay their respects.

Tributes poured in for Sisulu on Friday.

A former deputy president of the ANC Women's League, many of the tributes to her focused on her service to others.

Deputy Public Service Minister Ayanda Dlodlo said outside the house that Sisulu would be remembered as a role model for generations to come.

ANC provincial secretary for Gauteng David Makhura was among those who visited the family.

- SAPA