Peter Williams honoured
Minister pays respects to Peter Williams’s family
MINISTER of Public Enterprises Lynne Brown has visited the widow of political activist and human rights lawyer Peter Williams, who died after a long illness.
Consoling Anastasia Williams and her family, Brown said: “The thing I can say most about Peter is that he represented exactly what we are supposed to be.
“He was a very caring person who wanted to build a very caring society.
“We in the ANC are in many respects the other family, we are your other family. We can’t replace him, but you all should know that you can rely on us.
“We’ve had many fallen comrades before, and Peter joins a long list of those people we are very proud of,” Brown said.
Yesterday, tributes continued to pour in for Williams, 49, who died on Wednesday after a long battle with colon cancer.
Many remembered his days as a student activist while at Belgravia High School in the Struggle days of the 1980s.
After school, Williams studied law at the University of the Western Cape and started his legal career at the offices of Judge Essa Moosa.
Williams built up a reputation as a formidable defender of human rights.
In 2014, he defended a cleaner from Claremont who was beaten and racially assaulted by three men and won the case.
“He was awesome,” said his wife Anastasia Williams. “He was amazing, hard working and a people’s person…
“Always there for others, always up for a challenge and he would fight to the bitter end, especially in legal matters, he would never give up. He was my hero,” she said.
She spoke about her husband’s battle with cancer and said the family was at peace with his death.
“While it (his death) has been hard for the family, it has been coming for quite a while.
“Six months ago, he took a turn for the worse with severe pain and I tried to nurse him as far as possible because he was one who didn’t like hospitals much.
“By December 23, I got him to go to the hospital and told him that it was just for the drip. He said to me, ‘I am not having an operation’, and I said that I wouldn’t consent to one without his permission.
“They put him on a drip for the pain and they released him the next day, but they did a lot of tests.
“So we had an appointment with the oncologist on January 16, and that was the day that they admitted him.
“Roughly a month ago, the doctors told me that there was nothing that they can do for him, and when I came home, I spoke to the kids and told them.
“It was hard, but we got through it. We talk about it, and it’s been therapy for us.”
When asked how the children, Keenan, 18, Mikhail, 14, and Nicole, eight, were handling it, Anastasia said they were glad their father didn’t have to suffer any more.
“I think they are relieved that their dad doesn’t have to suffer the pain anymore.
“We love him very much, and we didn’t want him to suffer as much as he did.”
Anastasia said she wanted to honour her husband by finishing a book that he had been working on, detailing his life as a youngster and activist.
“Half the people I meet nowadays are people I never met before, but it is all because of Peter, and I would like to take that further and finish his book for him, because it was his dream and he would appreciate it.”
His memorial service will take place at the AFM Church in Athlone at 7pm tonight .
The funeral is scheduled to take place on Tuesday. The service will start at 9am in the Desire of All Nations Christian Church in Ottery.
THE THING I CAN SAY MOST ABOUT PETER IS HE REPRESENTED EXACTLY WHAT WE ARE SUPPOSED TO BE. HE WANTED TO BUILD A CARING SOCIETY