Conversations with Myself (38 page)

Mandela, Nosekeni Fanny

(d. 1968). Mandela’s mother. Third wife of Nkosi Mphakanyiswa Gadla Mandela.

Mandela, Winnie

(
See
Madikizela-Mandela, Nomzamo Winifred.)

Mandela, Zenani (Zeni)

(1959–). Mandela’s first-born daughter to his second wife, Winnie.

Mandela, Zindziswa (Zindzi)

(1960–). Mandela’s second-born daughter to his second wife, Winnie.

Marks, John Beaver (J B)

(1903–1972). Political and anti-apartheid activist and trade unionist. President of the ANC in the Transvaal. Chair of the SACP. Banned under the Suppression of Communism Act. President of the Transvaal Council of Non-European Trade Unions. President of the African Mine Workers Union (AMWU). Organised the 1946 African Mine Workers’ Strike. Deployed by the ANC to join the headquarters of the External Mission in Tanzania, 1963.

Mase, Evelyn Ntoko

(1922–2004). Nurse. Married to Nelson Mandela, 1944–57. Mother to Madiba Thembekile (1945–69), Makaziwe (1947) who died at nine months old, Makgatho (1950–2005) and Makaziwe (1954–). Cousin of Walter Sisulu who first introduced her to Mandela. Married a retired Sowetan businessman, Simon Rakeepile, in 1998.

Matanzima, Kaiser Daliwonga (K D)

(1915–2003). Thembu chief and politician. Mandela’s nephew. Member of the United Transkei Territorial Council, 1955, and an executive member of the Transkei Territorial Authority, 1956. Chief Minister of the Transkei, 1963. Established and led the Transkeian National Independence Party with his brother George Matanzima. First prime minister of the Transkei Bantustan when it gained nominal independence in 1976. State president of the Transkei, 1979–86.

Matthews, Professor Zachariah Keodirelang (Z K)

(1901–1968). Academic, politician, anti-apartheid activist. Member of the ANC. First black South African to obtain a BA degree at a South African institution, 1923. First black South African to obtain an LLB degree in South Africa, 1930. Conceptualised the Congress of the People and the Freedom Charter. Following the Sharpeville Massacre, with Chief Albert Luthuli he organised a ‘stay-away’, a national day of mourning, on 28 March 1960. In 1965 he retired to Botswana, and became its ambassador to the USA.

Mbeki, Archibald Mvuyelwa Govan (clan name, Zizi)

(1910–2001). Historian and anti-apartheid activist. Leading member of the ANC and the SACP. Served on the High Command of MK. Father of Thabo Mbeki (president of South Africa, 1999–2008). Convicted in the Rivonia Trial and sentenced to life imprisonment. Released from Robben Island Prison, 1987. Served in South Africa’s post-apartheid Senate, 1994–1997, as deputy president of the Senate, and its successor, the National Council of Provinces, 1997–99. Awarded the ANC’s highest honour, Isitwalandwe Seaparankoe, in 1980.

Mbeki, Mvuyelwa Thabo

(1942–). Politician and anti-apartheid activist. President of South Africa, 1999–2008. Deputy president, 1994–99. Son of Govan Mbeki. Joined the ANCYL in 1956 at the age of fourteen. Left South Africa with other students in 1962. He quickly rose through the ranks of the ANC in exile, and underwent military training in the Soviet Union. He worked closely with O R Tambo and led the ANC delegation that held secret talks with the South African government, participating in all subsequent interactions with the South African government. He served as president of the ANC, 1997–2007.

Meer, Professor Fatima

(1928–2010). Writer, academic and anti-apartheid and women’s rights activist. Married Ismail Meer, 1950. Established Student Passive Resistance Committee in support of the 1946 Passive Resistance Campaign against apartheid. Founding member of FEDSAW. First black woman to be appointed as a lecturer at a white South African university (University of Natal), 1956. Banned from 1953 and escaped an assassination attempt. She embraced the Black Consciousness ideology. Founded the Institute of Black Research (IBR), 1975. First president of the Black Women’s Federation, established in 1975. Author of
Higher Than Hope
(published 1988), the first authorised biography of Mandela.

Mhlaba, Raymond (clan name, Ndobe)

(1920–2005). Anti-apartheid activist, politician, diplomat and political prisoner. Leading member of ANC and SACP. Commander-in-chief of MK. Arrested in 1963 at Rivonia and sentenced to life imprisonment at the Rivonia Trial. Imprisoned on Robben Island until he was transferred to Pollsmoor Prison in 1982. Released in 1989. He was involved in the negotiations with the National Party government leading to the democratisation of South Africa. Member of the ANC National Executive Committee, 1991. Premier of the Eastern Cape, 1994. South African High Commissioner to Uganda, 1997. Awarded the ANC’s highest honour, Isitwalandwe Seaparankoe, in 1992.

MK

(
See
Umkhonto we Sizwe.)

Mkwayi, Zimasile Wilton (clan name, Mbona; nickname, Bri Bri)

(1923–2004). Trade unionist, political activist and political prisoner. Member of the ANC and SACTU. Union organiser for African Textile Workers in Port Elizabeth. Volunteer in the 1952 Defiance Campaign, and later active in the campaign for the Congress of the People. Escaped during the 1956 Treason Trial and went to Lesotho. Joined Umkhonto we Sizwe and had military training in the People’s Republic of China. Became MK’s commander-in-chief after the arrests at Liliesleaf Farm. Convicted and sentenced to life in what became known as the ‘Little Rivonia Trial’. He served his sentence on Robben Island. Released October 1989. Elected to the Senate in the National Parliament in 1994, then deployed to the Eastern Cape Provincial Legislature, where he served until his retirement from public life in 1999. Awarded the ANC’s highest honour, Isitwalandwe Seaparankoe, in 1992.

Mlangeni, Andrew Mokete (clan name, Mokotlwana; nickname, Mpandla)

(1926–). Anti-apartheid activist, political prisoner and MP. Member of the ANCYL, ANC and MK. Convicted at the Rivonia Trial in 1963 and sentenced to life imprisonment. Served eighteen years on Robben Island and was transferred to Pollsmoor Prison in 1982. Awarded the ANC’s highest honour, Isitwalandwe Seaparankoe, in 1992.

Mompati, Ruth Segomotsi

(1925–). Anti-apartheid and women’s rights activist, MP, ambassador and mayor. Typist for Mandela and Oliver Tambo at their law practice in Johannesburg, 1953–61. Member of the ANC. Head of the women’s division of the ANC in Tanzania. Head of the ANC’s Board of Religious Affairs. Founding member of FEDSAW. South African ambassador to Switzerland, 1996–2000. Mayor of Vryburg/Naledi, North West Province.

Moolla, Moosa Mohamed (Mosie)

(1934–). Anti-apartheid activist and diplomat. Member of the Transvaal Indian Youth Congress (TIYC) and TIC. Full-time employee of the National Action Council for the Congress of the People. Among the last thirty accused in the 1956–61 Treason Trial. Detained and held in solitary confinement under the ninety-day law, 1963. Was re-detained but managed to escape by bribing a young guard, Johannes Greeff, and fled across the border to Tanzania. In 1972 he became the ANC’s chief representative in India. In November 1989 he was appointed the ANC representative to the World Peace Council. From 1990, he worked in the ANC’s Department of International Affairs in South Africa. He was the first South African ambassador to Iran, and then high commissioner to Pakistan until his retirement in 2004.

Moroka, Dr James Sebe

(1892–1985). Medical doctor, politician and anti-apartheid activist. President of the ANC, 1949–52. Convicted in the Defiance Campaign Trial in 1952. During the trial he appointed his own lawyer, disassociated himself from the ANC and pleaded for mitigation. As a consequence he was not re-elected president of the ANC, and was replaced by Chief Luthuli.

Motsoaledi, Elias (clan name, Mokoni)

(1924–94). Trade unionist, anti-apartheid activist and political prisoner. Member of the ANC, SACP and Council of Non-European Trade Unions (CNETU). Banned after the 1952 Defiance Campaign. Helped to establish SACTU in 1955. Imprisoned for four months during the 1960 State of Emergency and detained again under the ninety-day detention laws of 1963. Sentenced to life imprisonment at the Rivonia Trial and imprisoned on Robben Island from 1964 to 1989. Elected to the ANC’s National Executive Committee following his release. Awarded the ANC’s highest honour, Isitwalandwe Seaparankoe, in 1992.

Naicker, Dr Gangathura Mohambry (Monty)

(1910–78). Medical doctor, politician and anti-apartheid activist. Co-founder and first chairperson of the Anti-Segregation Council. President of the Natal Indian Congress (NIC), 1945–63. Signatory of the ‘Doctor’s Pact’ of March 1947, a statement of cooperation between the ANC, TIC and NIC, which was also signed by Dr Albert Xuma (president of the ANC) and Dr Yusuf Dadoo (president of the TIC).

Nair, Billy

(1929–2008). Politician, anti-apartheid activist, political prisoner and MP. Member of the ANC, NIC, SACP, SACTU and MK. Charged with sabotage in 1963 and imprisoned on Robben Island for twenty years. Joined the UDF on his release. Arrested in 1990 and accused of being part of Operation Vula. MP in the new democratic South Africa.

National Party

Conservative South African political party established in Bloemfontein in 1914 by Afrikaner nationalists. Governing party of South Africa, June 1948 to May 1994. Enforced apartheid, a system of legal racial segregation that favoured minority rule by the white population. Disbanded in 2004.

Ndobe

(
See
Mhlaba, Raymond)

Ngoyi, Lilian Masediba

(1911–80). Politician, anti-apartheid and women’s rights activist, and orator. Leading member of the ANC. First woman elected to the ANC Executive Committee, 1956. President of the ANC Women’s League. President of FEDSAW, 1956. Led the Women’s March against pass laws, 1956. Charged and acquitted in the Treason Trial. Detained in the 1960 State of Emergency. Detained and held in solitary confinement for seventy-one days in 1963 under the ninety-day detention law. Continuously subjected to banning orders. Awarded the ANC’s highest honour, Isitwalandwe Seaparankoe, in 1982.

Nokwe, Philemon Pearce Dumasile (Duma)

(1927–78). Lawyer and political activist. Member of the ANCYL. Leading member of the ANC. Secretary of the ANCYL, 1953–58. Participated in the Defiance Campaign. Prevented from teaching, he studied law and became the first black lawyer to be admitted to the Transvaal Supreme Court. However he could not practise as he was an accused in the 1956–61 Treason Trial. He was elected secretary general at the ANC’s annual conference in 1958, a post he held until 1969. He was ordered by the ANC to flee into exile, and he left the country in 1963 with Moses Kotane. He helped establish the ANC in exile, lobbying at many international forums.

Nzo, Alfred Baphetuxolo

(1925–2000). Leading member of the ANCYL and ANC. Participant in the 1952 Defiance Campaign, and the Congress of the People. In 1962, Nzo was placed under twenty-four-hour house arrest, and in 1963 he was detained for 238 days. After his release the ANC ordered him to leave the country. He represented the ANC in various countries including Egypt, India, Zambia and Tanzania. He succeeded Duma Nokwe as secretary general in 1969, and held this post until the first legal ANC conference in South Africa in 1991. He was part of the ANC delegation that participated in talks with the De Klerk government after 1990. Appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs in the newly democratic South Africa, 1994. Received a number of awards including the Order of Luthuli in Gold, 2003.

OR

(
See
Tambo, Oliver
.)

Pan Africanist Congress (PAC)

Breakaway organisation of the ANC founded in 1959 by Robert Sobukwe, who championed the philosophy of ‘Africa for Africans’. The PAC’s campaigns included a nationwide protest against pass laws, ten days before the ANC was to start its own campaign. It culminated in the Sharpeville Massacre on 21 March 1960, in which police shot dead sixty-nine unarmed protestors. Banned, along with the ANC, in April 1960. Unbanned on 2 February 1990.

Peake, George

(1922–). Political activist, founding member and national chairperson of the South African Coloured People’s Organisation (later the CPC), 1953. Charged and acquitted in the Treason Trial. Subjected to banning orders and detained for five months in the 1960 State of Emergency. Cape Town city councillor from March 1961 until he was charged with sabotage and imprisoned for two years in 1962. Fled South Africa in 1964.

Plaatje, Solomon Tshekisho (Sol)

(1876–1932). Author, journalist, linguist, newspaper editor and political publicist, and human rights activist. Member of the African People’s Organisation. First secretary general of the SANNC (renamed as the ANC in 1923), 1912. First black South African to write a novel in English (
Mhudi
, published 1913). Established the first Setswana/ English weekly,
Koranta ea Becoana
(
Newspaper of the Tswana
), 1901, and
Tsala ea Becoana
(
The Friend of the People
), 1910. Member of the SANNC deputation that appealed to the British Government against the Land Act of 1913, which severely restricted the rights of Africans to own or occupy land.

Pokela, John Nyathi

(1922–85). Anti-apartheid activist. Member of the ANCYL. Co-founder and leading member of the PAC. Sentenced to thirteen years’ imprisonment in 1966 for his participation in Poqo, the PAC’s armed wing. President of the PAC from 1981.