Govan Archibald Mvunyelwa Mbeki (9 July 1910 – 30 August 2001) was a South African politician, military commander, Communist leader who served as the Secretary of Umkhonto we Sizwe, at its inception in 1961. He was also the younger son of Chief Skelewu Mbeki and Johanna Mabula and also the father of the former South African president Thabo Mbeki and political economist Moeletsi Mbeki.

Govan Mbeki was a leader of the South African Communist Party and the African National Congress. After the Rivonia Trial, he was imprisoned (1963–1987) on charges of terrorism and treason; together with Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Raymond Mhlaba, Ahmed Kathrada and other eminent ANC leaders, for their role in the ANC's armed wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK). He was sometimes mentioned by his nickname "Oom Gov".

Early years

Govan Mbeki was born in 1910 the Nqamakwe district of the Transkei region and was a part of the Xhosa ethnic group. Growing up, he attended a missionary boarding school. Mbeki met other African struggle leaders while attending the university.

Teacher, trader and communist

After graduating, Mbeki worked as a high school teacher in Durban, but lost his job because of his political activities. While teaching, he met his wife, Epainette Moerane. He then set up a co-operative store in Idutywa and began a writing career. From 1938 to 1943, he was the editor of Inkundla Ya Bantu ("The People's Platform"), the only African-run newspaper at the time.

When the CPSA/ SACP was banned in 1950 by the apartheid government, Mbeki remained in the African National Congress (ANC). In 1952, he was imprisoned together with Raymond Mhlaba and Vuyisile Mini for three months in Rooi Hel ('Red Hell' or North End Prison, Port Elizabeth) for disobeying apartheid laws by participating in the 'Campaign of Defiance against Injustice Laws' (Defiance Campaign). In 1954, a tornado destroyed Mbeki's store, and he was dismissed from teaching again (he would lose his job three times, and be blacklisted from others, from the 1930s onwards). Mbeki moved to Port Elizabeth and joined the editorial board of New Age, a prominent leftist newspaper linked to underground CPSA/ SACP networks. Mbeki was meanwhile actively involved in the major campaigns of the day, including the revival of the African National Congress in the 1940s, the Defiance Campaign and the Congress of the People.

Armed struggle and Robben Island

In 1960, the ANC was banned, and along with the underground SACP, formed Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), which became ANC's armed wing. Mbeki was involved, and, at his urging, Strachan assisted MK by turning his hand to improvised explosive devices based on substances such as potassium permanganate, magnesium, glycerol and icing sugar.

Mbeki led an MK cell in Port Elizabeth in 1961. A supporter of the 1950–1961 Pondoland peasant revolt, he wrote the pioneering study of the movement, South Africa: The Peasants' Revolt from 1958, which was published in 1964. Much of the book is an analysis of the political economy of the Transkei, rather than the revolt itself. He began writing the book on rolls of toilet paper and had to smuggle it out of prison.

In 1992, he published The Struggle For Liberation in South Africa: A Short History and in 1996, Sunset at Midday: Latshonilangemini!

Release and post-apartheid role

Mbeki was released from custody after serving 24 years in the Robben Island prison in November 1987.

Govan Mbeki's remains were the subject of controversy in 2006 when plans were made to exhume them, together with Raymond Mhlaba's remains, and place them in a museum. These plans were called off after both Mhlaba and Mbeki's family refused the request.

Awards and honours

Mbeki received an honorary doctorate in the Social Sciences from the University of Amsterdam in 1978. His son Moeletsi attended the ceremony, as Mbeki was imprisoned at Robben Island. The Govan Mbeki Health Building was inaugurated in 2001 at a ceremony featuring his son Thabo.

See also

  • Prisons in South Africa
  • Maximum Security Prison, Robben Island

References

Notes

Citations

  • Govan Mbeki Archive at marxists.org