Cadre who fought for unity of the PAC
BORN: December 26 1959 DIED: January 11 2017 FUNERAL: January 21, Thaba Tshwane City Hall, Pretoria BURIAL: Thaba Tshwane Cemetery
THE Pan Africanist community is mourning the death of its most illustrious cadre.
Colonel Morris Ntsiki “Boy Boy” Mbete was still a prime mover in the year-long efforts to unite the warring factions of the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC) when he died at 1 Military Hospital in Pretoria on January 11.
His efforts to unify the PAC are still the talking point. Since March last year Mbete travelled the country to lay the groundwork for unity. He met the factions of Narius Moloto and Letlapa Mphahlele, who are still tussling for legitimacy.
Tireless Mbete also held fruitful unity talks with the breakaway Pan Africanist Movement. It was the same zeal he used to pursue the struggle against apartheid since he fled to exile to join the armed struggle as an 18-year-old while still a pupil at Langa High School in Cape Town in 1980.
A South African National Defence Force (SANDF) reservist since retiring six years ago, Mbete was a vital cog in Apla’s Great Storm Campaign of the 1980s.
He was also the commander and planner of many operations, including the Karl Zimbiri attacks.
During the same period, Mbete received and vetted recruits in Botswana before sending them to military training and infiltrating cadres into the country. Mbete joined the SANDF in 1994 after the birth of democracy.
Born in Keiskamahoek in Eastern Cape, he was the first nonstatutory force commander at the SANDF infantry school in 2000. Mbete received military training at several camps, including the Kwame Nkrumah MilitaryAcademy in Guinea Conakry and Iringa Mgagoa in Tanzania.
The funeral service will start at 10am at Thaba Tshwane City Hall.