Elizabeth Mafekeng was born in 1918 in Tarkastad and attended school until Standard 7. Living conditions in her birthplace forced her to leave for Paarl in Cape Town in early 1930s. Mafekeng left school at the age of 15 to support the family.  Her first job was at a “canning factory where she cleaned fruit and vegetables for 75 cents a week.”  She married a fellow factory worker in 1941.Up to the time of her banishment in late 1959, they had eleven children and lived in a cottage on Barbarossa Street, Paarl.  She worked in the industry until Pass Laws were introduced.

Mafekeng joined the trade union 1941, became a shop steward and then served, between 1954 and 1959 “as President of the African Food and Canning WorkersUnion (AFCWU) and branch secretary in Paarl.”  Mafekeng was known as “Rocky” among the workers in Paarl.  A striking woman, she always began ”her speeches with a song or two, singing in a clear, rich and well-organised voice.”  Her speeches were “fiery, militant and witty.”  In order “to connect the workers” struggle for liberation totheir struggle for better working conditions, she joined the Paarl branch of the African National Congress (ANC). 

She thus became actively involved politics to fight the injustice brought about by these laws. She first rose to the position of National Vice-President of the ANC Women's League and later elected into the National Executive Committee of the Federation of South African Women (FEDSAW) in the 1940s.

In 1952 Mafekeng participated in the African National Congress (ANC) led Defiance Campaign and South African Congress Trade Unions' (SACTU's) 1957 'Pound a day' Campaign. Mafekeng also served as the President of the militant South African Food and Canning Workers Union and the Paarl branch secretary of the African Food and Canning Workers and Union.

In 1957, she became the Vice-President of the ANC Women’s League (ANCWL).  She also served on the regional committee of the National Executive of the South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU) and was one of the founder members of the Federation of South African Women (FEDSAW). 

In 1955, she skipped the country without legal papers to represent the Food Workers Union at a trade union conference held in Sofia, Bulgaria. She was met by the police brutality upon her return from the conference. Police sought to know what was her business at the conference.

In 1959, the Government banished her from Paarl, Cape Province (now Western Cape) to a remote government farm in the Kuruman district. She refused to take her 11 children to that desolate place. On the night of her deportation the union leadership organised a large number of workers to bid her a safe journey.According to M Blumberg [in The Mafekeng Affair. Africa South 4(3) April – June 1960, p 40]:

Two policemen and Mr Johannes Le Roux, the Paarl Native Commissioner, made a call on Mrs Elizabeth Mafekeng in the middle of the morning of October 27^th [1959].  They presented her with a piece of paper banishing her from Paarl to Southey Farm, Vryburg District, [now North West Province], a distant and desolate spot of dust, about 700 miles away.  The document signed by Mr De Wet Nel, Minister for Bantu Administration, was issued under the Native Administration Act and said that it was ‘injurious for the peace, order and good administration of Natives in the district of Paarl’ if Mrs Mafekeng remained there.  She was given five days (later extended to twelve) to say goodbye to her family, make arrangements for their care, (and) wind up her work ... There was, of course, no trial, no public hearing and no possibility of appeal.

Mafeking’s banishment occurred as a result of the activities she engaged in on the night prior to her arrest. On 2 October 1959, Mafekeng was arrested for ”leading an anti-pass demonstration in Paarl, (but) the charge came to nothing in court.”   Mafekeng’s union was the most militant in the country and nine union officials prior to her had been immobilised by the state.  A few weeks before she received her banishment order, she and Liz Abrahams, the Acting General Secretary of the Food and Canning Workers Union (FCWU), went  “ to Port Elizabeth to assist workers in organising the campaign against proposed wage cuts by Langeberg Ko-operasie management.”  

Rather than being banished to Southey and to ”a future of nothingness,” Mafekeng fled to Lesotho with her two-month old baby, Uhuru, and sought refuge at a Roman Catholic Mission at Makhaleng.  She was granted asylum and lived in a two-room home with her nine children in the small village of Mafeteng.

Her order was withdrawn on 7 September 1967.

She got onto a train and started waving farewell. She quietly walked through two coaches and jumped off the train unnoticed. She was whisked to Lesotho and sought political refuge in there to avoid deportation.

With the unbanning of the liberation movements in 1990, she returned to Paarl.  The Food and Canning Workers Union (FCWU) built her a home in Mbekweni Township in Paarl.  Elizabeth Mafeking died on 28 May 2009, at the age of 90, due to ill health.

The Western Cape Government, posthumously, conferred Mafekeng with the Western Cape Provincial Honours Awards in honour of her contribution to the liberation struggle. 

Dr Emmanuel Bonginkosi "Blade" Nzimande was born in Kwa-Dambuza, Pietermaritzburg, Natal (now kwaZulu-Natal) on 14 April 1958. In the 1980s, he was a member of progressive education organisations, including National Education Union of South Africa (NEUSA), Union of Democratic University Staff Associations (UDUSA) and the National Education Crisis Committee (NECC) and served in many NGOs supporting mass and labour struggles.

Nzimande joined the South African Communist Party (SACP) in 1988. He has held the position of the General Secretary of the SACP since July 1998. He is also a member of the African National Congress (ANC) National Executive Committee, a member of the ANC National Working Committee and the Chairperson of the Financial Sector Coalition Campaign (FSCC).

He obtained his PhD in Industrial Sociology from the University of Natal (now University of kwaZulu-Natal) in 1991 and is a qualified Industrial Psychologist. From 1994 to 1999, Dr Nzimande was a Member of Parliament and Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Education in South Africa’s first democratic parliament. He was, formerly, Director of the Education Policy Unit at the University of Natal from 1990 to 1994. Prior to that, he lectured in Industrial Psychology at the Universities of Zululand and Natal.

Dr Nzimande was appointed as the Minister for Higher Education and Training in the Republic of South Africa in May 2009.

In addition to serving on the Boards and committees of many organisations, Dr Nzimande has published numerous works related to his past research, namely: Education, Civil Society and the State, Affirmative Action, and Education Policy Development, and Socialism. He is also the author of a book entitled, Children of Wars: The impact of violence on schooling in Natal.

David Dabede Mabuza was born 25 August, 1960 in Brondal, Mpumalanga. He matriculated from Khumbula High School. He obtained a National Teacher’s Certificate from Mngwenya College of Education in 1985. He furthered his studies at University of South Africa (UNISA) with Bachelor of Arts degree in 1989.

Mabuza has been involved in politics from his mid-twenties, holding the position of secretary of the Azania Student Organisation (AZASO) at the age of 24 from 1984 to 1985. Mathews Phosa recruited Mabuza into the United Democratic Front (UDF) in 1986. He moved on to become a Chairperson of the National Education Union of South Africa (NEUSA) from 1986 till the organisation’s banning in 1988. During this time he was also a Treasurer of the Foundation for Education with Production (FEP); a Co-ordinator of the National Education Crisis Committee (NECC) from 1987 to 1989 and a Chairperson of South African Democratic Teachers Union from 1988 to 1991. Mabuza worked at KaNgwane Department of Education from 1986 to 1988 and he was a Principal of Lungisani Secondary School from 1989 to 1993.

Mabuza served as a member of Executive Council (MEC) for Education from 1994 to 1998, a position for which he was recruited by his erstwhile mentor, Mathews Phosa. Ferial Haffajee and Amil Umraw wrote for the Huffington Post that Phosa then “ [...] axed [Mabuza] when Mpumalanga's highly inflated matric results caused a national scandal.”[1] During this period, Mabuza was also serving as a regional Chairperson of the African National Congress (ANC). He would then go on to be a member of the Provincial Executive Committee of ANC from 1998 to 2006. Mabuza became a member of the Mpumalanga legislature in 1999, a position he has held until today. He was a member of Parliament from 2001 to 2004.

Mabuza has been very involved in the running of the ANC in Mpumalanga. He was a leader of Government Business in the Mpumalanga Provincial legislature in 2007. He served as a Deputy Chairperson of the ANC Mpumalanga Province in 2005 as well as MEC for Road and Transport, from 2007 to 2008, and MEC for Agriculture and Land Administration from 2008 to 2009. He was Chairperson of the Mpumalanga ANC in 2008.

As a result of Mabuza backing Jacob Zuma in the 52nd ANC National Conference in 2007, Mabuza was voted onto the ANC National Executive Committee the same year. Two years later, he was elected to the position of Premier of Mpumalanga. Under Mabuza’s control as Provincial Chairperson, the number of delegates which the province takes to the ANC elective conference has ballooned. Mpumalanga, as of the recent 54th National Conference in 2017, has the second highest delegate total of 736 delegates. This is a large amount as Gauteng, with a population of 12 million, has 508. Mpumalanga has a population of 4 million.

Mabuza has been surrounded by controversy during his stint as Premier. Mandy Wiener writes for Eyewitness News that “[i]n 2009, R14 million in cash mysteriously disappeared from Mabuza’s home in Barberton known as ‘The Farm’. The entire incident was shrouded in secrecy, with police eventually confirming R4 million had been reported stolen, but only R1,200 was actually taken. It all smelt very dodgy, but disappeared into the news ether.”[2] Furthermore, Mabuza has allegedly had a relationship with the Gupta family, evidenced by him accepting a flight on the family’s private jet. He has since distanced himself from the Guptas.

The most serious controversies surrounding Mabuza regard the spate of political assassinations in Mpumalanga. The most high profile of which was Jimmy Mohala, who was killed in 2009. The Mbombela municipality speaker had been a whistleblower regarding corruption related to the building of the R1.2 billion 2010 FIFA World Cup stadium in Mbombela. A similar series of events played out in 2010 when Sammy Mpatlanyane, the Department of Culture, Sport and Recreation spokesperson who blew the whistle on corruption regarding the tender for the Mpumalanga archives building, was killed. James Nkambule, a whistleblower claiming a hitman had been hired by politicians to kill the rival political faction in Mpumalanga, was also found to have died by poisoning. The spate of politically linked murders prompted former Police Commissioner Bheki Cele to set up a commission of inquiry in 2011 into the murders in the province. The findings of this inquiry have yet to be made public.

In 2015, Mabuza accused Mathews Phosa of defamation after Phosa sent a memorandum to ANC headquarters, Luthuli House, which accused Mabuza of being an apartheid spy. Mabuza claimed R10 million in damages from Phosa. The lawsuit was dismissed in the High Court in 2017. The two men were involved in another confrontation in 2017 as Phosa alleged that Mabuza was operating a ‘private army’ in Mpumalanga and using it to intimidate opposition. Mabuza dismissed the allegation as fabrication.

Mabuza’s self-appointed moniker is ‘The Cat’. Mandy Wiener writes that “[w]hen he returned from a mysterious two-month hiatus due to apparent poisoning in 2015, he told his supporters “the cat was back”.”[3] This is in reference to his constant political renewal as well as his ability to bounce back from political defeats. Nothing epitomises this more than his recent election as Deputy President of the ANC at the 54th ANC National Conference at the Nasrec expo centre in Johannesburg. He defeated his opponent, Lindiwe Sisulu, by 379 votes with a total of 2538 out of a total 4708.

Ncumisa Chwayita Kondlo grew up in the rural village of Peddie in the Eastern Cape.

Kondlo was politically active from an early age. In her student days at Fort Hare, Alice, Eastern Cape she was active in the Azanian Students Organisation (AZASO) and later the South African National Students Congress (SANSCO) where she served in the regional structures of these organisations. She later moved to Rhodes University, Grahamstown, Eastern Cape where she was also active in the Black Students Movement in the 1980s.

Kondlo joined the South African Youth Congress (SAYCO) and was elected to its National Executive Council (NEC) in 1989.  

She was active in a broad range of structures of the mass democratic movement and workers’ movement, including the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (SADTU) and South African Domestic Workers Union (SADWU).

Kondlo a dedicated human rights and gender activist, was a member and leader of the African National Congress (ANC), the South African Communist Party (SACP) and a Member of Parliament.

Kondlo was part of the interim SACP leadership core in the Border region in 1990, and was elected onto the first Provincial Executive Council (PEC) when provincial structures of the SACP were formed. In 1998, she was elected onto the Central Committee of the SACP as well as being elected onto the SACP’s Politburo in 2001 and in 2007 she was elected as the National Deputy Chairperson of the SACP.

She contributed selflessly to the formation of the teachers’ union in the Border region and subsequently in the establishment of the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (SADTU).

Kondlo was a former Member of the Executive Council (MEC) for Welfare in the Eastern Cape Provincial government.

Her contribution to the South African women’s struggle earned her an award from the Swedish Society Party.

At the time of her passing, Kondlo was the deputy chairperson and a member of the Central Committee of the SACP. She was also a member of the National Executive Committee and National Working Committee of the ANC and the chairperson of the ANC caucus in Parliament.

Ncumisa Chwayita Kondlo passed away on Monday, 24 March 2008. She is survived by her son and three sisters.

Nosipho Dorothy Ntwanambi was born on 25 September 1959 in Gugulethu (Western Cape). She was the Deputy President of the African National Congress Women’s League (ANCWL), was an African National Congress (ANC) National Executive Committee (NEC) member. She was a member of the ANC for more than 30 years.

A dedicated educator, Ntwanambi was a founding member of the United Women’s Organisation as well as the Democratic Teachers Union, which later became known as the South African Democratic Teachers Union.

Ntwanambi joined the National Council of Provinces in 1999, serving in various capacities including as Chairperson of the Select Committee on Economic and Foreign Affairs in 2004.

In 2008, she became the first woman to be elected the Chief Whip of the NCOP (a former senate and second house of Parliament) since its establishment in 1998. In the fourth democratic administration, she served as the Chief Whip in the National Council of Provinces.

Nosipho Dorothy Ntwanambi passed away on 8 July 2014.  

Ncumisa Chwayita Kondlo grew up in the rural village of Peddie in the Eastern Cape.

Kondlo was politically active from an early age. In her student days at Fort Hare, Alice, Eastern Cape she was active in the Azanian Students Organisation (AZASO) and later the South African National Students Congress (SANSCO) where she served in the regional structures of these organisations. She later moved to Rhodes University, Grahamstown, Eastern Cape where she was also active in the Black Students Movement in the 1980s.

Kondlo joined the South African Youth Congress (SAYCO) and was elected to its National Executive Council (NEC) in 1989.  

She was active in a broad range of structures of the mass democratic movement and workers’ movement, including the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (SADTU) and South African Domestic Workers Union (SADWU).

Kondlo a dedicated human rights and gender activist, was a member and leader of the African National Congress (ANC), the South African Communist Party (SACP) and a Member of Parliament.

Kondlo was part of the interim SACP leadership core in the Border region in 1990, and was elected onto the first Provincial Executive Council (PEC) when provincial structures of the SACP were formed. In 1998, she was elected onto the Central Committee of the SACP as well as being elected onto the SACP’s Politburo in 2001 and in 2007 she was elected as the National Deputy Chairperson of the SACP.

She contributed selflessly to the formation of the teachers’ union in the Border region and subsequently in the establishment of the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (SADTU).

Kondlo was a former Member of the Executive Council (MEC) for Welfare in the Eastern Cape Provincial government.

Her contribution to the South African women’s struggle earned her an award from the Swedish Society Party.

At the time of her passing, Kondlo was the deputy chairperson and a member of the Central Committee of the SACP. She was also a member of the National Executive Committee and National Working Committee of the ANC and the chairperson of the ANC caucus in Parliament.

Ncumisa Chwayita Kondlo passed away on Monday, 24 March 2008. She is survived by her son and three sisters.

Nosipho Dorothy Ntwanambi was born on 25 September 1959 in Gugulethu (Western Cape). She was the Deputy President of the African National Congress Women’s League (ANCWL), was an African National Congress (ANC) National Executive Committee (NEC) member. She was a member of the ANC for more than 30 years.

A dedicated educator, Ntwanambi was a founding member of the United Women’s Organisation as well as the Democratic Teachers Union, which later became known as the South African Democratic Teachers Union.

Ntwanambi joined the National Council of Provinces in 1999, serving in various capacities including as Chairperson of the Select Committee on Economic and Foreign Affairs in 2004.

In 2008, she became the first woman to be elected the Chief Whip of the NCOP (a former senate and second house of Parliament) since its establishment in 1998. In the fourth democratic administration, she served as the Chief Whip in the National Council of Provinces.

Nosipho Dorothy Ntwanambi passed away on 8 July 2014.  

Enuga Sreenivasulu Reddy affectionately known as ES Reddy has been active in support of the South African freedom movement for more than half a century. He played a central role in promoting international sanctions against South Africa and assistance to struggle for freedom. Mr E.S. Reddy was born in 1924 to a politically active family in Andhra Pradesh, South India.

Map showing Andhra Pradesh in Southeast India. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/

His father, Mr E.V. Narasa Reddy, was a follower of Gandhi and president of the Congress in the small town of Gudur. He was imprisoned for three months during the individual satyagraha in 1941. Reddy recalls that his mother gave all her jewellery to Gandhi when he visited Gudar in 1933 during a tour to collect funds for the upliftment of Harijans (untouchables). He learnt much about Gandhi from his family and from his Hindi teacher in school.

Whilst in college his political consciousness was shaped by Jawaharlal Nehru, socialism and Marxism like many of the young people at that time. In late 1943 his interest in South Africa was sparked by pamphlets from South Africa that his cousin gave to him. One of the pamphlets was written by Dr. Yusuf M. Dadoo about Indians, another by Peter Abrahams about mine workers going to Johannesburg. At the same time, Indian newspapers reported about the movement by Africans and Indians against racial discrimination. In a 2004 interview with Lisa Brock, Mr Reddy explains his interest in South Africa:

'I was already interested in the anti-apartheid movement in the 1940s, when the struggle in South Africa took on new forms and Indians and Africans were cooperating in the struggle. During the Second World War, the United States and Britain talked about four freedoms in the Atlantic Charter, but those freedoms didn't apply to India or South Africa. As Indians we were very much interested in South Africa, because a lot of Indians were there and they were treated as second-class citizens or worse. And of course Nehru was talking about South Africa, Gandhi was talking about South Africa and so on.'

Mahatma Gandhi

After his arrival in the United States in March 1946 he initially struggled to get news about South Africa. Kumar Goshal, an Indian revolutionary who came into exile in America in the 1920s, was a member of the Board of the Council on African Affairs led by Paul Robeson informed him about the Council’s reading room and so his journey with the Council on African Affairs commenced.

Reddy points out that the Council on African Affairs was one of the first solidarity movements for freedom struggles in Africa. He grew close to the Council and its leaders – Paul Robeson, Dr. W. E. B. Du Bois, and Dr. Alpheus Hunton (the educational director and later the Executive Director). He was present at the huge mass meeting organised by the Council at the Madison Square Garden on June 6, 1946, to denounce racial discrimination in South Africa and call on the United States government to support African freedom. He recalls that at a reception by the Council on 8 November 1946, he met the delegation led by Dr. A. B. Xuma, President-General of African National Congress (ANC). The delegation had arrived in New York to lobby at the United Nations General Assembly which was to consider the Indian government complaints concerning the treatment of Indians in South Africa, and to advise the Indian delegation. The delegation included H. A. Naidoo and Sorabjee Rustomjee of the Indian Congresses and Senator H. Basner, a Senator representing African voters. He attended meetings organised by the Council for the delegation – e.g. a briefing for a number of trade unions and other organisations, and a public meeting at the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem on 17 November. Mr Reddy led a few Indian students to a demonstration organized by the Council in front of the South African Consulate in 1946.

In 1948, E.S. Reddy did an internship at the United Nations and shortly thereafter applied for a job. In May 1949 he obtained a position as a researcher in the Section for Middle East and Africa (in the Department of Political and Security Council Affairs). He worked at the United Nations for 35 years. From 1963 to 1984 he was the U.N. official in charge of action against apartheid, first as principal secretary of the Special Committee Against Apartheid and then as director of the Centre against Apartheid. United Nations action both legitimated and was influenced by the momentum of popular mobilization against apartheid. Reddy was probably the most consistent and influential of the U.N. officials working behind the scenes, ensuring that the United Nations not only represented governments but also helped build bridges between liberation movements and their supporters around the world. He was Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1983 to 1985.

He convened and participated in a number of international conferences and seminars against apartheid, supported campaigns for action against the apartheid government and administered funds for scholarships and for assistance to political prisoners and their families in Southern Africa. The contribution of Mr. Reddy to the international campaign against apartheid has been recognised by activists of the South African liberation movement around the world. For example, Oliver Tambo, President of the ANC from 1967 to 1991, expressed "very deep appreciation of your work and your infectious devotion and commitment to the liberation struggle in South Africa." Similarly, Nobel Peace Prize and former United Nations Commissioner for Namibia, Sean MacBride said at a public meeting addressed by Mr. Reddy in Dublin on March 19, 1985:

"It has been my privilege to work with E.S. Reddy for close on 20 years, and I can say without fear of contradiction that there is no one at the United Nations who has done more to expose the injustices of apartheid and the illegality of the South African regime than he has. E.S. Reddy has done so with tremendous courage and ability; he dedicated his entire energy and skills to the liberation from oppression of the people of Southern Africa. He had to face many obstacles and antagonisms, coming from the Western Powers mainly, but he had the skill, courage and determination necessary to overcome the systematic overt and covert opposition to the liberation of the people of Southern Africa."

Dr. Enuga Reddy, former Principal Secretary of the UN Special Committee against Apartheid.

E.S Reddy received the Joliot-Curie Medal of the World Peace Council in 1982 for his contribution to the struggle against apartheid. After his retirement from the UN in 1985, he was a senior fellow of the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (1985-1993) and a member of the Council of Trustees of the International Defence and Aid Fund for Southern Africa (1986-1992). The University of Durban-Westville awarded him the honorary degree of Doctor of Philosophy in 1995 in recognition of his contribution to the struggle against apartheid and scholarly work on South Africa. He has written extensively on the history of the South African liberation movement and its leaders, United Nations action against apartheid, anti-apartheid movements and campaigns, and relations between India and South Africa.

His papers and parts of his private collection have been donated to the Yale University Library in the United States, the Nehru Memorial Museum in New Delhi, and the Universities of Witwatersrand and Durban-Westville in South Africa, and several other institutions including South African History Online (SAHO). They are valuable resources to understand the the struggle for liberation in South Africa and its international repercussions. Mr. Reddy has acted as a consultant to the ANC Department of Information in developing the sites on Historical Documents and United Nations action. He currently resides in New York.

E.S Reddy received the Companion of O. R. Tambo, national award from South African Government in 2012

David Dabede Mabuza was born 25 August, 1960 in Brondal, Mpumalanga. He matriculated from Khumbula High School. He obtained a National Teacher’s Certificate from Mngwenya College of Education in 1985. He furthered his studies at University of South Africa (UNISA) with Bachelor of Arts degree in 1989.

Mabuza has been involved in politics from his mid-twenties, holding the position of secretary of the Azania Student Organisation (AZASO) at the age of 24 from 1984 to 1985. Mathews Phosa recruited Mabuza into the United Democratic Front (UDF) in 1986. He moved on to become a Chairperson of the National Education Union of South Africa (NEUSA) from 1986 till the organisation’s banning in 1988. During this time he was also a Treasurer of the Foundation for Education with Production (FEP); a Co-ordinator of the National Education Crisis Committee (NECC) from 1987 to 1989 and a Chairperson of South African Democratic Teachers Union from 1988 to 1991. Mabuza worked at KaNgwane Department of Education from 1986 to 1988 and he was a Principal of Lungisani Secondary School from 1989 to 1993.

Mabuza served as a member of Executive Council (MEC) for Education from 1994 to 1998, a position for which he was recruited by his erstwhile mentor, Mathews Phosa. Ferial Haffajee and Amil Umraw wrote for the Huffington Post that Phosa then “ [...] axed [Mabuza] when Mpumalanga's highly inflated matric results caused a national scandal.”[1] During this period, Mabuza was also serving as a regional Chairperson of the African National Congress (ANC). He would then go on to be a member of the Provincial Executive Committee of ANC from 1998 to 2006. Mabuza became a member of the Mpumalanga legislature in 1999, a position he has held until today. He was a member of Parliament from 2001 to 2004.

Mabuza has been very involved in the running of the ANC in Mpumalanga. He was a leader of Government Business in the Mpumalanga Provincial legislature in 2007. He served as a Deputy Chairperson of the ANC Mpumalanga Province in 2005 as well as MEC for Road and Transport, from 2007 to 2008, and MEC for Agriculture and Land Administration from 2008 to 2009. He was Chairperson of the Mpumalanga ANC in 2008.

As a result of Mabuza backing Jacob Zuma in the 52nd ANC National Conference in 2007, Mabuza was voted onto the ANC National Executive Committee the same year. Two years later, he was elected to the position of Premier of Mpumalanga. Under Mabuza’s control as Provincial Chairperson, the number of delegates which the province takes to the ANC elective conference has ballooned. Mpumalanga, as of the recent 54th National Conference in 2017, has the second highest delegate total of 736 delegates. This is a large amount as Gauteng, with a population of 12 million, has 508. Mpumalanga has a population of 4 million.

Mabuza has been surrounded by controversy during his stint as Premier. Mandy Wiener writes for Eyewitness News that “[i]n 2009, R14 million in cash mysteriously disappeared from Mabuza’s home in Barberton known as ‘The Farm’. The entire incident was shrouded in secrecy, with police eventually confirming R4 million had been reported stolen, but only R1,200 was actually taken. It all smelt very dodgy, but disappeared into the news ether.”[2] Furthermore, Mabuza has allegedly had a relationship with the Gupta family, evidenced by him accepting a flight on the family’s private jet. He has since distanced himself from the Guptas.

The most serious controversies surrounding Mabuza regard the spate of political assassinations in Mpumalanga. The most high profile of which was Jimmy Mohala, who was killed in 2009. The Mbombela municipality speaker had been a whistleblower regarding corruption related to the building of the R1.2 billion 2010 FIFA World Cup stadium in Mbombela. A similar series of events played out in 2010 when Sammy Mpatlanyane, the Department of Culture, Sport and Recreation spokesperson who blew the whistle on corruption regarding the tender for the Mpumalanga archives building, was killed. James Nkambule, a whistleblower claiming a hitman had been hired by politicians to kill the rival political faction in Mpumalanga, was also found to have died by poisoning. The spate of politically linked murders prompted former Police Commissioner Bheki Cele to set up a commission of inquiry in 2011 into the murders in the province. The findings of this inquiry have yet to be made public.

In 2015, Mabuza accused Mathews Phosa of defamation after Phosa sent a memorandum to ANC headquarters, Luthuli House, which accused Mabuza of being an apartheid spy. Mabuza claimed R10 million in damages from Phosa. The lawsuit was dismissed in the High Court in 2017. The two men were involved in another confrontation in 2017 as Phosa alleged that Mabuza was operating a ‘private army’ in Mpumalanga and using it to intimidate opposition. Mabuza dismissed the allegation as fabrication.

Mabuza’s self-appointed moniker is ‘The Cat’. Mandy Wiener writes that “[w]hen he returned from a mysterious two-month hiatus due to apparent poisoning in 2015, he told his supporters “the cat was back”.”[3] This is in reference to his constant political renewal as well as his ability to bounce back from political defeats. Nothing epitomises this more than his recent election as Deputy President of the ANC at the 54th ANC National Conference at the Nasrec expo centre in Johannesburg. He defeated his opponent, Lindiwe Sisulu, by 379 votes with a total of 2538 out of a total 4708.

Dr. Yusuf Mohamed Dadoo played an outstanding role in the South African liberation movement for over half a century - in persuading the Indian community to link its destiny with that of the African majority, in building the unity of all the oppressed people and democratic whites of that country in a common struggle against racism, in promoting fearless and militant resistance to the oppressors, and in developing the international outlook of the movement and international solidarity with it. He led the non-violent Indian passive resistance movement - uniting Gandhians, Marxists and others. He was a founder and leader of the Non-European United Front and of the Communist Party when it was revived as a clandestine organisation. And since going into exile in 1960, he played a key role in promoting underground and armed struggle in South Africa and a world-wide anti-apartheid movement." - ES Reddy

Early life

Dr. Yusuf Mohamed Dadoo was born on 5 September 1909 in Krugersdorp on the West Rand, Transvaal (now Gauteng). His father, Mahomed Dadoo, was born in 1881 in the small village of Kholvad along the south banks of the Tapi River, a few miles outside the ancient South Gujarat city of Surat, in India.

In 1896, at the age of 15, Dadoo, Senior, arrived in South Africa as part of the “passenger Indian” population that followed after the initial indentured labourers of 1860. This was just prior to the South African War. He was only 15 years old when he settled with his family in Klerksdorp, after which he moved to Krugersdorp where he started a business in 1904.

 In 1909, during the height of the Satyagraha Passive Resistance Campaign, which was initiated by Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, in which Mohamed Dadoo was an active participant, Mohamed and Fatima Dadoo had the first of eight children, Yusuf. 

Yusuf Mohamed Dadoo began his education at the age of 6 years old. He attended a Coloured school in Krugersdorp until he completed his Standard 2 (Grade Four), after which he started to attend the Bree Street School in Forsdsburg, Johannesburg, Transvaal (now Gauteng), the only school available specifically for Indian children. The policy of segregation instituted by the White government of the day meant that the six-year-old Yusuf had to travel daily by train to the Johannesburg suburb of Fordsburg to receive his primary education with other Indian children. Fordsburg was a mixed working class suburb with English, Afrikaans, Jewish, Lebanese, Indian, Chinese, Coloured and African communities housed in overcrowded shanties and tenements.

The young Dadoo was forced to travel by train twenty miles (approximately 32 kilometres) every day. This experience introduced him to the impact of segregationist laws. During these trips, Dadoo was aware of how the different population groups were separated on the train and throughout the train station. On his walk to the school from the train station, Dadoo recalled how White children along the way would sing insulting ditties like “Sammy, Sammy, ring a bell, coolie, coolie, go to hell,” and physical confrontations often occurred.

Prior to the end of World War I, the Dadoo family went on holiday to Gujarat, India. Dadoo’s memories of the trip included monsoons, attending madressa (Islamic religious school), contracting malaria, and the blackouts and fear of being detected by German submarines while travelling across the Indian Ocean.  Upon his return to South Africa, his father, became engaged in a court battle against the Krugersdorp Municipality. White members of the community were agitated by the success of businesses such as Mohamed Dadoo’s and the Asiatic Land and Trading Act of 1919 was enacted to stall the success of the Indian businesses. This piece of legislation declared that Indians could only conduct trade in designated areas outside of Asiatic Bazaars and aimed to cut down on the acquisition of property through the usage of limited liability properties. Unexpectedly, Dadoo’s case was successfully defended by Gandhi. Gandhi argued that the business, Dadoo Ltd., existed prior to the enactment of the legislation and that it was unlawful to racially classify a business.

 In 1920, a 22 year old PS Joshi moved to Johannesburg from India and began teaching at Dadoo’s school. Joshi’s background as a militant Indian nationalist had a major influence on the young school boy. After the passage of the Class Areas Bill of 1923, the South African Indian Congress invited the acclaimed female activist and poet Sarojini Naidoo to visit South Africa. During her visit to the Transvaal, Joshi organized a meeting that was chaired by the 15 year old Dadoo.

At the end of 1923, Dadoo left Johannesburg to complete his matriculation at Aligarh Muslim College in India. During these formative years, Dadoo attended meetings and speeches hosted by former followers of Ghandi and developed his views with his young contemporaries such as Molvi Cachalia.

Evidence of Dadoo’s political education was confirmed shortly after his return to his hometown of Krugersdorp at the age of 18.  At a reception hosted by the Indian community at the Krugersdorp Town Hall to honour the appointment of V. Srinivasa Sastri, the first Indian Agent-General to South Africa, Dadoo was asked pass the vote of thanks. Dadoo used this opportunity to deliver a controversial speech in which he accused Sastri of betraying the Indian community.

Although Mohamed Dadoo envisioned his son taking over the family business, Yusuf managed to persuade his father to allow him to study in England. In January 1929, Yusuf Dadoo set sail for London. In his YMCA lodgings, he was introduced to fellow Indian students who were active in the campaign for India’s independence struggle against the British, and he quickly became involved with student political movements while in London.

He joined the British Labour Party and actively participated in its London Central Branch. Here, Dadoo befriended influential figures such as Jimmy Maxwell and Salif Walla, the first Communist MP in Britain.

Dadoo’s sudden introduction and interest in Marxist literature even resulted in him taking classes in Russian in order to learn more about the Soviet Union. Dadoo participated in a student demonstration in protest of the Simons Commission and was arrested as a result. He received a six month suspension from school, but due to his age and lack of a previous record he was let off in terms of the First Probation Offender’s Act.

 At home, Yusuf’s father was very unhappy with his conduct. Mohamed told his son that he could either return home or pursue his medical studies further at the University of Edinburgh in an attempt to curb Yusuf’s political involvement. After he enrolled at Skerry College at University of Edinburgh, Yusuf Dadoo began a new chapter in his life that started by befriending his fellow South Africans,  Mohambry Gangathura 'Monty' Naicker and Kesaveloo Goonaruthnum Naidoo (Goonam), both medical students as well, who were to later feature prominently in the struggle for liberation back home in South Africa.

Abram "Bram" Fischer was born on 23 April 1908 in the Orange Free State. He was born into a prominent Afrikaans family, son of Percy Ulrich Fischer, at the time a member of the Bloemfontein Bar. Percy later became a much-respected Free State judge.

The Fischers were a sixth-generation South African family. Percy's father was Abram Fischer, a highly regarded politician of conservative outlook. He was the prime minister of the Orange River Colony from 1907 to 1910. Abram had married a Scotswoman and Percy had married Ella Fichardt, of a family of cosmopolitan descent, who was entirely English speaking. Bram, who was brought up in an Afrikaans and English-speaking home, regarded himself as an Afrikaner - a proud one.

Bram initially was a vocal Nationalist. His schooling was at Grey College, Bloemfontein; from there he went to Grey University College in his hometown. Bram excelled at tennis and rugby. In 1928 he represented the Free State as scrum half against the All Blacks under Maurice Brownlee.

Bram Fischer proceeded to study law (BA LLB degree) at Grey, then part of the University of South Africa. After completing his studies in South Africa he spent 3 years (1931-1934) at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar.

Some years earlier Bram had met and begun to court Molly Krige. Distantly related to the wife of Jan Smuts, she had the same sharp intellect as Bram and had strong leadership qualities. Both became attracted to communism. While he was at Oxford, in the long vacation of 1932, Bram visited the Soviet Union, and, like many others, did not dig below the surface, and became a convert to the Stalinist doctrine. His earlier nationalism converted to anathema; he now considered fascism and Nazism "cancerous nationalism".

Bram's results in the Bachelor of Arts honours degree at Oxford were most disappointing, for he attained a pass only in the third class. Bram was shattered, but the third was quite unrepresentative of his ability and knowledge.

On his return to South Africa, Bram was called to the Johannesburg Bar on 10 January 1935. Initially briefs were slow to arrive. When work came, he devoted himself to it. His briefs he knew intimately. Gradually his practice expanded, and, ironically, particularly in the specialised area of mining law for the great mining houses. It was widely believed that Bram was at the beginning of a career that would culminate in great things, very likely the position of chief justice.

In 1937 Bram and Molly were married, and by 1942 Bram and Molly had become members of the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA). They never deviated from their outward devotion to Stalinist communism. This didn’t seem to harm his career as a corporate lawyer and he was widely admired as a brilliant man with the potential to possibly lead the country as Prime Minister, provided his political opinions became less unorthodox.

In 1943 he helped A. B. Xuma revise the African National Congress’ (ANC) constitution and was charged with incitement during the mineworkers’ strike in 1946.

The return of the National Party to power at the general election of May 1948 meant the ultimate banning of communistic views and the CPSA in terms of the Suppression of Communism Act. Communism was condemned as a godless belief aiming at racial suicide and the dictatorship of the proletariat. Later, the CPSA resurrected itself surreptitiously as the South African Communist Party (SACP). As was to be expected, Bram was "named" under the Suppression of Communism Act in 1950. Nevertheless, on 2 November the next year he was appointed a king's counsel (KC).

He was also a member of the Congress of Democrats and in 1952 Bram defended Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu and eighteen other ANC leaders for participating in the Defiance Campaign. The year 1953 saw Bram banned under the Suppression of Communism Act from most gatherings and from the Congress of Democrats. For years thereafter there were police raids on his advocate's chambers and his house. None of these happenings affected the flow of briefs coming to Bram, outstanding lawyer and counsel. In court he was the epitome of the ideal English barrister: quiet, unassuming, exquisitely polite and thus often disarming to a hostile witness, and, when necessary, devastating in cross-examination. Except for three years, Bram was elected a member of the Johannesburg Bar Council from 1943 to 1963, being chairman in 1961.

In 1960 the ANC and Pan-Africanist Congress were banned. The Sabotage Act of 1962 allowed for detention without trial. Bram and Molly were subjected to further restrictions by the government under that statute. The creation of the Republic of South Africa in 1961 did not end the withholding of participation in the government of the country from blacks. Thus, Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation) was formed, a product of the ANC and the SACP, committed to a violent struggle.

On 11 July 1963 at Lilies leaf farm in Rivonia the police arrested many of the leaders of the liberation movement. At the subsequent trial for sabotage and other charges, one of the accused was Nelson Mandela. Bram, who by a fortunate chance was not on the farm when the police raid took place, led the defence team. In agreeing to appear for the Rivonia accused, Bram courageously took an enormous risk, for he could easily have been correctly pointed out by some of the witnesses for the prosecution as having attended many meetings at Lilies leaf. In the end, eight accused, including Mandela, were found guilty. That they were sentenced not to death but to life imprisonment was partly a result of the dedicated efforts of the defence team.

On 13 June 1964 Molly was killed in a tragic accident in a motorcar driven by Bram, who was overwhelmed by grief.

It was inevitable that his defence of and involvement with anti-Apartheid activists would implicate him in illegal activities and on 23 September 1964 Fischer was arrested for contravening the Suppression of Communism Act. At the start of the trial he was granted bail to argue a case in England, undertaking to return, which he did. The trial commenced on 16 November 1964. On 23 January 1965, however, Bram went underground. In a letter he stated that no one should submit to the barbaric laws and monstrous policy of apartheid.

He was only recaptured in December, disguised as "Douglas Black". Now his trial was on far more serious charges, including sabotage. In a sworn statement from the dock, he said that there was a higher duty to break immoral laws passed by a small minority to deprive the majority, on account of their colour, of their most elementary rights. "At least one Afrikaner should make this protest."

In 1966 he was found guilty of violating the Suppression of Communism Act and conspiring to commit sabotage leading to a conviction of life imprisonment. In 1967 he was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize.

In 1974 it became known that Fischer was seriously ill with cancer and liberal newspapers and political leaders mounted an intensive campaign for his release. They were successful and he was moved to his brother’s home in Bloemfontein a few weeks before his death.

Ahmed Mohamed "Kathy" Kathrada was born on 21 August 1929, to Indian immigrant parents in Schweizer Reneke, a small town in Western Transvaal [now North West Province].  While he attended Johannesburg Indian High School, he came under the influence of Dr. Yusuf Dadoo and the Cachalia brothers, who were leaders of the freedom movement in the Transvaal.

Kathrada’s political work began in 1941, at the early age of 12 when he joined the Young Communist League of South Africa, distributing leaflets at street corners for the League.  During World War II, he was involved in the anti-war campaign of the Non-European United Front.

In the 1940s, Kathrada first met African National Congress (ANC) leaders, Walter Sisulu, Nelson Mandela, I.C. Meer and J.N. Singh.  At the age of 17, he left school to work full-time in the offices of the Transvaal Passive Resistance Council. In 1946, the South African Indian Congress (SAIC) launched the Passive Resistance Movement against the Asiatic Land Tenure and Indian Representation Act, commonly referred to as the "Ghetto Act". The Act sought to give Indians limited political representation and defined the areas where Indians could live, trade and own land. The Act was vehemently opposed. Subsequently, Kathrada participated in the Passive Resistance Campaign of the South African Indian Congress.

Kathrada was one of the 2 000 volunteers imprisoned in that campaign and served a month in a Durban jail along with other ardent resisters such as Dr Monty Naicker, Dr. Yusuf Dadoo, Dr Goonam, George Singh, Mrs Cissie Gool, M.D. Naidoo and others. This was his first jail sentence for civil disobedience.

Kathrada was a founding member of the Transvaal Indian Volunteer Corps and that of its successor, the Transvaal Indian Youth Congress. In 1951, he enrolled as a student at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) but later abandoned his studies to devote himself full-time to political activism.  As chairperson of the Transvaal Indian Youth Congress, Kathrada attended the World Youth Festival in Berlin in 1951 and was elected leader of the large multi-racial South African delegation. He remained overseas to attend a Congress of the International Union Students in Warsaw, Poland.

It was during this period that he visited the concentration camps at Auschwitz, which impressed upon him the urgent need to eradicate racism in South Africa. Thereafter, he finally travelled to Budapest and worked at the headquarters of the World Federation of Democratic Youth for nine months.

Ahmed Kathrada, shot taken by the police during the Liliesleaf raid. Source: South African National Archives

As the alliance between the African and Indian Congresses developed, Kathrada came into closer contact with Mandela, Sisulu, J.B. Marks and other African leaders. The signing of the Dadoo-Naicker-Xuma Pact in 1947 strengthened the Alliance, which comprised the ANC and the SAIC. Kathrada worked tirelessly to promote joint action as a leader of the Youth Action Committee, co-ordinating the youth wings of the African, Indian and other Congresses.

In 1952, he helped organise the 'Campaign of Defiance against Unjust laws', launched jointly by the ANC and the SAIC. The Defiance Campaign targeted six unjust Apartheid laws, amongst them the Pass Laws, Stock Limitation Regulations, the Group Areas Act, the Separate Representation of Voters Act, the Suppression of Communism Act and the Bantu Authorities Act. The Government was called upon to repeal these laws by 29 February 1952. Failing this, the ANC and the SAIC were to launch a joint campaign of Defiance.

In 1953, Kathrada was elected to the executive of the World Federation of Democratic Youth in absentia, a post he was unable to take up due to restrictions placed on him by the authorities.

Kathrada was among a group of twenty officials who were charged with organising the Defiance Campaign jointly organised by the ANC and SAIC. They were given a suspended sentence of nine months with hard labour, which was suspended for two years.

In 1954, he was served with banning orders prohibiting him from attending any gatherings and from taking part in the activities of 39 organisations. These bans curtailed his overall participation in politics, but it did not deter him. He was arrested several times for breaking his 'banning orders'.

In 1955, when Indian schools in Johannesburg were moved out of the city to the segregated location of Lenasia, some 22 miles away, he helped organise the Central Indian High School parents’ association. This served as a private school, established to combat the Group Areas Act, and he was duly elected as secretary.

In the same year, he helped organise the multi-racial 'Congress of the People', which proclaimed the 'Freedom Charter', a policy document of the Congress Alliance. Kathrada served on the Alliance's General Purpose Committee.

In 1956, he was among the 156 Congress activists and leaders charged for High Treason. The trial continued for four years from 1957 to March 1961. Eventually, all 156 leaders were found not guilty and acquitted. Kathrada, Mandela and Sisulu were among the last 30 to be acquitted. Despite constant harassment by the police, Kathrada nevertheless continued his political activities.

Kathrada was restricted to the Johannesburg area in 1957, and following the Sharpeville Massacre in 1960, he was detained for five months during the State of Emergency, after which the ANC and PAC were banned. In 1961, Kathrada was arrested for serving on a strike committee that opposed Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd's plan to declare South Africa a Republic.

In December 1962, he was subjected to 'house arrest' for 13 hours a day and over weekends and public holidays. He went underground and continued to attend secret meetings in Rivonia - the underground headquarters of the ANC. The following year, Kathrada broke his banning orders, and went “underground”, to continue his political work.

In July 1963, the police swooped on Liliesleaf Farm in Rivonia, a Johannesburg suburb where Kathrada and other “banned” persons had been meeting. This led to the famous 'Rivonia Trial', in which eight accused were sentenced to life imprisonment with hard labour.

This was Kathrada’s 18th arrest on political grounds. Although he was then no longer a member of the Umkhonto we sizwe (MK) Regional Command, he was tried with Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki, Dennis Goldberg, Raymond Mhlaba, Elias Motsoaledi and Andrew Mlangeni.  All the accused were charged with organising and directing MK, the military wing of the ANC, and were found guilty of committing specific acts of sabotage. In 1964, at the age of 34, he was sentenced to life imprisonment on Robben Island where he spent the next 18 years with his colleagues in the isolation section, known as B Section, of the Maximum Security Prison. His prisoner number was 468/64. This was a section where those considered by the Apartheid government as influential leaders or members of banned political organisations were kept. While he was still serving his sentence, the ANC bestowed on him, with its highest possible accolade, the Isitwalandwe Award.

In October 1982, Kathrada was moved to Pollsmoor Maximum Security Prison in Cape Town to join Mandela, Sisulu, Mhlaba and Mlangeni who had been moved there a few months before. He was released on 15 October 1989, at the age of 60. On his release, Kathrada had spent 26 years and 3 months in prison, 18 of which were on Robben Island.

On his release, he was given a hero’s welcome in Soweto where he addressed a crowd of 5 000 people. Kathrada remarked, "I never dreamed I would be accorded such status." Walter Sisulu wrote of him: "Kathy was a tower of strength and a source of inspiration to many prisoners, both young and old."

While in prison, Kathrada pursued his academic studies and first obtained a B.A. (History and Criminology). He went on to attain a B. Bibliography (Library Science and African Politics) and two B.A. (Honours) degrees from the University of South Africa (UNISA) in African politics and History. In addition, he was awarded four Honorary Degrees, including one from the University of Missouri.

Following the unbanning of the ANC in February 1990, at its first legal conference in Durban, South Africa, Kathrada was elected onto its National Executive Committee. He also served on the ANC Interim Leadership Committee and Interim Leadership Group of the South African Communist Party (SACP). He gave up the latter position when he was elected to the ANC National Executive Committee at its conference in July 1991. That same year Kathrada became Acting Head of the ANC's Department of Information and Publicity and Head of Public Relations until 1994. Also that year he was appointed a fellow of the University of Western Cape’s Mayibuye Centre. In 1992, he went on Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca). He was elected a Member of Parliament in 1994, after South Africa's first democratic elections, and in 1994-5 he was elected Chairperson of the Robben Island Museum Council. He served in that capacity until his term expired in 2006. He also served as a Parliamentary Counsellor in the Office of the President. At the ANC Conference in 1997, Kathrada declined nomination to the National Executive Committee. Then in June 1999, Kathrada took leave of parliamentary politics.

On March 4 2017, Kathrada was hospitalised for surgery related to blood clotting on the brain. Kathrada passed away on March 28th 2017 at the age of 87.

Awards:

• Honorary Degree, Central London Polytechnic, February 1986
• Honorary Degree, Canada University of Guelph, February, 1986
• “Isithwalandwe”, the highest award bestowed by the ANC, 1992
• Fellow of the Mayibuye Centre, University of the Western Cape, 1991
• The ANC's Merit Award for Long ServicePresidential Order for Meritorious Service Class 1: Gold, 1999
• Honorary Doctorate: University of Massachusetts, May 2000
• Honorary Doctorate: University of Durban-Westville 2002
• Mahatma Gandhi Award by the Congress of Business and Economics, October 2003
• Doctorate of Humane Letters: University of Missouri, January 2004
• Voted 46th in the Top 100 Great South Africans, 2004
• Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award by President of India, January 2005
• Doctor of Humanities: Michigan State University, December 2005
• Recognition award of his sacrifices and outstanding contribution to democracy, constitutionalism and human rights in South Africa, Constitution Hill Trust, October 2009
• Kentucky State Award, April 2011
• Honorary Degree from Kentucky University, April 2011
• Honorary Doctorate: University of Kentucky, May 2011
• Freeman of the City of Johannesburg, August 2012
• Honorary Doctorate: University of the Witwatersrand, 2012
• Centenary Distinguished Leadership award from ANC Rivonia “Heroes” branch, March 2012
• Lifetime Achievement Award from the Oliver Transformation and Empowerment Awards, April 2014
• Founders Award by the Asian Awards, April 2014
• Medal of the Prefecture of Reunion Island and honorary citizenship from the city of Le Port, August 2014
• Chevalier de l’Ordre National de la Légion d’Honneur from the French Government, Bastille Day 2015
• City of Cape Town’s Freeman of the City, August 2015
• Doctor of Law, University of Cape Town, June 2015
• Freedom of Sedibeng Region, January 2016
• Freedom of the City of London, January 2016
• Honorary Doctorate: Durban University of Technology, April 2016
  
  
• Desmond Tutu Social Justice Award from South Africa Partners (Boston USA), May 2016
  
  
• Ad Portas’ most prestigious award honouring South African heroes from Michealhouse, October 2016
  
  
• South African Men of Year Awards: Honoured Legend, 2016

Books by and about Ahmed Kathrada include:

• 1999 – Letters from Robben Island
• 2004 – Memoirs
• 2005 – A Free Mind: Ahmed Kathrada's Notebook from Robben Island
• 2008 – A Simple Freedom
• 2009 – Dear Ahmedbhai, Dear Zuleikhabehn
• 2015 – Triumph of the Human Spirit - Ahmed Kathrada and Robben Island
• 2017 – Conversations with a Gentle Soul

Elizabeth Mafekeng was born in 1918 in Tarkastad and attended school until Standard 7. Living conditions in her birthplace forced her to leave for Paarl in Cape Town in early 1930s. Mafekeng left school at the age of 15 to support the family.  Her first job was at a “canning factory where she cleaned fruit and vegetables for 75 cents a week.”  She married a fellow factory worker in 1941.Up to the time of her banishment in late 1959, they had eleven children and lived in a cottage on Barbarossa Street, Paarl.  She worked in the industry until Pass Laws were introduced.

Mafekeng joined the trade union 1941, became a shop steward and then served, between 1954 and 1959 “as President of the African Food and Canning WorkersUnion (AFCWU) and branch secretary in Paarl.”  Mafekeng was known as “Rocky” among the workers in Paarl.  A striking woman, she always began ”her speeches with a song or two, singing in a clear, rich and well-organised voice.”  Her speeches were “fiery, militant and witty.”  In order “to connect the workers” struggle for liberation totheir struggle for better working conditions, she joined the Paarl branch of the African National Congress (ANC). 

She thus became actively involved politics to fight the injustice brought about by these laws. She first rose to the position of National Vice-President of the ANC Women's League and later elected into the National Executive Committee of the Federation of South African Women (FEDSAW) in the 1940s.

In 1952 Mafekeng participated in the African National Congress (ANC) led Defiance Campaign and South African Congress Trade Unions' (SACTU's) 1957 'Pound a day' Campaign. Mafekeng also served as the President of the militant South African Food and Canning Workers Union and the Paarl branch secretary of the African Food and Canning Workers and Union.

In 1957, she became the Vice-President of the ANC Women’s League (ANCWL).  She also served on the regional committee of the National Executive of the South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU) and was one of the founder members of the Federation of South African Women (FEDSAW). 

In 1955, she skipped the country without legal papers to represent the Food Workers Union at a trade union conference held in Sofia, Bulgaria. She was met by the police brutality upon her return from the conference. Police sought to know what was her business at the conference.

In 1959, the Government banished her from Paarl, Cape Province (now Western Cape) to a remote government farm in the Kuruman district. She refused to take her 11 children to that desolate place. On the night of her deportation the union leadership organised a large number of workers to bid her a safe journey.According to M Blumberg [in The Mafekeng Affair. Africa South 4(3) April – June 1960, p 40]:

Two policemen and Mr Johannes Le Roux, the Paarl Native Commissioner, made a call on Mrs Elizabeth Mafekeng in the middle of the morning of October 27^th [1959].  They presented her with a piece of paper banishing her from Paarl to Southey Farm, Vryburg District, [now North West Province], a distant and desolate spot of dust, about 700 miles away.  The document signed by Mr De Wet Nel, Minister for Bantu Administration, was issued under the Native Administration Act and said that it was ‘injurious for the peace, order and good administration of Natives in the district of Paarl’ if Mrs Mafekeng remained there.  She was given five days (later extended to twelve) to say goodbye to her family, make arrangements for their care, (and) wind up her work ... There was, of course, no trial, no public hearing and no possibility of appeal.

Mafeking’s banishment occurred as a result of the activities she engaged in on the night prior to her arrest. On 2 October 1959, Mafekeng was arrested for ”leading an anti-pass demonstration in Paarl, (but) the charge came to nothing in court.”   Mafekeng’s union was the most militant in the country and nine union officials prior to her had been immobilised by the state.  A few weeks before she received her banishment order, she and Liz Abrahams, the Acting General Secretary of the Food and Canning Workers Union (FCWU), went  “ to Port Elizabeth to assist workers in organising the campaign against proposed wage cuts by Langeberg Ko-operasie management.”  

Rather than being banished to Southey and to ”a future of nothingness,” Mafekeng fled to Lesotho with her two-month old baby, Uhuru, and sought refuge at a Roman Catholic Mission at Makhaleng.  She was granted asylum and lived in a two-room home with her nine children in the small village of Mafeteng.

Her order was withdrawn on 7 September 1967.

She got onto a train and started waving farewell. She quietly walked through two coaches and jumped off the train unnoticed. She was whisked to Lesotho and sought political refuge in there to avoid deportation.

With the unbanning of the liberation movements in 1990, she returned to Paarl.  The Food and Canning Workers Union (FCWU) built her a home in Mbekweni Township in Paarl.  Elizabeth Mafeking died on 28 May 2009, at the age of 90, due to ill health.

The Western Cape Government, posthumously, conferred Mafekeng with the Western Cape Provincial Honours Awards in honour of her contribution to the liberation struggle. 

Walter Ulyate Max Sisulu was born in the village of Qutubeni in the Engcobo district of the Transkei on 18 May 1912. Sisulu was born out of wedlock. His father was a Mr. Dickenson, a white assistant magistrate. He was raised by his grandmother and uncle and only moved in with his mother when he was six years old. He attended an Anglican missionary institute, but left in Standard 4 (Grade 6) at the age of 15 after his uncle died. To help support his family he was forced to seek work in Johannesburg where he found employment in a dairy.

He returned home to undergo traditional Xhosa initiation rites, returning to Johannesburg in 1929 where he worked in a gold mine. He later moved back to the Eastern Cape to join his mother who had found work as a domestic worker in East London. In East London he came into contact with Clements Kadalie, the renowned leader of the Industrial and Commercial Workers' Union (ICU). Sisulu said later that his experience in the mines and his contact with Kadalie were formative political influences. In 1933 Sisulu returned to Johannesburg and stayed with his mother. He found work at a Premier Biscuit factory and attended night school at the Bantu Men’s Social Centre, though he left without completing Standard 5 (Grade 7). He became active in the Orlando Civic Association and was secretary of the Orlando Brotherly Society, a Xhosa cultural and mutual aid group.

In 1940, Sisulu was fired from his job at the bakery for his role in organising a strike for higher wages. In the next decade he worked in various companies and always left after some or other disagreement. He entered into a partnership with a white estate agent and eventually went into business on his own. In 1940 at 28 years old, Sisulu joined the African National Congress (ANC).

In 1941 Sisulu met Albertina Thethiwe, a young nursing student from the Transkei. He was so taken with Albertina "that in a short space of time the question of marriage came up".

Walter and Albertina Sisulu were married on 15 July 1944 in a civil ceremony at Cofimvaba in the Transkei. This was followed by a reception at the Bantu Men's Social Centre in Johannesburg on 17 July. Dr Xuma, then-president of the ANC, and Anton Lembede, president of the newly formed ANC Youth League, were the main speakers. Lembede warned Albertina that she was marrying a man who was already married to the nation.

Walter and Albertina had five children: Max (born 1945), Lungi (born 1948), Zwelakhe (born 1950), Lindiwe (born 1954) and Nonkululeko (born 1958). They also helped raise Walter's sister's children, Gerald (born 1944) and Beryl (born 1948) and Walter's cousin's son Jongumzi (born 1957). In their early years of family life Albertina worked as a nurse while Walter's mother played an active part in raising the children.

Albertina Thethiwe’s background was relatively sheltered and through her relationship with Walter she became exposed to politics. She realised that the man she had married was totally committed to the liberation struggle and to building the ANC. He was her guide and mentor, as he was to Nelson Mandela, and to many others who interacted with him. Much of their courting revolved around attending ANC meetings and Albertina soon became a freedom struggle leader in her own right.

In 1944 Sisulu attended the ANC annual national conference in Bloemfontein as a delegate of the ANC Orlando branch. It was at this conference that Leslie Gama proposed that the ANC should establish a Youth League. Walter Sisulu, along with William Nkomo and Lionel Majombozi, both active members of the Communist Party, were responsible for mobilising others to give effect to the conference resolution and establish a youth wing of the ANC.

Sisulu, along with Lembede, Mandela, Oliver Tambo, and Ashley Mda, was elected to the executive committee of the newly established ANC Youth League in 1944. Albertina Sisulu was the only woman amongst approximately 200 men present at the founding conference of the League’s Transvaal branches.

While the Youth League in its early stages, it was heavily influenced by Anton Lembede’s militant African nationalism, Sisulu always took a more pragmatic line, especially around the ANC collaboration with the Communist Party and the Indian Congresses. 

During the Second World War, Sisulu campaigned against Black South Africans joining the army. He supported the Youth League in pressing for the reform of the ANC and for the ANC to adopt boycotts and other forms of direct action to address the needs of the disenfranchised. During this period he had his first clash with the police when he was charged after a scuffle on a train with a white ticket collector who had confiscated an African child's season ticket.

During the 1946 African Mineworkers' Strike, which was opposed by the ANC, Sisulu was approached and agreed to sabotage the railway line between Soweto and New Canada station. However, the person who had promised to provide him with the bomb did not arrive and this early use of sabotage as a tactic of resistance failed.

Sisulu rose very rapidly in the ranks of the ANC and became a member of the Transvaal executive in addition to being secretary of the Youth League. At the ANC national conference in December 1949, Sisulu was instrumental in the ANC’s adoption of the Youth League's militant Program of Action. At the same conference he was elected ANC Secretary-General, narrowly defeating Dan Tloome, the candidate of the ANC's left wing. Sisulu’s fearless, totally dedicated and formidable strategic and organisational abilities are recognised today as being the main factor in transforming the ANC into a mass-based militant national organisation.

In 1950, the government of DF Malan prepared to implement its new apartheid policy by introducing a series of harsh racial laws and proposing to ban the Communist Party. The ANC took the first steps to oppose the government by forming a committee to coordinate joint campaigns with the Indian Congress and the largely coloured Cape Franchise Action Committee. This was the beginning of what came to be known was the Congress Alliance.

Walter Sisulu and Yusuf Cachalia were appointed joint secretaries and their first move was to call for a national work stoppage on 26 June 1950 to protests against the new repressive apartheid laws. James Moroka, ANC president at the time, lived in the Orange Free State and was isolated from the day-to-day running of the organisation in the Transvaal and the industrial and commercial heart of South Africa (Johannesburg). Consequently, Sisulu took over many of Moroka's responsibilities in addition to being Secretary-General. As leader of the ANC, Sisulu played a central role in the advocating and the planning the 1952 Defiance Campaign. He led a group of passive resisters and was arrested and imprisoned for a brief period before being served with the first of his many banning orders under the Suppression of Communism Act. In December 1952, Sisulu, Mandela, Moroka and others were tried under the Suppression of Communism Act for their leadership role in the Defiance Campaign. All 20 accused were sentenced to nine months' imprisonment with hard labour, suspended for two years.

Sisulu was re-elected as ANC Secretary-General in the same month, and in 1953 spent five months touring China, the Soviet Union, Israel, Romania and the United Kingdom. The tour to the socialist countries convinced Sisulu to join the outlawed and newly reconstituted the South African Communist Party on his return. His membership of the underground communists is again recognised as one of the most important factors cementing the relationship between the ANC and SACP.

Walter and Mandela were banned for six months and barred from attending any gatherings or addressing meetings. He secretly continued his ANC work, and was part of the organising committee that met in secret to organise the Freedom Charter campaign and The Congress of the People in 1956. In December Sisulu was among the 156 people arrested for High Treason. The preparatory examination of the Treason Trial began on 19 December in the Johannesburg Drill Hall. Sisulu remained a defendant in the subsequent hearings, which ended on the 29 March 1961 when he, and the remaining 30 accused, were finally acquitted.

During the 1960 state of emergency following the Sharpville massacre, Sisulu and many of his co-defendants in the Treason Trial were detained for several months. Following the banning of the ANC and Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC), Sisulu was placed under house arrest. In June 1961 he was one of four people, with Joe Slovo, Nelson Mandela and Govin Mbeki who secretly met and discussed the formation of Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK - Spear of the Nation), the ANC’s armed wing. This group constituted the MK’s high command. He served as political commissar of MK with his friend Mandela as its Commander in Chief. In 1962 Sisulu was continuously harassed by police and arrested six times, though charged only once. Finally, in March 1963, he was convicted of furthering the aims of the banned ANC and for organising the May 1961 stay-at-home protest. He was released on bail pending an appeal and placed under 24-hour house arrest. On 20 April 1963 he skipped his bail conditions and went underground at the SACP’s secret headquarters at Liliesleaf Farm in Rivonia.

On 26 June 1963 Sisulu made a short broadcast from a secret ANC radio station. On 11 July the police raided the farm and he was arrested with Govan Mbeki, Raymond Mhlaba, Ahmed Kathrada and others.

Sisulu and the rest of the “Rivonia group” were held in solitary confinement for 88 days. They were charged in October 1963 and on 12 June 1964 the Rivonia Trialists were sentenced to life imprisonment for planning acts of sabotage.

That night they were flown in a military plane to Robben Island. Albertina was left to rear her and Walter’s five children, plus her late sister's two children, on her own. Albertina became the sole breadwinner of the family. She also functioned as a link between the ANC leaders in jail and those in exile. The security police harassed her constantly and she was restricted, banned, placed under house arrest, arrested and taken into custody and sometimes kept in solitary confinement. 

While in prison Sisulu studied and completed his ‘O’ levels. In addition he led the first structured political discussions, which were held while the prisoners worked in the lime quarry. Here he also lectured on the history of the ANC. 

Sisulu also played a key role in political organisation on the island and was instrumental in developing an underground ANC political structure called the ‘High Organ’, which dealt with the daily concerns of prison life and the maintenance of internal discipline. Members of the High Organ were the four ANC National Executive Committee members; Mandela, Sisulu, Mbeki and Mhlaba. Mandela and Mhlaba acted as the secretariat of the High Organ with Mandela as the overall leader. A fifth member was co-opted on a rotational basis.

By the time the post-1976 generation arrived on Robben Island, Walter's informal lectures on the ANC formed the major component of a fully-fledged course of study known as Syllabus A. The syllabus, devised by the High Organ, consisted of two years of lectures on the ANC and the liberation struggle, a course on the history of the Indian struggle by Kathrada, a history of the Coloured People and a course on Marxism by Mac Maharaj. Nelson Mandela acknowledged Walter's contribution to Syllabus A:

‘It was Walter's course that was at the heart of all our education. Many of the young ANC members who came to the island had no idea that the organisation had even been in existence in the 1920s and 1930s, through to the present day. For many of these young men, it was the only political education they ever received’. (Long Walk to Freedom, p.557).

Walter and Albertina Sisulu’s children continued the political activism of their parents. Their eldest son, Max, for instance, had been detained at the age of 17 and went into exile after his father had been arrested in Rivonia in 1963. Zwelake was involved with the publication New Nation, which was placed under restriction on several occasions. He was also detained without trial for two years.

The political shift in South Africa and the southern African region that culminated in the release of political prisoners, the return of political exiles and a negotiated political settlement in South Africa marked the end of years of separation for the Sisulu family.

In April 1982 Walter Sisulu was admitted to Groote Schuur hospital in Cape Town for a ‘routine medical examination’. In the same month Sisulu, Mandela, Raymond Mhlaba, Andrew Mlangeni and Wilton Mkwayi were moved from Robben Island to Pollsmoor prison in Cape Town. Later they were joined by Ahmed Kathrada. The reason for the move was so that the Botha government could ensure greater secrecy in their effort to convince Mandela to accept their conditions for a negotiated settlement with the ANC. Mandela turned to his fellow prisoners, and Sisulu in particular, for advice in his dealings with the government intermediaries. One of the conditions that Mandela insisted on was the early release of his co-accused and on 15 October 1989, after 26 years in prison, Rivonia trialist’s Walter Sisulu, Ahmed Kathrada, Andrew Mlangeni, Elias Motsoaledi, Raymond Mhlaba and Wilton Mkwayi, were released along with Oscar Mpetha, the veteran ANC and SACP Cape Leader, and Japhta Masemola, a Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) leader. Their release was greeted with scenes of wild celebration around the country. Soweto was awash with black, green and gold and a huge ANC flag was draped across the walls of the Sisulu house. Though still banned, the ANC had come out into the open.

Less than three months later, on 2 February 1990, the ANC was unbanned and Nelson Mandela was released 9 days later.

Sisulu subsequently met with the external wing of the ANC in Lusaka and was asked to lead the ANC inside South Africa. This involved re-establishing ANC structures within the country and preparing for a national conference to be held inside South Africa on 16 December 1990. Sisulu formed part of the ANC delegation that met with representatives of the government at Groote Schuur, Cape Town, in May 1990. He was elected in 1991 as Deputy President of the ANC at the ANC’s first conference held inside the country since its banning more than three decades earlier.   

In April 1994 South Africans enjoyed their first ever free and fair elections and overwhelmingly elected the ANC to government. With millions of their comrades, Walter and Albertina Sisulu celebrated the convincing electoral victory of the organisation to which they had devoted most of their lives. Six weeks later, they celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on I7 July 1994. Over one thousand people celebrated with them at the Vista University Hall in Soweto and the occasion was a fitting tribute to two of South Africa's most celebrated leaders.

Walter Sisulu was deputy president of the ANC until ill health forced him to retire from active politics in 1994. He continued to be passionately committed to the wellbeing of his community, especially children and young people and he and Albertina devoted much of their time to the Albertina Sisulu Foundation which built a multi-purpose community centre in Orlando West, Soweto. The Sisulu’s lived in a house in Soweto for most of their lives. They moved to a new house in Linden in Johannesburg only four years before Walter's death. Walter Ulyate Max Sisulu died on 5 of May 2003, a few days before his 91st birthday.

Mac Maharaj was born on the 22 April 1935, the fourth of the eight children of Mr and Mrs NR Maharaj of Newcastle, Natal. He matriculated at St Oswald's School and enrolled for a BA degree at the University of Natal, Durban, as a part time student.

Whilst at university, Maharaj served on the Students' Representative Council, campaigned against the segregation of students and supported the boycott of the separate graduation ceremonies held at the time. In addition he edited the students newspaper, Student Call, from1955-56. Maharaj completed his BA in 1955. In 1956 the 'Non-European' section of the university opened an LLB faculty where he completed his first year. However, the faculty closed down in 1957.

Following the arrests of Congress leaders for the 1956 treason trial, Maharaj was asked to take over the running of the New Age newspaper. He decided to leave for the United Kingdom in August 1957, as he was unable to obtain a permit to study law in the Cape or Transvaal. In 1959 he became a part-time student at the London School of Economics where he began his LLB again. In 1960, following the Sharpeville massacre, the Congress movement asked him to return to South Africa and devote himself more fully to political work. He returned on 2 May 1962 with his first wife, Ompragash.

Maharaj worked for a firm of attorneys in Johannesburg whilst spending a great deal of his time on political matters. In July 1964, he was arrested in Johannesburg, charged and convicted with four others on charges of sabotage in what became known as the Little Rivonia trial. Maharaj was sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment, which he served on Robben Island. Whilst in prison, he completed a B.Admin, an MBA and the second year of a B.Sc degree before his release on 8 December 1976.

On his release, Maharaj was served with a five-year banning order prohibiting him from leaving his Merebank, Durban, home at night. His wife had left the country in 1974 on an exit permit and was living in London.

Maharaj was refused permission to take up employment in central Durban and could therefore not earn a living. Following instructions from the ANC, he left South Africa in July 1977 and was deployed by the organisation in Lusaka. A senior official in the political department of the ANC, Maharaj was elected to its national executive committee at the 1985 Kabwe Conference.

From 1987 to 1990, Maharaj worked underground within South Africa, as part of Operation Vula. Following the unbanning of the ANC and the South African Communist Party, he had to leave the country and re-enter legally under an indemnity from prosecution, agreed to between the ANC and the government. On his return, he assisted in the organisation and restructuring of the SACP. He appeared at a press conference with then-SACP general secretary Joe Slovo when it was announced that the party would be relaunching as a legal body in July 1990.

At this launch, held on 29 July 1990, it was announced that Maharaj was a member of the SACP's central committee, and he was also named as a member of the party's 22-person interim leadership group.

On 26 July 1990, just three days before the launch of the Party, security police detained Maharaj in Johannesburg under section 29 of the Internal Security Act, following police allegations of an ANC/SACP/ Umkhonto we Sizwe plan (codenamed Operation Vula) to seize power in the event of the failure of the ANC negotiations with the government. Initially charged under the Arms and Ammunition Act, additional charges were later added. In October 1990, Maharaj and eight others were charged with terrorism and, alternatively, illegal possession of arms, ammunition and explosives. It was alleged that they had conspired to create a national underground network to recruit, train, arm and lead a 'people's army' or 'revolutionary army' to seize power from the government by means of an armed insurrection. The accused were released in November 1990 on bail, and all charges dropped on 25 March 1991 after the accused received partial indemnity with respect to Operation Vula. In 1990, Maharaj announced his retirement from the central committee of the ANC.

At the ANC's national congress held in Durban during July 1991, Maharaj became a member of the secretariat of the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (Codesa), which brought together most South African political organisations to negotiate a new constitution dispensation.

After the 1994 elections Maharaj was appointed to the cabinet where he served as Minister of Transport until the 1999 elections. Maharaj resigned from active politics in 1999 and is now active in the business world.

Jainub Jane Gool – Tabata was born in Cape Town on 19 March 1902 to Yusuf and Wageda Gool, the sixth of nine children. Her father, an immigrant from India, settled in South Africa after spending some time in Mauritius. He was a successful merchant, who had strong sympathies for the anti-imperialist struggle in India. He also took Mahatma Ghandi into his home for a while after one of his terms of imprisonment, when Jane was still a young child.

Her eldest brother A.H. Gool studied in England and was the second Black doctor in South Africa. At his insistence Jane and her sisters were removed from a mission school because he considered the education that they were receiving there to be narrow and inferior. They were transferred to a newly opened school which was later to become Trafalgar High School. But according to Jane it was no better – a small school in a two-roomed house with an inadequate teaching staff. When they complained of this to their brother he engaged trained tutors to assist them. Nevertheless conditions improved at Trafalgar. The school grew and acquired new buildings, more and better teachers. Jane and her sister Zobeida were members of the second group of matriculants in its history.

When it was time for her sister and herself to acquire a university education, instead of the University of Cape Town, they chose to study at the Native College of Fort Hare as it was then known.

Jane and her sister returned to Cape Town in 1926. Neither had graduated as yet, Jane in particular, because Fort Hare lacked the academic staff to take her to graduate level in economics, her sister for a similar reason. The two then took employment, Jane as a teacher at a primary school, and they engaged private tutors to complete their studies. Jane finally graduated in 1931.

Jane and her brother Goolam attended lectures of the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA) and the Lenin Club. It was at this time that a young man from Transkei, Isaac Bangani Tabata,  met with Goolam Gool (Jane’s other brother) who introduced him to these discussions and debates, which naturally led on to his acquaintance with Jane. This was the beginning of a lifelong partnership and political collaboration between the two.

Along with figures such as Yudel Burlak, Clare Goodlatte, Dora and J.G Taylor, the three (Jane, IB Tabata and Goolam)  became involved in the establishment of a new body – the Spartacist Club out of which arose the Workers Party of South Africa (WPSA). Its programme remained essentially the same as the original thesis produced in the Lenin Club but it was strengthened in accordance with Trotsky’s criticisms.

The white members of the WPSA were barred by their very skin colour from playing an active organisational role amongst the black population. This task fell mainly on the backs of the trio but they would not be alone for long. The organisational thrust of the WPSA took place on two fronts. The first opportunity was presented by the introduction of the notorious Hertzog Bills in 1935, which brought new restrictions on access of the black population to the land, their total disenfranchisement and the creation of the dummy Native Representation Council (NRC). When people rallied to oppose these drastic new measures in an historic conference in 1935, Jane, IB Tabata and Goolam were present to campaign vigorously for the total rejection these new bills, a boycott of the NRC and the building of a national unity of the oppressed. Tabata has related that the very presence of Jane and Goolam brought about an intense debate on how this body was to be named. Thus, instead of being called the the All Native Convention it became the All African Convention (AAC).

Jane, joined by political figures such as Ben Kies, Willem Van Schoor, R.O. Dudley and Alie Fataar, became active in the Teachers League of South Africa (TLSA). She played a major role in injecting progressive new ideas into the conservative body that it was at the time.

With the first moves of the ruling class to disenfranchise the coloured population, Jane and her comrades became actively involved in the creation of the Anti-Coloured Affairs Department (CAD) in 1943. Their efforts in mobilising the resistance of the people through this vehicle saw the first dummy Coloured Affairs Council boycotted out of existence.

With enough cadres to carry the work forward in the Cape, Jane, Tabata and Goolam devoted more of their time to carry the ideas of their movement into other parts of the country. Their efforts reached a peak with the unification of the AAC and the Anti-CAD in the Non-European Unity Movement (NEUM) in 1943. The NEUM adopted a Ten Point Programme by which it operated.

Jane and her comrades moved for the creation of the African People’s Democratic Union of Southern Africa (APDUSA) in 1961. Jane, amongst others, suffered a political ban in 1961. She left the country in 1963, together with Tabata and N.Honono to raise support for the struggle and to prepare the way for the training of freedom fighters that were being organised by the APDUSA.

In the 1970s the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) was ready to finally grant recognition to the Unity Movement of South Africa (UMSA) as it was now known. It was Kenneth Kaunda who opposed this and he succeeded on the basis that the OAU was constitutionally bound to decision-making on the basis of total unanimity.

It should be noted that despite the failures of the UMSA to gain official political credence, Jane and Tabata gained the personal respect of senior political figures across the African continent. They eventually settled in a home purchased by the organisation as its headquarters in Harare, Zimbabwe. Here they received the personal support of senior officials of the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) party which also offered them full citizenship of Zimbabwe.

In exile, Jane and Tabata never wavered in their purpose. Against all odds they doggedly sought to maintain their links with the struggle at home. In this period they produced literature which assessed the developments in South Africa on an ongoing basis, with the purpose of giving ideological guidance to those actively engaged in the struggle at home. They set in motion a plan to smuggle this literature into the country on a large scale.

IB Tabata died in exile in October 1990. Jane returned to South Africa for the burial of her lifelong comrade and partner. She returned permanently in 1992 to Gatesville, Cape Town. In 1993 she was elected President of the UMSA.

In her life time Jane Gool-Tabata became renowned as an unrelenting and uncompromising fighter. Her intolerance of any tendency to water down the ideas and principles, for which she stood, made her a particularly fearsome opponent in political debate. Jane did not consider herself to be a writer but she is known for her thought-provoking papers on the international situation which she was regularly selected to present to conferences of the Unity Movement and the APDUSA. She actively collaborated in the writings of her husband IB Tabata and while in exile she produced two works viz “The Crimes of Bantu Education” and “The Dispossessed Peasantry in South Africa”. Unfortunately the latter was never published.

Jane Gool – Tabata died on 6 May 1996 in Cape Town.

Publications

• The Crimes of Bantu Education
• The Dispossessed Peasantry in South Africa
• The Land Question and the Struggle For Freedom

Jessie Yasmin Duarte was born on 19 September in 1953, one of nine siblings in Newclare, Johannesburg, Transvaal (now Gauteng) to Julie and Ebrahim Dangor. She went to school in Coronationville, Johannesburg, Transvaal (now Gauteng) and completed her Standard Ten (Grade 12) at the Coronationville Secondary School.

Duarte started her professional career as a Management Accountant.

In 1979 Albertina Sisulu recruited Duarte to establish women's structures throughout the country. By 1981 she was serving as the provincial secretary of the Federation of Transvaal Women (FEDTRAW), which was a United Democratic Front (UDF) affiliate.

During this period, she worked with Reverend Beyers Naude to set up and administer a scholarship fund to educate and skill African National Congress (ANC) and UDF activists with the aim of developing a progressive core of public servants. She was detained without trial in 1988, released and placed under restriction orders until the State of Emergency was lifted.

In 1990 Duarte was appointed to the ANC’s Interim Leadership Core and elected to the Gauteng Provincial Executive Council (PEC). She served in this provincial cabinet as MEC for Safety and Security. She was the Personal Assistant to both former President Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisulu until 1994. During South Africa’s negotiations to a democracy, from 1991-1994, Duarte was a member of the Regional Executive Committee of the ANC; she subsequently served as a special assistant to Nelson Mandela (1990-94); was on the ANC National Executive Committee (1997-1999); a member of the provincial cabinet (MEC, Safety and Security) for Gauteng (1994-1998); and was ambassador to Mozambique (1999-2003).

Upon her return from her term of office as Ambassador, she was appointed as the National Spokesperson of the ANC before being deployed as Chief Operations Officer in the Presidency, South African Government until she resigned in April 2010.

Duarte was elected Deputy Secretary General of the ANC at the 53rd National Conference in Mangaung, December 2012.

Mmusi Aloysias Maimane was born in Krugersdorp, Transvaal (now Gauteng) on 6 June 1980 to Ethel and Simon Maimane but grew up in Dobsonville, Soweto, Transvaal (now Gauteng).

The eldest of four children, Maimane attended Allen Glen High School, where he matriculated in 1997.

He graduated from the University of South Africa, with a BA degree in Psychology, the University of the Witwatersrand, with a Masters in Public Administration, and Bangor University, Wales, with a Masters in Theology.

Maimane ran his own business management consultancy and lectured at the Gordon Institute of Business Science in Johannesburg, before he applied to run as a Democratic Alliance (DA) candidate for the Johannesburg City Council. Maimane entered the politics relatively late, joining the Democratic Alliance (DA) in 2009.

In 2011, he applied to run as the DA’s candidate for the position of Mayor of Johannesburg. Maimane defeated contender Vasco da Gama to be elected as the DA mayoral candidate for Johannesburg. In 2011 he was selected as DA National Spokesperson.

However, the DA achieved just 34.6% of the vote in the 2011 Local Government Elections in Johannesburg – the mayoral seat was won by the African National Congress (ANC). However, not all was lost; the DA had made impressive gains – Maimane led a caucus of 90 members of the 260 seats in Johannesburg City Council, and was now the Leader of the Official Opposition in Johannesburg.

Maimane, who had proven his propensity for intellectual debate and administrative prowess, was elected as Deputy Federal Chairperson, ahead of eight other candidates, at the 2012 DA Federal Congress.

In August 2013, Maimane was elected the DA’s Gauteng Premier Candidate. This position afforded him a platform to showcase his campaigning skills.

In the run-up to the 2014 General Elections, Maimane deployed a customised “Believe Bus” which travelled to over 350 locations in the nine-month campaign period.

The DA grew its share of the vote in Gauteng substantially in the 2014 election with Maimane at the helm, but the ANC retained control of the province.

Despite a hard-fought campaign, the ANC managed to pip the DA to the premier post in Gauteng, with David Makhura was inaugurated as Gauteng’s premier as a result of the 2014 General Elections.

While the DA made good gains in the elections, specifically in Gauteng, Maimane opted against serving in the provincial legislature and instead chose to be sworn in as a member of the National Assembly in Cape Town. This move catapulted Maimane to the helm of the official opposition party.

The DA’s parliamentary caucus elected Maimane as Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly in May 2014 – making him the first black male to hold the position in South Africa’s history.

A year later, Maimane was elected leader of the DA at the party’s 2015 Federal Congress. Maimane succeeded Helen Zille as leader of the party and became the first black South African to lead the DA.

A few months after being elected as party leader, Maimane faced staunch criticism for his handling of an internal DA disciplinary which centred on the party’s Shadow Minister of Police, Dianne Kohler Barnard, and her controversial Facebook post.

Barnard had a shared a post from suggesting that life in South Africa was better under former apartheid President PW Botha. Despite deleting the post and apologising publicly, pressure fell on Maimane to act without prejudice.

Maimane inaction with regards to the scandal hurt public perception surround the DA. Although Maimane tried to explain that the DA needed to treat Kohler Barnard fairly, the issue damaged public relations along with inter-party ties.

According to political analysts, this was the first sign of Maimane’s weakness, which has subsequently marred his tenure as leader of the DA.

In an attempt to rebrand the DA and avoid further contention, in 2016, Maimane set out a charter on racism that all new DA members would have to undertake upon joining the party. While the racial policies adopted by the DA as a result of Maimane’s leadership have been welcomed, some voters feel as though the party has been dismissive of the importance of the ‘white vote’.

In 2015, Maimane was chased from the University of Cape Town campus after attempting to address students protesting for free education. He was subsequently lambasted by the youth wing of his own party for failing to engage with the real issues presented by protesting students.

Maimane’s trip to Israel in 2017 also came under scrutiny from political parties and civil rights groups who had chosen to boycott the country for its ‘apartheid-like’ regime embattling Palestine.

Maimane faced his biggest internal political dispute later that same year when he was forced to act against the DA’s matriarch, Helen Zille, who had tweeted about the legacy of colonialism having some positives. The Western Cape Premier apologised and added that her opinions weren’t meant to outrage the public.

Maimane referred the matter to a DA disciplinary process, despite public calls for Maimane, as leader of the DA, to axe Zille. Since the fallout, Maimane has admitted that his relationship with Zille had been strained.

Maimane is a devout Christian and preached at the Discovery Church in Randburg prior to being elected as the DA’s leader. He also preached at the Liberty Church.

In the run up to the 2014 national elections, Maimane appeared in a political advert titled “Ayisafani” which was subsequently banned by the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) for “inciting violence”. The DA challenged the ruling and the advert was reinstated.

Mmusi Maimane is married to Natalie and they have two children.

Appiah Saravanan (A.S.) Chetty was born in Pietermaritzburg, Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal) on 3 April 1929. He was the second of five children of Appiah and Vellimah Chetty, whose parents had been brought to Natal as indentured labourers. He attended Woodlands High where he was labelled an ‘agitator’ by the principal.

Chetty joined the Natal Mercury as an office hand, and then Eddels Shoe Factory, where he was elected as shop steward. He was dismissed because of his trade union work. He subsequently joined a cigarette wholesaler where he formed the Trade Union of Allied Workers with Moses Mabhida, and was again dismissed.

He was involved in the Natal Indian Congress (NIC) at first, and later in the United Democratic Front (UDF) and the African National Congress (ANC).

By the end of 1950, he had joined the Pietermaritzburg Branch of the NIC. He was on the executive of the Branch and was the Pietermaritzburg NIC's Joint Secretary with EM Haffajee.

Chetty was actively involved in campaigning and mobilising for the Congress of the People, which he attended at Kliptown, Johannesburg, where the ANC’s Freedom Charter was adopted.

In 1973 he was banned for a period of five years, again in 1981 for a period of two years and a third in 1988 for a further twenty months. He also endured several periods of detention and imprisonment.

He was arrested under the State of Emergency in 1960, and imprisoned at the Burger Street Jail, Pietermaritzburg for 98 days. He was again detained at Burger Street Jail for a month in 1980. From the prison in Pietermaritzburg he was transferred to Modder Bee Prison in Benoni, East Rand, Transvaal (now Gauteng).

On 12 June 1986 he was detained at New Prison, Pietermaritzburg, and remanded in custody for over three months.

He had various jobs before working for the Child Welfare Society. He worked against the 'Platoon School' system, and was involved with the Combined Ratepayers Association.

 In 1983 he was elected Chairperson of the Pietermaritzburg Branch of the United Democratic Front, and, in this capacity, participated in the activities of the Mass Democratic Movement during the 1980s.

In 1990 he participated in initiating the establishment of the ANC interim body for Coloured and Indian areas and the informal settlements in the northern part of Pietermaritzburg. In 1991 he was elected Chairperson of the ANC’s Northern Areas Branch which emerged as the Northdale Branch and which he continued to chair until his death.

He was an active campaigner in the first democratic elections and in the local government elections of 1997. In 1997 he became a councillor in the Pietermaritzburg Msunduzi Transitional Local Council, and from 1998 until his death he was Deputy Mayor of Pietermaritzburg.

Appiah Saravanan (A.S.) Chetty died in Pietermaritzburg on 2 September 2000. He married Sarasvathie Padayachee from Newcastle on 27 January 1957. They had three children, a son and two daughters.

Hassim Seedat, was born in Newcastle, Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal), in 1930. His family came to Newcastle as traders in the late 1880s. He attended St Oswalds High School in Newcastle and Sastri College, Durban where he matriculated in 1947.

He qualified as a teacher at the Springfield Teachers Training College, being part of the first group of teachers to qualify from this institution when it was opened in 1951. He taught at Ballengeich Indian School (in Northern Natal) before proceeding to London where he enrolled with the London Education Council and took up a temporary teaching assignment whilst studying to obtain his Barrister-at-Law. He was called to the Bar in 1960.

Mac Maharaj and Professor Kader Asmal, amongst many, stayed with him when they first landed in London. Whilst in London he was active in the anti-apartheid campaigns mounted in the United Kingdom by the Anti-Apartheid Committee.

He was an articled clerk to attorney NT Naicker, a prominent Natal Indian Congress (NIC) activist and treason trialist. He subsequently established a legal practice in Durban, and was later joined by Thumba Pillay and Ebrahim Goga.

Seedat defended a number of political activists and was detained for a month in 1965 in connection with the trial of MD Naidoo who was sentenced to five years on Robben Island.

He was active in the NIC when it was revived in 1971 and was elected treasurer. He was elected a council member of the Natal Law Society in 1980, the first black member to hold this office.

He is a former member of the Democratic Lawyers Association (DLA), the first black law organisation in the country. He has been a past chairman of the Global Organisation of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO) South African Chapter based in Durban. The organisation is one of many around the world, representing about 20 million Indians living outside India.

Seedat contributed to The South African Gandhi 1893-1914, edited by Professor Fatima Meer, and wrote a series of articles on Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi in South Africa which appeared in The Leader during 1979 and 1980. He was a trustee of the Gandhi Development Trust, on the editorial board of Satyagraha, and chairman of the Freedom Park Trust History Durban Committee.

Seedat has the most extensive collection of books, pamphlets, magazines, brochures and memorabilia on Gandhi’s South African years, as well as general material on Indians in South Africa. He is also the chair of the Mota Varachha Trust which was founded in 1906 by villagers from Mota Varachha who settled in Natal.

Hassim Mohamed Seedat passed away on 5 June 2019 in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal.