Wilton Mkwayi

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Wilton Zamisile Mkwayi (born December 17, 1923 in Middledrift , † July 23, 2004 in King William's Town ) was a South African anti- apartheid activist, trade unionist and politician who belonged to the African National Congress (ANC).

Life

Mkwayi grew up as a child of farm workers with six siblings in the area of ​​today's Eastern Cape Province . At the age of ten he first attended school in Keiskammahoek . In 1940, at the age of 17, he joined the ANC, to which his father also belonged. In 1943 he left school to work in a dynamite factory in Somerset West . Two years later he moved to Port Elizabeth and took other jobs there.

In 1952 Mkwayi was one of the local organizers of the Defiance Campaign in Port Elizabeth . He wrote for the local newspapers The Guardian and New Age . Mkwayi organized several strikes and was sentenced to a fine. In 1955 he took part in the opposition Congress of the People , where the Freedom Charter was adopted. From 1956 he was one of the 156 defendants in the Treason Trial . Before the trial ended, he was able to flee. He lived briefly in Basutoland , where he met other South African opposition figures. With some of them, including Adelaide Tambo and Moses Mabhida , he traveled to the United Kingdom via Congo-Léopoldville and Ghana in 1960 , where he conferred with the British Trade Unions Council (BTUC). The BTUC then financed trips to Czechoslovakia and Romania , where he was active for the South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU).

Mkwayi was a member of the Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK). He was one of the first six South Africans to receive military training for the MK. Coming from Czechoslovakia, he attended the military school in Nanking in the People's Republic of China , where he met Mao Zedong . In 1962 he secretly returned to South Africa and took part in acts of sabotage . He was often disguised as a clergyman and remained undisturbed for a long time. After the MK leadership was imprisoned in Rivonia , he was appointed Commander-in-chief of the MK in place of Raymond Mhlabas until he was arrested in 1964 at the house of his girlfriend Irene Khumalo in Orlando West . Mkwayi was indicted in the Little Rivonia Trial along with Mac Maharaj and others for violating the Sabotage Act and the Suppression of Communism Act and sentenced to life imprisonment in January 1965. He came to the prison island Robben Island , where he had to do forced labor together with convicts like Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisulu .

In 1987 Mkwayi married his longtime girlfriend Irene Khumalo in prison; she was already suffering from cancer and died in 1988. The authorities had previously rejected all requests to marry. On October 10, 1989, Mkwayi was released after 24 years in prison. In July 1991 he was given a seat on the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the ANC, of ​​which he was a member until 1997. He was a member of the National Assembly from 1994 until his death in 2004 .

From 1996 Mkwayi was married to Patricia Lang-Mkwayi. In 2004 he died of cancer. At the funeral, Minister Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka gave a mourning address on behalf of President Thabo Mbeki .

Honors

  • In 1992, the ANC honored Mkwayi's commitment with the highest award Isitwalandwe .
  • In 1999 he received the Gold Order for Meritorious Service .

Nickname

Mkwayi's nickname was "Bribri" or "Uncle Bribri".

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Obituary at independent.co.uk (English), accessed on March 21, 2018
  2. ↑ a b c The road to democracy: South Africans telling their stories, Chapter 24: Wilton Mkwayi. sadet.co.za, accessed March 21, 2018
  3. ↑ A parcel from Cape Town (and a letter from Robben Iceland). nonstopagainstapartheid.wordpress.com, accessed March 21, 2018
  4. ↑ Wilton Mkwayi, 81, prisoner with Mandela for 2 decades. New York Times, July 26, 2004, accessed March 21, 2018
  5. ↑ a b c Mlambo-Ngcuka on behalf of T Mbeki: funeral of Wilton Mkwayi. polity.org.za, July 31, 2004, accessed March 21, 2018
  6. ^ National orders recipients 1999 at sahistory.org.za, accessed on March 21, 2018
personal data
SURNAME Mkwayi, Wilton
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mkwayi, Wilton Zamisile (full name); Bribri (nickname); Uncle Bribri (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION South African anti-apartheid activist, trade unionist and politician
DATE OF BIRTH December 17, 1923
PLACE OF BIRTH at Middledrift
DATE OF DEATH July 23, 2004
Place of death King William's Town