SACP member and former Durban deputy mayor Nomzuvo Shabalala has died

South African Communist Party (SACP) confirmed on Saturday that former Durban deputy mayor Nomzuvo Shabalala has passed away.

SACP statement said that Shabalala died in the early hours of Saturday morning on 26 December she was hospitalised last week.

SACP General Secretary Dr Blade Nzimande sent his condolences to the Shabalala family for the ‘great loss encountered’.  Shabalala was serving as an honourable ANC member of Parliament.

She also joined Parliament in 2019, serving on the portfolio committee on basic education and the joint committee on ethics and members interests.

“She was re-elected during the May 2019 general election. Before then she served as a Councillor and Deputy Mayor of the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality. The governance of the eThekhwini Metropolitan Municipality was fairly sound under her leadership and that of Cde James Nxumalo as the Mayor under the challenging circumstances that they and the entire council and municipality found themselves faced with,” SACP statement read.

The statement concluded: “In memory of Nomvuzo Shabalala, the SACP reiterates its unqualified support for the strengthening of the progressive women’s movement and the intensification of the struggle to end economic exploitation and patriarchy and dismantle racism in our society. It is an essential part of this struggle to confront the networks of neoliberalism, its austerity agenda, and state capture and looting of public resources.”

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