Raymond Mhlaba
Raymond Mhlaba (born April 12, 1920 in Mazoka near Fort Beaufort , † February 20, 2005 in Port Elizabeth ) was a South African politician and fighter against apartheid .
Life
Raymond Mhlaba was born to a police officer. He went to school for ten years, the last two of which he studied at the Healdtown Native School . He had to end his school visit early for financial reasons. He then worked for a dry cleaning company in Port Elizabeth . He lost this job in April 1948 after a strike by workers in this area who had demanded a wage increase. His activities brought him into contact with the union movement and in 1943 he became a member of the South African Communist Party (SACP). A year later he joined the African National Congress (ANC).
Like Nelson Mandela , Albert Luthuli and Walter Sisulu , he was a member of the ANC, in which he temporarily held regional management positions. From 1962 until his arrest in 1963 he was in command of Umkhonto we Sizwe .
In the Rivonia trial he was sentenced to life imprisonment for sabotage in 1964, along with Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Denis Goldberg , Govan Mbeki , Ahmed Kathrada , Elias Motsoaledi and Andrew Mlangeni . He was imprisoned in Robben Island until 1982 , then in Pollsmoor Prison in Cape Town . Mhlaba was released from prison in 1989 and was a member of an ANC delegation that negotiated the end of apartheid with representatives of the Nasionale Party . From 1994 to 1997 he served as Prime Minister of the Eastern Cape Province . In 1995 he was temporarily president ( chairman ) of the SACP.
In 2005, Mhlaba died of liver cancer . Raymond Mhlaba was married twice and had eight children.
Honors
In 1992 Mhlaba was awarded the Isitwalandwe , the highest honor awarded by the ANC. In 1999 he received the South African Order for meritorious service in gold.
In 2016, the community of Raymond Mhlaba , whose administrative seat is Fort Beaufort, was named after him.
Web links
- Portrait at sahistory.org.za (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Shelag Gastrow: Who's Who in South African Politics. Number 5 . Johannesburg 1995, p. 187
- ↑ List of recipients of the order 1999 sahistory.org.za (English), accessed on August 25, 2018
personal data | |
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SURNAME | Mhlaba, Raymond |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | South African politician and civil rights activist |
DATE OF BIRTH | April 12, 1920 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Mazoka at Fort Beaufort , South Africa |
DATE OF DEATH | February 20, 2005 |
Place of death | Port Elizabeth , South Africa |