[AfrICANN-discuss] The passing of a great Lady: we owe it to Ivy to continue the good work

[Anne-Rachel Inné]

Dear All,

As you may have seen from the many Press articles out there, or heard via
her many supporters, Ivy Matsepe-Casburri passed away yesterday in South
Africa. She was MInister of Communications since 1999.
""Matsepe-Casaburri was appointed as communications minister after the 1999
general elections. Before that, she made history as the first female premier
of a province when she was appointed to head the Free State provincial
government from 1996 to 1999. In 1993, she was appointed the first female
chairperson of the South African Broadcasting Corporation board and led the
organisation through its initial transformation.

On a number of occasions, Matsepe-Casaburri filled in for former president
Thabo Mbeki as acting president. She was part of a group of Cabinet
ministers selected to do so when he and his deputy were either out of the
country, or indisposed at the same time. She acted as president when Mbeki
resigned and before the inauguration of president Kgahlema Motlanthe, in
September last year.

Born in Kroonstad, in the Free State, on 17 September 1937,
Matsepe-Casaburri was a long-serving member of the African National Congress
and went into exile after working as a teacher in KwaZulu-Natal. She had
obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Fort Hare and
later a doctorate in sociology from Rutgers University in the US.
She served as a senior lecturer at the United Nations Institute on Namibia,
in Zambia, and returned to the country in 1990.""

So goes the official biography. My personal recollection through the years
is of *Mrs Matsepe-Casaburri as one of the African Internet community most
fervent supporters *and a few of you will remember her speeches at different
meetings where she came, smiled graciously, chastised, talked, mingled,
remembered things and said "you can count on me".

She was respected internationally and all through WSIS (2003-2005), the
tandem she formed with Lyndall Shope Mafolle will be remembered as the
'though ladies' of South Africa, on the Internet Governance issue especially
but on all issues that mattered for our region.

She was tough, but always gracious and well informed. She was genuine and
truly empathised with audiences. She will always be remembered and be in my
personal pantheon of the "Persons to remember". As we say in Africa, she is
right here with us! only the shell left.
-- 
Anne-Rachel Inne
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