Newly sworn in MP Khellinah Nomvula Shoba collapsed and died after the inauguration of Jacob Zuma as president, an official said on Monday.
”Ms Shoba was a new MP having been sworn in last week. She collapsed getting off the bus returning from the presidential inauguration on Saturday,” said Michael Coetzee, the acting secretary to Parliament.
”Ms Shoba was immediately taken to the medical centre of the hotel she was staying. Regretfully, she could not be resuscitated.”
The 52-year-old Shoba was sworn in as a new member of Parliament last week.
Coetzee expressed ”heartfelt condolences” to the family and the African National Congress (ANC).
”It is difficult to state our profound sense of loss in words. So much was expected of her by Parliament. We wish to her family strength at this time of sorrow and bereavement,” he said.
Shoba, who was born in September 1956, joined the ANC in 1990 and held several positions within the tripartite alliance, including that of secretary and deputy chairwoman of the ANC, provincial secretary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) in Mpumalanga and regional treasurer of the National Union of Mineworkers.
She was a member of the South African Communist Party as well as the ANC Women’s League and was its branch secretary in Mpumalanga and later the deputy chairwoman of one of its wards.
The ANC said her death had robbed the organisation of ”a militant, committed and true servant of the people”.
”The attainment of gender parity and other gains achieved by women since the dawn of democracy were largely brought about through courageous and unwavering struggles waged by women of the calibre of comrade Shoba,” the ANC said in a statement.
Parliamentary spokesman Luzuko Jacobs said it was up to the family to decide if they wanted to disclose the cause of her death.
”It is their prerogative. It is a bit personal,” said Jacobs.
A memorial service would be held next week. — Sapa