Tryphina Mboxela Jokweni

Tryphina Mboxela Jokweni was a female operative of Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), an armed military wing of the African National Congress (ANC). The ANC is currently the governing party in South Africa. She was popularly known as Mboxela in the neighbourhood.

She died of illness at her house at Umlazi Township in the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Province at the age of 77 in 2002. Mboxela was the mother of three children.

Early life In 1951, Mboxela was recruited to the ANC by Dorothy Nyembe, both women being residents of the informal settlement of Umkhumbane. Mboxela served the MK and ANC with loyalty and dedication over the years. While at Umkhumbane she worked as an ANC volunteer and regularly distributed informative pamphlets to the public (with the assistance of Dorothy Nyembe and Steve Dlamini) about ANC policies in order to drum up support for the ANC at the time.

The three MK operatives were given a final chance to come out of the house, which they refused. The apartheid security force then bombed the house, reducing it to rubble and killing the three MK operatives. Mboxela survived because she had left the house when the final offer was made, handing herself over to the police. In commemoration of Mboxela, the spokesperson of the ANC, Mtholephi Mthimkhulu, said: "The spirit of Jokweni should lead us to step up the fight against poverty to ensure a better life for all."