Sir
Robert Sobukwe was born in Graaff-Reinet on December 5, 1924 and died on February 27, 1978 of lung cancer at the age of 53. During the late 1940s he enrolled at Fort Hare University.
He participated in the student politics at Fort Hare University and was elected president of the Students Representative Council. At Fort Hare he also joined the African National Congress and its youth formation.
During the mid-1950s Sobukwe opposed the ANC’s policy of associating itself with anti-apartheid groups of other races. Robert Sobukwe and other ANC members officially launched Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) on April 6, 1959. Sobukwe was elected their first President and Potlako Leballo the General Secretary.
As a President of the Pan Africanist Congress, Sobukwe, on March 21, 1961, called on all black South Africans to leave their dom pass books at home and walk to the nearest police stations and hand themselves in for arrest. By nightfall, his actions had determined the course of history in South Africa as apartheid police shot and killed sixty-nine people in Sharpeville. Nowadays ” March 21 ” is celebrated as Human Rights Day in South Africa.
For his role in the campaign, which led to the massacre, Sobukwe was sentenced to three years of hard labour and Sobukwe refused to appeal against his sentence and also refused the legal aid of an attorney on the grounds that the court had no jurisdiction over him because it could not be considered either a court of law or a court of justice. In mitigation of sentence he said, “It will be remembered that we refused to plead to the charges against us. We felt we had no moral obligation to obey the laws made by a white minority. Without wishing to impugn the personal honour and integrity of the magistrate, an unjust law cannot be applied justly.”
Sobukwe was one of the greatest South African political leaders of his time.
Sobukwe once wrote, “true leadership demands complete subjugation of self, absolute honesty, integrity and uprightness and above all, a consuming love for one’s people”. Robert Sobukwe did not live to see free and democratic South Africa. His immense contribution to the liberation of black South Africans needs to be recognised.
RN Mkhize
