Cape Town - Struggle veteran Peter Jones, who died aged 73 at his Pringle Bay home on Tuesday after a stroke, has been remembered in a moving Facebook tribute by his widow Ingrid as a larger-than-life figure who “was always centre stage”.
Journalist and broadcaster Ingrid wrote: “Peter was always centre stage, larger than life at gatherings and parties, or his activism work. His personality was centre stage. He was larger than life in so many people’s lives.”
She said that like all humans, Jones had his flaws, vulnerabilities and demons, counterbalanced by an indomitable spirit of survival, a visceral reaction to injustice, inhumanity and racism. “We experienced him in all his flaws and fabulosity,” she wrote.
Jones, who suffered a major stroke that left him incapacitated in 2019, was famously the last person from the liberation movement to see Steve Biko alive, when they were arrested by apartheid police at a roadblock as they travelled to Cape Town. Both were members of the Black People’s Convention.
Writing about his last days alive, Ingrid said: “Two Sundays ago we woke up to an unresponsive Peter, because he had another stroke. The third one, and it was another big one.”
She said that for two days he lay in a comatose state and just when they thought that was it, he opened his eyes and for three days after that his eyes were open, he smiled when his daughters called, and then he would fall back into a deep slumber.
“This went on for a few more days. Two days ago the death rattle entered his throat and for two days we witnessed the rattle firing off like a machine gun through his throat. We sat next to his bed constantly praying he should be released,” she wrote.
With regard to funeral plans, Ingrid wrote: “My daughter is abroad and when the time is right for us, we will have a memorial service in his honour and lay him to rest in the place he loved the most – the ocean. Last night a small service was held around his bed to say our final farewells.”
Independent Media’s Editorial and Content director Aneez Salie said: “When Peter was banned to Macassar at his mother, Mrs Samboer’s house, I used to visit him a few times and interviewed him for the Cape Herald on the anti-apartheid line at the time.
“And even though he couldn’t be quoted, by law, in the media because he was banned, I ran those stories on his thoughts and line of march, but attributed it to his mother.”
Former Azapo president Pandelani Nefolovhodwe has called for the government to honour Jones with an official funeral.
Current Azapo leader Nelvis Qekema said Jones was a dedicated activist, forthright leader, a visionary and selfless cadre of the Black Consciousness Movement.
ANC Western Cape spokesperson Sifiso Mtsweni said Jones, together with many activists in the Black Consciousness Movement, kept the fires burning when the liberation movement, led by the ANC, was banned and its leaders jailed and exiled.