On Monday night, Rose Tatane, wife of slain Free State community activist Andries Tatane, died in a car accident involving herself and her driver, the Sowetan reported.
Lebohang Mohlaping, Tatane's brother, told the paper that the driver lost control of his Toyota Hilux bakkie in Bela-Bela, causing the car to veer off the road and crash into a crop farm at around 7pm on Monday night. Both Tatane and her driver died on the scene.
Mohlaping said that he found out when he had tried to call her around 9pm and a policeman answered her phone. "We are still traumatised as a family. We are awaiting the postmortem results before we can start making funeral arrangements," Mohlaping told the Sowetan.
Tatane's husband, Andries Tatane, was killed in a hail of police bullets during a service delivery protest in Ficksburg in 2011. The incident, which was captured on camera, was a major news story that brought the issue of police brutality in South Africa into the limelight once again.
Seven police officers accused of his murder and assault were acquitted in March 2013
Letlotlo Ranyathole, Andries' friend and fellow activist, told the Sowetan that Rose's death was a big setback to the fight to keep her husband's legacy alive.
Prior to her death, ahead of her husband's sixth year commemoration, Tatane expressed anger that her husband's death was in vain as their community experienced water shortages.
"I'm very angry that six years after my husband was killed by police for fighting for service delivery, I'm still subjected to lack of water. Every now and then I have to pay money to get my buckets across [the Caledon River] to Maputsoe for water."