Johannesburg, 25 July, 2020 / 10:05 pm (ACI Africa).
Catholic Bishops in Southern Africa have eulogized the late Andrew Mlangeni, the anti-apartheid icon who stood the 1963-1964 Rivonia Trial alongside Nelson Mandela, applauding him for his contribution to democracy and equality in South Africa.
Mr. Mlangeni died Wednesday, July 22 at a military hospital in the country’s capital, Pretoria. He was 95.
In his July 22 Tweet announcing the death of Mr. Mlangeni who has been the last surviving person of the Rivonia Treason Trial, South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa posted, “His death signifies the end of a generational history and places our future squarely in our hands.”
Members of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) have expressed their “sincere condolences to the Mlangeni Family and to the people of South Africa as a whole on the passing on of Mr. Andrew Mlangeni.”
In their Wednesday, July 22 collective statement obtained by ACI Africa, SACBC members say in reference to Mr. Mlangeni, “As a Catholic Church, we applaud him for his contribution in bringing about a democratic South Africa in which all people are equal. We acknowledge with appreciation the sacrifice he made in his personal life to realize the ideal of an equal society,”
