Veteran unionist Sibeko remembered
THE ANC was due to host a memorial service for veteran unionist Archie Sibeko at the Community House in Salt River today.
Pallo Jordan was to deliver the key note address.
Sibeko, who died last month, was deeply involved in the trade union movement alongside Oscar Mpetha and Ray Alexander Simons. He was secretary of the South African Railway & Harbours Workers’ Union (Sarhwu).
In 1955 he was a founder member of the South African Congress of Trade Unions, the first non-racial trade union federation in South Africa.
Sibeko also joined the ANC and the South African Communist Party in 1953, and was arrested and charged with treason in 1956.
He was acquitted and permanently banned, but remained a champion in the Struggle on all fronts – both for workers’ rights as well as for political emancipation.
When the decision was taken to form Umkhonto weSizwe he was among the first to become involved in the Western Cape.
He was arrested with Chris Hani in 1961, but before the finalisation of the trial, the Western Cape region instructed him and his comrades to skip the country and undergo military training.
He left behind his five young children and his expectant first wife, who he never saw again, as she died a few years later.
Sibeko travelled to Botswana, Zambia and Tanzania, before going to the Soviet Union and Cuba for military training in 1964. In Tanzania he was appointed the first commander of the inaugural camp of MK soldiers.
He was later deployed to western Europe.
Sibeko vigorously mobilised the international trade union movement in support of the Struggle against apartheid.
As the national treasurer and later the co-ordinator for western Europe he travelled widely in Europe, the US, Canada, Australia and the former socialist countries, winning millions of workers across the world to support the struggle for freedom and democracy in South Africa.
On returning to South Africa in 1990, Sibeko was elected honorary president of Sarhwu and later deputy chairperson of the ANC in the Western Cape.
After suffering a minor stroke, he returned to the UK to join his wife Dr Joyce Leeson. He had not been in good health since and died at his home in London on March 27 at the age of 90. – Staff Reporter