Govan Mbeki

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Govan Archibald Mvuyelwa Mbeki (9 July 1910 - 30 August 2001) was a South African politician, and father of Thabo Mbeki, the current President of South Africa.

He attended Fort Hare University, completing in 1936 a Bachelor of Arts degree in Politics and Psychology together with a teaching diploma, as well as meeting 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. Govan 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, JB 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 (ANC) and of the South African Communist Party. After the Rivonia Trial, he was imprisoned for treason against the white minority South Africa government (1964–1987) with Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisulu. Govan Mbeki was released from custody after serving 24 years in the Robben Island prison on November 5, 1987.

On June 26, 1980 the Secretary General of the African National Congress, Alfred Nzo, announced the conferring of the time-honoured title of Isithwalandwe on Govan Mbeki. Govan was not present to receive the highest honour that his people and his movement can bestow on any individual, because he was serving a life imprisonment sentence on Robben Island

He served in South Africa's post-apartheid Senate from 1994 to 1997 as Deputy President of the Senate, and its successor, the National Council of Provinces from 1997 to 1999.

Mbeki's remains were the subject of controversy in 2006 when plans were made to exhume them, and place them in a museum. These plans were called off after Mbeki's family refused the request. [1]

Mbeki received international recognition for his political achievements including the renaming of the recently opened Health building at Glasgow Caledonian University. The Govan Mbeki Health Building was inaugurated in 2001 at a ceremony featuring his son Thabo.