Mpetha, Oscar Mafakafaka

▪ 1995

      South African political activist (b. Aug. 5, 1909, Transkei, South Africa—d. Nov. 15, 1994, Cape Town, South Africa), was a founder of South Africa's trade union movement during the 1940s who became famous for his groundbreaking efforts on behalf of the mainly black Food and Canning Workers' Union. Mpetha qualified as a road master and began working as an assistant foreman; in 1940 he organized and led a movement calling for higher wages for road labourers. He also made a name for himself as a strong voice against apartheid. Mpetha joined the African National Congress (ANC) about 1951 and quickly rose to become chairman of its Cape Province unit. He served in that post until the ANC was banned by the government in 1960. Following the 1960 Sharpeville shootings, Mpetha was detained for four years and then briefly went underground. Resurfacing in the 1970s as a trade union and community leader on the Cape, Mpetha was repeatedly detained and his labour organizations banned. Then in 1980 during a confrontation between residents of the Crossroads squatter camp and police, Mpetha was arrested for provoking the unrest and later charged with terrorism and murder. Mpetha spent three years in prison before the murder charges were dropped. He was sentenced to five years for terrorism, however, which he served at Pollsmoor Prison, where ANC veterans Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisulu were incarcerated. While out on appeal in August 1983, Mpetha was elected one of three copresidents of the United Democratic Front, an alliance of antiapartheid forces. After Mpetha was released in 1989, he fought for the release of Mandela. Despite Mpetha's extremely poor health—his legs were amputated as a result of severe diabetes—he continued to travel and speak throughout the country.

* * *