On November 18, Lucia Raadschelders passed away in Johannesburg after a long battle with cancer. As a friend of ZAM, Lucia was instrumental in the collaboration between our organisation and the Nelson Mandela Foundation (NMF). In the early eighties, Lucia joined the Dutch Anti-Apartheid Movement and co-ordinated several youth and women’s campaigns. From 1987 she took part in Operation Vula, an underground ANC project aimed at the intensification of the struggle against apartheid. Running ‘safe houses’ in Lusaka (Zambia) and Mbabane (Swaziland) Lucia was a crucial link in a technologically advanced communication system between Nelson Mandela, still in prison, and the exiled ANC leadership.
As an archivist, Lucia connected us to new activities, events and programmes of the Nelson Mandela Foundation.
She will be sorely missed. Hamba Kahle, Farewell, Adieu. Rest in Peace, dear Lucia.
