Raymond Mhlaba

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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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Shelag Gastrow: Who's Who in South African Politics. Number 5 . Johannesburg 1995, p. 187
  2. ↑ List of recipients of the order 1999 sahistory.org.za (English), accessed on August 25, 2018
personal data
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