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PETER MOKABA'S OBITUARY
See also the Tribute by the ANC on the occasion of the unveiling of the tombstone of comrade Peter Mokaba
Peter Mokaba was the leader of a generation of young freedom fighters. As the youth of this country took up the spear of liberation in the latter part of the 1970s and throughout the 1980s, Peter Mokaba emerged as a committed fighter, a relentless organizer and an inspiring leader.
While Mokaba will probably be remembered most for his role as a youth leader- as President of the South African Youth Congress and later President of the ANC Youth League-his contribution was far broader and his legacy far greater.
Born in Mankweng near Pieterburg on 7 January 1959, Peter Mokaba's early life prepared him for a life of struggle. Born to Albert Mogodi and Priscilla Mapitsi Mokaba, who worked as migrant workers in and around Johannesburg, Mokaba was exposed from an early age to the inequities, injustices and violence of the apartheid system. Mokaba's family was forcibly removed to Mankweng Township near Pietersburg- now called Polokwane- where they lived as squatters, moving from one yard to the next around the township.
According to an autobiographical piece Mokaba wrote shortly before his death, it was his experience of poverty, violence and social exclusion during this period in his life that instilled in him his determination to excel at everything he did. Yet Mokaba's ambition was not only that he should succeed, but that all oppressed people in South Africa should succeed.
He was determined not simply to fight his way out of poverty and build a successful career. He was determined to end all poverty and build a nation.
This determination took a political form as he emerged as a student activist who clearly expressed the militancy of the ’76 generation. Mokaba became a leader of the school boycotts in the north while at Hwiti High School in Mankweng. He was inspired to early political action be Ongkgopotse Tiro and black consciousness poets-and more directly by Mma Winnie Kgware. 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.
While his education was repeatedly interrupted by state harassment and arrest, Mokaba had a life-long passion for learning. Mokaba never stopped studying, completing a Masters degree in Development Management at the University of Witwatersrand. At the time of his death, he was studying for a second Masters degree, this time in Economics at the University of Stellenbosch. He was a revolutionary intellectual, always keen to expand his knowledge and deepen his understanding, and never shy to engage head-on with the political and theoretical debates of the moment.
He was equally never shy to engage in the practical tasks that were damaged of revolutionaries, no matter how difficult or how dangerous. He is remembered as a daring challenger willing to shoulder the responsibility of taking forward the struggle on whatever front was necessary.
By the beginning of the 1980s, Mokaba had become involved in underground organization and together with other comrades decided to leave the country for military training. They entered Swaziland illegally through the fence at Piet Retief. Having been detained briefly by the Swazi police and surviving an attack by the apartheid regime on the house he was staying in, Mokaba proceeded to Maputo in Mozambique.
Given the choice of furthering his studies or undergoing military training, Mokaba chose to go to Angola where he received political and military training. He returned to the country with the task of setting up bases for those who would follow, training new recruits and conducting economic sabotage.
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 sent to Robben Island where he found himself in the midst of an active school, where formal and political education was prioritized. However, one year later the Appeal Court set aside his conviction, and he was released. 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 Mankweng Youth Congress was formed in 1985, he was elected to its leadership. He then served as education officer for the Northern Transvaal UDF Regional Youth Co-ordinating Committee, building youth congress 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.