Mandela sends Meers condolences
2010-03-12 21:06
Johannesburg - Heartfelt condolences have been sent to the family of Professor Fatima Meer by the Nelson Mandela Foundation in a statement issued on Friday.
Following her death on Friday afternoon, the foundation described Meer, who was a close friend of Nelson Mandela and his family for more than 60 years, as an academic and a stalwart of the struggle against apartheid.
The Durban-based sociologist was married to one of Mandela's close friends and comrades, Ismail Meer, who died in 2000.
Meer published Higher than Hope an early biography of Mandela while he was still in prison.
In the latter years of his imprisonment she sent him drafts of her manuscript for correction.
The Foundation said after interest was expressed in a film version of the book, Meer suggested to Mandela that he be played by Sydney Poitier, to which he agreed.
However, Mandela added that he was not sure that the American actor would accept the offer.
"Calling her affectionately 'Fatimaben' he wrote in 1989: Sydney Poitier is a super-star and it would be a shot in the arm for him to act in the film," the Foundation quoted Mandela as saying.
In another letter in the same year, Mandela described Meer as a person of integrity, "in fact, one of our best activists".
Meer, who had been ill in recent years, visited Mandela at his home in Johannesburg last October.
He had recently sent her a letter wishing her well after another health setback.
- SAPA