DAVID HLAHANE BOPAPE

(1915 - 2004)

David Hlahane Bopape was born near Polokwane in Limpopo province in 1915. His parents, Levi and Jerita Bopape were workers living on the farm and David Bopape grew up sheparding livestock, growing mealies and processing fruit. His primary education began at the age of ten at a Lutheran mission school on the neighbouring farm. He then proceeded to attend Botshabelo Training Institution in Middleburg, where he completed his high-school education.

In 1936 he responded to the call to teach and enrolled for a three-year teaching diploma (also at Botshabelo, Middleburg). In 1939, he began his teaching career in Chief Letswalo's district near Tzaneen, where he taught English, Physical Science and Agriculture. The following year he moved to live and teach in Brakpan, Ekurhuleni, which remained his home for the rest of his life.

Like many other African teachers of his time, David Bopape had understood that teaching was a calling to provide the service of education to our children, and that such education would be the key to the future progress of our people. But he also understood that in conditions of oppression, activism for social change was absolutely necessary. As a result, David Bopape's teaching career had to face constant opposition from the state, which was determined to weed out those teachers who understood the need to link teaching with activism.

In Brakpan Bopape taught at the Berlin school, which later became the Amalgamated School after linking with American Board of Mission. Most of the teachers were members of the Transvaal African Teachers Association (TATA) and Bopape became an active member. He was elected secretary of the Teachers Salary Campaign in 1940 and 1941. Later, he initiated the 'Blanket Campaign' in which teachers marched in Johannesburg wearing blankets instead of clothes to symbolise their inability to afford decent clothing on their meagre wage of only five pounds a month.

David Bopape became politicised while taking part in these struggles and in 1940 he joined the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA). In 1942 he joined the African National Congress (ANC) and throughout the 1940s and 1950s he was a leading organiser of the national liberation movement.

In 1943 he became a central figure in the great campaign against the pass laws. These activities culminated in May the following year when Bopape helped organise a mass anti-pass conference at Gandhi Hall, Johannesburg.

540 delegates representing 600,000 people attended the conference and Bopape was elected secretary of a National Anti-Pass Council alongside the then president of the ANC, Dr. A.B Xuma, who was elected chair. The council was mandated to conduct a 'million signature' campaign to demand an end to the pass laws. After the conference the delegates marched in a great procession to Newtown, where 15,000 workers attended a rally. The Anti-Pass campaign picked up momentum with hundreds of mass rallies throughout the country.

Amongst other work, David Bopape was the main speaker of a rally of over 1,000 workers in Sibasa, Limpopo.

In 1944 he was elected to the first National Executive Committee of the ANC Youth League, where he served together with giants of our struggle such as Anton Lembede, Oliver Tambo, A.P. Mda, Godfrey Pitje, Walter Sisulu and Nelson Mandela. In the same year he was also elected as the provincial secretary of the ANC in the Transvaal.

Several months after his election to these positions, David Bopape was dismissed from his teaching post in Brakpan. The pretext for the dismissal was his forthright rejection of the municipality's action to make traditional beer brewing illegal in the township and replace it with beer halls that could generate revenue for the white's only council. The Brakpan manager of Native Affairs was sent to inform the community of the decision, and David Bopape was chosen by the people to speak on their behalf. The report of the manager of Native Affairs recalls with amazement how after he had spoken 'a teacher', David Bopape, rose to say "that the location residents did not want representation through the manager of Native Affairs, but they demanded nothing less than a 'direct representation' on the Town Council. He emphasised that they wanted higher wages and demanded on behalf of the residents that the rentals be reduced.

He further denounced the divisions of the Native people into many tribes to which I referred in my speech - and he insisted that they, together with Europeans formed one single unity, and demanded equal rights for black and white in all respects.

'We must wear the same clothes, eat the same food and live in the same houses'".

The Native Affairs manager then wrote to the Transvaal Department of Education to demand Bopape's dismissal. Bopape was summoned by the school's authorities and told to resign from the ANC and CPSA since his membership would jeopardise his future as a teacher. Bopape told them that the Nation was greater than an individual, and he was dismissed.

That day, after school was officially over, the teachers and school children marched to the location square where they stood together to demand Bopape's reinstatement. Over the next two weeks protests grew, drawing in the whole community. On August 10, 1944, some 7,000 residents of the location participated in a stay-away, demanding 'No Bopape - No School'. Only after the town council promised to reinstate him did the protests subside. But the council had lied and Bopape was not reinstated.

He then threw himself into full time work as the provincial secretary of the ANC in the Transvaal. In this role he organised ANC branches in virtually every town in Mpumalanga, Limpopo, North West and Gauteng.

David Bopape was also a central figure in the Alexandra bus boycotts of 1943 - 1944, when thousands walked eighteen miles a day to and from work rather than submit to an increase in bus fares from 4d. to 5d. For seven weeks they trudged to Johannesburg and back again before they could claim a victory. In the late 1940s he also served on the editorial staff of Inkululeko, the newspaper of the Communist Party.

In 1945 David Bopape married the late Miriam Vuyiswa Masiza. They were blessed with two daughters, as well as grandchildren.

He was an organizer of the 1948 Votes for All Convention, and joint secretary of the Defend Free Speech Convention in 1950. The latter convention took a decision to hold a one-day strike on 1 May 1950 to demand an end to repression and higher wages. David Bopape was amongst the outstanding organisers of the strike, which was well supported. But the state responded with brutality, murdering 19 protestors.

At this time some of the leaders of the Youth League were openly hostile to the Communist Party. However, through unequivocal and dedicated commitment to the cause for national liberation comrades such as David Bopape were able to show the importance of building the Alliance, which continues until this day. Nelson Mandela later recalled that he began to accept Communists because, "within the ANC, party members such as J.B. Marks, Edwin Mofutstanyana, Dan Tloome and David Bopape among others were devoted and hard-working, and could not be faulted as freedom fighters".

As part of its racist policy, the regime introduced 'Bantu Education', designed by Dr. HF Verwoerd to ensure that the education system would instil in black children the certainty that "there is no place for the Native in European society above the level of certain forms of labour". Together with Bernard Molewa, David Bopape was central in organising the ANCs 'Cultural Clubs'. These were meant to augment the inferior education given to black children and teach them to love their people and their country.

Bopape remained Transvaal provincial secretary of the ANC from 1944 until bans forced his resignation. At the time of the Defiance of Unjust Laws Campaign, which began in 1952 Bopape's experiences over the previous decade, as an organiser and leader of mass action, made him an invaluable asset to the movement. As the Defiance Campaign was due to commence the government ordered Bopape, together with Moses Kotane, Yusuf Dadoo and J.B. Marks to resign from their membership of Congress and also banned them from attending any meetings.

Undeterred, the four rejected their banning orders and decided to lead by example, addressing mass meetings to call on others to defy. "We will never give in to fascism and we shall never give up the struggle for freedom", they declared as they went into action. Their bravery inspired thousands of volunteers to join subsequent waves of action throughout the country.

David Bopape was arrested and, after refusing bail, was sent to No. 4 Prison at The Fort in Johannesburg, where he spent several months with his comrades. Thousands of people attended the trial, including Vuyiswa Bopape who herself had by then also felt the wrath of the regime, having also been detained.

David Bopape was sentenced to four months in jail in 1953, but he appealed against the conviction and won on a technicality. However, while in prison the regime served him with a lifetime banning order under the Suppression of Communism Act.

Addressing the Transvaal Congress of the ANC in 1953, Nelson Mandela said, "Kotane, Marks, Bopape, Tloome and I have been banned from attending gatherings and we cannot join and counsel with you on the serious problems that are facing our country. We have been banned because we champion the freedom of the oppressed people of our country and because we have consistently fought against the policy of racial discrimination in favour of a policy which accords fundamental human rights to all, irrespective of race, colour, sex or language."

Although banned, Bopape continued to fight for freedom, helping organise defiance from underground. As the ANC prepared for the Congress of the People, which adopted the Freedom Charter on 26 June 1955, Bopape went to Cape Town, accompanied by Vuyiswa, to do underground work mobilising for the Congress. They arranged a meeting on top of Table Mountain, and after a week they had organised 100 people to attend the Congress. Continuing this mission, they proceeded to Knysna, Port Elizabeth, East London, Umtata, Tsolo and Qumbu. In Qumbu, Bopape was arrested for entering the Transkei illegally, and was sentenced to 24 days hard labour. Returning to Johannesburg David Bopape again defied his banning order and attended the Congress of the People.

Bopape was again arrested after the Sharepeville massacre, when the regime declared a state of emergency and banned the ANC and other organisations.

At this time Bopape decided against going into exile, opting to remain inside the country and continue to work for the movement underground.

Since he was 'listed' by the state and banned for three decades he was never allowed to meet with more than two people at one time. As a consequence, he was cruelly denied the possibility of attending family gatherings and funerals. The most important of these was the funeral of his grandfather, after whom he had been named. When his brother in law passed away he accompanied Vuyiswa to her Transkei home to attend the funeral but the border-post officials identified his name on the list of Communists and he was refused entry.

In 1972 he qualified as a lay preacher and began practicing at the Evangelical Lutheran Church and in 1983 he attained membership of the Estate Agents Board. David Bopape was the founding chairperson of the Maropeng Resettlement Committee, a land restitution body for the people forcibly removed from the Brakpan Old Location, of which he was part. In 1996 he helped in the establishment of the Simunye Organisation, aimed at assisting those in rent arrears. The organisation successfully lobbied for the introduction of an indigent policy on housing arrears. He continued to campaign for more accountable local government. One of David Bopape's last public addresses was at the unveiling of the tombstone of RV Selope Thema in 2004.

David Bopape passed away on 2 November 2004.

Although banned and restricted in the most severe manner for much of his life, David Bopape remained a fountain of inspiration for the generations that followed him in the struggle for a non-racial, non-sexist, democratic and united South Africa. He remained in harness throughout his life, dedicating all his strength to the liberation of his people.

The members of his family, the ANC, the SACP and the whole nation have lost a father and a teacher. May his soul rest in peace.

Long live the fighting spirit of David Bopape!