Zaccheus Richard Mahabane

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Zaccheus Richard Mahabane (born August 15, 1881 in Thaba Nchu , † September 1971 in Kroonstad ), also Zacharias Richard Mahabane , was a South African politician, Methodist pastor and from 1924 to 1927 and between 1937 and 1940 President of the African National Congress (ANC ).

Life

education and profession

Mahabane was born into a wealthy Christian farming family. After primary school he attended a mission school in Morija in Basutoland (now Lesotho), where he was trained as a teacher and graduated in 1901. He then worked for a short time as a teacher before becoming a court interpreter . In 1908 he began theological studies at the Lessyton Theological School in Queenstown , 1914, he became a Methodist pastor ordained . He had his first church in Bensonvale in the Eastern Cape , and in 1916 he was transferred to Cape Town . His political career began there.

As an ANC politician

In 1917 Mahabane joined the Cape Africa Congress , in 1919 he was elected President of the Cape African Congress , a predecessor organization of the South African Native National Council (SANNC) in the Western Cape, and Vice President of the Cape Native Voters' Convention . In 1923 the SANNC was renamed the ANC, and in 1924 Mahabane was elected as the party's first president after the renaming. His main political goal was the unity of the black population, on which he worked intensively together with Abdullah Abdurahman and organized various events as part of the Non-European Unity Conferences . His successor in office was Josiah Tshangana Gumede in 1927 , who came into office because of the rising left wing of the ANC and rejected its communist and increasingly radical orientation of the ANC Mahabane. He was involved in the background in the removal and displacement of Gumede from the presidency in 1930. At the same time he criticized the laws on racial segregation of the Hertzog government and in 1935 became a member of the executive committee of the All African Convention (AAC), an organization against the apartheid legislation ; he remained vice president of the congregation until 1955. In 1937 Mahabane was elected President of the ANC for the second time, in the 1940 election he lost with one vote to Alfred Bitini Xuma . After his second term in office he was involved in the revision of the party program, in 1943 the ANC appointed him lifelong honorary president.

As a politician outside of the ANC

In addition to his commitment to the ANC, Mahabane was very active for the AAC in the 1940s and one of the co-founders of the Non-European Unity Movement (NEUM), an African counterpart to the European Movement International . Until 1956 he served as chairman and president of the movement. In 1948, as a delegate of the AAC, he tried in vain to overcome the split between the AAC and the ANC. In the Defiance Campaign 1952 he did not take part; he was considered a calm, level-headed politician who was anxious to find a balance. So from 1950 he turned to church tasks. Among other things, he was involved in building the Methodist Church in South Africa and one of three African incumbents of the Methodist Church's Conference .

Mahabane was married to Harriet Mantoro and had five children.

Awards

In 2012 Mahabane was posthumously awarded the Order of Luthuli in gold by President Jacob Zuma .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. The year of death is given both as 1971, for example in the New Dictionary of South African Biography , Volume 1, page 151, and as 1970, for example on the pages of the ANC ( Memento of May 22, 2012 in the Internet Archive ). Due to the 100th anniversary of the ANC and the visit to the tomb of Mahabane by the Prime Minister of the Free State on February 13, 2012, 1971 can be assumed. See http://152.111.1.87/argief/berigte/dailysun/2012/02/13/DJ/10/Maokeng Day.html (link not available). In: Daily Sun, February 13, 2012, accessed May 15, 2012.
  2. ^ William Mervin Gumede: Thabo Mbeki And The Battle For The Soul Of The ANC . Zebrapress, Cape Town 2005. p. 10 (English).
  3. ^ William Mervin Gumede: Thabo Mbeki And The Battle For The Soul Of The ANC . Zebrapress, Cape Town 2005. p. 13 (English).
  4. ^ Moroka, Mahabane receive Gold Orders of Luthuli . In: The Weekly of April 26, 2012, accessed May 15, 2012.