Govan Mbeki

Govan Archibald Mvuyelwa Mbeki (9 July 1910 – 30 August 2001) was a South African politician and father of the former South African president Thabo Mbeki and political economist Moeletsi Mbeki.

He attended Fort Hare University, completing in 1936 a Bachelor of Arts degree in politics and psychology and a teaching diploma. Mbeki met other African struggle leaders there. He worked for a time as a teacher but lost his job because of his political activities.^[2] He became a clandestine member of the communist party in the late 1930s.^[3] But did not join the ANC until after the communists were banned in 1950. Initially a journalist on Inkundla Ya Bantu, he left journalism in 1943 and became a government nominated member of the Transkeian General Council until 1950. At this time he had shown no opposition to the government, otherwise he would not have been nominated to this position by the government. In 1948 Mbeki stood as a candidate for the Natives Representative Council but lost the election.^[3]

In 1954, he joined the editorial board of New Age, a prominent leftist newspaper. Mbeki played a crucial role in ensuring that the pages and columns reflected the conditions, demands, and aspirations of the black peoples, particularly in the countryside.^[2] In November 1962, the then Minister of Justice, John Vorster, banned New Age. When the editorial board came out with its successor publication Spark, Vorster went one step further by banning not the newspaper but its editors and writers.^[2]

Govan Mbeki's guitar at Robben Island, at the Fort Hare Archives (2016)

Mbeki was a leader of the African National Congress (ANC) and of the South African Communist Party. After the Rivonia Trial, he was imprisoned (1964–1987) on charges of terrorism and treason, together with Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Raymond Mhlaba, Ahmed Kathrada and other eminent ANC leaders.

On 26 June 1980, the Secretary General of the African National Congress, Alfred Nzo, announced the conferring of the Isitwalandwe Medal, the ANC's highest honour, on Govan Mbeki. Mbeki was not present to receive the award, because he was serving a life imprisonment sentence on Robben Island.

Govan Mbeki was released from custody after serving 23 years in the Robben Island prison on 5 November 1987. He served in South Africa's post-apartheid Senate from 1994 to 1997 as Deputy President of the Senate. He then served in the Senate's successor, the National Council of Provinces, from 1997 to 1999.

Mbeki died in Port Elizabeth in September 2001.^[2] His remains were the subject of controversy in 2006 when plans were made to exhume them, and place them in a museum. These plans were called off after Mbeki's family refused the request.^[4]

Mbeki received international recognition for his political achievements including the renaming (at Mandela's suggestion) of the recently opened health building at Glasgow Caledonian University. The Govan Mbeki Health Building was inaugurated in 2001 at a ceremony featuring his son Thabo.

Mbeki received an honorary doctorate in the Social Sciences from the University of Amsterdam. His son Thabo attended the ceremony, as Mbeki was imprisoned at Robben Island.

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