By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Former minister of Labour and African National Congress veteran Membathisi Shepperd Mdladlana has died at age of 72, his family confirmed.
Mdladlana’s nephew Mayibuye Sokupa confirmed his passing.
“He passed away early this morning after having his breakfast while watching TV but he was not sick. It was a short illness, he complained about breathing and that was it,” Sokupa said.
Sokupa said Mdladlana would be remembered as a trade unionist who fought for the rights of workers during and after apartheid.
Mdladlana was a teacher by profession and he formally obtained his degree at the University of South Africa in 1997.
From 1972 to 1981, Mdladlana taught at Vukukhanye Primary School in Gugulethu. From 1982 to 1994, he was the principal at Andile Primary School in Crossroads, Cape Town.
He was the founding president of the South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu), a position he held between 1990 and 1994.
He headed up the labour ministry from July 1998 to 2009.
He made headlines in 2008 when he was accused of racism following his comments on a court judgement that recognised Chinese South Africans as black.
Mdladlana was born in Keiskammahoek in the Eastern Cape.
He is survived by seven children and countless grandchildren.
President Cyril Ramaphosa said: “Membathisi Mdladlana’s passing is a loss to his family and friends as much as it is to the nation.
“While we may try to prepare ourselves for the inevitability of such a loss, bereavement is never easy.
“We have recently been visited by a succession of departures of veterans of our liberation struggle and pioneers of the dawn of our democracy.
“Membathisi Mdladlana was one such pioneer who was a first-generation Member of Parliament who had been prepared for this role during an extended period of leadership in the South Western African Teachers Association), the Peninsula African Teachers Association and the Cape African Teachers Union before becoming a founding member and Chairperson of the South African Democratic Teachers Union.
“He provided leadership in this strategic sector of our struggle at a time of great repression by the state and growing resistance by the people.
“In the year in which we are marking 30 years of freedom and democracy, Shepherd Mdladlana’s passing and that of other leaders takes us back in time to the sacrifices and struggles of our past, the hope with which we embarked on building a new society and the hard work it has taken since then to secure the gains we have made.
Mdladlana passing comes days after the death of former Finance Minsiter and Reserve Bank Governor Dr Tito Titus Mboweni.
Dr Mboweni, 65, died on Saturday, October 12 after a brief illness.
Ramaphosa will deliver the eulogy at the Special Official Funeral of Dr Mboweni.
The official funeral will take place at Nkowankowa Stadium in Tzaneen, Limpopo Province.Ramaphosa has declared a Special Official Funeral Category 2 in honour of Dr Mboweni.
Dr Mboweni was the democratic South Africa’s first Minister of Labour from 1994 to 1999 in the Cabinet of Founding President Nelson Mandela.
He served as Governor of the South African Reserve Bank for a decade from 1999. Dr Mboweni also served as Minister of Finance in the administration led by Ramaphosa from 2018 to 2021.