The Legends Beyers Naude & Thomas Nkobi

Names: Naudé, Beyers

Born: 10 May 1915, Roodepoort, Transvaal

Died: 2004

In Summary: Reverend and Political Activist.

Naude was serving as minister, or dominee, in the Aasvoëlkop congregation during this time and experienced intense inner conflict regarding the church's support of apartheid with his own Christian principles. In 1963 he resigned from the Broederbond after 22 years of membership. His real turning point came on a Sunday morning in September 1963. Already considered a traitor for quitting the Broederbond, he braved complete rejection by the Afrikaner community by condemning apartheid from the pulpit.

Byers Naudé delivers a sermon. © suntimes.co.za

After completing his last sermon in which he placed “ the authority of God before the authority of man” he removed his robes and left his church. Naudé and his family were completely ostracized by their fellow Afrikaners. He told his wife, “Whatever happens, we will be together and God will be with us.” Naude was embraced by the Black community and joined a Dutch Reformed congregation led by Reverend Sam Guti in Alexandra.

Thomas Nkobi

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Thomas Titus Nkobi
Treasurer General of the African National Congress
In office 1973–1994
Preceded by	Moses Mabhida
Personal details
Born	October 22, 1922 Plumtree, Southern Rhodesia
Died	September 25, 1994 (aged 71) Johannesburg, South Africa
Political party	African National Congress
Spouse(s)	Winnifred Mangoane Nkobi
Children	5

Thomas Titus Nkobi (born 22 October 1922 in Southern Matabeleland, died 25 September 1994 in Johannesburg / South Africa) was a senior leader of the South African African National Congress (ANC) and a key figure in the Anti-Apartheid movement. Until his death he was the Treasurer General of the ANC and also its Member of Parliament.

Contents   [hide]  1 Life 2 Literature 3 Films 4 External links

[edit]Life

Thomas Titus Nkobi ("Comrade T.G.") was born on 22 October 1922 inPlumtree, Matabeleland South, Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). He grew up and was educated in South Africa, where his father was working in the mines as a migrant laborer. He was at Adams College of Education in KwaZulu Natal with Joshua Nkomo, the Zimbabwean Vice President and Bernard Chidzero, the Zimbabwean Minister of Finance and Dr. Ntsu Mokhehle, the Prime Minister of Lesotho. After completing High School in Natal he matriculated from Bantu High School (later Madibane High School) in Western Township, Johannesburg in 1946 and went to Roma College (now National University of Lesotho) in Lesotho, pursuing aBachelor of Commerce degree.

His initial political involvement against the Apartheid regime started in 1944 during the Alexandra bus boycott, a non-violent protest campaign. In 1950 he formally joined the ANC and played a leading role in the 1952 ANC Defiance Campaign against Unjust Laws. He was one of the main volunteers who traveled from village to village collecting demands of the African population that were incorporated into the ANC Freedom Charter; he attended the 1955 Congress of the Peoplein Kliptown that drew up the Freedom Charter as a delegate from Alexandra.

In 1957 Thomas Nkobi shot to prominence when he chaired the Second Alexandra Peoples Transport Committee which was co-ordinating a bus boycott in the Johannesburg and Pretoria townships following a 25 per cent increase in bus fares. In the same year he was arrested for participating in the nation-wide Potato Boycott, following The Farm Labour Scandal, a journalistic investigation by Ruth First and Joe Gqabi, which uncovered that Africans arrested for infringement of the pass laws were coerced into enforced labor on potato farms. In 1958 Thomas Nkobi became the National Organizer of the ANC and was charged with the task of implementing the M-Plan, an action plan, named afterNelson Mandela, to decentralize the ANCs organizational branches and communication channels in order to avoid public meetings and announcements and increase effectiveness of their political and social campaign.

During the 1960 State of Emergency, he was amongst the thousands of political activists who were detained. After his release he continued working for the ANC as National Organizer and was also prominent in the underground. He wasbanned in 1961, and in 1962 placed under a 24 hour house arrest. In 1963 Thomas Nkobi fled South Africa for exile inDar es Salaam / Tanzania and later Lusaka / Zambia, where he became actively involved in mobilizing international public opinion against the Apartheid regime.

From 1968 to 1973 he served as deputy to then Treasurer General of the ANC, Moses Kotane. He was elected Treasurer General of the ANC in 1973, a post to which he was re-elected at all subsequent national conferences of the organization.

After the ANC was in legalized in 1990 he returned to South Africa. There he oversaw the ANCs budget for South Africa's first democratic election, which brought the ANC to power. Thomas Nkobi was re-elected as Treasurer General in party elections in 1991 and also elected as Member of Parliament, member of the ANC National Executive Committee (NEC) and member of the ANC's National Working Committee (NWC); one of several elders with moderate views who retained leadership positions.

He died on 25 September 1994, in Johannesburg after suffering a fatal stroke. He is buried at Heroes' Acre in Soweto, a section of Soweto's Avalon Cemetery reserved as final resting place for many Anti-Apartheid activists.

In 2004, Thomas Nkobi posthumously received the Order of Luthuli in Gold for his "exceptional and selfless contribution to the struggle for a non-racial, non-sexist, free and democratic South Africa".