James Moroka

Who was James Moroka?

James Sebe Moroka, OLG was a medical doctor and a politician, who was the president of the African National Congress 1949–1952.

Moroka was elected as the president of the ANC by the support of the African National Congress Youth League and its leaders Walter Sisulu and Nelson Mandela in December 1949. During Moroka's presidency, the ANC started to implement more militant tactics in fighting the country's Apartheid regime.

In 1952 Moroka was convicted of "statutory communism" according to the Suppression of Communism Act with 20 other defendants. During the trial Moroka pleaded for mitigation and rejected ANC's principles of racial equality and was soon expelled from the party.