Ezrom and Irene Mokgakala: Biography

Ezrom (Easy) and Irene (MmaMosala) Mokgakala have been married for more than fourty 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 helped her overcome the difficulties of leading her family in adjusting to a new environment.

On arriving in Canada, she immediately joined the Black Consciousness Movement of Azania and the Azania Support Committee, under the leadership of Comrades Gerald Phokobye and Thato Bereng to mobilize support for the International Anti-Apartheid Movement.

The couple is presently enjoying their retirement years in Toronto.