Pretoria - President Jacob Zuma has described struggle stalwart Albertina Sisulu as a "beautiful spirit and a shining light".
Ageing gracefully, Sisulu celebrated her 92nd birthday on Thursday with friends and family.
"We have always looked up to you and all our heroines who braved the brutality of apartheid to ensure that one day we live in a free, non-racial and democratic South Africa," said Zuma in his massage.
"We thank you for the sacrifices that you and our national hero, the late Walter Sisulu, made for this country. We love you and wish you all the best on this special day and on every other day. May you have many more," said Zuma.
Mama Sisulu is the wife of the late prominent political activist and Robben Island prisoner, Walter Sisulu and mother to the Minister of Housing, Lindiwe Sisulu and Speaker in Parliament Max Sisulu.
She was a political activist who assumed many roles as a member of the ruling party's women structure and the Federation of South African Women (Fedsaw).
In 1956, she led the anti-pass demonstration where 20 000 women marched to the Union Buildings in Pretoria.
She also led a campaign to boycott Bantu Education, the inferior schooling imposed on black children in 1954. Alternative classes were held at her home until they were prohibited by law.
In 2003, Mama Sisulu and Nelson Mandela opened the Walter Sisulu Paediatric Cardiac Centre for Africa which provides free life-serving cardiac operations to children in Africa who cannot afford such procedure.
