‘Mother of Azania’ to leave hospital

The release from hospital of the widow of Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe, founding president of the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC), was delayed as she did not get her medication on time due to a mix-up at the in-house chemist.

The 91-year-old Zondeni Veronica Sobukwe has been in Midland Hospital in Graaffreinet, in the Eastern Cape, for the past three weeks.

Her son, Dini Sobukwe, said “the strongest woman I’ve ever known” was still frail.

He added that there had been a steady stream of PAC members to Graaff-reinet to see the “Mother of Azania”.

In April, Mama Sobukwe was awarded the Order of Luthuli.

Her son, who is executive director of the Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe Trust, received the award on her behalf because of her age.

This year marks the 40th commemoration of her husband’s death while under a banishment order.

Dini said it pained him that his independent-minded mother had to depend on others now.

He recalled her strength and resilience when her children were packed off to boarding school in Lesotho.

She would carry most of their luggage and “at some point she broke her right arm while she was lugging trunks – one on her head while helping me carry another”, said an emotional Dini.

Even now in her dotage, his mother still does a lot of household chores and cooks her own food.

He said he had never looked at his mother in terms of her age, but he was sad to see her gradually losing her independence. He also lamented that she was pumped full of medication at Midland Hospital.

She had been a nurse in her working life and Dini was adamant that she would not have chosen this battery of tablets regime. He was going to fetch her from the hospital yesterday.