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Alpheus Mokabhe "Ali" Maziya (15 October 1950 – 9 October 2018) was a South African politician and activist from Gauteng. He represented the African National Congress (ANC) in the National Assembly from 1999 to 2007 and later from 2009 to 2014. He was also the party's defence whip from 2010 to 2014.

During the final years of apartheid, Maziya was a prominent figure in the ANC and South African National Civics Organisation (Sanco) in the Southern Transvaal. His wife and infant child were murdered in political violence in Vosloorus, Transvaal in 1990.

Early life and activism

Maziya was born on 15 October 1950 in Madubula (present-day Mohlakeng) on the West Rand of the former Transvaal. He later moved to Vosloorus, where he was a union shop steward at his workplace. By 1990, he was a member of the anti-apartheid ANC and a member of the executive of SANCO, as well as chairperson of the Vosloorus Crisis Committee, a SANCO affiliate aligned to the ANC.

June 1990 attack

In the early morning of 1 June 1990, unidentified men launched a series of attacks on VCC members in Vosloorus. They attacked Maziya's home, lobbing a hand grenade into his bedroom and opening fire on the occupants with AK-47s. Maziya was wounded but survived, having slept on a spare bed so that his visiting parents could share his bedroom with his wife, Lindi, and their infant son, Zwelakhe. Lindi was killed at the scene and Maziya's mother and son died in hospital. Maziya believed that supporters of the Pan Africanist Congress, a rival to the ANC, were responsible for the attack.

Maziya lost his job at the end of June 1990 and was unemployed in 1992, when he was elected to a full-time position as an organiser for Sanco in the Southern Transvaal.

Legislative career

In the 1999 general election, Maziya was elected as a member of the ANC's Gauteng caucus in the National Assembly, the lower house of the South African Parliament. He was re-elected in 2004, off the ANC's national party list, but resigned on 1 December 2007.

He returned for a further partial term on 27 November 2009, when the ANC nominated him to fill the casual vacancy arising from Pallo Jordan's resignation. After his return, in January 2010, the ANC appointed him as the party's whip in the Joint Standing Committee on Defence and Portfolio Committee on Defence and Military Veterans. He continued as whip until the 2014 general election, when he did not stand for re-election.

Death

Maziya died on 9 October 2018.

References

1. ^ "General Notice: Notice 1319 of 1999 – Electoral Commission: Representatives Elected to the Various Legislatures" (PDF). Government Gazette of South Africa. Vol. 408, no. 20203. Pretoria, South Africa: Government of South Africa. 11 June 1999. Retrieved 26 March 2021.
2. ^ "Volume 5, Chapter 2: Maziya, Mokabhe Alpheus". Truth Commission Special Report. Retrieved 14 May 2023.
3. ^ "Human Rights Violation Women's Hearing: Alli Maziya". Truth and Reconciliation Commission. 29 July 1997. Retrieved 14 May 2023.
4. ^ "Four killed in township violence". UPI. 1 June 1990. Retrieved 14 May 2023.
5. "Maziya lived for freedom of his people". Sowetan. 12 October 2018. Retrieved 14 May 2023 – via Pressreader.
6. "National Assembly Members". Parliamentary Monitoring Group. 15 January 2009. Archived from the original on 14 May 2009. Retrieved 8 April 2023.
7. "Members of the National Assembly". Parliamentary Monitoring Group. Archived from the original on 9 February 2014. Retrieved 2 March 2023.
8. "New ANC appointments in Parliament". ANC Parliamentary Caucus. 18 January 2010. Retrieved 14 May 2023.
9. "Alpheus Mokabhe Maziya". People's Assembly. Retrieved 14 May 2023.
10. Evans, Jenni (13 October 2018). "Parliament mourns deaths of former MPs". News24. Retrieved 14 May 2023.
11. "Presiding officers learn with sadness the passing of former MP Mr Alpheus Mokabhe Maziya". Parliament of South Africa. 13 October 2018. Retrieved 14 May 2023.

External links

• Mr Alpheus Mokabhe Maziya at People's Assembly
• Testimony to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission

• African National Congress politicians
• South African anti-apartheid activists
• 20th-century South African politicians
• Members of the National Assembly of South Africa 2004–2009
• People from the West Rand
• 1950 births
• 2018 deaths