SOUTH AFRICAN anti-apartheid activist Andrew Mlangeni has died at the age of 95.

He had been admitted to a military hospital in Pretoria with abdominal pains, before he passed away.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa paid tribute to Mr Mlangeni’s, describing his death as the “end of a generational history”.

He said: “With his passing as the last remaining Rivonia triallist, Bab’Mlangeni has indeed passed the baton to his compatriots to build the South Africa he fought to liberate and to reconstruct during our democratic dispensation.”

Former archbishop Desmond Tutu said his passing was “the last post on a courageous generation of South Africans who forfeited their freedom, careers, family lives and health so that we could all be free.”

Robben Island

Mr Mlangeni was the last surviving activist to have been convicted alongside Nelson Mandela during the infamous Rivonia Trial.

He spent 26 years in prison alongside Mr Mandela, Dennis Goldberg, Walter Sisulu and others who were imprisoned for planning to overthrow the apartheid government.

After his release in 1980, he served as a member of South Africa’s first democratic parliament from 1992.

His later years saw him sit as chairman of the integrity committee of the African National Congress party.