Гован Мбеки: Өмір және күресінің тарихы

South African politician (1910–2001)
the South African politician

Govan Archibald Mvunyelwa Mbeki (9 July 1910 – 30 August 2001) was a South African politician, military commander, Communist leader who served as the Secretary of Umkhonto we Sizwe, at its inception in 1961. He was also the son of Chief Sikelewu Mbeki and Johanna Mahala and also the father of the former South African president Thabo Mbeki and political economist Moeletsi Mbeki. He was a leader of the South African Communist Party and the African National Congress. After the Rivonia Trial, he was imprisoned (1963–1987) on charges of terrorism and treason, together with Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Raymond Mhlaba, Ahmed Kathrada and other eminent ANC leaders, for their role in the ANC's armed wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK). He was sometimes mentioned by his nickname "Oom Gov".

Govan Mbeki was born in the Nqamakwe district of the Transkei region and was a part of the Xhosa ethnic group. As a teenager, Mbeki worked as a newsboy and messenger in the cities, and because of this, he saw the poverty urban black Africans lived in, and the constant police raids they endured. 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 while attending the university.

For a time Mbeki worked as a teacher, but lost his job because of his political activities. He was a member of the South African Communist Party (SACP, then the Communist Party of South Africa, or CPSA) from the late 1930s, and joined the African National Congress in 1935. He then set up a co operative store in Idutywa and began a writing career. From 1938 to 1944 he was the editor of Territorial Magazine / Inkundla Ya Bantu. Mbeki left journalism in 1944 and became a government nominated member of the Transkei Territorial Authorities General Council until 1950. His role in the CPSA/ SACP was clandestine at the time, which helps explain why he received the nomination. Mbeki disparagingly referred to the council as a 'toy telephone': "You can say what you like, but your words have no effect because the wires are not connected to an exchange". When the CPSA/ SACP was banned in 1950 by the apartheid government, Mbeki remained in the African National Congress (ANC). In 1952 Mbeki was imprisoned together with Raymond Mhlaba and Vuyisile Mini for three months in Rooi Hel ('Red Hell' or North End Prison, Port Elizabeth) for disobeying apartheid laws by participating in the 'Campaign of Defiance against Injustice Laws' (Defiance Campaign). In 1954, a tornado destroyed his store, and Mbeki was dismissed from teaching again (he would lose his job three times, and be blacklisted from others, from the 1930s onwards). Mbeki moved to Port Elizabeth and joined the editorial board of New Age, a prominent leftist newspaper linked to underground CPSA/ SACP networks. Mbeki was meanwhile actively involved in the major campaigns of the day, including the revival of the African National Congress in the 1940s, the Defiance Campaign and the Congress of the People.

Mbeki was released from custody after serving 24 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, and then the Senate's successor, the National Council of Provinces, from 1997 to 1999. Mbeki died in Port Elizabeth on 30 August 2001. He was given state funeral during his son's presidency (Thabo) on 8 September 2001. 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.

Mbeki received an honorary doctorate in the Social Sciences from the University of Amsterdam in 1978. His son Moeletsi attended the ceremony, as Mbeki was imprisoned at Robben Island. The Govan Mbeki Health Building was inaugurated in 2001 at a ceremony featuring his son Thabo. The Health Building at Glasgow Caledonian University, in Glasgow Scotland, is named after him. https://www. gcu. ac. uk/aboutgcu/supportservices/conferences/mediagallery/govanmbekibuilding