Peter MOKABA
Former President of the ANC Youth League
Member ANC NEC
Deputy Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism in the government of former
President Nelson Mandela (1994 - June 1999)
The student uprisings of 1976 drew new battle-lines in the struggle against apartheid. Although the ANC Youth League produced some of the country's most militant leaders in the 1950s, the mass of the youth were not directly involved in national politics before 1976. Since then youth militancy has been a central factor again and again.
Peter Mokaba, born in Mankweng near Pietersburg on 7 January 1959, was an activist who clearly expressed the militancy of the '76 generation. As a student at Hwiti High School in Mankweng, Mokaba became a leader of the school boycotts in the north. He slept in the mountains to evade arrest until he was captured in November 1977. He was charged with public violence but acquitted after all 28 state witnesses refused to give evidence against him. He was then 19.
The authorities banned him from attending school so he completed matric on his own in 1978, working in a variety of jobs. In 1979 he taught maths and science at Makgoka high school in Moria City. In 1980 he registered at the University of the North.
He was arrested in 1982 and tried for membership of the ANC, possession of weapons, undergoing military training in Angola and Mozambique, and recruiting for the ANC. Sentenced to six years, Mokaba was released from Robben Island one year later when the Appeal Court set aside his conviction. However, he was immediately rearrested on the same charges and tried in Pietersburg. The court sentenced him to three years suspended for five years.
Once more Mokaba went to work among the youth. His energy, practical experience and fiery vision quickly gave him a place in the leadership. When the Makweng Youth Congress was formed in 1985, he was elected president. He then served as education officer for the Northern Transvaal UDF Regional Youth Co-ordinating Committee, building youth congresses in the area. He also played a key role in ensuring vigorous opposition to the planned independence of KwaNdebele in 1986.
In March 1987, although threatened with arrest, he was elected South African Youth Congress (SAYCO) president at its secret national launch in Cape Town. SAYCO's existence, declared Mokaba, showed that the State of Emergency could not destroy political opposition.
During the same year he was elected to the NEC of the UDF and initiated and founded the Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa (CONTRALESA).
Mokaba was also a founder of the Northern Transvaal People's Congress (NOTPECO), which was formed to organise migrant workers in metropolitan areas, particularly the hostels.
In 1988 he was again arrested and sent to Pietersburg to stand trial on charges of commanding MK structures in the Northern Transvaal. Co-accused with him were Malebane Tswai and Thabo Masemola, who refused to testify against him. Mokaba was acquitted and Tswai and Masemola were sentenced to four years each.
On his release Mokaba declared: "We need every nerve, every fibre, every activity and aspect of morality of the youth to service the aims of the national democratic struggle. Our guiding words are: rather die to a person than let the enemy pass."
During the apartheid years, more than a dozen attempts were made to kill Mokaba. Shots were fired at him, his home was been fire-bombed, and a would-be assassin once confessed he had been ordered by security police to kill him.
He was re-elected to the SAYCO presidency in March 1990, and in July 1991 he was elected to the NEC of the ANC.
After the unbanning of the ANC, SAYCO was dissolved. Mokaba was elected national chairperson of the Provisional National Youth Committee (PNYC), a caretaker structure overseeing the establishing of the ANCYL.
In December 1991 at the 17th national conference, he was elected ANCYL president. He bowed out of the ANCYL at its national congress at Soweto's Vista University in January 14-18.
Elected as a Member of Parliament in April 1994 and again in June 1999, Mokaba served as Deputy Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism in the government of former President Nelson Mandela.
Mokaba was recently appointed to head the ANC's preparations for the 2004 elections.