South African Freedom Awards

Ezrom and Irene Mokgakala: Biography

Ezrom (Easy) and Irene (MmaMosala) Mokgakala have been married for
more than forty years. They have three sons, Solly, Mduduzi and
Itumeleng and a cute five year-old grandson named Raheem Serame
Mokgakala. The family has contributed a great deal in raising
awareness of Anti-Apartheid activities in Toronto during the nineteen-
eighties and early nineteen nineties. Easy Mokgakala, an active
Community Leader, served time on the infamous Robben Island in the
nineteen sixties.


Ezrom Mokgakala has worked for more that a decade as a Program Worker
at CultureLink Settlement Services of Toronto where he assisted New
Canadians to find accommodation and employment in the City. His
sterling work at CultureLink earned him an Agency Staff Award. He was
also given an award for his work as Chairman of the Toronto Refugee
Affairs Council and was given a New Pioneers' Award for Leadership by
Skills For Change, a settlement agency based in Toronto in 1994.


Irene MmaMosala Kenosi Mokgakala (nee Mokaleng) has been a pillar of
strength for her family. She withstood the harassment experienced by
the spouses of Freedom Fighters at the hands the Security Police of
racist South Africa for many years until she decided to join her
husband in exile.


Risking arrest, she bravely led her sons across the border into The
Democratic Republic of Botswana to join the Anti-Apartheid Struggle in
exile before joining her husband in Canada. Her valiant spirit has