Mendi Msimang - 8 December 1928 - 3 December 2018
3 December 2018
The Msimang family is saddened to announce the passing of our beloved father and struggle stalwart Mendi Msimang in the early hours of Monday the 3rd of December 2018 at a hospital in Pretoria. At the time of his passing he was surrounded by his family.
Cde Mendi Msimang had an illustrious life. He is remembered among other things for his activism together with Comrades such as Thomas Nkobi, at the University of Roma in Lesotho then called Pope Pius the 12th. He worked in the law and real estate firms of Oliver Tambo, Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisulu, and was a dedicated activist during the turbulent 1950s decade that saw the launch of the Defiance Campaign, the holding of the Congress of the People which drew up the Freedom Charter and the arrest of 156 activists who were charged with treason and later acquitted.
Cde Msimang left South Africa in 1960 to join the External Mission following the banning of the African National Congress. He represented the ANC as Chief Representative successively in Tanzania, India and the United Kingdom.
Cde Msimang worked in the education department and was instrumental in the establishment of Solomon Mahlangu Freedom College in Tanzania. In this portfolio, he assisted many ANC cadres and students who left South Africa after the 1976 Student Uprising to further their education. He was also posted in London as the Chief Representatives of the ANC where his major responsibilities were the mobilisation of the boycott of trade, cultural and diplomatic relations against the apartheid regime. It’s a role he had to reserve when he became the first High Commissioner to the UK in a democratic South Africa.
Before then he had a brief stint as a MP in the first democratically elected parliament under President Mandela. Cde Msimang was elected to the ANC NEC and elected Treasurer General of the ANC in 1997.
Cde Mendi was married to struggle stalwart Agnes Msimang and later to Manto-Tshabalala Msimang.
He will be laid to rest this Saturday 8th November with memorial services held on Wednesday 5th and Thursday 6th November. Specific details to follow.
Issued by Hlula Msimang, family spokesperson, 3 December 2018
