South African anti-apartheid activist Mosiuoa Lekota, who broke away from the African National Congress to found a new political party, died in the early hours of Wednesday morning, his party said in a statement. He was 77 years old.
Lekota died after a period of illness and had stepped back from active politics.
He was a close ally of former President Thabo Mbeki and served as South Africa’s defence minister from 1999 to 2008.
Lekota, nicknamed “Terror” for his fearsome skills on the soccer pitch as young man, quit in protest at Mbeki’s ousting and was voted off the ANC’s National Executive Committee after repeated criticism of Mbeki’s successor, Jacob Zuma.
He co-founded the Congress of the People (COPE) party in 2008.
COPE won roughly 7% of the vote in the first national election it contested, in 2009, but its vote share has been below 1% at every national election since then.
Lekota worked as a student activist during the 1970s. He served jail time on Robben Island with the country’s liberation hero Nelson Mandela.
