Former Minister of Labour and High Commissioner to Canada, Membathisi Mdadlana passed away at the age of 72 on Friday morning.

President Ramaphosa has offered his deepest condolences to the former minister’s family and friends.

A teacher by training and a former school principal, Mdladlana became a member of South Africa’s first democratic Parliament in 1994.

Four years later, he was appointed Minister of Labour by President Nelson Mandela and was retained in this role by Presidents Mbeki, Motlanthe and Zuma.

Mdladlana’s predecessor was Dr Tito Mboweni, who passed away a week ago and is being honoured on Saturday, 19 October, with a Special Official Funeral Category 2.

 “Membathisi Mdladlana’s passing is a loss to his family and friends as much as it is to the nation.” says Ramaphosa

IN A STATEMENT, PRESIDENT CYRIL RAMAPHOSA SAID THE FOLLOWING

“While we may try to prepare ourselves for the inevitability of such a loss, bereavement is never easy.

“We have recently been visited by a succession of departures of veterans of our liberation struggle and pioneers of the dawn of our democracy.

“Membathisi Mdladlana was one such pioneer who was a first-generation Member of Parliament who had been prepared for this role during an extended period of leadership in the South Western African Teachers Association), the Peninsula African Teachers Association and the Cape African Teachers Union before becoming a founding member and Chairperson of the South African Democratic Teachers Union.

“He provided leadership in this strategic sector of our struggle at a time of great repression by the state and growing resistance by the people.

“In the year in which we are marking 30 years of freedom and democracy, Shepherd Mdladlana’s passing and that of other leaders takes us back in time to the sacrifices and struggles of our past, the hope with which we embarked on building a new society and the hard work it has taken since then to secure the gains we have made.

“Shepherd Mdladlana will live on in our hearts and our history. May his soul rest in peace.”

READ MORE: “We have lost a titan”: Tributes pour in following death of Tito Mboweni