Wife of KwaNdebele homeland chief Simon ‘SS’ Skosana dies

The senior wife of the late former KwaNdebele homeland leader Simon ‘SS’ Skosana, Tholiwe Anna Skosana, has died at the age 89.

Her daughter, Nomakhosi Skosana, confirmed to The Citizen on Thursday that her mother of Matjhirini (Machiding) in Mpumalanga passed away at Die Wilgers Hospital in Pretoria on Tuesday.

Nomakhosi said her mother had health complications three weeks ago and was admitted to the hospital.

“We have lost a mother, a grandmother, and a great-grandmother. It is very painful but we have accepted her passing. She has been with us for many years and we prayed daily for her well-being but sadly she left us. We will miss her greatly,” she said.

She is survived by four children and a number of grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

SS Skosana was chief minister of the former KwaNdebele homeland from April 1981 until his death due to complications related to sugar diabetes in November 1986. He was 59 when he died.

SS Skosana was at the helm during the most turbulent years in the former homeland, during which scores of people were killed during the violence sparked by the rejection of plans to accept nominal independence for KwaNdebele.

The violence also claimed the life of SS Skosana’s aide and the homeland’s minister of home affairs, Piet Maqhawe Ntuli, who was killed in a car bomb near Siyabuswa in July 1986.

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