Mama Tambo dies (Widow of former ANC leader / S Africa)

February 01, 2007, 05:00

Adelaide Frances Tambo (78), the widow of Oliver Tambo, a former ANC president, has passed away. She collapsed at her Johannesburg home last night.

Adelaide Tambo was born on 18 July 1928 in Vereeniging's Top Location. A political activist from a young age, Adelaide Tambo fought to ensure that women were an integral part of the liberation struggle and should assume their rightful place in society. She was one of the 20 000 women who marched on Pretoria's Union Building in protest against the pass laws in 1956.

Mama Tambo, as she was affectionately known, was involved in South African politics, for five decades. She left the country after the Sharpeville massacre in 1960, to work for the ANC abroad. She was based in London, until the unbanning of all political parties, in the early 90s ...

http://www.sabcnews.com/south_africa/general/0,2172,142986,00.html

While evil bastards become ancient

February 01, 2007 Edition 2

... Tambo, a veteran freedom fighter in her own right, was brutally introduced to politics at the age of 10 after a police raid in Vereeniging. Her ailing 82-year-old grandfather was arrested and flogged at the town square, where he collapsed.

"I sat with him until he regained consciousness," she recounted.

"His brutal and humiliating treatment at the police's hands was the triggering and deciding factor. I swore I would fight them till the end."

At the age of 15 she approached a local ANC organiser to enrol as a member ... http://www.thestar.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=3657219