Exiled activist Florence Mancotywa dies in USA

ONE of five anti-apartheid activists who fled into exile with King Sabata Dalindyebo has died.

Mthatha-born Florence Mancotywa was the secretary of Dalindyebo’s Democratic Party that was opposed to the then Transkei National Independent Party (TNIP) led by Kaiser Matanzima.

She was the only woman who, with comrades such as James Kati and Xobololo Ncokazi, challenged and defied the extension of separate development.

Mancotywa was a qualified teacher who first taught at Ngqeleni and then at Mpheko schools in Mthatha. She took a keen interest in politics after her interactions with a friend from the Pan African Congress.

Her political activism escalated and she joined the DP as its secretary, working directly with Dalindyebo.

Mancotywa was arrested many times and went into exile in October 1980.

She spent time in Lesotho and Zambia and ended up in America.

She succumbed to a long illness at the age of 76, on October 4 in Pennsylvania, her home for more than three decades.

Family spokesman Advocate Sonwabile Mancotywa, the chief executive of the National Heritage Council, described her as “a fighter during the most difficult times in the history of a repressive government with atrocious violations of human rights – the Transkei”.

He said the family was busy making arrangements for the repatriation of her remains and burial in South Africa. — zineg@dispatch.co.za