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[QUOTE="Queen, post: 87846, member: 27"]
A towering anti-apartheid figure who did time on Robben Island and later torched his own party legacy just exited the stage at 77.

Mosiuoa Lekota's life and legacy
[LIST]
[*]Mosiuoa Lekota served as South Africa's defence minister for a full decade.
[*]His Robben Island stint overlapped with Nelson Mandela's imprisonment.
[*]Lekota became the Free State's first premier after democracy arrived.
[*]Football skills earned him the nickname Terror early on.
[/LIST]
ANC fallout and Cope's rise
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[*]Lekota ditched the ANC in 2008 over governance and corruption gripes.
[*]Thabo Mbeki's ouster by the party accelerated his departure.
[*]Cope, co-founded with Mbhazima Shilowa, snagged 30 parliamentary seats initially.
[*]Internal leadership beef between the two tanked the party over time.
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Activist roots and treason trials
[LIST]
[*]Lekota first got locked up in 1974 under the Terrorism Act.
[*]His United Democratic Front role triggered another arrest after 1982.
[*]Eleven people caught convictions in the Delmas Treason Trial.
[*]South Africa's Supreme Court of Appeal eventually tossed those sentences.
[/LIST]
Tributes and final chapter
[LIST]
[*]Cyril Ramaphosa called Lekota a freedom fighter and servant of the people.
[*]Trevor Manuel described his late friend as an amazing human being.
[*]Manuel visited a very ill Lekota in intensive care two weeks prior.
[*]Cope confirmed he had stepped back from public office last August.
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