Potlako Leballo

Potlako Kitchener Leballo (born December 19, 1924 in Lifelakoaneng near Mafeteng , Basutoland , † January 1986 in London ) was a politician in Basutoland (today's Lesotho), South Africa and in exile. For many years he was Secretary General and finally Chairman of the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC).

Life

Potlako Kitchener Leballo was probably born in 1924 in what is now the Mafeteng district as the youngest of 14 children. His father was an Anglican clergyman. He participated in World War II as a volunteer member of the South African Army . In 1952 he participated in the Defiance Campaign of the African National Congress (ANC). In the same year he was a founding member of the Pan-African Basutoland African Congress , the first party in what is now Lesotho. From 1957 the party was called the Basutoland Congress Party (BCP). At the same time, Leballo was a member of the ANC Youth League founded in South Africa in 1944 . Leballo was well known as a good speaker. Following his proposal, Albert Luthuli was elected President of the ANC in 1952 . In 1959 he was instrumental in the fact that the Pan Africanist Congress split off from the ANC. Once again, Leballo succeeded in filling the top position of an organization through a proposal, in which Robert Sobukwe was elected head of the PAC. Leballo took on the role of Secretary General in the PAC.

After the Sharpeville massacre , a South African court sentenced Leballo to prison for incitement. After his release he was exiled to Natal . In August 1962 he was given permission to return to Basutoland, where he helped rebuild the PAC in Maseru , which was banned in South Africa . He helped set up the PAC's military wing, Poqo (later Azania's Peoples's Liberation Army , APLA). Leballo, however, had to flee Basutoland after the Poqo overturn plans against the South African government became known. He went into exile in Ghana and Tanzania , where he worked to transform the PAC into a Maoist organization. However, he had little success with it until 1976. The majority of the exiled PAC members favored a more diplomatic style. In 1974 178 fighters from the Lesotho Liberation Army (LLA), the military arm of the BCP, as well as around 500 South African students came to a camp in Libya for military training, thereby strengthening Leballo's radical position, who was also an instructor for the LLA.

In 1978 Sobukwe died in South Africa during his banishment. Leballo became his successor. The US put pressure on the PAC leadership to strengthen the moderate wing. In 1979 Leballo had to undergo medical treatment in the UK . David Sibeko , Vusumzi Make and Elias Ntloedibe then overthrew Leballo. APLA commanders shot Sibeko; Make has been named the new PAC chair. Tanzanian troops killed several PAC fighters and drove the rest to Kenya . In 1980 Leballo came to Zimbabwe and set up a new headquarters there .

In February 1981, former PAC leader John Nyati Pokela was released from custody in South Africa, replacing Make as leader of the moderate PAC members. Leballo was expelled from Zimbabwe under pressure from the Tanzanian government and the OAU and reached Libya after several stops.

Leballo lived in Ghana and London until 1986. He worked with the Ghanaian Jerry Rawlings ' People's Committees and maintained contacts with the Rwandan Tutsi and the then independence movement Yoweri Musevenis in Uganda . Pokela died in 1985. Leballo subsequently worked to unite the PAC, but died suddenly in Greenwich , London. He was buried in his birthplace in Lesotho.

Web links

• Portrait at sahistory.org.za (English)
• Article by Joel Bolnick: Potlako Leballo: The man who hurried to meet his destiny, biography with a focus on the years up to 1946 (English, PDF file; 619 kB)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Article by Joel Bolnick: Potlako Leballo: The man who hurried to meet his destiny, biography with a focus on the years up to 1946 (English, PDF file; 619 kB), accessed on March 2, 2012
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} portrait at sahistory.org.za (English), accessed on March 2, 2012