Nonhlanhla Mthembu, the councillor who died at the Johannesburg City Hall this week at the age of 50, joined the liberation struggle as a teenager on the streets of Soweto during the states of emergency in the 1980s. Like many children who with stones and petrol bombs defied heavily armed police and soldiers in armoured Casspir troop carriers, the young Mthembu was shot at, chased, beaten with sjamboks and detained.Mthembu was born on April 3 1966 in Soweto's Zola One.She joined the militant Congress of South African Students (Cosas) as a teenage pupil of Bhukulani Secondary School and learned the ins and outs of organising, recruiting and political development of students, youths and communities for the mass democratic movement.She was one of the youngsters who established the Bhukulani Communist Party, which provoked police raids and harassment by the police Special Branch.A few years ago she discovered that one of the teachers she had scorned and pilloried for not being active enough - but who had sprung to her defence and protected her from the police when they raided her classroom - had been an underground ANC operative and wife of a former Robben Island prisoner.Mthembu said that was a humbling experience; it taught her not to jump to conclusions about people and made her a better councillor.She campaigned for the establishment of democratically elected student representative councils (SRCs), and helped popularise "people's education" under the auspices of the Education Charter campaign.After exiled ANC president Oliver Tambo's 1985 call to make South Africa ungovernable, Mthembu took part in the formation of street committees and participated in the mass mobilisation of communities in acts of defiance against the apartheid regime."Comrade Stompie", as she was called, was active in campaigning for the 1986 Soweto rent boycott, enforcing work stayaways aimed at hurting the apartheid economy and consumer boycotts when township residents refused, and were forbidden on pain of sometimes severe punishment, to buy goods in town.Mthembu was recruited into the ANC underground, and became an MK cadre. She was trained in South Africa and participated in a number of operations.She played a role in the establishment of the first democratically elected local government structures. She was a member of the interim committee and the first group of serving councillors.Mthembu worked as an administrator in the metro's Soweto subregional office, and later became a membership officer.While campaigning in the first democratic elections in 1994, she was involved in a near-fatal car accident. Her right leg was fractured and she used a crutch for the rest of her life.She became an ANC councillor halfway through the term of Johannesburg mayor Amos Masondo, and served a full term under mayor Parks Tau. She had just been sworn in for a third term when she collapsed and died.She served on the community development portfolio committee from 2011, and was known affectionately in the community as "Black Diamond" for her work in development programmes and education campaigns.She distinguished herself on the ANC benches in council with her hard work and thorough preparation before council and committee meetings.Mthembu read every document with an analytical mind, sought clarity where she didn't understand, exposed inaccuracies and inconsistencies and objected boldly when she had a different opinion.She believed in working together with other members of council across political lines to improve the lives of the people of Johannesburg.Mthembu leaves behind her partner, Mbekeni Mkhize, and sons Jabulani and Siphamandla.1966-2016 ..