Dudula Founder “Kruger” Mourns passing of his Skeem Sam Mom

He is very much thankful of her teachings and strict discipline

By Staff Reporter

Kruger Kekana (left) is still saddened by the passing of his dear mother Mrs. Sarah Mandu Kekana (on the right)      Photos: Trans Pawa Media

Operation Dudula co-founder Solomon “Kruger’ Kekana is mourning the death of his beloved mother, Mrs. Sarah Mandu Kekana. She died on the 25th May 2025, at an undisclosed hospital after a long illness, associated mostly by her advanced age. She was just few months shy of celebrating her 90th birthday, which is 1st November.

Speaking at the funeral, held at his home in Mapetla, Soweto, last Saturday, Kruger described his mom as a strict disciplinarian but also full of love for all her five children. “My mother was very strict with discipline in all of us. She instilled strong values of integrity, resilience and self love. The way we (me and her) were so close we called each other “Skeem Sami”. She was very supportive of our movement, Operation Dudula, since its inception. She was my dearest friend. She spoke nicely to me even a day before her passing away. But I released her with my open heart, knowing that she has been not well for a very long time and has run her race in this world “

Operation Dudula President Zandile Dabula (left) and husband Solomon Kruger Kekana, at the funeral of Mrs. Sarah Kekana, last Saturday      Photo: Trans Pawa Media

Born in 1st November 1935, in Boksburg North to her late parents, Mrs. Agnes Ntebaleng and Mr David Sturrman Nyathi, Mrs. Sarah Kekana and family later moved to Dukathole in Germiston, then to Naledi and finally to Mapetla ( Both in Soweto ). In trying to help supplement the meager income of her blue collar worker husband (The late Alfred Mpua Kekana) and in raising their kids, she worked as a domestic worker to different employers for a very long time, during the darkest days of apartheid, which was not an easy time for black people in South Africa, under the brutal system of the white government rule.

Mrs. Sarah Mandu Kekana was laid to rest, last Saturday, at the Avalon Cemetery in Soweto. Unfortunately three of her children passed away before her. She is now survived by two sons, Lucky and Kruger, two daughters in law (Dorah and Zandile Dabula, the popular Operation Dudula President and wife to Kruger), five grandchildren and six great grandchildren.