South Coast honours late activist
The family of the late ANC South Coast stalwart and human rights activist, Ray Nkoyeni, has expressed gratitude at having a municipality named after him.
|||Hibiscus Coast - The family of the late ANC South Coast stalwart and human rights activist, Ray Nkoyeni, has expressed gratitude at having a municipality named after him.
The excitement was evident on Nkoyeni's wife, former KwaZulu-Natal education MEC, Peggy Nkoyeni's face soon after casting her vote in Gamalakhe township on Wednesday morning accompanied by their three daughters.
The Ray Nkonyeni Municipality was formed after two councils - Hibiscus Coast and Ezinqoleni - were amalgamated by the Municipal Demarcation Board in June. This move came despite fervent objections from opposition parties.
Nkonyeni died in 1999.
“We are very excited as the Nkoyeni family,” she said. “My husband was a freedom fighter; a revolutionary, who used to take care of many comrades who moved from their areas to Gamalakhe.”
She described her husband as a “very humble person”.
“He participated as a councillor in that transitional government that was established in that first period of this democratic government,” she said.
Ray was a popular figure who, according to the former MEC, “never fought for positions of power”.
“Even when he was expected by everyone to be maybe deployed to the legislature or even national government, he didn't like it because he was a very humble person,” she said.
She reminisced how her children had grew surrounded by “lots of people”.
“It was a small house but we managed to accommodate as many people as we could,” she said.
The ANC is the dominating party in this part of the world of the country. The only other party with any presence, so far, being the DA. Other smaller parties, notably the EFF and the IFP, only being present on street pole posters.
Nkonyeni encouraged people to got out in their numbers and vote “if they want to see the change they desire”.
Election Bureau