GENERAL MAPHOYI MADE HER MARK
RETIRED Brigadier-General Nombulelo Maphoyi was one of the finest intelligence officers.
She was among female comrades of the Azanian People’ s Liberation Army (Apla) who broke stereotypes about women not being able to do certain tasks in the military and intelligence environment.
She was well respected among her comrades.
Born in 1958 at KwaNkawu in Matatiele, Eastern Cape, she died on the day the PAC was reburying the remains of 14 cadres in Eastern Cape. The group were members of PAC-aligned armed wings of Apla and Poqo.
Maphoyi belonged to the June 16 1976 generation of freedom fighters, and served both the PAC and Apla for the rest of her life.
She received her initial military training in Tanzania and proceeded to be among the women in arms to receive professional intelligence and security training at the Pancevo School of Intelligence, near Belgrade, in then Yugoslavia.
Maphoyi also trained as a journalist and worked under the secretary of information and publicity of the PAC, contributing to the PAC mouthpiece, Azania News.
She was a regular broadcaster of the PAC weekly programme of
Free Azania, with Radio Tanzania, in Dar es Salaam. She also worked on the PAC Women’s Desk.
After her intelligence training, Maphoyi became one of the people tasked by the military commission
Brig General Nombulelo Maphoyi Born: November 20 1958 Died: February 19 2017 Funeral: March 4 2017 Burial: Thaba Tshwane Cemetery, Pretoria
of the central committee of the PAC to professionalise the intelligence services of both PAC and Apla.
During her tenure, agencies such as guard services were improved to VIP Protection Units.
The concept of military attachés in the PAC chief representatives offices were developed, especially in southern Africa and Africa, wherever the PAC was operating during apartheid.
She was among the officials who endorsed the name of the PAC’s intelligence service, Pan Africanist Secret Service (PASS).
Maphoyi, was integrated into newly formed SA National Defence Force, and rose through the ranks to be a brigadier general in defence intelligence.
She served in the office of the chief of defence intelligence for a long time, as the personal staff officer. She had a reputation as a nononsense officer and she hated artful dodgers at work.
Among other responsibilities, she was appointed the director of defence foreign relations in charge of defence diplomacy, and in charge of the SANDF defence and military attachés throughout the world.
It was during her incumbency, that the infamous landing of the Gupta family jet at Air Force Base Waterkloof took place in 2013.
Fortunately, the board of inquiry cleared her of any irregular involvement.
She took early retirement in 2016, after serving a combined 40 years in the PAC and SANDF.
She is survived by her mother, and her two sons, Mangaliso and Zwelethu. Maphoyi will be missed by her comrades in the PAC, Apla, and the SANDF.
Rest in peace, daughter of the soil.