Friends and colleagues of Vytjie Mentor, who passed on last week after spending months in hospital, are in attendance to bid her farewell. 

ALSO READ: Northern Cape’s Mentor passes on after illness

Her funeral is being held at the Mayibuye Centre in Galeshewe. The service commenced this morning at 07:00 and her burial service will take place at 10:00.

Mentor’s long-time friend, comrade and former Transport Minister, Dipuo Peters, previously described Mentor as a disciplined and principled comrade who fought for women’s rights during the early days in the ANC youth league. “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 assisted in cases after women were raped. So she has always been an activist to the core and believed in the freedom of South Africans,” Peters said.

ALSO READ: Former Northern Cape premier shares fond memories of mentor

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.

ALSO READ: #Guptas also eyed Northern Cape for coal

Mentor was born as Mabel Patronella Mentor on 19 October 1963 in the former Cape Province. Before 1994, the Cape Province was divided into the new Eastern Cape, Northern Cape, and Western Cape provinces. Mentor also matriculated from the Batlhaping High School in Taung, located in the neighbouring province of North West.

OFM News