MaMbeki’s passing marks the end of an era

Pallo Jordan

Pallo Jordan, Business Day

MME Mofokeng, Aunt Piny, MaMbeki and many others are the expressions of affection she earned in a life of service. The passing of Epainette Moerane-Mbeki on June 7 truly marks the end of an era.

Born in February 1916 to a family of African teachers, who had migrated from Lesotho, she grew up as a member of the tiny landowning African elite made up of peasant farmers, professionals and clergy. Like others of their stratum, the Moeranes invested in the education of the children.

MaMbeki’s voice to echo across time

Nomboniso Gasa

Nomboniso Gasa, The Dispatch

THE harsh landscape of Mbewuleni carries in its crevices the secrets, hopes, tears and idealism of a young couple who moved there to make an independent existence in the 1940s.

Like so many other activists of their time, MamoTseki, Nomaka Epainette Mbeki (nee Moerane) and her husband, Govan Mbeki, knew that dependence on government salaries would render them vulnerable.

They could easily lose their positions and salaries.

Their move to Mbewuleni was also inspired by their commitment to working with and understanding the “peasants’ existence”, a subject close to both their hearts and captured in Govan Mbeki’s book, The Peasant Revolt, a history of the Mpondoland resistance.