The Amadiba Crisis Committee (ACC) is mourning the death of one of its founders, who died in a KwaZulu-Natal hospital last week.
Samson Gampe, who took part in the Mpondo rebellion in 1958 to 1961, died on Thursday at Murchison Hospital in Port Shepstone. He was 87.
The ACC said Gampe had died after a short illness.
He founded the ACC in 2007 to fight mining titanium in Xolobeni in Pondoland.
Gampe viewed the proposed Xolobeni open-cast mining by Australian mining company Mineral Resource Commodities Ltd (MRC) and the planned construction of the N2 Wild Coast toll road by Sanral as one project.
“They are related like a mother carrying a child.”
ACC spokeswoman Nonhle Mbuthuma said Gampe leaves his wife Sizakele – aka Maduzemlungu – a large family of children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
She described his death as untimely because Gampe had only gone to the hospital for an X-ray to check on the cause of a cough.
Mbuthuma said: “Samson was one of the few still-living veterans from the Mpondo uprising of 1958-61 who fought against land dispossession by the apartheid system.
“He was an ANC stalwart and one of the founders of Amadiba Crisis Committee. He fought against both the proposed Xolobeni open-cast mining and the N2 ‘green route’ toll road that is planned to enter the Amadiba area 3km from the coastline.”
Gampe is to be buried in Sigi village, 50 minutes drive from Port Edward, on Saturday.
Said Mbuthuma: “Until his last day, Samson Gampe was opposed to the sale of community land.
“In his own words: ‘Money will be used and get finished. Land will last for ever.’ May his brave soul rest in peace. Aluta continua!” — zwangam@dispatch.co.za
Xolobeni and Mpondo rebellion veteran dies
Samson Gampe, who took part in the Mpondo rebellion in 1958 to 1961, died on Thursday at Murchison Hospital in Port Shepstone. He was 87.
The ACC said Gampe had died after a short illness.
He founded the ACC in 2007 to fight mining titanium in Xolobeni in Pondoland.
Gampe viewed the proposed Xolobeni open-cast mining by Australian mining company Mineral Resource Commodities Ltd (MRC) and the planned construction of the N2 Wild Coast toll road by Sanral as one project.
“They are related like a mother carrying a child.”
ACC spokeswoman Nonhle Mbuthuma said Gampe leaves his wife Sizakele – aka Maduzemlungu – a large family of children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
She described his death as untimely because Gampe had only gone to the hospital for an X-ray to check on the cause of a cough.
Mbuthuma said: “Samson was one of the few still-living veterans from the Mpondo uprising of 1958-61 who fought against land dispossession by the apartheid system.
“He was an ANC stalwart and one of the founders of Amadiba Crisis Committee. He fought against both the proposed Xolobeni open-cast mining and the N2 ‘green route’ toll road that is planned to enter the Amadiba area 3km from the coastline.”
Gampe is to be buried in Sigi village, 50 minutes drive from Port Edward, on Saturday.
Said Mbuthuma: “Until his last day, Samson Gampe was opposed to the sale of community land.
“In his own words: ‘Money will be used and get finished. Land will last for ever.’ May his brave soul rest in peace. Aluta continua!” — zwangam@dispatch.co.za
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