Govan Mbeki

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".

• Birth Name — Govan Archibald Mvunyelwa Mbeki • Born — 9 July 1910 • Birthplace — Mpukane Location, Nqamakwe district, Union of South Africa • Office — Co-Deputy Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces • Term Start — 1997 • Term End — 1999 • Alongside — Bulelani Ngcuka • Predecessor — position established • Successor — Naledi Pandor • Office1 — Deputy President of the Senate of South Africa • Term Start1 — 1994 • Term End1 — 1997 • Predecessor1 — position established • Successor1 — position renamed • Office2 — Secretary of MK • Term Start2 — 1961 • Term End2 — 1963 • Predecessor2 — position established • Successor2 — position abolished • Died — 30 August 2001 • Place of death — Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape, Republic of South Africa • Father — Chief Skelewu Mbeki • Mother — Johanna Mabula • Occupation — Anti-apartheid activist • Children — Linda Mbeki (daughter; born 1941, died 2003) Thabo Mbeki (son; born 1942) Moeletsi Mbeki (son; born 1945) Jama Mbeki (son; born 1948, died 1982) • Party — African National Congress South African Communist Party

Govan Mbeki was born in 1910 the Nqamakwe district of the Transkei region and was a part of the Xhosa ethnic group. Growing up, he attended a missionary boarding school. 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.

After graduating, Mbeki worked as a high school teacher in Durban, but lost his job because of his political activities. While teaching, he met his wife, Epainette Moerane. 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 1943, he was the editor of Inkundla Ya Bantu ("The People's Platform"), the only African-run newspaper at the time. 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." In 1948 Mbeki stood as a candidate for the Natives Representative Council but lost the election. When the CPSA/ SACP was banned in 1950 by the apartheid government, Mbeki remained in the African National Congress (ANC). In 1952, he 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 Mbeki's store, and he 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. He played a crucial role in ensuring that the pages and columns reflected the conditions, demands, and aspirations of black working-class people, particularly in the countryside. He also worked on the Guardian, New Age, Fighting Talk and Liberation, and worked with 'Jock' Harold Strachan in the Port Elizabeth area, and assisted him to produce the newsletter Izwi Lomzi ("Home Voice"). 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.

In 1960, the ANC was banned, and along with the underground SACP, formed Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), which became ANC's armed wing. Mbeki was involved, and, at his urging, Strachan assisted MK by turning his hand to improvised explosive devices based on substances such as potassium permanganate, magnesium, glycerol and icing sugar. Mbeki led an MK cell in Port Elizabeth in 1961. In September 1962, he moved to Johannesburg, and then to Liliesleaf farm in Rivonia. Meanwhile, 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. This effectively ended Mbeki's role as editor and journalist in the country. On 11 July 1963, he was arrested with other MK high commanders at Liliesleaf farm. In 1964, he was an accused in the Rivonia Trial and sentenced to Robben Island. While in prison, he obtained an economics degree.

Mbeki was released from custody after serving 24 years in the Robben Island prison in 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 a state funeral during his son Thabo Mbeki's presidency, on 8 September 2001. Govan Mbeki's remains were the subject of controversy in 2006 when plans were made to exhume them, together with Raymond Mhlaba's remains, and place them in a museum. These plans were called off after both Mhlaba and Mbeki's family refused the request.