At 72, Stofile died at his home in Alice, in the Eastern Cape.
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Stofile was also a leading administrator and served as a provincial and national sports administrator for more than 20 years, serving rugby as a member of the Victoria East Rugby Union, the South Eastern Districts Rugby Union, and the pre-rugby unity South African Rugby Union.
Stofile served as the ANC’s treasurer-general from 1995 to 1997 and was premier from 1997 to 2004. At the time of his death, Stofile had just returned from Germany, were he was ambassador, having previously been the national sport minister.
Tributes have been pouring in for the minister. “South Africa owes a debt of gratitude to Mr Stofile for his huge contribution to the freedom we enjoy today”, said Hatang. “He led from the front in the campaign for non-racial sport and always been a committed supporter of anti-doping”, it said.
African National Congress (ANC) stalwart Reverend Makhenkesi Stofile passed away on Monday.
Parliament has praised the contribution of the late Reverend Makhenkesi Stofile in achieving a non-racial and democratic South Africa.
“Bra Stoff was a true revolutionary leader whose ideas and contribution to the cause of the struggle for the liberation of our people will forever inspire the generations of man to come”, Ngqondi said.
“We have lost a calibre of one of our most finest and most revolutionary leaders, whose humility and exemplary leadership represented the best forms of the true traditions and culture of our national liberation movement”.
He was an ANC Chief Whip following the democratic elections in 1994.
Stofile joined the ANC in 1958.
He held a number of presidential roles for sporting bodies.
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Stofile was a South African ambassador before he became the chancellor of Fort Hare University earlier this year. “We shall with them their profound grief and sense of loss”.
