Mantsheng ‘Ouma’ Tsopo: MEC who made big strides in battle against HIV
1962-2017
MANTSHENG Anna “Ouma” Tsopo, who has died in Welkom in the Free State at the age of 54, was a widely respected speaker of the province’s legislature and MEC for local government, housing, health, education and social development.
As the MEC for health from 1999 to 2004, she moved quickly to implement a programme to provide nevirapine to HIV-positive pregnant women in health facilities across the province to halt the tragedy of mother-to-child transmission of the virus.
Unfortunately, she was only able to do so in 2003, within nine months of the Constitutional Court ordering the government to make the drug available. Before this, under president Thabo Mbeki, patients were prohibited access to nevirapine at state institutions, with tragic consequences, to which Tsopo alluded in her announcement of the programme.
“Through this implementation we aim to save the lives of the innocent babies whose parents or mothers are unfortunately infected by this deadly virus,” she said.
Tsopo was well liked and respected by the opposition, which found her approachable. She was responsive and conscientious about her work as health MEC. When hospitals were in crisis, she took the trouble to visit them and investigate.
She became education MEC in 2004 at a time when her husband, Sandile Tsopo, was embroiled in a scandal relating to the award of a R30-million contract for the delivery of school textbooks.
In 2006 he, his sister and a friend were found guilty of defrauding the provincial education department of more than R360 000 and sentenced to four years in prison.
The following year Tsopo, who angrily denied having known about her husband's activities, was moved to social development. After the 2009 general elections she was made deputy speaker of the legislature. She became acting speaker in 2012 and speaker in 2013.
She was an enormous improvement on her predecessors and those who followed her, and won respect from the opposition for her control of the house and relative impartiality.
It was said that she actually ran the legislature as speaker, where others in her position too often allowed the administration to run the legislature.
More often than not before she became speaker, no one ran the legislature and officials did pretty much want they wanted. Having been a no-nonsense MEC, she became a no-nonsense speaker.
She regularly held inter-party rules committee meetings and was diligent in ensuring that the legislature carried out its constitutional mandate.
She ensured discipline and order and insisted that the decorum of the house be upheld. The tone went down noticeably after she left, with members shouting and hurling insults at each other — and even MECs using the F-word.
She never allowed this kind of behaviour, and commanded respect from both sides of the house as a result.
Tsopo was born in Hennenman in the Free State on September 1 1962, and matriculated from Lebogang Secondary School in Welkom in 1978.
She obtained diplomas in pedagogics and leadership and governance, a postgraduate diploma in governance and leadership from the University of the Witwatersrand and a string of qualifications, including a master’s degree in public administration from the University of the Free State.
In 1998 she participated in an executive leadership programme at Harvard in the US.
She died after a short illness while doing a PhD in governance and political transformation at North-West University.
Tsopo was a teacher and member
She was an enormous improvement on her predecessors
of the Masilo town council before joining the northern Free State ANC provincial head office in Welkom in 1993.
She was the first MEC for local government after the 1994 elections.
Tsopo, known affectionately as “Ouma” by members of all parties in the legislature, is survived by her husband and three children.
Her son Thabang predeceased her. — Chris Barron