ANTI-APARTHEID CHAMPION’S HONOUR
HIS desire for change saw him share a cell with the late, great Nels son Mandela. Zola Zembe was a trade union organiser in South Africa, calling for equal rights for black workers a as a member of the African Na National Congress (ANC), when he was imprisoned without ch charge for a year alongside the fut future President. But after the end of the aparthe heid freedom followed, and Mr Ze Zemba swapped the southern he hemisphere for Tynemouth. Also known as Archie Sibeko, Mr Zembe left South Africa to raise su support for anti-apartheid campa paigns, adopted a new name to pr protect his family and moved to the No North East in 2002. Now 89, he has been awarded an ho honorary degree by Newcastle Unive versity as it marks 50 years since Ma Martin Luther King received the sa same honour in recognition of his civ civil rights campaigning during the 19 1950s and 1960s. Mr Zembe said: “People through- out the world supported us in our struggle to overthrow apartheid and establish democracy in South Africa, and the people of the North East were very active in this.
“We will always be grateful for that. Now you are honouring me, and I consider this to be an honour for all of us who took part in that struggle.
“Today South Africa, like the UK and most of the world, still faces the problems which Martin Luther King called on us to overcome – racism, poverty and war. I think we still all need to cooperate to defeat them.”
Mr Zembe’s wife, Dr Joyce Leeson, 87, a retired academic whom he met while in exile in Zambia, said it was a great honour that the university had put her husband in the same category as Dr King.
She said: “It’s very pleasing because he was educated in the university of life. He never had any education but he could hold his own in any university debate, because he’s travelled round the world raising support for the South African trade unions and mobilising people against apartheid.
“We have made so many friends in Tynemouth. I think they are very fond of him and very proud.
“I met him on secondment in Zambia and when he was forced out of the country he was moved around the world.
“He went home after 1990 when South Africa was moving towards democracy but he had a stroke and his doctor said if he carried on working he wouldn’t last long. We came up here because my daughter lived here.
“It’s very moving because of Martin Luther King. The things that he spoke about, discrimination, poverty, inequality and war – that’s what Zola has spent his life fighting against. It was quite an honour to have it recognised in that way, it was very impressive. He appreciated it very much.”
Mr Zembe has continued to work for equality in his retirement in the North East, setting up a charity to improve education in a deprived part of South Africa, a project which received funding from Newcastle City Council.
Also honoured in the Martin Luther King anniversary ceremony were former US politician Andrew Young, British children’s author Malorie Blackman, and Tyneside anti-racism campaigner Tom Caulker.
Dr King received the award in November 1967, only months before his murder, calling on the audience to tackle the ‘urgent and grave problems’ of racism, poverty and war during his acceptance speech.