PAC hails Sobukwe

THE Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe Trust and the Nelson Mandela Foundation hosted the first lecture series in commemoration of the late Struggle hero of Azania in Langa yesterday.

Yesterday marked 40 years since the former president of the PAC, Robert Sobukwe, allegedly died of cancer in 1978.

Former PAC stalwart and retired City of Cape Town director for human resources and employment equity Mike Siyolo said: “This day is very significant in the sense that what is happening to the PAC today is not what Sobukwe would have wanted or liked.

“Sobukwe would have wanted to rally the African masses. He wanted a united PAC and a united Africa.”

Provincial councillor and chairperson of the PAC Kenny Baf said the theme for this year’s series is “In Search of Sobukwe’s Voice”.

Bafo said Black Power in South Africa: The Evolution of an Ideology, a book written

in 1979 by Gail Gerhart spoke of a hidden voice of Sobukwe, which included all of his interviews.

“This was a family man taken away from his family at a time where he could have been taken overseas for treatment, but the government still refused.

“If you go to Graaff-Reinet now and speak to mam’ Veronica Sobukwe (his wife), you will be touched by her story.

“So it is a painful day for us,” Bafo said.

The Nelson Mandela Foundation said: “Sobukwe belonged to a generation of leadership which set the highest standards of character, conduct and commitment, which shepherded resistance to the apartheid system into its final phase, and which inspired the founding narratives of the post-apartheid South Africa.

“His voice will be important in the work of regeneration and transformation that lies ahead for South Africa.

“As will many other disavowed voices – inter alia, Steve Bantu Biko, the Black Consciousness Movement, former PAC freedom fighters, the Unity Movement and Sacos.”