Comrade Stola fought a good fight

From energetic kid to lifetime activist

Stola Mamabolo was born on August 11 1958 at Holy Cross, returned to the Lord on August 12, a day after her 60th birthday.

She was the second child of Ida Mabone Mamabolo and James Moja, who are both late.

She started school at Isaac More Lower Primary in Atteridgeville, before proceeding to Walton Jameson Higher Primary. In 1974 she went to Hofmeyr High School.

She was outgoing, vivacious and had an energetic personality from early childhood.

Later in her life she fought any male chauvinism crossing her path, making good of her fight by practising karate and other sports seen as the preserve of boys. As she grew up she developed politically and became conscious of oppression and exploitation around herself and her community.

Inevitably, when the student’s riots erupted in Atteridgeville on the cold morning of June 21 1976, at the age of 18, Mamabolo was one of the young people who bravely faced the might of the apartheid police.

After two years of protracted student struggles in Atteridgeville, Stola enrolled at the Vlakfontein High in Mamelodi. But because the problems of Bantu education persisted and followed every black child in the length and breadth of the country, she continued where she left off at Hofmeyr, with her militant demand for a better education.

Subsequently, she was dismissed from Vlakfontein in 1979. A year earlier, she had joined the Pretoria-wide youth organisation, the Funeral Brigades, which mobilised young people to volunteer their services during funerals, instiling a sense of responsibility and voluntarism.

In 1980, Comrade Stola was employed by Checkers (Shoprite) at Wierda Park. She delved into union activism via the SA Allied Workers Union, and got involved in community newsletter, The Eye, which raised political awareness and mobilised communities and workers into the struggle for freedom.

When Cosatu was formed in 1985, Mambolo formed part of Saccawu delegation.

She served as an ANC councillor in Greater Pretoria Council for two terms – 19962000 and 2006-2011. She also worked as an aide to cabinet ministers Gwen MahlanguNkabinde and Edna Molewa.

She leaves behind Molepo and two grand-daughters as well as his brother.