MIDDELBURG – A 85 year-old stalwart and former Roma Detachment activist ceased to be a member of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) and joined newly formed party, Middelburg and Hendrina Residents Front (MHRF).
Gogo Lettie Emie Nkosi from Mhluzi Extension 5, Ward 28, said corruption had finally persuaded her to desert the party.
“Corruption is making me weak and sick even physically,” she told Timeless news during interview on Tuesday.
“I hate it and cannot tolerate it anymore.”
“We sacrificed with our lives during the liberation struggle in this country but now they have forgotten about us and they are busy with corruption. We were promised a better life but, look at the house I live in today and tell me if this is the better life,” she said.
Gogo Nkosi said she joined the ANC around 1950, also said she was part of the 1956 march where scores of women marched to the Union Building against Apartheid pass-laws. She was exiled in Swaziland where she served as a cooker at Manzini. “I used to cook for the likes of the late Mayor Tsietsi Tolo and other freedom fighters,” she recalled.
She also played a role in the politics of Middelburg when she became part of a 1985 detachment group, locally known as Roma detachment, that heeded the call by OR Tambo to render the country ungovernable and Apartheid unworkable after the July 1985 state of emergency.
She explained that she joined MHRF because she is advocating for interests of the local people. “I think MHRF is truthful because it is formed for and by the people of Middelburg,” she said.
MHRF spokesperson Thato Mathunyane said the party was elated to have welcomed gogo Nkosi. “It is indeed an honour and privilege to have her on our side. Her struggle credentials prove she is a selfless and commited cadre. Always relevant as she is pushing for a true and total emancipation of the local people, not stomach politics,” he said.
