Cape Town - AYO Technology Solutions chairperson, lawyer and acting judge at the Land Claims Court, Dr Wallace Mgoqi, has passed away.
The retired advocate, businessman and activist died on Monday evening. It is believed he had suffered a heart attack. Dr Mgoqi served as AYO’s chairperson from 2018.
During his distinguished judicial and public service career, he served as acting judge in the Land Claims Court from 2014 to 2019, as chief land claims commissioner in 1999, on the Commission for Gender Equality between 2012 and 2019, and as city manager for Cape Town between 2003 and 2006.
Mgoqi, born in Goodwood in 1949, also served on the board of the National Development Agency, University of Cape Town’s alumni advisory board and the Ernest Mancoba advisory board.
He held three honorary doctorates from UCT, the Walter Sisulu University and New York University.
In 1988, Mgoqi achieved a victory for residents of Wallacedene in Kraaifontein in a mass evictions case against the apartheid government, leading to his clients naming the area after him.
DA federal council chairperson Helen Zille expressed her condolences. “I worked with him during the days of the UDF and I found him a decent and kind person,” she told the Cape Argus.
Long-time friend and business partner Dr Iqbal Survé paid a moving tribute to Mgoqi: “Dr Mgoqi was a dear friend, colleague, mentor, someone whom I’d known for more than three decades. He was a distinguished man; three honorary doctorates.
“A loving family man, God-fearing, honest and ethical to his very core being. His departure is an enormous loss for his family – Dolly his wife, and his children. It’s an enormous loss for me and my family. His loss is a great loss for the Sekunjalo Group and for the community,” Dr Survé said.
A statement issued by AYO said: “The shocking news was received on Monday night,, and comes not long after the recent settlement between the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) and AYO, which saw a long-running battle settled amicably.
The company described Mgoqi as a champion of AYO’s broad-based black economic empowerment mandate to transform the country’s ICT sector.
“His unwavering support for the group carried it through years of tribulation at the hands of repeated inaccurate media reporting was stoic, but ultimately, it took its toll,” AYO’s statement said.
“AYO will forever be in debt to advocate Wallace Mgoqi for the support he has given us.
“AYO’s deepest and most sincere condolences to his family. His wife of more than 50 years, Dolly, his children and grandchildren.”
Mgoqi’s death comes two weeks after AYO was vindicated in the Western Cape High Court in a case against the Public Investment Corporation. The parties reached a settlement deal after the latter had alleged its R4.3 billion investment in AYO was unlawful.
Ever the land activist, Mgoqi through his research paper, New Urban Agenda, submitted to former Human Settlements Minister Nomaindia Mfeketo in 2018, sought to change the landscape and apartheid spatial planning of Cape Town.
The 5000-word document aimed to influence the government's human settlements policy.
While acting as the land claims judge, he boldly called on the government – at the height of the land debate in 2018 – to take land from struggling golf courses located on city land.
Addressing the land summit hosted by the ANC in Stellenbosch that year, Mgoqi cited Parow and Kuils River golf clubs as suitable examples of land that could be used for housing.
soyiso.maliti@inl.co.za