Wits unveil plaque to honour Robert Sobukwe
BRAAMFONTEIN – Wits unveils plaque in honour of Sobukwe.
Wits University’s chancellor, Justice Dikgang Moseneke, unveiled a plaque in honour of Robert Sobukwe on 18 September after renaming the institution’s central block to the struggle icon.
Moseneke said Sobukwe was a lecturer at the university, and in 1959 he drafted the founding documents of the Pan Africanist Congress, the political party that planned the anti-pass campaign that was to reignite South Africa’s struggle. After that campaign, the PAC, ANC and the Communist Party of South Africa were banned.
That, in turn, ushered in the armed struggle and the formation of the Azanian People’s Liberation Army (Apla), the military wing of the PAC, and Umkhonto we Sizwe, the military wing of the ANC.
During the unveiling, the chancellor said Sobukwe should have been honoured long ago, particularly at Wits where he left deep footprints during the country’s uprising.
“Sobukwe studied and acquired a Bachelor of Arts with honours at Wits. In 1954 Sobukwe was appointed to a position at this university,” said Moseneke.
According to the former high court judge, Sobukwe resigned from his post at Wits on 21 March 1960 at the launch of the PAC anti-pass campaign.
Sobukwe and his followers were arrested at the Orlando Police Station when they staged an eight-kilometre walk to the police station calling on all pass-carrying Africans to leave their passes at home and surrender themselves for arrest, said Moseneke.
“As the crowd approached the station most of them, including Sobukwe, were arrested, tried for incitement and sentenced to three years in prison with hard labour at Robben Island.
“During his incarceration, Sobukwe obtained an honours degree in economics from the University of London and began studying law,” said the chancellor.
He completed his articles in Kimberley and established his own law firm in 1975, added Moseneke.
Sobukwe was released from prison in 1969.
He died of lung cancer on 27 February 1978.
Details: refilwe.mabula@wits.ac.za; 011 717 1051.
