ActionSA's national spokesperson, Lerato Ngobeni, on Tuesday morning announced that Mentor’s family informed the party that she passed on after being hospitalised for months.

Former Transport Minister, Dipuo Peters, tells OFM News that she and Mentor grew up in the ranks of the former liberation movement and the governing party of the ANC during the struggle under the Apartheid regime. She says as they both hail from the Northern Cape, they were together in the youth and student movements. Dipuo shared how a "principled and revolutionary" Mentor fought for the rights of women.

Mentor blew the whistle on the notorious Gupta brothers’ shady dealings with the government and told the State Capture Commission of Inquiry, chaired by Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, that the notorious brothers also eyed the Northern Cape for its mines.

According to Peters, Mentor was also a member of the Galeshewe youth movement in the Northern Cape and later became part of the leadership of the youth congress, which was led by Peter Mokaba.

“She devoted her life to the struggle against apartheid and fought the battles for women. If you go back into the archives of the Northern Cape newspaper you will find that she was involved in cases where women were raped. So she has always been an activist to the core and believed in the freedom of South Africans,” Peters says.

She says Mentor remained her dear friend, sister, and comrade, despite changing party regalia and joining Action SA.

ActionSA’s Ngobeni had described Mentor as a true patriot who served her country even in the face of criticism.

At the time of her passing, Mentor served as ActionSA’s Western Cape chairperson.

Meanwhile, in Part 5 of the Zondo Commission's report, Ajay Gupta is said to have conversed with Mentor about coal and told her that uranium was needed for nuclear energy and that the Guptas would soon be the main supplier of uranium for the government’s nuclear programme.

OFM News