Jessie Duarte, former special assistant to Mandela, dies at 68

Bloomberg

Jessie Duarte, who served as special assistant to former South African President Nelson Mandela after his release from prison, has died. She was 68.
Duarte’s death on Sunday was announced by the South Africa’s ruling party. She had been on medical leave since November undergoing cancer treatment.
“It is with profound sadness that the African National Congress has learned of the passing of our Deputy Secretary General, Yasmin ‘Jessie’ Duarte,” the ANC said in a statement.
A leading political activist during the apartheid years, Duarte held several senior posts in the government and the ANC, which took power under Mandela in the nation’s first multiracial elections in 1994. She fell ill weeks after municipal elections in which support for the ANC fell below 50% for the first time.
Born in Johannesburg on Sept. 19, 1953, Duarte worked as a management accountant, helped establish women’s structures for the ANC in the 1970s and 1980s, and was detained without trial. She later became a leading figure in the anti-apartheid United Democratic Front. Mandela appointed her as special assistant when he was freed from jail in 1990, a position she held until he became president.