Sefako Makgatho

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Sefako Mapogo Makgatho (* 1861 in Mphatlhele near Pietersburg , † May 23, 1951 in Pretoria ) was a South African politician. From 1917 to 1924 he was President of the South African Natives National Congress (SANNC) or African National Congress (ANC).

Life

Makgatho was born the son of Pedi - Chief Kgorutlhe Josiah Makgatho. He received his schooling near Pretoria in the Transvaal province . In 1882 he went to a school in Ealing , England, where he took education and theology. There he experienced the Berlin conference with the division of Africa among the European powers and took a critical stance on it. In 1885 he returned and worked from then on as a teacher at the Kilnerton Training Institute in Pretoria. From 1887 to 1930 Makgatho was also a Methodist preacher .

Together with other black teachers, Makgatho founded the Transvaal African Teachers' Association (TATA) in 1906 , which demanded equal conditions for all teachers and students, regardless of skin color. At the same time he ended his career as a teacher. Makgatho was from 1906 to 1908 president of the African Political Union and from 1908 to 1912 president of the successor organization Transvaal Native Organization, which in 1912 became part of the South African Natives National Congress (SANNC), of which Makgatho was a founding member. He became SANNC President for the Transvaal Province and remained so until 1930. From 1912 to 1917 he was also one of the Vice-Presidents of SANNC. In 1912 he founded the newspaper The Native Advocate, which existed for about a year. In 1912 he founded the later ANC newspaper Abantu Batho with Pixley ka Isaka Seme . In the same year he consciously boarded a railway carriage reserved for whites and was beaten for it. In Pretoria, he led a campaign to allow blacks to use the sidewalk instead of walking on the street.

In 1917 he succeeded John Langalibalele Dube as second president of the SANNC. Under his leadership, the organization was renamed the African National Congress in 1923 . As president, Makgatho campaigned against the discriminatory Natives Land Act , won several black majority lawsuits, and successfully went to court against the white-led government to sue the Transvaal poll tax . After the end of the First World War, he sent a petition to the British King George V , in which he successfully asked that the British areas in southern Africa such as Bechuanaland , Swaziland and Basutoland should not be annexed to South Africa. However, a delegation that was supposed to intervene in London against the Natives Land Act returned to South Africa without success.

While other early SANNC and ANC presidents such as Pixley ka Isaka Seme and Sol Plaatje aimed to empower the chiefs and educated blacks, Makgatho realized that the interests of the lower classes needed to be promoted. Under his leadership, strikes and non-violent actions against the pass laws took place in the Transvaal, during which 700 people were arrested. Under his leadership, the number of paying members rose to around 3,000.

At the end of 1924 Makgatho resigned and was replaced by Zaccheus Richard Mahabane . From 1930 to 1933 he was treasurer of the ANC. He was voted out of office in the wake of emerging ethnic divisions in the ANC, but remained an active politician until the 1940s, particularly in the Transvaal.

Honors

  • Nelson Mandela's second son was given the first name Makhatho in honor of the then 89-year-old Sefako Mapogo Makhatho.
  • The Sefako Mapogo Makgatho Memorial Foundation is dedicated to the memory of Makhatho.
  • South African President Jacob Zuma gave a commemorative lecture to Makgatho on February 23, 2012 on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the ANC.
  • The South African President's guest house was named after Makhatho in 2012.
  • Established Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University in 2014

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e biography at sahistory.org.za (English), accessed on May 13, 2012
  2. ↑ a b Memorial lecture given by the South African head of state Jacob Zuma to Makhatho ( Memento of the original from January 4, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English), accessed on May 13, 2012 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.anc.org.za
  3. ↑ a b Report on the renaming of the guest house (English), accessed on May 11, 2012
personal data
SURNAME Makgatho, Sefako
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Makgatho, Sefako Mapogo (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION South African politician, journalist and teacher
DATE OF BIRTH 1861
PLACE OF BIRTH Mphatlhele near Pietersburg
DATE OF DEATH May 23, 1951
Place of death Pretoria