May-June-issue

TID BITS
Fare thee well
Kenneth Matiba
Crusader for Kenya’s Multi-party
democracy Kenneth Stanley Njindo
Matiba passed away on 15th April.
2018 aged 85 at the Karen Hospital
in Nairobi. The second liberation
hero is said to have been ailing for
several years after suffering a stroke
while in detention during the multiparty
struggle, for which he will
always be remembered.
South Africa mourns Winnie
Madikizela-Mandela
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, freedom fighter and former
wife of South Africa’s former President Nelson Mandela
who died at Netcare Milpark Hospital in Johannesburg had
a fitting send off as her struggle to free her country from the
clutches of apartheid was recalled by her compatriots and
leaders around the world. The struggle icon passed away on
Monday, 2nd April 2018 aged 81. The family had earlier said
that Mandela wanted to be buried next to her parents in
Mbhongweni Village in Bizana in the Eastern Cape – that is
according to Gxaba Madikizela, a close relative of hers. “We
thought she would be buried here next to her parents (father
Columbus Kokani Madikizela and mother MaRhadebe
Mzaidume),” he said. However, the 63-year-old exmineworker
said the family had accepted the government’s
decision to bury her in Johannesburg. “We can’t change the
decision,” he said. The Madikizela’s claim was backed by
former ANC national executive committee member and
childhood friend Zuziwe Dlamini, who said Madikizela-
Mandela always wanted to be buried next to her parents.
Additional information from iol.co.za
Stephen William Hawking. Theoretical
physicist Born: 8 January 1942,
Oxford, United Kingdom died on
14th March 2018, in Cambridge,
United Kingdom. He was author of
an international best seller -A Brief
History of Time. He was the father of
Lucy Hawking, Robert Hawking and
Timothy Hawking. He was the former
Lucasian Professor of Mathematics
at the University of Cambridge and
author of A Brief History of Time
which is an international bestseller. He
was also the Dennis Stanton Avery and
Sally Tsui Wong-Avery Director of
Research at the Department of Applied
Mathematics. Hawking was regarded a
Stephen Hawking
passes on
genius. He gave hope to many people.
Here are excerpts of what the guardian
said of him: “Those who live in the
shadow of death are often those who live
most. For Hawking, the early diagnosis of
his terminal disease, and witnessing the
death from leukemia of a boy he knew in
hospital, ignited a fresh sense of purpose.
“Although there was a cloud hanging over
my future, I found, to my surprise, that I
was enjoying life in the present more than
before. I began to make progress with my
research,” he once said. Embarking on his
career in earnest, he declared: “My goal is
simple. It is a complete understanding of
the universe, why it is as it is and why it
exists at all.”
58 MAY - JUNE 2018