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Today we mourn the passing of Breyten Breytenbach, 85, humanist whose strident and sustained literary assault on apartheid and its enforcers and endorsers traversed bookstores, domestic bookshelves, lecture halls, art galleries and theatre stages around the world.
My thoughts are with his wife, Yolande, and daughter, Daphnée, in Paris which has been the home of this son of Bonnievale in the Western Cape for decades.
Our sadness affords us another opportunity to pay tribute to Breyten Breytenbach for the bravery and perseverance with which he stood up to his persecution and prosecution by the apartheid state.
Fearful of his influence on the minority electorate in South Africa and on world opinion, the apartheid regime imprisoned him for opposing the system and channelling through his diverse art forms and political and fraternal affiliations the militancy, tragedy and resilience of our liberation struggle.
May his soul rest in peace.
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