Tembisa ANC stalwart Ntari Mosomane has died
Tleane said Mosomane was a shrewd strategist and thinker who influenced those around him
One of the most dedicated African National Congress (ANC) struggle stalwarts from Tembisa, Jan Ntari Mosomane has died.
Mosomane (68), of house number 211 Tlamatlama Section, suddenly died in the early hours of Monday, June 25 at his home, after complaining of a pain in his arm and back.
He was the former secretary of the erstwhile Tembisa Residents Association (TRA) which later became the South African National Civics Organisation (SANCO) Tembisa Branch.
As a colleague, friend and brother, Sello Ali Tleane said Mosomane played a pivotal role in the establishment of street and sectional committees in Tembisa during the turbulent 1980s which contributed massively to the declaration of Tembisa as a liberated zone by the then president of the ANC, Oliver Reginald Tambo who was based in Lusaka, Zambia.
“Apartheid structures were rendered useless during those days and Tembisa SAPS and Magistrate’s Court remained empty all the time as residents used their own organs of people’s power, in defiance against the oppressive regime,” said Tleane.
Tleane explained Mosomane, who was born on February 24, 1950, in the disestablished Dindela (Edenvale) township, first cut his teeth in the terrain of struggle in the 1970s as a shop steward and official of the then Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers Union (CCAWUSA) before it became the South African Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers Union (SACCAWU).
“At that time he worked for 3M in Elandsfontein. CCAWUSA’s founding president was the legendary Emma Mashinini. The workers’ struggles prepared him for the daunting task of community struggles which he joined in the early 1980s and which culminated in him being elected and re-elected the secretary of the TRA on several occasions,” added Tleane.
Tleane said Mosomane was a shrewd strategist and thinker who influenced those around him to analyse issues empirically and not to rely on rumours and allegations.
“He is part of the dwindling number of cadres of the movement who served our people diligently and selflessly during the tough days of apartheid without expecting anything in return. One of his many contributions to the struggle for the emancipation of the African majority was in what was called the Local Government Negotiating Forum (LGNF), a structure of the statutory and non-statutory bodies which negotiated and produced the inaugural democratic municipality in our region, the erstwhile Khayalami Metropolitan Council (KMC),” he said.
Tleane said at the time of Mosomane’s death, he was a senior manager at MSC private college in Tshwane.
“We were classmates at the then Tembisa Secondary School years ago and his death leaves us a little lonely – but we will soldier on,” said Tleane.
A memorial service will be held in his honour on Thursday, June 28, at the Old Age Home in Kopanong Section, which is situated between the Roman Catholic Church and the St John’s Apostolic Church at 4 pm. His funeral service will be held on Saturday, June 30, at the Abundant Life Christian Centre, (the white tent situated next to the Endulwini Primary School), starting at 7 am.
The cortège will proceed to Mooifontein Cemetery at 11am.
Mosomane is survived by his beautiful wife Muriel, whom he married 42 years ago, four daughters, six grandchildren, four sisters and one brother.
