Govan Mbeki

Who was Govan Mbeki?

Govan Archibald Mvuyelwa Mbeki was a South African politician, and father of the former South African president Thabo Mbeki and political economist Moeletsi Mbeki. He was named in honour of Edward Govan, a Scottish missionary who founded Lovedale College, the school that he attended in the Eastern Cape.

He attended Fort Hare University, completing in 1936 a Bachelor of Arts degree in politics and psychology and a teaching diploma, and met other African struggle leaders there.

In 1954, he joined the editorial board of New Age, which was to be the only South African newspaper serving the liberation movement for the eight following years. Mbeki played an immensely important role in ensuring that the pages and columns reflected the conditions of the black peoples, their demands and aspirations. In November 1962, the then Minister of Justice, John Vorster, banned New Age. When the editorial board came out with its successor, Vorster went one step further by banning not the newspaper but its editors and writers.

He was a leader of the African National Congress and of the South African Communist Party. After the Rivonia Trial, he was imprisoned for terrorism and treason, together with Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Raymond Mhlaba, Ahmed Kathrada and other eminent ANC leaders.