Former commissioner of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Tom Manthata has passed away at the age of 80 after having succumbed to the coronavirus.
The ANC says he succumbed to COVID-19-related complications last night.
Manthata was born November 29, 1939 in Soekmekaar in the Northern Transvaal.
In 1967 he began teaching at Sekano Ntoane High School in Soweto, where he became known as a rigorous, critical teacher who encouraged political debates among his students, including Cyril Ramaphosa and Amos Masondo.
In the early 1980’s, Manthata was involved in every organised form of opposition politics in the Transvaal which also led him to spend six years behind bar in a series of detentions and court cases.
It was after 1990 that Manthata obtained a master’s degree at Coventry University in Britain and was then a commissioner of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and served on the Human Rights Commission.
