Makhenkesi Stofile dies aged 71
Former Minister of Sport Makhenkesi Stofile has passed away at the age of 71 following an illness.
Stofile was also a former premier of the Eastern Cape.
The ANC said in a statement it owes an indelible debt of gratitude to Stofile who was also a former Treasurer General of the ANC, a former premier of the Eastern Cape and South African ambassador to Germany for his sterling role in politics and sports in both the liberation movement and South Africa at large.
Stofile joined politics in 1963 as a member of the African Students' Association and was elected the regional secretary and National Executive Member of the United Democratic Front between 1983 and 1986, driving the charge for the establishment of the United Democratic Front (UDF) in the Border region.
"Having joined the African National Congress in 1958, Bra Stof was a symbol of solidarity, a loyal and disciplined cadre who was arrested and served an 11-year imprisonment for terrorism under the then Ciskean Internal Security Act in 1986," the ANC said.
A minister of the Presbyterian Church of South Africa since 1975 and a dedicated and loyal servant of the people, the ANC said Stofile had an abiding love for sports and sports administration.
"He held a number of presidential roles for sporting bodies. He was President of the South Eastern Districts Rugby Union from 1975-1982 and also a member of the 2010 FIFA World Cup Local Organising Committee Board of Directors. He led from the front in the campaign for non-racial sport and long been a committed supporter of anti-doping," it said.
"Indeed the great Baobab tree has fallen in our 104 year old liberation movement. The African National Congress sends its deepest condolences to Cde Stofile's family. May they find solace in the knowledge of the immeasurable contribution Bra Stof made to the liberation of South Africa and our national project of socio-economic transformation. We shall with them their profound grief and sense of loss."