Contribution of important Personalities in the Liberation Struggle of South Africa

·         Contribution of important Personalities in the Liberation Struggle of South Africa

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·         Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi 1928

·         He was born in 1928 in the lineage of the Zulu Kings. In his early life he stayed at the Zulu land wandering. He also studied at the famous Fort Hare University College in the late 1940·s.

·         At Fort Hare, he organized a number of student demonstrations against the racist South African government.

·         In 1953. he officially became a chief in the Buthelezi clan among the Zulu. He also served as a clerk in Kwazu 'homeland'.

·         The early years of 1970's, Mangosutho Buthelezi became the chief executive officer and later as chief executive councillor of the Kwazulu legislature.

·         His rise to the high doldrums increased from 1976 when he became the chief Minister in Kwazulu homeland.

·         He remained one of the most controversial South African leading politicians. He led one of the largest South Africa ethnic groups.

·         Buthelezi, as many called him wanted a non-racial and an avowed democratic South Africa. These were the aspiration and aims Portrayed by a few mass political organizations in South Africa.

·         Despite his national intensions for a free and united South Africa, his controversy had constantly brought a clash between his supporters and those of those of the ANC violently in South Africa.

·         In the early years of apartheid rule, Buthelezi constantly was against sanctions on apartheid regime. He constantly received bribes and other concessions from the South African government against the wishes of the non-whites.

·         His cooperation with Apartheid South Africa continued, which showed disunited among the non-whites.

·         Despite conflicts between his Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) and the African National Congress (ANC), he welcomed the release of Nelson Mandela from the Robben Island prison in February 1990.

·         He remained the brain behind and a strong supporter for a non-racial government for Natal area and Kwazulu,

·         From 1990, the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) constantly continued to rival the ANC for power and control which only lessened when Nelson Mandela met chief Buthelezi in January 1991.

·         Despite his controversy, the new post-Apartheid rulers made him as a Minister in Charge of Home Affairs. He continued to be on the opposite and in April 2004, he was dropped from cabinet.

·         Since the end of apartheid in South Africa, Buthelezi has opposed the ANC government policies. He also continued to remain one of the leading figure in Kwazulu province.

·         Joe Slovo

·         Joe slovo was the only white man acceptable in the ANC top leadership of the ANC.

·         Slovo was admired and a 'darling' of many native South African regimes highly feared him for his opposition to Apartheid.

·         Although many whites had proved to oppose Apartheid secretly, Joe Slovo was very clear and with a vision in his moves.

·         He was born in 1925 in Lithuania. He arrived in South Africa at the tender age of eight years.

·         At the age of seventeen, he joined the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA/ SACP).

·         Slovo shared views with leading nationalists like P. Ka. L. Seme, W.B. Rubusana, T.M. Mapikela, Clements Kadalie, Z. R. Mahabane, S.M. Makgatho, S. Lcshoai and S. Mini.

·         In 1949, he qualified as a lawyer and was inclined to the Marxists - Leninst Communist principles. The Nationalist government named him as a threat due to his inclination to Communism. He was convicted under the Suppression of Communism Act, 1950.

·         He became an avowed leader of radical whites groups who opposed apartheid and the homeland policy and other racist policies. In 1955, he was in alliance with the ANC joined with Indians and colored to form the Congress Alliance.

·         The Congress Alliance adopted the ‘freedom charter', which Joe Slovo had drafted. The freedom charter became a blueprint to create a non-racial and partly socialist South Africa.

·         The South Africa Apartheid regime condemned the freedom charter as being Communist in its agenda.

·         In 1956, Slovo was arrested with other ANC activists charged with high treason. He was tried and acquitted in 1961. The South African regime failed to prove that the freedom charter was a treaso

·         treasonable document and hence the acquaintance.

·         After the Sharperville killings of 21^st March 1960, he was again detained during the state of emergency. This forced the Communist Party of South Africa and the ANC underground.

·         In 1961, the ANC began an armed wing known as Umkhonto We Sizwe (MK) to organize sabotage against the government. Joe Slovo was chosen to lead the Umkhonto We Sizwe .

·         In 1963, several sabotage attacks were organized by the Umkhonto, which scared the government who took measures to end them it captured the high command of MK on the Rivonia Farm north of Johannesburg.

·         By the time of the capture, he was outside South Africa in Mozambique.

·         Slovo also established ANC operational structures in Mozambique. He remained the MK chief of staff up to the time of retirement in 1987.

·         Before his retirement he had criticized the arrest and detention of Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu and Govan Mbeki and IX others to life imprisonment on the Robben Island. He was one of those who rejuvenated on the spirit of ANC to live n after 1961.

·         In 1988, he returned as a member of the ANC delegation for talks with the apartheid government. Between 1981 and 1990 his efforts were to yield fruits when multiracial elections were organized for a free South Africa.

·         He advocated for redistribution of wealth, to remove racial prejudice, achieve civil rights of all people and the union of all sees in South Africa. He died in 2004.

·         Govan Archbald Mvuyelwa Mbeki

·         He was born in 1910 to a typical peasant fanner. He was educated in elementary Bantu school before joining Fort Hare in early 1930's.

·         At Fort Hare he meant a number of leadership youth radical black nation a list who persuaded him to join the ANC in 1935, and especially the ANC- Youth League.

·         After graduating at Fort Hare University he taught High School level but he was dismissed for his political activities. He also served as a businessman as well as journalist.

·         In 1956 the prominent ANC member made him the National Chairman. Up to 1960 he was fully involved in ANC radical activities. He supported the Indian, coloured and radical white groups to form the congress Alliance, which adopted the freedom charter.

·         In 1956 be escaped arrest when 156 members of the Congress Alliance were arrested and tried for serious treason. Although South Africa failed to prove that the charter was a treasonable document and all members being acquitted, his activities continued to be radical and worried the apartheid regime.

·         In 1960 he was detained at Sharpeville Township after a demonstration by PAC and ANC members. Although he was released shortly be was again detained in 1961 for joining the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA) and put under house arrest.

·         By 1962 the ANC was 'underground' due to pressure from apartheid South Africa. He also joined the Umkhonto We Sizwe High Command but he was arrested in 1963. He continued to organize sabotage against the racist government with other ANC members

·         In 1964, Govan Mbeki was sentenced to life imprisonment at the Livonia Trial in the north of Johannesburg. He was imprisoned with nine others radical black nationalists to the Robben Islands.

·         With this trial, ANC was completely suppressed but it's spirit lived on for years to come.

·         The University of Amsterdam awarded him an honorary doctorate for his celebrated book 'South Africa: ‘The Peasants Revolt'.

·         In 1987, he was released from prison. He was important in negotiations that followed with the white government for the release of Nelson Mandela in 1990.

·         Although he was put under a ‘Banning Order' after his release, he continued to refiivenate the ANC structures outside south Africa.

·         Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki

·         He was born in 1942 to Govan Mbeki, a former graduate of Fort Hare University and strong ANC advocate. Thabo Mbeki spent most of his life in exile after the apartheid government had forced him out of South Africa.

·         As a schoolboy, h was an active member of the ANC in his schooldays in South Africa until 1962 when he fled the country on the instructions of the ANC due to constant pressure of the white Apartheid government.

·         His time in exile while in Zimbabwe, Zambia and later Tanzania was full of frustrations. In 1966 he also obtained a master’s degree in Economics.

·         From 1966 up to 1974, he served the ANC in different international foras'. He also served as member of the ANC- National Executive Committee.

·         Mbeki also represented ANC in many West African states up to 1978. He also served and become ANC's presidential political secretary.

·         For over 6 years, Thabo Mbeki was very close at all ANC activities. He also morally supported other liberation movements in the white South like FRELIMO, PAC, SWAPO, ZANU-PF, and MPLA.

·         In 1985, he became ANC Director of information. He was very critical and against the 'total strategy' of P.W. Botha and Hedrick Verwoerd against apartheid.

·         Between 1978-1980 the ANC worked out its strategy for South African liberation. Thabo Mbeki overwhelming supported this strategy to use Umkhonto guerillas to carry out acts sabotage from Lesotho, Mozambique, Swaziland, Angola, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

·         Umkhonto guerilla supply routes into South Africa were set up through neighbouring states. South African security services tried to block these routes by assassinations 'usually by parcel bombs' of key ANC members in Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Swaziland and Angola.

·         In 1987, he was one of the ANC leaders in Dakar-Senegal representing ANC as the Director of International Affairs.

·         He was very happy when Namibia became an independent Republic with a SWAPO government and Sam Nujoma on 21^st March 1990.

·         In October 1989, the Apartheid government released eight ANC leaders including Walter Sisulu and Govan Meki (his father) from a lifetime in jail.

·         On 11^th February 1990, the world’s most famous prisoner Nelson Mandela was released after 27 years imprisonment. Thabo Mbeki was also very joyous on all these events.

·         He had also supported many clergy men led by Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town Desmond Tutu in 1986 when they declared that God was on the side of the poor and oppressed and against an evil state.

·         In 1990, he returned to South Africa and was part of the delegation which met the while government for a new South Africa. Full negotiations between the South African government and the ANC, now led by Mandela began in May 1990.

·         In June the state of emergency was lifted. In August the ANC agreed to a cease fire the Pretoria minute after 30 years.

·         He also participated in the CODESA negotiations in May 1992 between the National Party and ANC.

·         After the ANC won the 1994 first ever non-racial democratic elections, he became the first black Vice President of South Africa. His diplomatic approach to issues for a free and tolerance South Africa made President Nelson Mandela to name him as his successor and won the two post-apartheid general elections of 1999-2004.

·         He has remained in the fight against HIV/AIDS, poverty, unemployment, high crime levels in major towns. By 2004, South Africa celebrated 10 years of freedom, which is certainly also certainly also the total liberation of Africa as a whole.

·         Anton Lemede 1914 - 47

·         Anton Lembede was a son of a Natal farm worker and a teacher mother. He was recruited in the ANC black intellectual class at Fort Hare University.

·         He also became lawyer in the officer of Dr. Pixley Seme.

·         By early 1940's younger members of the ANC had led more militant ideas about black majority rule in a future democratic society. They formed the ANC Youth League in 1944 under Anton Lembede at Johannesburg.

·         Lembede picked up the Africans ideas of Seme in more socialist form. He looked forward to 'the era of African Socialism’ -meaning socialism based on African principles and not on foreign ideology.

·         His ideologies on African socialism was; "Africans had to throw their 'worship and idolization' oj white men and rediscover their identity as Africans. Only Africans could lead Africans to Jreedom, 'because no foreigner can ever truly and genuinely represent the African spirit. " Lembede also claimed; "lam a peasant and I was born a peasant. lam one with the soil of Africa ."

·         Lembede's closest collaborator in the Youth League was Peter Mda. Other founder members of the ANC Youth League included; Nelson Mandela,Walter Sisulu Govan Meki.Oliver Tambo and Ntsu Mokhehle. Others included Bobert Mongaliso Sobukwe (chairman of the Fort Hare branch in 1947) and Gatsa Buthelezi.

·         He died shortly in 1947 under mysterious circumstances.

·         Steve Biko

·         Steve Biko was born in 1946. He was educated and was very active politically during his university education.

·         Among the new generation of African leaders, Biko became very influential and respected for his interventions, vision and activities.

·         In 1969, he founded the South African Students' Organization (SASO). He also formed the Black Peoples Convention (BPC) in 1975. SASO and BPC were very active pressure groups in the absence of the ANC and PAC who had gone underground.

·         SASO and BPC organized acts of sabotage frequently against apartheid South Africa. They played a role in the development of 'Black Conscious' or Black Power Movement throughout the 1970's.

·         The Black Conscious Movement (BCM) aimed at restoration of lack culture. He created a new spirit of confidence born in 1970's.

·         He inspired a new kind of religious organizations, which emerged through University students and religious organizations, which became to be known as 'black consciousness.' Its center was the University of Natal black medical school.

·         The independence of Angola under MPLA and Mozambique under FRELIMO 1975 and the ‘defeat' of White South Africa by MPLA in Angola in January 1976 gave further fuel to Steve Biko and the 'Black consciousness' among youths in schools and colleges.

·         Steve was important in organizing the Soweto uprising on 16^th June 1976 where hundreds died or fled into exile in the rest of Africa. The Soweto rising was the first great outburst of the new ‘black consciousness’ that defined blacks as the people oppressed by the whites.

·         From 1973, he was constantly arrested and detained several times for his militant and political activities. On 18^th August 1977, he was arrested at Grahams town and interrogated at Port Elizabeth prison. He was transferred to Pretoria jail where he was killed secretly by the Apartheid police on 12th September 1977. .

·         Suggestions came up that he died of head injuries due to rough police handling, although it has never been made public.

·         In October 1977, numerous black consciousness organizations and newspapers were then banned and other leaders went underground.

·         After the death of Steve Biko, black nationalism in South Africa freezed. South Africa’s Justice Minister, Jimmy Kruger, openly triumphed at Biko’s death. Prime Minister Vorster was equally blunt: "the whites will rule, let there be no mistake.”

·         Clements Kadalie and Trade Unionism

·         Kadalie was born in 1896 on the shores of Lake Nyasa in the North Malawi and was educated at Bandawe and the Livingstonia mission. He also served as a teacher.

·         After school he became a clerk- first on cotton plantation in Mozambique, then moved in Southern Rhodesia at Shamva and Falcon Mines and Bulawayo, moving to relatives at Kimberley and Capetown in 1917.

·         In the Cape Town he became a packer and delivery man, and met the white socialist leader A. F. Batty in 1918 that persuaded him to organize a Trade Union for African dock workers on the port.

·         In 1919, while in South Africa he founded a Trade Union known as the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU), which gained popularity in the Cape Colony.

·         This Trade Union he founded was to fight for better living conditions of the African workers.

·         The ICU also fought for the bargaining of the Africans, the low pay and the discriminatory laws brought by Apartheid.

·         The Union was opened to all Africans and it had massive support among African workers.

·         By 1923, his movement had spread to other provinces outside the Cape. By 1926, its membership reached over 100.000 followers.

·         Clements had the best qualities for example he was an orator and this won him confidence of very many Africans.

·         The ICU faced the problems of internal squabbles, quarrels, intrigue and foci in its administrative structures towards the end of 1920's.

·         He continued to conflict with other leaders of the organization, which forced him to secede and form a trade Union in the Natal Province. He appealed to a British socialist trade Union to facilitate him with a financial organizer who could put the ICU finances in order.

·         William Ballingher who sent recommended financial mismanagement and insisted on his complete control. By 1926, Kadalie left Ballinger in complete control of the ICU.

·         He formed another ICU, as he requested for registration, but the South African Labour Department refused his application in the International Federation of Trade Unions.

·         For fear that Kadalie's movement might spread far and wide among the non-whites, the government established Pass laws, especially the Native Labour Law, which limited his movement.

·         By 1937, an Act was made by the government prohibiting all Africans to belong to any registered trade union. Clement inspired nationalism in South Africa and was very important in the liberation struggle of South Africa. His movement was so popular even though he was not born in South Africa.

·         Chief Albert Luthuli and Human Rights

·         Albert Luthuli was born in a mission near Bulawayo in Rhodesia in 1898.

·         He spent most of his early life in a mission in Natal after his family moved from Rhodesia.

·         In 1917 after graduating as a teacher, Luthuli spent most of his time as a devoted Christian; he taught at Adam's College from 1920 to 1935 where he was extremely happy.

·         In 1935, the South African government made him the Umuoti Chief where he was supposed to look after 5,000 Zulu(s).

·         Luthuli in a position as a Chief was able to know the problems facing his people especially in the African reserves, for example famine, drought, poor sanitation, crime, over population and rural urban migration.

·         In 1945, he joined the ANC, which was the largest and best-known nationalistic movement in South Africa. He took an active part in the ANC with the aim to achieve fair treatment for his people.

·         In 1948, he protested the government policy of segregation and Apartheid.

·         In 1951, Luthuli was elected the President of Natal ANC branch. And in 1952 he participated in the Non-violent demonstration opposing pass laws and segregation at all public places.

·         The government developed jealousy against his popularity and withdrew his chieftaincy.

·         In 1952, he was elected the president for the ANC for the whole of S. Africa. Under his guidance, the ANC developed a policy of non-violent resistance.

·         The government banned Luthuli from addressing public meetings, but he continued his activities for example civil disobedience, boycotts and demonstrations against the government's racial acts.

·         In 1956, he was arrested on charges of high treason but he was soon released. For the rest of his life he was almost faced with continuous detention but his spirit was never broken and his humanity was never eroded.

·         In 1961, Luthuli was awarded the Nobel peace prize for his contributions toward finding a peaceful solution to the problems in South Africa and trying to obtain political freedom of South Africa.

·         The ANC organized boycotts such as the Potato and Bus boycotts to improve on the working and living conditions of the Africans workers on European farms.

·         African resistance and opposition to European domination were passed from moderate people like Luthuli to more militant young African Nationalists.

·         Luthuli Died in 1967, but his patience and courage brought about universal admiration and appreciation worthy of him especially in Southern Africa and entire Africa.

·         Robert Mongallsho Sobukwe and the Pan- Africanist Congress (PAC)

·         He was born in 1924, and he was a university graduate. He worked as a language assistant at the University of Witwatersrand until he resigned in 1960 to active politics.

·         Sobukwe was an extremist as shown by his editorial paper- " The Africanist".

·         The non-violent, multi-violent ANC was no longer acceptable to some extremists like Sobukwe.

·         From 1959, onwards Sobukwe formed the Pan-African Congress (PAC), an organization for only black Africans. The congress was committed to adopt a much more militant approach.

·         Its first action was to start a fierce anti-pass campaign in 1960, which led to the 21^st March 1960 shooting at Sharpeville in Transvaal that led to the death of 62 Africans and more wounded.

·         Sobukwe was arrested and sentenced to three years in prison on Robben's Island.

·         Like the ANC, the Pan-African Congress was also banned in 1961.

·         In 1969 he was subjected to the Banning Order (which put him under house arrest) for life. In 1975, he qualified as a lawyer, practiced it till his death in 1978.

·         Walter Sisulu

·         Born into a peasant family on May 18, 1912 at Engcobo in the Transkei, Walter Sisulu was raised by his mother and his uncle, who was a headman

·         He attended an Anglican Missionary Institute but left in Standard Four at the age of 15, when his uncle died and he was forced to find employment in a Johannesburg dairy to help support his family.

·         Sisulu was of mixed ancestry and his light appearance set him apart from his peers. He was conscious of this and resented his family's attitude to the whites.

·         He returned home and underwent traditional Xhosa initiation rites, returning to Johannesburg in 1929, where he obtained work in a Gold mine Company then moved to East London and he was employed as a domestic worker, and briefly came into contact with Clement Kadalie's Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICWU).

·         Sisulu moved back to Johannesburg with his mother and in the early 1930's, was employed in a number of factories. He studied and took part in cultural groups including the Orlando Brotherly Society, a Xhosa organization, which prompted an interest in tribal feelings and encouraged economic independence from the whites.

·         In 1940, while working in a bakery, Sisulu was fired for his role in organizing a strike for higher wages. Continually clashing with employers, he established a real estate agency, but this closed down after two years.

·         In 1940, Walter Sisulu joined the African National Congress (ANC) and later became treasurer of the ANC Youth League, adopting a non-anti- white stand. During the war, he campaigned against Africans joining the army, and became one of the ANC activist pressing for a more radical form of nationalism within the organization.

·         During this period, Sisulu had his first clash with the police when he was imprisoned after a scuffle on a train with a white ticket collector who had confiscated an African child's season ticket.

·         In 1946, at the time of the African mine workers strike, he tried to organize a general strike in support of the striker's demands. He controlled work for the ANC becoming a member of its Transvaal executive. In December 1949, he was instrumental in the ANC's acceptance of the League's programme of action, and at the same Conference he was elected Secretary General, defeating Dan Tloome, the candidate of the ANC Youth League wing.

·         In 1950, the ANC together with the Indian National Congress and the Communist Party formed a coordinating committee and Sisulu and others were appointed joint Secretaries. Their first move was to call for a national work stoppage on 26th June 1950 to protest against the racist laws.

·         James Moroka, ANC President at the time, lived in the Free State and was isolated from the day-to-day running of the organization in country. As a result Sisulu had to take over many of Moroka's leadership. He served on the Joint Planning Council for the Defiance Campaign, led passive resistors, arrested and imprisoned for a brief period being banned under the Suppression of Communism Act.

·         In December 1952, Sisulu, Mandela, Moroka and others were tried under the Suppression of Communism Act for their leadership of ANC campaign. All 20 accused were sentenced to nine month's imprisonment with hard labour suspended for two years.

·         Sisulu was re-elected ANC Secretary General in the same month, and in 1953 spent five months touring China, the Soviet Union, Israel and the United Kingdom. He appeared impressed with Soviet industrial development but was repelled by the authoritarianism of the Stalin rule. This tour was a catalyst in mellowing his views from racially exclusive nationalism to support form of a multi-racial congress alliance.

·         His banning order preventing him from attending gatherings was tightened in mid-1954 when he was forced from the ANC. Although, he had a leading role in organizing the 1955, Congress of the People, Sisulu was legally unable to participate. However, he secretly continued to work for ANC, and because of his changed attitude to cooperation with other racial groups in opposition to the government, he increasingly criticized attack from the Africanist group in the ANC.

·         In December 1956, Sisulu was amongst the 156 people arrested for high treason. The preparatory examination of the treason trial began December 1956 in the Johannesburg Drill Hall and lasted for nine months. SisuJu remained a defendant in the subsequent hearings, which by March 1961 he and all remaining accused were finally acquitted.

·         During the 1960, state of emergency, SisuJu and many of his co-trialists were detained for several months. Following the banning of the ANC and Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), Sisulu was placed under house arrest. During 1962, Sisulu was held by police and arrested six times, but charged only once.

·         Finally, in March 1963, he was convicted for furthering the aims of the banned ANC for organizing the May 1961 stay-at- home protest.

·         He was released on bail pending an appeal and placed under 24 hour arrest. On 20^th April, he went underground to join Umkhonto We Sizwe and on 28^th June made a short broadcast from a secret ANC radio stations.

·         On 11^th July 1963, Liliesleaf farm, the ANC's secret headquarters was raided by police. Sisulu, Govan Mbeki and others were detained. Sisulu was held in solitary confinement for 88 days. He was charged in the Rivonia trial in October 1963 and on 12^th June 1964 sentenced to imprisonment for planning acts of Sabotage. The following day Sisulu, Mandela and other convicted Rivonia trialists were sent to Robben Island.

·         In April 1982, Sisulu was admitted to Groote Schuur hospital in Cape town for ‘routine medical examination' In the same month. he and others were removed from Robben Island to Pollsmoor prison, Cape Town.

·         In October 1989, the South African government released Sisulu, six other ANC leaders and PAC political prisoners. The un banning of the ANC on 2^nd February 1990 and the release of Nelson Mandela followed this, a week later.

·         Sisulu subsequently met with the external wing of the ANC in Lusaka and was asked to lead the ANC internally. This involved re-established structures inside the country and preparing for the national conference to be held inside South Africa on 16th December 1990.

·         Sisulu formed part of the ANC delegation, which met with representatives of the government at Groote Schuur, Cape Town, during May 1990.

·         Walter and his wife Albertina, President of the Transvaal United Democratic Front, lived in Soweto with five children. He passed away May 2003. He would have turned 91 on the 18^th of the same month.

·         Bishop Desmond Tutu and the struggle against Apartheid in South Africa

·         Bishop Desmond Tutu was born in 1931 in Klerksdorp, Transvaal. His father was a teacher, and he himself was educated at Bantu High school in Johannesburg.

·         After leaving school, he trained first as a teacher at Pretoria Bantu Normal College and in 1954, he graduated from the University of South Africa.

·         After three years as a high school teacher he began to study Theology, being ordained as a Priest in 1960.

·         The years 1962- 1966 were devoted to further theological study in England leading up to a Master’s Degree in Theology. From 1967 to 1972, he taught theology in South Africa before returning to England for three years as the Assistant Director of a Theological institute in London.

·         In 1975, he was appointed Dean of St. Mary s Cathedral in Johannesburg, the first black to hold that position.

·         From 1976 to 1978, he was Bishop of Lesotho and in 1978 he became the first black General Secretary of the South African Council of Churches. Tutu is an honorary doctor of a number of leading Universities in the USA, Britain and Germany.

·         Desmond Tutu formulated his objectives as a democratic and just society without racial divisions, and had set forward the following points as minimum demands;

·         Equal civil and political rights for all.

·         The overall human rights and fundamental freedoms of all people

·         The abolition of South Africa's passport laws.

·         A common system of education.

·         The cessation of forced deportation from South Africa to the so -called Homeland’s- Bantustans.

·         The South African Council of Churches currently is a contact organization for the Churches of South Africa and functions as a National Committee for the World Council of Churches.

·         The Boer churches disassociated themselves from the organization as a result of the unambiguous stand it had made against apartheid.

·         Desmond Tutu was instrumental to the formation of the South African Truth Commission that torched on Apartheid. Around 80 percent of the members of the South African Council of Churches are blacks and they now dominate the leading positions.

·         In 1984, Desmond won the Nobel Peace Prize due to his desire for Truth, Justice and Reconciliation on the aftermath of Apartheid

·         He holds a remarkable position in the fight against apartheid in South Africa or the liberation of South Africa.