Maggie Kgopodisho Oliphant (nee Mongwaketse) aka Thandi Sicelo (her alias during exile), was born in Soweto on 21 July 1957. She was the third born in a family of seven children of Rre Kgosiboile Koos Mongwaketse and Mme Onkgatlile Lydia Mongwaketse. The Mongwaketse lineage originates from the North West Province in Morokweng village under the Chieftainship of Kgosi Hailane in Kagisano Molopo Municipality.
She started her educational journey in 1964 at Merafe Lower Primary and proceeded to Bonegang Higher Primary School. In 1973, she attended Moletsane Secondary School, and that is where she became politically active. As a result of the apartheid system, Maggie joined her peers and formed part of the historic activities of the 1976 student uprising against the education and learning curriculum relating to the Afrikaans language. The students' uprising was a turning point in the fight against apartheid and it propelled Maggie into joining the mass exodus of young people from South Africa that went into exile under the banner of the "Black Power" campaign. After she left for exile, Maggie went on to matriculate in 1977 at Thokoza High school in Swaziland. Thereafter she left for Tanzania.
From 1979 to 1988 she worked in Tanzania and occupied various portfolios in the finance environment. During this period, she went to Angola in 1984 for military training at the Warsaw Camp as Umkhonto We Sizwe guerrilla. The struggle of the South African youth in exile resonated with various detachments during their military training, and Maggie formed part of the “Madinoga" Detachment.
While working in Tanzania, she met and married the love of her life Daniel Oliphant (alias Mtu Jwili) on July 18, 1985. The two love birds walked the path of life side by side as activists and intelligence officers up to their retirement. Their marriage was blessed with three sons.
As a youngster who valued education, Maggie pursued further studies and acquired a Certificate in Basic Management at the Institute of Development Management in Tanzania during the year of 1989, and a Technical Diploma in Accounting at the National Institute of Public Administration in 1991 in Zambia.
After the unbanning of all liberation movements and return of exiles to South Africa, Maggie returned to South Africa in 1991. She was employed at Sagewood Education Centre within the Finance section in Midrand. Maggie then joined the South African Secret Service in 1995 after the amalgamation of Statutory and Non-Statutory bodies of intelligence structures in the new dispensation. She remained loyal, honest and focused to the course of serving without any fear or favor as an intelligence officer.
Maggie was an avid believer in projects that had to do with “a better life for all of South Africa’s children”. She spent endless hours discussing possible projects to this end. She was also active in her Norkem Park ANC Branch and Women’s League as a member in good standing. She was very active in her neighborhood women’s club and was very instrumental in the recruitment of new residents in the neighbourhood to form part of the support networks during bereavements.
Maggie was best known for being a “medical advisor” because of her passion for wellness, both physical and mental. She was very good at giving advice on home remedies for all sorts of ailments. She had a ready ear, always availing herself to guide and counsel her loved ones to navigate their way through life. She loved knowledge and imparted it selflessly.
Maggie was a devoted wife and mother. She doted on her family and committed her entire being to ensuring their joy and prosperity. She was dependable as a friend, comrade and colleague. Maggie was a mother-figure to all her nieces and nephews. She was a motivator and an inspiration that lived by example. She had an extensive network which she willingly used (along with any resource at her disposal) to create a platform for educating and advancing career opportunities for her loved ones. She was a servant of her people (or “Masechaba”) in the truest sense.
Maggie had looked forward to enjoying retirement with her lovely soulmate – but this was not to be as death did them apart shortly after their retirement in May 2017 with the sudden passing of her Mtu. ‘Thandi without Mtu’ was a new chapter that Thandi found difficult to accept with each passing day. The subsequent passing of her late sister Bontle in 2020 saddened her deeply because they shared a deep bond. The thought that she is now left all by herself, affected every fibre of her being.
In the afternoon of 3 February 2021, Maggie collapsed at her home and was rushed to Arwyp Hospital where she was confirmed deceased on arrival. That sombre afternoon deeply cut her family, comrades and friends.
Maggie was defined as a matriarch of her family and was deeply loved by her children. She was the last surviving child of Mr and Mrs Mongwaketse (predeceased by her siblings: Pulakgosi, Isaac, Leslie, Tanta, Bontle and Mosa). She is survived by her three sons (Kutlwano, Itumeleng and Kamogelo), daughter-in-law Tina, two grandchildren (Rorisang and Tshiamo), nieces, nephews and a huge family of loved ones.
Robala ka Kagiso Morwadia Mongwaketse: Phologolo e mashetla a ditlhotlha!!
“E marapo a mmitlwa a Matebele,
e motho a ka tshotla a sa e itse e se wa rona,
e le wa dichaba,
ya motshwara,
ya moswatola legano a tswa tata e se ngwana
wa letsele”
“My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style”
-Maya Angelou
