Johannesburg – Congress of the People leader and co founder Mosiuoa Lekota has died at the age of 77.
Lekota passed away at a hospital in Johannesburg during the early hours of Wednesday morning. Reports from neighbouring South Africa state that he had been ill for some time.
Lekota was the leader of the Congress of the People, commonly known as COPE, a party he co founded after breaking away from the African National Congress. He also served as South Africa’s Minister of Defence and previously as Premier of the Free State province.
Born and raised in Kroonstad in the Free State, Lekota became politically active at a young age. He was expelled from the University of the North due to his involvement in student politics, where he served in the Student Representative Council and aligned himself with the Black Consciousness Movement.
His activism led to further consequences in 1974 when, while serving as the elected Permanent Organiser for the South African Students’ Organisation, he was arrested and imprisoned on Robben Island.
After his release in 1983, Lekota was again entangled in legal battles. He became one of the accused in the 1985 Delmas Treason Trial, a high profile apartheid era case that saw several anti apartheid activists prosecuted. He was subsequently sentenced to another four years behind bars.
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