South Africa “is poorer without Yasmin ‘Jessie’ Duarte due to her contribution to the birth of a democratic South Africa in 1994,” the Thabo Mbeki Foundation said on Monday.
Late anti-apartheid activist Duarte, who was the African National Congress’ (ANC) deputy secretary general until her death on Sunday, was laid to rest in the afternoon of the same day, according to Muslim rites.
She was acting ANC secretary general after the substantive holder, Ace Magashule, was suspended last year on corruption allegations until he is cleared by a court of law.
The 68-year-old Duarte was South Africa’s ambassador to Mozambique between 1999 and 2003 during Mbeki’s first tenure, the foundation added.
The foundation sent condolences to Duarte’s family and the ANC where she was a member of the party’s National Executive Council since 1997.
NM/jn/APA