SOUTH AFRICAN anti-apartheid hero and former defence minister Mosiuoa “Terror” Lekota has died at the age of 77 after a long illness, his political party said today.

Mr Lekota was a prominent activist against white minority rule in South Africa and served eight years in prison on Robben Island alongside other jailed anti-apartheid figures, including Nelson Mandela, from 1974 to 1982.

Mr Lekota was jailed even after he was released from Robben Island for his continued anti-apartheid activism.

He served as South Africa’s minister of defence from 1999 to 2008 and was also the national chairman of the African National Congress (ANC), which governed the country after the first democratic election in 1994.

However, Mr Lekota’s relationship with the ANC soured after former president Thabo Mbeki was removed as the country’s president in 2008, having lost the presidency of the ANC to former president Jacob Zuma in 2007.

He formed a breakaway party, the Congress of the People, which contested the 2009 elections. It became the third biggest opposition party with 30 seats in South Africa’s 400-member parliament.

Bantu Holomisa, South Africa’s deputy minister of defence and leader of the opposition United Democratic Movement party, said: “His role was not doubted, because he and others from the ANC did understand the passage of the struggle.”